Wonkette
- Total body count was 13—with another 30 injured—at Ft. Hood yesterday. The gunman survived after being shot four times. [New York Times]
- Speaking of the gunman, Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, here is a lengthy biographical portrait. [Washington Post]
- An important Afghan governor and his militia and their rocket launchers are challenging the legitimacy of new president Hamid Karzai. [WSJ]
- British PM Gordon Brown—and his soldiers and their implied rocket launchers—also threatened Afghanistan to just, you know, it’s enough already with the corruption. [AP]
- The Pakistani Army invaded a Taliban alcove in lawless, mountainy South Waziristan, presumably also a stop on Sarah Palin’s book tour. [Reuters]
- So apparently a giant wall (of symbolism?) was blocking everyone’s view at the Jay-Z/Beyonce/U2 performance at the Brandenburg Gate at last night’s fall-of-the-Berlin-Wall-themed concert. [Daily Mail]
My god. What a disaster. Palin’s book tour that is.
Abdullah Abdullah May Also Mount Comeback: Advised By Madonna to Go With ‘One Name’
http://satiricalpolitical.com/2009/11/04/abdullah-abdullah-advised-by-madonna-to-go-with-one-name/
Well, both actually.
Monsieur Grumpe: As near as I can make out, her book tour consists of wandering from one Fox sound set to another. It would be sort of cool to see the dancing bannanas carrying “penis” signs, though.
Berliners, I’m really happy about the fall of your Wall and I’m gonna let you have your concert, but Beyonce …
No, sorry, I can’t do it.
Mahousu: and we thank you for that.
The New York Times, of all places, is running a very irritatingly speculative piece about Hasan right now, filled with things like “may have posted an anti-American message, but we don’t know it was actually him”
That part actually dovetails really well with “…began having second thoughts about a military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.”, which actually made me feel really sad inside. This is a horrible, horrible tragedy, locked into a larger and more insidious one.
“Will ask, don’t tell,” will likely be the new policy for The Islams in the Army.
Hmm, sounds like a muslin name. That won’t cause any backlash, especially with bitters/republicans. Nope, should be fine.
Mr. Booking Agent, tear down this wall!
Towel heads are really gonna feel welcome in the army now.
And the sign said those without a ticket watching would be shot on sight
So I jumped on the wall and yelled at the stage, Bono! what gives you the right
To put up a wall to keep me out or to keep B’s fine ass in
If the Hoff was here, he’d tell you to your face, man you’re some kinda sinner
…and Muslim Americans are going to feel compelled to publically state that they condemn the shootings at Fort Hood. Of course they comdemn them. The people making these statements are perfectly sane and decent. Didn’t see white people or Scots-Irish feeling they had to make similar statements after McVey and Oklahoma City, did we?
Rant over. Back to snark.
And it begins….although I don’t know if this is true, this was a comment on the NYTimes Lede Blog:
Brian Killmeade of FOX News has just (0710) called for the government to investigate all Muslims, particularly those in the military, to see where their true loyalties are.
NPR had the best coverage so far on this nut job. Apparently while stationed at Walter Reed he gave a rambling Grand Rounds presentation about Islam which made other Muslims in the audience uncomfortable; the Koran says infidels should be killed and so forth. Everyone left shaking their collective heads and wondering “what the hell was that about?”. Why the Army didn’t watch this guy closer at least is beyond me.
Terry:
But but but but Scots-Irish R REAL US Amerkuns!! Except when the majority weren’t like between 1861-1865, but who’s counting?
I’m so fucking depressed right now. I hate humanity. The universe would be better off without the pustulence of homo sapiens.
Beyonce. Christ.
Terry: I don’t remember religion being mentioned in other killings- Virginia Tech, Columbine.
I was sick yesterday so could not comment about the teabagger trash rally. Now I will. I was well represented there- for my people, the Jews, there was the guy holding the sign suggesting we control the President and the people holding up the photo of children in a concentration camp as a symbol of our health care reform(because the Holocaust has no meaning to them except for mockery). Then POS bad actor Jon Voight spoke about Reverend Wright. The Rev.s’ mother, Dr. Wright, was a math teacher and the Vice Principal of my high school in Philadelphia.
