Bob Thomas: Disagree with my logic? Let’s review the facts

A letter in the April 28 edition of the Nevada Appeal is worthy of my response. At issue is my column, “Lack of Moral Compass led to Boston Disaster,” of April 18.

The writer feels my speculations about the bomber perps and their motives are rooted in ignorance and prejudice. I’m afraid that in the absence of facts, one must rely on reasoning and logic coupled with calculable odds. In my columns I rely on my analytical reasoning skills coupled with the odds of this or that happening or not happening. Until I was asked for my opinion about the bombing, I had assumed it was another disgruntled freako.

So in analyzing the odds based upon past happenings, I mention the possibility of another Tim McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber who was a nutcase who hated government and liberals. And I made a joke about if that be so, we could have a guy who hates marathoners because he perceives them to be liberals, as do I. But I forgot that liberals are PC and have zero sense of humor.

Then I lightly refer to the possibility of the bombing being religiously inspired, Muslim-style, and tons of factual data link Muslims to thousands of similar events. So the letter writer questions my lack of religious tolerance. I have zero tolerance for Islam and won’t until the so-called moderates, if there are any, finally speak out publicly against jihad. And yes, I further stated that the bombing probably wasn’t a “foreign”-engineered operation (and it wasn’t) because there was no jihad. These bomber punks didn’t intend to commit suicide. They were planning an attack on New York City. I was right again.

Then I went on to compare the Boston operation with the old Weathermen insurrectionist college group. Why? Because the Weathermen were famous for nail bombs that were designed to inflict as much mayhem as possible, and their favorite targets were police stations. They killed people. Then I went on to say this bombing has all the hallmarks of a college-engineered job, and it was. One of the perps was taking a junior college engineering course.

Well, so far the letter writer has been wrong on all counts except the last one, which I will deal with next. To those of you who still accuse me of shooting from the hip, what choice do any of us speculators have, law enforcement included, other than applying historical data with reasoning and logic to what facts are known, coupled with the odds of something happening or not?

Finally, the letter writer is upset because I have the temerity to blame the vast majority of the 1960s-70s hippie movement on poor parenting. Well, I was there and from what I saw, it was. Of course, I’m painting with a broad brush. There always were, and are, good parents who knew and taught right from wrong. But there was definitely a deliberate movement among parents during those years toward permissiveness and abandoning discipline. “If it feels good, do it!” Remember? Add to that thousands of Vietnam War draft deferments with students feeling guilty about having those deferments while nonstudents were being drafted by the thousands, and we birthed a disease from which we’ve never recovered.

Soon after my column in question was published, I received an unexpected communication from a retired CIA field agent whom I know, and who monitors the Nevada Appeal online. He complimented my reasoning sequence and said that both the FBI and the CIA rely heavily on every bit of citizenry input they can lay their hands on in a situation such as the Boston bombing.

Bob Thomas is a retired high-tech industrialist who served on the Carson City School Board, the Nevada Welfare Board and the Carson City Airport Authority and as a three-term state Assemblyman. His website is www.connfessionsoftheentrepreneur.com.