Thursday, November 02, 2006
|
|
Calling Rick Santorum. Calling Pennsylvania.
|
|
Posted by:
Hugh Hewitt at
7:57 PM
|
|
I. Cannot. Believe. This.
(Scroll down. Free Republic thread here.A second Free Republic thread here.)
Astonishing. Yes, college students do stupid things, but not all of them Someone should have called this student on how awful his choice was, and explained to him why. And then thrown him out.
And if not a student, then an Ivy League president.
Suicide bombing isn't a joke, and the victims of suicide bombers --in Israel, Iraq, London, Jordan and everywhere around the globe, know this.
How can Americans not?
Victor Davis Hanson discussed thisincident with me, as well as the Kerry slander and non-apology. The transcript of that conversation will be here later tongiht.
As reaction to these photos builds, please reserve your anger for the adults, not the stupid kid.
|
|
|
They should know what their president is doing. Shameful. |
|
|
Let this one go. The whole idea of Halloween is to be outrageous. Getting irate over something like this is what gives people the idea that all conservatives are humorless, stuffed shirts. |
|
|
Because that would be really offensive to the religion of peace. |
|
Rob in Mass wrote
"Not worthy
Let this one go. The whole idea of Halloween is to be outrageous. Getting irate over something like this is what gives people the idea that all conservatives are humorless, stuffed shirts."
Funny. O'Reilly had a high school kid on his show tonight who was ejected from his school and in hot water for wearing a Hitler uniform. I suppose Rob in Mass would be cool with that, right?
As for the "whole idea of Halloween is to be outrageous": say what? If my teenage son were to go trick or treating in a suicide bomber outfit, you think maybe he might threatened at gunpoint by the police?
ya THINK?????????????? |
|
I'm thinking a little less outrage at Halloween costumes might be the smarter way to go on this.
But -- times being as they may -- maybe a sarcastic note to Gutman would be appropriate, wondering if now that the PC era is over, it will be ok to show up next year in white hoods, and repeatedly simulate the violent anal rape of various female Democrat politicians -- Hillary, Pelosi, etc. |
|
|
Hang up on yourself, Jerry |
|
|
|
Dear Mr. Hewitt and Townhall Readers,
Anticipating sophomoric provocations like Mr. Saadi's, this Halloween I dressed up as a "Homeles Suicide Bomber" -- a kind of walking editorial cartoon about the very same issue. (The image is available in a Nov. 1 post at my site, as well as in a post today at KesherTalk.com.) I believe I pulled it off in a way that is both "in your face" and subtle. Even profound.
Halloween is an American holiday that heightens and intensifies our sense of horror and of death, albeit with a festive twist. And what in our time represents horror and death more than the threat of suicide bombers -- our horror at the carnage and our horror at the souls and societies that sanction suicide bombing? My intention was to preserve the power of this American tradition while asserting a moral clarity that, in Mr. Saadi's and with Ms. Gutmann's complicity, was sorely lacking.
- Jeremayakovka |
|
|
|
|
Aw, c'mon, Mike ... I know it's not art, but I like it! |
|
"As reaction to these photos builds (sic), please reserve your anger for the adults, not the stupid kid." If this "kid" is in college, he's a full-grown adult in every legal sense of the word.
Certainly, hold those in authority responsible as well, but to absolve the so-called "kid" from the lion's share of that responsibility is part and parcel of the ubiquitous infantilism that has pervaded American society over the last quarter of a century or more. It never ceases to amaze me how people on both sides of the political divide move the designation of "child" about as it suits them. It's hardly unreasonable to expect that once a person reaches the legal age of majority he also should be held fully responsible for his own actions.
Enough already with the “kid” stuff. |
|
Brother Nikko writes:
"As reaction to these photos builds (sic),"
The subject (reaction) and verb (builds) agree.
You gotta prollem wiffat?
Why the (sic)? For that matter, why the snot?
Lord, save us from would-be pedants who haven't the slightest clue!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
|
OTOH, Brother Nikkos has a point.
Just a few days ago, some Dhimmocrat opined that 2500+ of our "children" had died in Iraq.
He bolstered his terminology by saying that everyone who died has a mother and (maybe, in these liberal times) a father.
Well, OK. Then I suppose when a plane crashes, killing all on board, we should be told how many
"children" died.