Katydid: Exactly how is that supposed to work?
I call on Brian Kilmeade to personally investigate how a flight of stairs feels after being kicked down it.
You know, Palin’s book tour really should include a stop in Waziristan. Send her in there in a t-shirt with a jaunty tea bagger slogan on it, some cullotes that show off her legs, and carrying a nice plate of roast pork. Then just let her be herself.
Re: Berlin: I hate it when symbolic gestures (styrofoam berlin wall) end up having real effects. Symbolic gestures are SUPPOSED to be ineffectual.
binarian: He should have made a pass at his commanding officer; that seems the only surefire way to get your ass booted from the armed forces.
Mahousu: …but China had the Greatest Wall of all time.”
There you go. I did it for you.
I don’t remember religion being mentioned in other killings- Virginia Tech, Columbine.
I do. They were assumed to be atheists, educated in secular schools, and doing what comes naturally to people taught about evolution and not forced by teachers to pray to the Christian god.
binarian: Calculated risk? The army is desperate for medical professionals, including psychiatrists, and they had an experienced one so they wanted to hang onto him. Let’s face it, there aren’t that many smart people with the potential to become doctors who look at the Army today and say to themselves that it looks like a nice, safe career path. Used to be the case, but not so much any more.
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall…so my friend here & his annoying band can build another one to keep the poors out.
hobospacejunkie: “Towel heads are really gonna feel welcome in the army now.”
That’s nothing. When I was in the Army anyone brown/not messican was called a ’sand n—-r’.
the problem child: I have no fucking idea, and it’s probably not even the point. If Kilmeade did say it, the point is to rile the base, hurt Muslims, cause trouble, increase his ratings, vent his general dickishness, and, somehow, blame Obama, who is himself a Muslim you know. And probably other evil reasons I don’t have the capacity to come up with, but I’m sure RedState is feverishly writing them as we speak, so to speak.
Jesus. An Army psychiatrist. Who the hell was his therapist?
the problem child: Perhaps a Senate Committee could take charge of these investigations. That has worked so well in the past.
norbizness: He should have made a pass at his commanding officer; that seems the only surefire way to get your ass booted from the armed forces.
Yeah.
And he was a psychiatrist. Treating people with PTSD, people just back from the shit. So God(Allah) knows how many stories he listened to about his brother Muslins getting killed and maimed. Maybe that’s what pushed him over the edge. Or helped push him. Who knows.
the problem child: FWIW, I have a friend who is a psychiatrist, and I once remarked to him about another friend, “He must be smart, he’s a psychiatrist,” and the first friend laughed ruefully (and a little bit bitterly) and said, “Wanna bet?” Then he said learning to be a doctor is an awful lot of rote memorization, and they’re not all as smart as non-doctors think they are.
Katydid: True. And often very dumb emotionally, too. But they tend to fairly good at calculating risk v. reward.
the problem child: I don’t know about that. The military was desperate for Arabic translators, but the ones who turned out to be gay were booted.
binarian: Treating people with PTSD, people just back from the shit. So God(Allah) knows how many stories he listened to about his brother Muslins getting killed and maimed. Maybe that’s what pushed him over the edge. Or helped push him. Who knows.
Who would have thought that sending people back into the shit three, four, or five times back to back might be a bit, um, stressful? I was under the impression it was kind of like Club Med, only with IED’s in the roads and lots of mortar fire.
Terry: Speaking of Snowbilly, I’m surprised she hasn’t weighed in on how this is a vicious personal attack on the Palin family because her son is in the Army fighting for our freedoms.
the problem child: calculated risk? Could be. Or administrative laziness. Or a “let’s not rock the boat” mentality. All of which exist in any large organization.
FMA: But gay is so much more dangerous! (Don’t ask the military to be consistent.)
Sparky McGruff: Yeah, and and it’s a dry heat. Good chance to work on your tan, also. Shit.
