"Now It Doesn't Hurt Anymore." Boston Marathon Win Has Me In Happy Tears

Although this just happened a little while ago as I write this, I'm sure everyone in the world knows that a guy named Meb Keflezighi has won the Boston Marathon.  

Meb Keflezighi winning the Boston Marathon today.  

He's the first American to do so since 1983.

There will be a lot of commentary about the symbolism of an American win a year after the Boston Marathon bombing.

Certainly a nice touch, to put it mildly.

And there will be a lot of commentary about the interesting juxtaposition of having an immigrant win the Boston marathon, a year after some ugly comments about immigrants, given the Boston Marathon bombers last year were immigrants.

In a post race interview, in which Keflezighi looks about as "exhausted" as if he'd just walked half a block instead of winning the marathon, he said, "You know what? I'm blessed to be an American."

I also love it that you can see briefly, in the background among the spectators right after Keflezighi's win, a man in a white cowboy hat near the finish line.

The white cowboy hat guy is Carlos Arredondo, who was in the iconic Boston Marathon bombing photo as he helped rush a greviously injured spectator, Jeffrey Baumann to medics, a move that saved Baumann's life. By the way, Arredondo is another immigrant, from Costa Rica.

As the Fox news story in the above link notes, Arredondo has become something of a comforter in chief for Boston. And now we have Keflezighi to add to the mix.

But I won't worry about the politics now. You'll see the video, below, all over the place over the next few days but I have to share it now, anyway. The announcers are besides themselves as Keflezighi comes in for the win.

And another side isuse. Keflezighi is 38 years old! How does such a "geriatric" guy win the Boston Marathon?

One of the announcers says near the end of the clip, "Now it doesn't hurt anymore."

Indeed.

Dream On: Steve Tyler, Aerosmith, Do Great Boston Strong Tribute On Annivesary

I've never been a big Aerosmith fan.

Steve Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith, along with the
Southern California Children's Chorus, pay
tribute to the Boston Marathon bombing victims 

Don't get me wrong, I totally respect the band and lead singer Steve Tyler. But Aerosmith is just not totally my cup of tea.

But their tribute to the Boston Marathon bombings on the one year annivesary of the attack I think increases everybody's fandom, and respect for Aerosmith.

Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith put together a video of their signature song "Dream On" from 1973 as a tribute to the Boston Strong people who were there that day, and everyone that supports them.

It doesn't hurt that they get an assist from the Southern California Children's Chorus with this.

Aerosmith is almost as synonymous to Boston as the Old North Church, Fenway Park, and Faneuil Hall, so it fits that they would do this.

The tribute is done with class and style, in Tyler and Perry's own fashion. So, in the spirit of Boston Strong, here's the excellent video:

Glenn Beck Gives Tutorial On How To Get Sued For Defamation

In the days after the Boston Marathon bombings a year ago, Glenn Beck kept telling us that it wasn't just the two Tsarnaev brothers that were involved, no sir!

A Saudi man is suing Glenn Beck for defamation
because Beck said the man had a major role in the
Boston Marathon bombing.
Except the guy didn't. Whoopsie.  

There's always a conspiracy to uncover, at least in Beck's mind, and he figured it out. There was a young man named Abdulrahman Alharbi, 20, a Saudi national, who was at the marathon that day.

Alherbi was injured in the attack. He was also a Saudi, as we said, and the FBI interviewed. I guess if you're Middle Eastern and near a bombing, you're automatically guilty.

Of course, the FBI and other authorities interviewed pretty much everybody who was near that explosion, so it's no surprise they talked with Alharbi.

But, authorities quickly concluded he had nothing to do with the terror attack, other than get injured by it.

But Beck is, or at least was, unconvinced. I guess if the authorities sometimes lie to us, that means they ALWAYS lie to us.

Beck had these things to say about Alharbi. And they are dark. And according to the Washington Post, and an explosion of media outlets today, Beck is the subject of a big defamation suit because Beck's provocative allegations are apparently completely untrue.

Here's what he had to say about Alherbi, in the days after the attack:

"We know who this Saudi national is....We know who this man is and, listen to me carefully, we know he s a very bad, bad, bad man."

He also said the U.S. "tagged" Alharbi as a "proven terrorist." Alharbi was also al Qaeda's "control agent and "money man" for the attacks, at least in Beck's, um, active mind, says the Washington Post

All this I'm sure was fun for Beck, who got to lecture to his rabid followers how smart he was to sniff this guy out, and how the government is covering things up because, oh, who KNOWS?!!?

Of course, all this bullcrap didn't exactly help Alharbi's life any. In his lawsuit, he says that a number of people, and I imagine many of them are Beck's most enthusiastic fans, calling him a child murderer, a terrorist.

I imagine Alharbi worries one of these lunatics might try to kill him.

Look, I'm all for people having the ability to express opinions about others, negative or otherwise. But really, there does need to be some limits. Did Beck know his allegations were false and just kept at it anyway, because it was good for ratings?

Or did he really believe this bullcrap, because he wanted to believe it? Maybe he has some sort of weird Messiah complex, I have no idea.

If you are going to make allegations that are going to wreck somebody's life, especially if you don't make it clear you're just speculating, that you're presenting fiction as fact, you need to be accountable.

So I'm glad Beck is getting sued. I hope Alharbi wins a pile of money.

Of course, if Alharbi does win, Beck will probably just say it's a vast conspiracy against him.

Whatever.