I’ve tried to go on with my day as I would any other but the story of the 8-year-old boy who died as a result of the bomb blasts has taken me to a really dark place. Which I suppose is the point of terrorism. And for that I’m ashamed.
Ashamed, and also sick to death of the leftist jackals, be they in the media like Nicholas Kristof or Chris Matthews, or be they former representatives like Barney Frank, who insist on instantly and cynically politicizing these kinds of horrors to the point where my first thoughts yesterday weren’t about the dead or maimed, but rather about how these opportunistic bastards would try to seize upon an act of terrorism, much like they had (and we knew they would) the attack at Sandy Hook, to connive and blame and posture and position themselves politically, placing me and those like me on the defensive, as if anything I’ve ever said invites the intimations I know they’ll proffer to malign me, or as if anything I’ve done can justify their inevitable attempts to infringe upon even more of my liberties, likely through calls for increased public surveillance capabilities. For the children.
And I shouldn’t have been thinking about those things. I should instead have been commiserating with the victims and their friends and families; I should have been angered beyond words at the cowards who plotted the bombings, a malevolent attack aimed at innocents, many of whom were engaged in acts of charity: the later finishers of these marathons oftentimes being those who run to raise money for myriad worthy causes.
Yet my first thoughts were defensive ones. Selfish ones.
The “progressives,” and my years’ long engagement with their odious and predictable tactics, have coarsened me. And that hit me today, this morning, like a punch to the sternum.
So let me say this: later, if the Boston bombings turn out to be the work of Islamic extremists or environmental radicals or Occupy douchebags, and the progressives begin circling the wagons — once they get over their disappointment that the bombs weren’t set by TEA Party leaders, that is — positioning themselves to explain or justify or diminish the culpability of the offenders, I will make it a point to remember how I felt today, how I knew in my core that should the perpetrators turn out to be “right-wingers,” these hateful locusts would seek to demonize every last one of us who expresses fidelity to the Constitution and who resists the unnerving growth of governmental power and the relentlessness of bureaucratic intrusion.
I will remember how I felt when it suddenly struck me that, in no uncertain terms, they hate me more than they ever could some vaguely threatening Other who shares with them totalitarian impulses.
I will remember that, and I will use it to redouble my efforts to see them defeated. It’s who I am and who I must be.
Just not today. And for that I apologize.
I hate terrorists.
They have conditioned me to feel the exact same way. Whenever there is some crisis that I know the left can use to pummel us into submission, that’s what I think about immediately. Instead of thinking about those poor dead children at Sandy Hook, I started shopping for things I figured would be banned soon as a result. When I heard about this bombing, after the initial shock wore off I started focusing on how the left would twist this into a weapon to be used against me and my fellow lovers of liberty.
The fact that they have made us afraid of what they will do next makes them horrible people, to be shunned and ridiculed. At a minimum.
There’s a special place in Hell reserved for the pustules who built and placed those bombs.
But I’m torn as to whether terrorists are worse or better than politicians who attempt to capitalize on events like this to advance a fascist agenda.
Don’t forget to add NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston [a counterterrorism expert for NPR] who could not control herself from adding that a “rightest” extremist could have been the bomber in this morning’s NPR reports.
While it still could turn out to be anything, I think it’s really sad that people are so lost in their own little worlds they think Tea Party terrorism is just as likely as Islamic terrorism.
Step 1: Polite Protest
Step 2: Lose an Election
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Terror to the Innocent!
But then I guess I’m a long way away from getting my news the way “normal” people do.
I’m gonna go with Patton Oswalt, and observe that the good guys outnumber the bad guys by a vast margin. I’m gonna focus on those who rushed in to help the injured, without needing permission or credentials or a formal federal action plan to do so.
Yes, the majority have been lulled into thinking that an all-powerful State is central to everyone’s lives; even so, in times of crisis, a lot of people still act with honor and courage.
Leftist mouthpieces have become so odious to me that I no longer feel it necessary to defend them against anything.
Let leftists reap what they’ve sewn.
Yes, this. And why apologize? I think this is a fully proper perspective. Everybody is so caught up in hoping and promoting that the perpetrator(s) wasn’t someone that will be correctly or incorrectly associated with themselves. I don’t care who it is, like Jeff, I hope they suffer. “Left”, “Right”, “Islamist”, whoever. I am mostly just sad for the people who have been traumatized. And a little pissed about people on all sides feverishly jumping to conclusions to promote their narrative.
Take a break, gain the perspective that comes with accurate information, and move on. Including fighting those who will use this event, and others to come, to infringe on our liberties. But take a break.
I know what you mean Jeff and please understand that I mean this more than just a joke. I feel guilty about seeing “Boston Terrier Attack” every time I see “Boston Terror Attack” in a news item.
Hey, Kenya had Muslim problems and Kenya always win these marathons. Hmm.
The “Yes, this.” was in relation to Jeff’s post
Apologize? For having a soul?
How can you not think of the things you did?
We live in a world where up is down, where not much makes sense anymore to the reasonable man or woman.
We’ve been shoved up against a wall by the Left, with their next step being to knock us to the ground so that they can start grinding that jackboot in our faces forever.