After all....... (but you get the drift) |
|
Amy Gutmann is going to get an earful over this one. There are a lot of Jewish alumni and a lot of grads from a more conservative era that collectively will let Penn know their feelings.
As a graduate of Penn, I learned to take a lot of stereotypical, fashionable displays of trust funded dissidents with a grain of salt while I washed dishes at the dining hall for work study (yes I AM going for working class cred there!) The outrage, yes, is deserved toward Dr. Gutmann, a supposedly eminent scholar. What an offensive, juvenile display to openly be a party to. Not one dime will they receive from this highly p.o.'d alum. |
|
Even a brief glance at his website is enough to realize that he is a really creative, irreverent, funny, and--yes--immature kid. Even without knowing him, I can see how he might be able to put on something like that and not be offensive to people who know him... well, maybe offensive, but in a South Park way, not an "I want to kill jews" way.
The President probably wasn't thinking "Oh boy, what a great opportunity to endorse suicide bombing." She was just posing with a student who she may be familiar with for a personal photo that she didn't think anyone would ever see. We don't know what she did or didn't think about his outfit. |
|
I wasn't intending to be pedantic or snotty. The (sic) marker should have followed "photos," not "builds," which obviously was MY mistake.
I had hoped simply to convey my perennial irritation with the way the term "child" is trotted out as a routine means to infantilize the object of the designation whenever it suits the user -- and, correspondingly, how quickly the notion of "child" is jettisoned when it becomes inconvenient to folks with a particular agenda. This applies, as I said, to both the left and the right.
It’s the consistent inconsistency that bugs me, capisce? |
|
|
"Creative, irreverent, funny, and--yes--immature," wrote DaveS. Immature to an extent that demands scrutiny and criticism. Notice that the drop-down menu in the top-left corner of Mr. Saadi's page has an option for watching the Zapruder footage of JFK's assassination. It's for displays like that that Michelle Malkin, in her post, put Mr. Saadi's "apology" in quotation marks: he's got a long way to go and "sorry" won't cut it. |
|
Halloween is a holiday that celebrates death and evil. Dressing up as a suicide bomber is the perfect expression of that. He really captured the spirit of the night. The same is true of the boy on O'Reilly who dressed up as Hitler.
Yes I think what he did was sick, but so is dressing up as an ax murderer, a decapitated person, someone who drinks blood (i.e., a vampire)--the list could go on. Why is it ok to dress up as any of those things, but not as a suicide bomber or Hitler? Is it because the former are imaginary? --But wait, there HAVE been real life ax murderers, some (very few and very sick) people ARE vampires (not exactly like in the movies, but real nonetheless), and have you read what the death squads in Baghdad routinely do to their victims? That's right--beheading.
So what, in the context of a Halloween party, makes the one (suicide bomber) morally or logically different from the others (ax murderer, etc.)? They are each about death, aren't they? And that is what Halloween is about, right? Is the difference because a suicide bomber might one day be sitting on a bus seat next to you? Well, it's also possible that another kind of murderer might be in your near vicinity some day, whether with ax, gun, knife, or something else. So again, what is the difference?
Have we simply become desensitized to the evil that is so routine to play at on Halloween? Is death and murder funny just as long as we think it can't actually affect us? Is the only time we recognize evil anymore only when it is "bomb murdering" that is partaken in and supported by millions of people living today, and perpetrated against our own countrymen, our allies, other innocents--and maybe one day ourselves? |
|
Handmaiden -- suicide bombers are profoundly different from ax murderers. For one thing, there are more of them and they kill more innocents. And no quasi-governmental organizations, like Hamas and Hezbollah, that recruit and train them. Your morals are lacking. See my comment from 10:33 PM yesterday. See also Victor Hanson's comments which Hugh linked in this post.
See also, Mr. Saadi's degenerate take on Memorial Day in one of his homemade videos: at http://www.saadsaadi.com click "Videos", then scroll way down and click on the "Happy Memorial Day" video. |
|
Jon, I really don't care about some preacher misbehaving. I fail to understand why simple minded lefties think that the rest of us would get excited about that.
The subject here is the celebration of terror. I take it you think the suicide bomber costume was funny and in good taste.