Naked Bunny with a Whip:
I remember that, too. With Va Tech, it was one of them quiet Asians, always studying and all.
The attacks are demented, but the comments that follow are also sick in their way.
Texan Bulldoggette: She has. You mean you don’t check her facebook regularly?! She posted yesterday:
Todd and I would like to offer our condolences to the families of the victims of the tragic shooting today at Fort Hood. Our thoughts and prayers will be with them.
- Sarah Palin
bureaucrap: Styrofoam?
Maybe they should have just burned it.
shadowMark: No, I am not her FB friend & shudder at the mere thought of it! That’s actually pretty sane; Trig must have wrote it for her.
Muslim is the new red (as in communist not republican)
Will future stimulus packages include moneez for interment camps because I WOULD LIKE A JOB
Katydid:
When I was an undergrad, our department was about evenly split between the pre-med folks and the ones who wanted to be biologists or related -ists. The difference between the two groups wasn’t intellegence, it was ruthlessness in pursuit of grades. If you, heaven forbid, were in a class with the pre-meds you could guarantee that shennanigans would occur. Fire alarms pulled right before an exam. All the reference materials in the library for a project hidden or cut from their bindings. Mysteriously screwed up lab projects. Classes without the pre-meds were competitive but fair and friendly. I’m sure the competitiveness of med school admissions is to blame, but damn that was ugly.
If he had only sought that coveted analrapist degree, he’d still be in school and we might still be talking about rainbows and dirty floors today. But no…
@Terry: Right, I should have been more clear I was talking about Klebold and Harris. Most of the chatter I heard around Va. Tech was how it proved everyone should be able to carry guns to class.
Guppy06: I am assuming this is the same wall, as described in 10/15/09 WSJ:
BERLIN — In a dark and drafty warehouse, a new Berlin Wall is taking shape.
Nearly 1,000 pieces, each one over 8 feet tall, 3 feet wide and 16 inches thick, have already been crafted. Soon, they will be assembled and become part of a barrier stretching nearly a mile through the historic center of the city along the path of the old Wall, from the Reichstag to the Brandenburg Gate and beyond.
But this Berlin Wall isn’t meant to be permanent. It is made of Styrofoam, and it is rising so it can be knocked down again.
Religious harassment in the military is unacceptable. That’s why I’m sure this incident will finally make the military and the rest of us Americans realize that religion and religious people have no place in the military.
Terry: There was also a lot of speculation from the usual suspects that the shooter was a Muslin at first, before all the details came out. Apparently, in the demented minds of bigot, “Asian” in the police reports actually meant “Pakistani or Middle Easterner”.
JMP: Good Signs memory however it’s bad enough I can’t let go of Star Trek and really The Five Man Electrical Band?
Jim89048: Rush could’ve hped him with that, given his obsession with anal poisoning, ankle grabbing and bend overing.
the problem child: You would think so, given the regular purges the military and NIS undertook to ensure the “moral purity” of the ranks.
Larry McAwful: Coincidentally, the world’s greatest living actor, Dolph Lundgren, visited Fort Hood for a guided tour earlier in the week (photo-report here). Ivan Drago aside, the reporter witnessed a change-of-command ceremony, which he described with the following…
“I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the religious fervor, [the incoming General's] speech feeling more like a sermon. Being the pinko commie (or whatever they call liberal these days) I am, I can’t help but get a puckered butthole when I hear a General sermonizing about being part of God’s army and doing God’s work.”
Gesh. Once again, you people are missing the REAL STORY:
He was “shot four times and SURIVIVED”?
Time to get rid of those crappy 9mm Beretta M-9 pistols the U.S. Army inflicts on its troops.
We need something more effective. Now, Benazir Bhutto (I know you remember the name) got to talk personally with Allah as a result of one little suicide bomber (and a poorly designed Land Rover).
So let’s start equipping our troops with explosive suicide vests today!
Of course, if we give General Dynamics the contract, the things probably will end up costing $5 billion apiece, and won’t work.
BUT FREEDOM ISN’T FREE!
