Living in Infamy
On the way to campus, I listened to NPR because they had coverage of the London attacks. Well, that's a bit of a misnomer; they talked about New York, which nobody cared about, and then they interviewed Senator Barbara Boxer. Senator Boxer, a career politician with, to the best of my knowledge, no national security expertise or experience whatsoever, immediately criticized the Bush Administration for allegedly not protecting our own mass transit systems. This exchange, which had me screaming expletives at my car stereo, once again proved two things to me.
NPR is a poor quality "news" organization, one that contributes little or nothing to people's actual knowledge understanding of the world. One of the reasons for this is that in many cases, they get career politicians and other miscreants with nothing real or profound to say to give comments about various circumstances and events.
Barbara Boxer knows basically nothing, and has absolutely no class whatsoever.
The death toll has been reduced from forty-five to thirty-eight, and the casualty toll has been reduced to seven hundred. It's a small consolation, but it means that seven more people are alive, and three hundred more people are physically healthy in spite of this savage act.
I use the term "savage" here a lot; I use the word "barbarian" as well. That's what we're dealing with, ladies and gentlemen. Anyone who specifically targets civilians and soft targets, including women, children, and pensioners, is a savage and a barbarian. There is no honor in such an act.
My buddy the eyerocker left the following comment this morning:
I wish it were that simple. A few weeks ago, I may have thought the same things. I don't have that luxury anymore, because of this Arabic class I'm taking. My instructor is a little Muslim woman from Yemen who scolded the handful of misguided students (two or three) who said that when they travel abroad, they want to identify themselves as Canadians. She said that she knows people who have dual citizenship who make a point of using their American passports when they travel back to their home countries. She's fiercely proud of her American citizenship, and she wears it on her sleeve.
People like Barbara Boxer, or the idiots at Democratic Underground and Daily Kos, will always blame America first. They will blame President Bush for the continued campaign against the United States and our Western brethren, even though the terrorism started originally under President Carter and continued through the Reagan and Clinton administrations. They claim that President Bush's policies have only worsened our plight.
Bullshit. President Bush understands the solution. When Franklin Roosevelt detained American citizens of Japanese ancestry, he accomplished nothing. Detaining American citizens of Arab descent would accomplish nothing. The only solution that will work is to seek out and destroy those who spread this terror, and hate, and fear. Those people need to be killed, and that's what President Bush is doing, with the help of Prime Minister Tony Blair. There is no other solution.
When I finished on campus for the day, NPR had made the decision to run the BBC World Service coverage in lieu of their regular programming. Poosh's favorite individual, Iqbal Sacrani, was interviewed briefly for his reaction, and I disagreed with some of what he had to say; he downplayed the role of Islam in the situation, of course. Essentially, though, the average Briton on the streets is pissed off; they're determined to carry on with their lives. I found myself saying to myself, "****ing brilliant Brits." If there's any group in Europe that will be emboldened, not swayed to retreat, by an attack like this, it's the Brits.
I think that Poosh will agree with me that the United Kingdom isn't waht it used to be, but I think that the reaction from the average Londoner proves that there's greatness left in that nation.
Today is yet another day that will live in infamy, but it may well inaugurate Britain's finest hour in decades.
The death toll has been reduced from forty-five to thirty-eight, and the casualty toll has been reduced to seven hundred. It's a small consolation, but it means that seven more people are alive, and three hundred more people are physically healthy in spite of this savage act.
I use the term "savage" here a lot; I use the word "barbarian" as well. That's what we're dealing with, ladies and gentlemen. Anyone who specifically targets civilians and soft targets, including women, children, and pensioners, is a savage and a barbarian. There is no honor in such an act.
My buddy the eyerocker left the following comment this morning:
its a terrible shame what has happened in London. I feel that we need to be much more agressive with those of this so called peacefull religion. pop a cap in them all and let allah sort them out.
I wish it were that simple. A few weeks ago, I may have thought the same things. I don't have that luxury anymore, because of this Arabic class I'm taking. My instructor is a little Muslim woman from Yemen who scolded the handful of misguided students (two or three) who said that when they travel abroad, they want to identify themselves as Canadians. She said that she knows people who have dual citizenship who make a point of using their American passports when they travel back to their home countries. She's fiercely proud of her American citizenship, and she wears it on her sleeve.
People like Barbara Boxer, or the idiots at Democratic Underground and Daily Kos, will always blame America first. They will blame President Bush for the continued campaign against the United States and our Western brethren, even though the terrorism started originally under President Carter and continued through the Reagan and Clinton administrations. They claim that President Bush's policies have only worsened our plight.
Bullshit. President Bush understands the solution. When Franklin Roosevelt detained American citizens of Japanese ancestry, he accomplished nothing. Detaining American citizens of Arab descent would accomplish nothing. The only solution that will work is to seek out and destroy those who spread this terror, and hate, and fear. Those people need to be killed, and that's what President Bush is doing, with the help of Prime Minister Tony Blair. There is no other solution.
When I finished on campus for the day, NPR had made the decision to run the BBC World Service coverage in lieu of their regular programming. Poosh's favorite individual, Iqbal Sacrani, was interviewed briefly for his reaction, and I disagreed with some of what he had to say; he downplayed the role of Islam in the situation, of course. Essentially, though, the average Briton on the streets is pissed off; they're determined to carry on with their lives. I found myself saying to myself, "****ing brilliant Brits." If there's any group in Europe that will be emboldened, not swayed to retreat, by an attack like this, it's the Brits.
I think that Poosh will agree with me that the United Kingdom isn't waht it used to be, but I think that the reaction from the average Londoner proves that there's greatness left in that nation.
Today is yet another day that will live in infamy, but it may well inaugurate Britain's finest hour in decades.
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