Maybe the next time the guy should come as a KKK wizard. He could get a sidekick to wear a noose and pretend to be the dead guy in the tree. what a hoot. |
|
|
then he'd have a long carreer as a (Democratic) US Senator |
|
|
This is suppossed to be funny? The sheer audacity is unbelievable...As a combat vet, I would be reaching for my 9mm if I see this guy at a party |
|
|
This was not a "stupid kid." He knew full well what he was doing. It's not a case of "kids will be kids" here. He should be expelled from the University and perhaps even jailed for acts of treason. We are at war with these people. |
|
I can see that the only way he could win a fight would be as a suicide bomber or with his opponent tied up for him to saw on. He fights like a complete woosy.
Would we tolerate at all, or would we conservatives defend at all, a person showing up at a halloween party dressed in KKK garb, or as a nazi SS agent?
I find it astonishing that so-called liberals would defend someone dressing up as a person who sets out to do worse to jews than KKK ever did.
Hiding behind the 'spirit of Halloween' is shallow and transparently empty.
What is more interesting than the little anti-semitic woosy dressing up as one of his heroes is the mild acceptance those at this party have of this kind of assault. It tells me mcuh about the posture of dhimmitude liberals seem to adopt with reflexive ease. Those here who jump into defend this kind of despicable, indefensible behavior are direct political defendants of those who defended Stalin throughout his reign, and defend thugs like castro or Arafat today. |
|
First, if I saw some guy come walking up dressed like a suicide bomber, my first reaction would be to look for a weapon, a chair, a lamp, a curtain rod- something with the potential to put him down so fast and so violently that he had no chance to react.
If he made any threatening moves at all, I'd probably do a berserk charge with the intent of crushing his larynx with a jab, and then restraining his hands so he couldn't blow himself up as he choked to death.
If I after careful and paranoid examination I decided it was a joke, I'd get away from him just in case I was wrong. Nails as shrapnel laced with poison can fly pretty far.
You say, Tennwriter, you're a nut. No, its not. How do I know he's safe? In fact, I know someone who's been in this guy's place. Stupid kid went running around a suburban yard that was not his with a plastic toy pistol after dark playing the college game of Killer (where you pretend to kill your enemies)--Its just a wonder that the homeowner didn't shotgun the kid, or the cop called for the case didn't gun the kid down either.
Being an idiot is part of being a kid. Encouraging this idiocy due to lame libertarian motives is begging for tragedy, and is unworthy of an adult who is supposed to know better.
Now you're saying, Tennwriter, "Lunar Football, whazzat?". OK. In the year 2150 A.D. long after the Jihadi have been vanquished, there will be football games played on the Moon. And one of the teams will be called the Pirates, and the other team going for the Lunar Championship will be the Jihadi.
But until then, don't be a target.
|
|
It's a costume, a COSTUME.
If someone dresses up as Kim Jong Il and walks around all night saying "I'm so rownry" It's funny.
And I imagine that his costume isn't supporting, but he probably made some disparaging remarks about terrorists along the way.
It's Halloween. Someone dressed up as hitler is not someone proclaiming to be hitler, just like someone dressed as Freddy Kruegar is not proclaiming that killing kids are okay.
Not a battle to fight, and not a battle you'll win |
|
|
|
There is a distinct difference between wearing a costume for a joke and wearing a costume and posing in pictures that could be misrepresented. As I have said before with the remarks by Kerry this week, "Reality is 90% perception." It doesn't matter what the students' intent was, and they did realize that it could be misinterpreted - good call on their part.
But as Jill mentioned, why were they not at the least advised to change costumes? I guess common sense doesn't apply to many people, but I certainly wouldn't want to give the impression of condoning this activity. And guess what? With things on the Internet, these students and people in the photographs now have to understand that they potentially will be used for propaganda by those that wish to destroy us.
It's OK to wear a costume or act in a certain way - as long as the full responsibility of your actions and possible consequences. Neither the students nor the faculty took the time to think about that until after the fact. I call wrong on both sides, but that's now something that they will have to face on their own. |
|
I think I should apologize to the Libertarians on this one. After all, if this had happened in a L. Neil Smith book, the 'joker' would have been staring into a wide array of guns, the smallest of which would have been a .75 magnum.
