The Mooninites are coming! The Mooninites are coming! Idiocy in Boston

Look out y'all.....No need to worry about Bin Laden or Al Qaeda.....What we must really fear are Meatwad, Frylock, Shake, Carl and the Mooninites. Yes that's correct, Aqua Teen Hunger Force placed the city of Boston in fear of it's life today. And how this all blew out of proportion just blows my mind.

For years, there has been criticism of our government using fear as a weapon and as a means of control. That in the post 9/11 world, people have attempted to keep the populace in fear for political gain. There is a price to using fear in this way however, as it leads to knee jerk reactions and a failure to use common sense.

The basic story is this: Aqua Teen Hunger Force, the Adult Swim cartoon, has a feature film coming out. As part of a marketing blitz, magnetic signs showing one of the more popular characters on the show, The Mooninites, are being placed on various structures throughout 11 major cities, of which Boston is one. Now these characters are normally used to advertise the show...Go to any Target, Best Buy or Wal Mart and you will see them on the cover of last season's DVD. Yet, somehow, NO one managed to grasp this as they saw *GASP* SUSPICIOUS PACKAGES throughout the city (Evidently, cops don't watch Adult Swim). So a whole clusterfuck emerges and a 27 year old art student, hired by Turner Broadcasting to head up Boston's marketing campaign for the movie is arrested. The whole thing was, and still is, being greatly blown out of proportion.

What really makes me angry is how disingenious politicians are in this. They totally play into people's fears rather than using common sense to alleviate them. Because this is essentially a nationwide campaign in a number of major cities, there were already photos online showing the devices being placed. A simple online search would have shown the connection to the devices and a marketing campaign. But that would be too simple. It's easier to fly off the handle, blow the issue up, then have to come back and say it's all a hoax.

The media actually stepped up and did their research. News organizations had information on the Cartoon Network connection to the devices at around 3 p.m. and went to the mayor and others with questions on that issue around that time. The mayor and others KNEW that this was a marketing campaign. Yet in a press conference at 5 p.m., nothing was mentioned about the Turner connection and the lack of danger, as the devices were still being treated as a threat. Basically they played ignorant to the fact that there was no real threat.

This is not to downplay terrorism. It is to criticize scaring people unnecessarily, which is done far too much. To place people in fear over a cartoon ad...when a little bit of research (or asking any 18-24 year old fan of adult swim) would have alleviated any concerns is somewhere between outright stupid and irresponsible and wrong. What it does in my mind is further lessens the credibility of the political figures involved, almost creating a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" effect.

So....hundreds of emergency crews, gridlocked traffic, a city in fear, an art student facing felony charges, threats of lawsuits..and a half million in tax dollars spent...all over a cartoon character. Really, does this make us feel safer? Oh Common Sense, how I love you so....and how I lament how you our society kills you a little more each day...