Category: Rule 1

A Disservice To 9/11 Victims And Andrew Roman

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by Smitty

Andrew Roman, as he reports at Proof Positive, tried to do something noble to memorialize the heinous butchery of 9/11:

. . .while I was fortunate enough not to experience any personal loss on that terrible Tuesday morning, as an American, I was deeply and profoundly affected by the attack on my country and the staggering loss of life.

In the months and years following 9/11, many outstanding documentaries on the events of that day were produced – from technical presentations explaining exactly how and why the towers collapsed to personal stories of the people who escaped the towers before they fell.

I own many of these exceptional programs.

However, as a bona fide news junkie, the one documentary I was hoping to see created never came to fruition. The one presentation I had hoped would come out depicting the events of September 11, 2001 “as they unfolded” on live television was simply never made. Coverage of the most photographed and videotaped event in American television news history simply had not been preserved in any real way for the public at large to review and study. Not at the time anyway.

Back in early 2003, I decided I would endeavor to actualize, on my own, the kind of “documentary” I was wanting to see – a timeline of the events of September 11, 2001, employing mostly “as it happened” television newscasts. My task was to gather as many of the original telecasts from as many networks as possible – including the initial “breaking news” bulletins which began airing at 8:48 AM – and compile them into a montage that presented exactly how each outlet reported the unfolding story. It would, quite literally, be a succession of segments, edited together in such a way that would enable one to get a representative sampling of how the television networks covered each development that morning (e.g., the second plane crashing into the South Tower, the first reports of an “explosion” at the Pentagon, the collapse of the South Tower, etc).

This was not an agenda driven project.

A bit later:

I finished the project about two-and-a-half years after the attacks, in April, 2004.

Six and half years after that – just yesterday, in fact – my “As It Happened” video made the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

RTWT to find out the sadly predictable feedback from Virginia Heffernan, about whom this blog shall choose to maintain a private opinion.

The interesting question raised is: How do we maintain history in a dispassionate, factual way, and learn from it in ways that protect the future? The Progressive Airbrush is about as helpful as endless Inigo Montoya-ism.

Great Post, Sanity Inspector, But What About Slavery?

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by Smitty

The Sanity Inspector captures an excellent thought regarding sectarian relations in the United States, emphasis mine:

Something is coalescing, taking root, something which may have repercussions centuries on down the road.

Americans are a kind, forbearing, humble, welcoming people, lefties’ incessant accusations otherwise notwithstanding. I have never had a negative personal experience with a Muslim and, SFAIK (anonymous internet flammage aside) no Muslim has ever had one with me. I suspect that that is true of most everyone reading this, left or right. In fact, I sometimes have occasion to help Muslims who are new to the area, or to America altogether. They just want to run their convenience stores, parking garages, and halal meat shops, and get on in life, same as everyone else.

And yet the Islamic terrorists, well-trained foreign agent or Sudden Jihad Syndrome flipout, are hiding among them, not us. And the alleged moderate Muslims who run interference for them are quick to scold us for noticing, as are the progressives who tend to make mascots of civilization’s enemies. And every snowflake in an avalanche can plead “who, me?”.

On the ground, under the news radar, most people get along fine much of the time, even in the world’s hot spots. Muslims will even visit Palestinian churches to receive The Virgin’s blessing, I’ve heard. And yet “My biking buddy is a Muslim, therefore Islam is a religion of peace” is as idiotically simplistic a statement as “I get along fine with all the black people at work, therefore there is no more racism in America.” Only difference is that the stakes are far higher with the former delusion.

The people who roll their eyes at the commotion over Park51 do not understand or appreciate the power of symbols–intended or unintended. They do not understand the power of memory, of grievances unassuaged, and how they can be passed along year to year, generation to generation, to unpredictably multiplying effect.