Thank you.
P.S. Bhutto? Still dead.
Great; looks like somebody’s 18-hour priapic ecstasy just wore off.
norbizness: If I’ve held any preconceived notions about Dolf Lundgren in the past, I’m pretty sure you’ve just blown them to flinders.
Neilist: Assure me this is snark.
shadowMark: I’d say sorry, but really it was stuck in my head after reading that story (along with Another Brick in the Wall but I couldn’t think of a good rewrite for that) and I just had to spread the pain.
binarian: The part about General Dynamics was snark. Halliburton would recycle/refurnish surplus captured suicide bomber vestst from Iraq, and charge only $4 billion apiece.
And they wouldn’t work just as well.
But perhaps Halliburton could subcontract the training to local Minutemen White Supremacist groups, or your local Jordanian-American Chamber of Commerce.
Either way, it’s time we started coming up with Innovative Solutions for Our Troops.
I like the idea of sending Minuteman White Supremacists to Waziristan. Especially if they’re supplied by Halliburton.
How much snark is too much snark? I don’t want to say anything to cross that invisible line.
Neilist: Ok, thanks. I’m a bit freaked, is all.
binarian: Binarian: If I may presume to give you some advice: Ignore me. Everyone else in here does, until I pass what DC Hates Me refers to as “that invisible line.”
It’s a damn shame that line is invisible, if you ask me. After all, I spend so much time and energy trying to make sure that I am on the wrong side of it.
GeneralLerong: And carrying large pork platters. Marked with Holy Crosses.
DC Hates Me: If you find it, let me know.
DC Hates Me: You’ll know when everyone starts yelling at you, I guess.
Terry: It should work based on the criteria of skipping places with bookstores and libraries.
This shooting is a real tragedy. My sympathies are with the families of the dead.
wot!?
DC Hates Me: WHEN YOU START TYPING IN ALL CAPS, YOU’VE CROSSED THE INVISIBLE LINE. OR WHEN PEOPLE START REPLYING IN ALL CAPS.
Aloysius: Nah. Pink Floyd.
betterDeadThanRed: That’s the yelling part, yeah.
Has anyone ever met a psychiatrist that wasn’t crazy already? That’s why they go into the field, to cure themselves.
Terry: You want to go rogue? THAT is fucking going Rogue, Palin. Get Stapleton on the phone to the chiefs of staff immediately.
Naked Bunny with a Whip: You’re absolutely right on this one, at least in the case of Columbine. A rather enormous storm was kicked up over the fact that they killed a girl who, before she died, professed a belief in God; she became a martyr for the religious right and her image was plastered all over for quite some time. VA Tech, I don’t remember.
The difference, of course, is that that dialogue was about persecution BECAUSE of religion, whereas this one is about how religious people (muslins) do bad things and should thus be, err, persecuted.
Oh, and for the next edition of “Juli and / or Riley round up the news”, the unemployment rate has hit the highest in 26 years, so it’s a good thing we expanded those benefits! Green shoots, not so much.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/business/economy/07jobs.html?_r=1&hp
How earnestly I wish that the world could be a bit low-drama and common sense about this for once and declare that “the man was just fucking nuts, that’s all, it’s a shame this happened” and we could spare ourselves all the weird recursive theatrics of prejudicial blame.
snoidoid: Oh I don’t know. My psychiatrist doesn’t seem to be batty. Unless it’s batty to not redecorating your waiting room or office since 1972. Or forgetting who I am from appointment to appointment. Or charging for an hour when I only see him for ten minutes.
I call those things “clueless,” “lazy,” and “stingy or smart, depending on your viewpoint.” In that order.
Texan Bulldoggette: “There’s no call to use ’sand n—r’ when ‘towelhead’ or ‘camel jockey’ are available for use.” –The Three Kings (not verbatim)
Mad Brahms: The Columbine story about the girl who professed her belief in God has been proven to be totally made up. But news of the falsehood, of course, was reported practically nowhere except the definitive book studying the entire event. On the positive side, sales of long black coats continue to be strong.