We’ve had to harden ourselves, as all men must do when engaged in War.
The fact that you feel bad about your thoughts proves, like McGehee wrote, that you, unlike the Left, have a Soul.
You’re a fine, decent, and honorable man, Jeff.
Nil Desperandum.
You don’t need to apologize for being human, Jeff.
I feel bad that I should feel bad and I almost don’t anymore for all the reasons you have stated. Yes, it’s terrible that some asshole or cohort of assholes decided to set off explosives and some people died and a lot more got hurt. All I know is what is coming on the heels of this: more regulation, more restrictions, more figurative looking over my shoulder.
Imagine how the people of Israel feel everyday when they decide to go shopping, walk to shul, take the kids out for pizza. Just live their lives, for crying out loud. We have it pretty soft by comparison.
What Bob said. ‘Cuz he says it better than I can.
The guilty will be found, the shameless attacks will not be forgotten.
Fixed.
What was the deal with Bumblefucks presser today? Was that just a do-over because the one last night was so lame?
He had to get the transcript right for Candy.
But I’m torn as to whether terrorists are worse or better than politicians who attempt to capitalize on events like this to advance a fascist agenda.
The bombers don’t occupy positions of prestige and wealth, they don’t feign compassion for one group to bludgeon another group into submission, their phone numbers aren’t on some news reader’s Rolodex so that they can morally preen in front of the cameras, they aren’t in charge of teaching the next generation—
IOW, they aren’t whited sepulchers.
I’ll leave it to all y’all to decide who is worse.
I’m gonna go with Patton Oswalt, and observe that the good guys outnumber the bad guys by a vast margin.
The non-bombers vastly outnumber the bombers, yes, but so do citizens outnumber those who would govern them.
One bomber or one sniper can terrorize an entire population, because those who are the most willing to play dirty have far more leverage than those who wish to live in peace. And a couple of filthy congresscritters can enslave a nation.
Too kind to the dead, Sen. Menendez (D – N.J.) objected, so he would strike these clauses:
But seeing reason, he now withdraws his objection, though he has demonstrated his pusillanimity withal.
You cannot give conservatives any credit when you think they are evil people.
Another thought I had listening to the radio today: Is it really possible to belittle Barney Frank?
Beemoe wrote: Is it really possible to belittle Barney Frank?
No need to – he does a good enough job of it himself.
Now, now, Sen. Menendez is the most experienced foreign relations expert to ever head that committee. He knows things most don’t and never will.
Apology not accepted, as none was needed.
The operative word in “righteous anger” is “righteous,” after all.
Jeff
On Hugh Hewitt last night, Yoni the Blogger (an Israeli with extensive military and counterterrorism experience) said that Israelis have learned not to rush immediately to the aid of attack victims because one of the purposes of an initial attack is to lure responders for a second, more devastating strike. In other words, they have learned that they must restrain their compassion or the enemy will exploit it to do more damage.
Leftists do the same thing, albeit verbally. They count on our decency and unwillingness to politicize a horrific event to give them an opportunity to indecently exploit that event without challenge.
No decent person indicts the Israelis for recognizing that they must adopt tactics that may appear unfeeling but are designed to limit the damage done by a second attack.
Yesterday, the bomber(s) launched the first attack. Some leftists launched the second. Your reaction was appropriate to and justifed by the leftist tactics you observed. You don’t need to apologize; they do.
Knowing that ghouls would use this to further their goals is nothing you need to apologize about, Jeff.
It means you’ve been paying attention.
When the President apologizes for caring to want to find out WHY a terrorist does something, thus justifying the terrorist for using “reasons” to justify actions, and repudiates Bill Ayers who taught him to CARE why a terrorist does something, THEN, and only then, do you have something to apologize for, maybe, on a bad day, when Hell freezes over.
Sorta.
As long as you have empathy for the victims of this evil, and a healthy desire to skin those responsible alive, then boil them in salt water, there’s no apologies necessary. Cynicism is a better natural defense and aid to survival than is naivete. One can suspend cynicism long enough to grieve. But, given these tense political realities we’re living in, a healthy dose of cynicism is likely a necessary survival mechanism, for this post-American-Dream phase we’ve reluctantly entered.
It’s also possible to feel multiple emotions regarding the same thing. I was horrified at what happened at Newton, and sickened by the fact that I knew the deaths of those children would be exploited by the progs… and angry at being right.
Why can’t the progs surprise me by showing some basic humanity and decency? Or better yet: NOT surprise me by making it so much of a habit I find it their normal behavior?
My firstborn was about 2-3 when the Serbian death squads went into Kosovo. I saw a picture of a 3 year old who had been shot dead, along with his (pregnant, I think) mother lying in a ditch, and I hated Serbians. Not good, but pretty standard human emotion. I also have to confess that during the 70s and 80s, while NORAID was fundraising in Southie, passing the hat for PIRA bombs to blow up little Ulster children, I hated Bostonians too. I hope I’m over that kind of thing. My apologies too.
[…] The empathy for the victims (no doubt a bunch of Blue Staters) came much too much later. My God is everything indeed politics? Must I become a shrill, humorless ideologue in order oppose shrill, humorless idealogues? Jeff G. sums it up more eloquently than I can here. […]