The inspiration for killing people - a damn cartoon.
Go read this NYT piece from Ross Douthat about the terrorist attack today. I'll give you a little taste, for fair use, but go read the whole thing.
If a large enough group of someones is willing to kill you for saying
something, then it’s something that almost certainly needs to be said,
because otherwise the violent have veto power over liberal civilization,
and when that scenario obtains it isn’t really a liberal civilization
any more
Amen! The man gets it. The purpose of the attack today was to have us Westerners engage in self-censorship. That's the goal of these terrorists. Should we give in to people who are going to engage in violence to get what they want? NO!
Or...you could go the other way, and let the murderous terrorist-bastards win by adopting the policy that you shouldn't show cartoons of "The Prophet", like CNN has decided to do.
But according to CNN, it's not a big deal because...snow occurred this winter. And as we all know, snow has never, ever happened before in winter. It was a freak occurrence this time.
But according to CNN, we're totally poised for growth, y'all. Nothing like a negative GDP number to show how poised we are for growth, right?
I'm kind of surprised that this story made CNN, but it did. It's seems like a nothing of a story, really. Some guy isn't going to lower his flag for Nelson Mandela. Ok. So what?
And this angle of this county sheriff "defying President Obama's order" is ridiculous. The President can order the military to lower their flags. The President can order the FBI lower their flags. He can even order US embassies and the Agriculture Department to lower their flags.
But Pickens County? They don't take orders from the President of the United States. The President can't order the Pickens County Sheriff to do squat. Seriously. Where does a journalist get off saying crap like this?
You can debate whether or not it's proper to lower the flag for Mandela, but ultimately it's a judgment call, and it doesn't really mean anything. It's a symbolic thing. But I'm sure that this won't stop everyone from saying the guy's a racist or something.
CNN has been going downhill for
quite awhile, and at this point, I think they’re just trolling to try and get
better ratings. Case in point, the latest op-ed from “CNN Contributor” LZ
Granderson in which he provides his valuable insight on the hearings that the United
States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding on the DOJ’s
Fast and Furious operation and claim of executive privilege that is being
asserted by the Federal Executive Branch.
Oh, you haven’t heard of CNN Contributor LZ
Granderson? Here’s how CNN describes him:
A senior writer and columnist for ESPN The Magazine and ESPN.com,
Granderson has written several guest columns for CNN.com on topics ranging from
Sarah Palin to Charlie Sheen to the younger Barbara Bush’s endorsement of
same-sex marriage. His pieces have been
among the most widely read and
commented on by CNN.com’s users.
Basically, he’s a professional troll.
So, what deep insight does Mr. Troll have for us on the topic of a Congressional oversight committee seeking
documents that have been refused under the claim of executive privilege?
I know that's hard to digest in a society where pregnancies and
marriages of D-list celebrities make the cover of People magazine, but there
comes a point where the public's right to know needs to take a back seat to
matters like national security and diplomacy.
Snooki’s pregnancy and the
Kardashian divorce aren’t exactly in the same ballpark as a Federal agency
being asked questions by a Congressional Oversight Committee. The whole point
of an oversight committee is to provide “oversight”. You know, being
accountable to the people’s elected representatives? Nevertheless, LZ doesn't need facts! He's ready
to start making some serious decisions.
Heads should roll because of the Fast and Furious debacle. We don't
need every detail of that operation to be made public in order for that to
happen.
Great. Exactly whose head “should
roll”? If we don’t need the details of who decided to green-light the operation
and/or cover it up, are we just going to start drawing names out of a hat? Some
people like to have all the facts before they decide who loses their job and
possibly faces criminal charges, but ol’ LZ, he’s ready to start axing people
now.
Much in the same way, Project Wide Receiver and Project Road Runner -- the earlier
versions of Fast and Furious under President Bush -- were executed with the
hope that they will do more good than harm. Hardly anyone in the public knows
the finer points of these programs.
Were they legal?
Hell no.
Were they effective?
Who knows?
Were they done as a way to keep America safe?
Yes.
So the Department of Justice is
acting illegally, and we don’t know if it the illegal operations are even
effective, but since these illegal operations were done with good intentions, so STOP
ASKING QUESTIONS! Just roll some heads! Any heads!
LZ brings his tolling to a
dramatic conclusion with this:
By allowing
guns to infiltrate Mexico's
drug cartel, we thought we could trace them up the ladder to the leaders. Take
off the head and the body dies. As for the innocent people who lost their
lives? Collateral damage. That's the uncomfortable backstory to this scandal.
And there are likely other operations like it in our nation's history that we
don't even have a clue about.
And maybe
it's better for us not to be so nosy, not to know everything because, to
paraphrase the famous line from the movie "A Few Good Men," many of
us won't be able to handle the truth.
You can’t
handle the truth? Dude, have you even seen this movie? Col. Jessup is insulting Lt. Kaffee when he says that.
But if that’s what
you want, fine. The adults in the room are going to handle the tough decisions
and hear about the bad things that go on in the world. If you don’t want to
hear about the bad things, or make tough decisions, you can go play outside
with the rest of the children and assume that everyone does everything with the
best intentions. Seriously, how childish are you, LZ? Man up.
Personally, if
I was going to go with a Nicholson line from A Few Good Men on this topic, I
would have gone with the best line from the whole movie:
Maybe AG Holder
just wants the Committee to ask him nicely.
Paterno is out immediately, not at the end of the season. This is a move that had to be made. Many things are more important than college football - failure to report sexual abuse is one of them. If you disagree, then your priorities are all out of whack.
Kudos to CNN for getting the most knowledgeable reporters on the story to ask the tough questions that everyone wants answers to:
