Exploiting Terrorist Attacks??
Somedays I feel like I write for the Huffington Post, and that is really not a good feeling. But before I shut down for the evening I tend to check out a few of the more left leaning sites like Huffington Post, Newshounds, Media Matters, etc., probably not a good idea as it is after 1:00 in the morning and here I am pounding the keyboards.
One of the editors over on “I Hate The Media” says that his biggest complaint about me (and he has several) is that I read something that makes me mad and then I sit down and write about it. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t. Probably a better way to write satire which I have stayed away from a little bit lately is to think on it a day or two before committing it to paper (or computer memory, or what have you).
Anyway, he is probably right, in fact I am sure he is. But this is not about satire, this is about I am mad dammit and here is why I am mad (you know – good blogging!!!).
Okay, tonight I am mad at Andy Ostry of Huffington Post for his contention that the “Republicans Once Again Shamelessly Exploiting Terrorism for Political Purposes” which happens to be the title of his latest Huffington Post article.
In example, we of course have the case of “US Army Major Malik Nadal Hassan, who Republicans are demanding be called a terrorist for killing 13 people in what they claim is the first act of terrorism on U.S. soil since the September 11, 2001 attacks” Ostry goes on to contend that “Any mentally ill Muslim can walk into a supermarket and yell “Allahu Akbar,” as Hasan had before opening fire on his fellow soldiers, but does that in and of itself make him an Islamist terrorist rather than simply a violent fringe lunatic? Does this give license to Republicans to frame the debate with reckless, irresponsible and incendiary rhetoric?”
Ostry’s statement reminds me of a textbook I had in college so many, many, many years ago – the fact that I remember after so many years the name of the book “The Big Umbrella” by I was fortunate enough to find a website about the book which was originally released in 1972 (Ouch!!) here is an excerpt that should provide a good example of why the above paragraph by Ostry brought it to mind
“During the last generation a big umbrella was opened. Beneath its huge, over-arching expanse you now find people with the most diverse problems and difficulties. Under its shadow they have been gathered together according to the novel idea that nearly everybody who is having problems, regardless of what his difficulties may be, is sick. The name of this umbrella is Mental Illness. This umbrella was designed and opened by Charcot and Freud and others who worked with them. Until their time, “illness” meant physical illness. But they stretched the concept of illness until it pertained to nearly any and every sort of difficulty in life.’
Apparently now if one is to believe Ostry, the “Big Umbrella” described above has now been extended to include Muslim extremists.
One wonders (at least I do) how we would prove the fact that the extremists who crashed airliners into buildings with such devastating effect were in fact terrorists and not as Ostry contends “mentally ill” and a ‘violent fringe lunatic’ as very little evidence remains to test Ostry’s theory on. Perhaps that is just the Conservative Republican in me being “reckless, irresponsible and incendiary” sorry.
Later in his writings, Ostry finds a supposed like thinker in Matt Duss of ThinkProgress who put it: “The definition of terrorism is not ‘any violence by any Muslim anywhere at any time for any reason’.”
In what I would term fanciful editing, Ostry leaves out the results of the train of thought that Duss began on the matter of what terrorism is, because that leads into the left’s belief that Hassan’s actions were no better or worse than the U.S. and its allies are routinely guilty of as stated in Glenn Greenwald’s article on the subject which says “But that — along with the repellent claim that saying ”Allahu Akbar” is “suggestive of terrorism,” rather than suggestive of someone who is Muslim (obviously the same thing in the minds of the people claiming that) – is exactly what seems to be driving discussions of this attack. It’s likely that there will always be a lack of clarity about exactly what motivated Hasan — some combination of mental instability, religious fervor and political conviction — but, regardless of motive, the only way to define an attack on soldiers as an act of “terrorism” is to indict ourselves in the same way.”
So apparently we are the same thing as the Muslim extremists, and we do the exact same things. That explains Bernie Goldberg’s remarks on the Factor last night where he basically warned us to watch out for “all those Christian suicide bombers” and how many times has a guy shouted out “Praise Jesus” before shooting up a bunch of unarmed Muslim soldiers. Why it is exactly the same thing.
Not only is the left mired deep in deadly “political correctness” they are still hoping that the Barrack Obama world apology tour will bring about world peace. In the words of Doctor Phil “How’s that working our for ya?”