I think we do have an example of such in US History, starting with the 3/5 Compromise in the Constitution, running through the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Raaaaacism Industrial Complex, and, hopefully, more or less concluding at the Restoring Honor event.
We have to differentiate between forgiving those that undertake evil, to be free of bondage to the past, while retaining a dispassionate recollection of the events, to protect the future from repeats.
For radical Islam, one doesn’t see much hope outside of moderate Imams giving the radical nutjobs the Full Alinsky treatment of outing, personalizing, and ridiculing the notion that explosive garments and landscaping garner nothing in Eternity. How can any sane religion advocate mass murder as an active choice? *cough* Abortion *cough*, ye Christians *cough*.
Beside slavery, there is the more general issue of the Civil War. But the “South will rise again” meme is notional at best. Simply put, the US has no significant cultural memory in which to store resentment. Now, if our government were to remain Full Quisling with respect to radical Islam, things could change, and the gloomy futures come to pass.
However, I predict that in decades out that the leveling power of the Internet is going to dampen the power of radical Islam. If you read Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the current situation is built on enslaving the female half of the population in the Middle East. I submit that Stein’s Law applies. Applying it will take resolve, though. Which is why we must eject the Quislings in two months, and continue to reject Quislings when they run for office.

How to Get Linked, Lesson One

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Write a headline as good as this:

Paris teens charged in bare-breasted robberies

If you don’t get linked with a headline like that, you are obviously sending tips to the wrong blogger. Beyond the headline, it helps if there’s actually an interesting story:

French police believe they’ve gotten to the bottom of a series of robberies in which teenage girls exposed their breasts to distract men withdrawing money from Paris cash machines. . . .
Police say that on August 7, a man inserted a card into a cash machine in central Paris to withdraw money when two young females approached him and asked for money. The girls waved a newspaper at the man in an attempt to distract him, but the technique didn’t work.
So the girls tried another strategy: One of them bared her breasts and put her hand on the man’s genitals while the other took the opportunity to withdraw 300 euros, police said.

And if you want to send an experienced reporter to France to get the real story of this nefarious criminal activity, just hit the tip jar.

UPDATE: “Why is Halle Berry violating my human rights?” and “Sex is a human right?” You know, I’m starting to feel victimized here.

LEAKED: New NASA Space Station Plan Incorporates Relativity

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by Smitty

NASA’s swell new global bureaucratic quaalude mission was greeted by howls of derisive laughter and sporadic vomiting. This blog’s attempt at a “don’t shoot the messenger” call on Administrator Bolden, too, got sucked into a steep gravity well.
iOwnTheWorld mustered a caustic contest to name a new Mosque Shuttle, with the sort of result you’d expect:

But to where will this infamous space chariot go?

Based upon Escher's Relativity

It will be a sign of resurgence when an actual leader is elected that is capable of setting a national goal. Mars, Moon base, whatever. You can have Socialism or you can have quantum leaps, but you can only have both in the mouth of a salesman.

You Go, Nancy!

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by Smitty

It takes a special kind of chutzpah to encourage people to do things that are not in their best interests. The Lonely Conservative points to the LiarSpeaker of the House, encouraging her doomed troops to go backing into their campaigns at high speed in a Ford Pinto with a full tank, singing the praises of the health care reform.

But at least even a lowly Pinto can have a righteous stereo system. Pondering the appropriate soundtrack for this self-immolation, this blog will suggest sounds of something swirling in the sinus of the Speaker. Feel free to substitute “HealthCare” for “Cocaine” in the following:

The Enterprising Paco updates us on

Donald Berwick as head of Medicare and Medicaid. Berwick is such an astoundingly bad choice that even the most arrogant president in U.S. history didn’t dare to turn him loose before a Senate confirmation hearing.

Goreture II: There’s Moore

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by Smitty

(If you don’t start with Paco, this post will make little sense)

Agent Kowalski grimaced at Faisal, securely bound in the chair. The table was empty save the screen sitting on some cheap playback gear. The Gore tape had failed. Or had it succeeded too well? Could the robotic utterances of Al Gore have affected a brain bleaching on Faisal Shahzad? Repeated questioning on the would-be Times Sqare Bomber produced nothing save a stream of Ramones lyrics.

There had to be something else. Something truly monstrous. Suddenly, Kowalski knew.

“Faisal, would you like to watch a movie? Don’t you think that Megan Fox is hot in those Transormers movies? Was Allah going to set you up with 72 virgin variations on the theme of Ms. Fox?”

Shahzad grimaced and said nothing, but a sudden intensity in his eyes betrayed a smoldering lust.

“Great, well, here is a treat for you, then, while I go out for a sandwich,” and Kowalski hit play on the DVD and left the room.

Sicko started, followed almost immediately by a “Noooooooooo” that rolled down the hall to bounce off the back of the smiling Kowalski.

Update: TrogloPundit does a face-plant in the heart of horror:

Goreture III