No, I think its more of the Kim Philby Spy Case phenomenon in Britain where the Establishment did not want to investigate Philby even though he was obviously a traitor. And that was because Philby was a member of the club. Moral accountability being suspended if one is a member of the 'in-crowd'--this particular bit of weakness cost the British quite dearly. I'm sorry to dissapoint our 'betters' but I hold to the old-fashioned notion that 'from whom much is given, much is required' and that leadership brings justified demands for higher standards of behaviour, not less. |
|
After discussing this, with fellow law enforcement officers, we came to the conclusion
that there is a very good chance that Mr. Saad
could have died that night. You see a terrorist
with an AK47 and TNT strapped to his body what would you do. |
|
I think I should apologize to the Libertarians on this one. After all, if this had happened in a L. Neil Smith book, the ending of the story would have been far different.
No, I think its more of the Kim Philby Spy Case phenomenon in Britain where the Establishment did not want to investigate Philby even though he was obviously a traitor. And that was because Philby was a member of the club. Moral accountability being suspended if one is a member of the 'in-crowd'--this particular bit of weakness cost the British quite dearly. I'm sorry to dissapoint our 'betters' but I hold to the old-fashioned notion that 'from whom much is given, much is required' and that leadership brings justified demands for higher standards of behaviour, not lesser. |
|
|
I guess I get the pro suicide bomber costume point of view. But why stop with the bomber costume. It should be okay to dress up as a bloody dead/dismembered Israeli bus rider or pizza connoisseur. Or a headless journalist? How about the remaining 1/3 of a human body sticking out of a chipper/shredder machine? After all, it’s all in good fun |
|
...no not a Koran...but a New Testament!
The green book the Faux Bomber is "reading" from in several pictures looks to be a Gideons-distributed NT (that includes Psalms and Proverbs) that I've gotten a few copies of over the years.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170045116962
Just thought this is interesting and perhaps a purposeful "statement" from the dolt in the "costume." |
|
RE: Jetsatck: “…For the views of a conservative with far more brains than Dean and Hugh combined…”
There it is. This is where you go from being just a troll to being an a**hole with comments like that
|
|
Just out of curiosity, do all you people who are flipping out over this also run out and protest at any theatre showing "The Producers"?
|
|
I think you may have partially misunderstood my comments, so I want to try to clarify where I am coming from. It is almost funny that you would call me "Handmaiden of Death" because if you knew me even slightly personally you would know that that is just about as opposite from the truth as it is possible to get. When I wrote that "Halloween is a holiday that celebrates death and evil" I meant that as what I believe to be objectively the case. I believe that honoring death and evil is a bad thing. I honor life and goodness, and therefore I do not celebrate Halloween.
I fully understand that the vast majority of people who celebrate Halloween are decent people who think of it as something of a "national costume party day," combined with a chance to have a few harmless thrills and get some goodies to boot.
However, the overwhelming character of Halloween has to do with darkness, not light. Just think how much more likely it is that a horror movie will either premier or be shown on tv in October than at any other time of the year.
Regarding the whole suicide bomber vs. other kind of murderer thing, from my point of view, all murderers are in the same category (and the whole category is, obviously, bad), but that there are different kinds or degrees within that category. That is why it seems to me rather arbitrary for someone to think that it is ok to dress up as, say, an ax murderer, but not ok to dress up as a suicide bomber. The suicide bomber being of a worse degree does not make the ax murderer somehow good; he is still also bad. As I noted in my first post, this particularly holds IN THE CONTEXT OF A HALLOWEEN PARTY (pretend that is italics--I am not trying to yell). I draw a line at playing at/pretending to be ANY kind of murderer as some sort of harmless "fun"--but like I said, I don't celebrate Halloween, but reasonable people can differ on this.
I DO find the dressing up as a suicide bomber more tasteless or outrageous than many to most other costumes (the Steve Irwin stingray costume has got to rank pretty high up on that list as well). I also see some merit in the comments of some other posters that this Saad guy may well have been endangering himself given the state of the world today and the real threat of terrorism.
And when I spoke about the desensitization to evil in my previous post, that could also apply in some degree to me, because every year I have to see all of the displays in stores about decorating your yard to look like a graveyard or turning your living room into a torture room, see costumes that make it look like you're disemboweled, etc., etc. These things don't really shock me, but maybe they should. I tolerate and try to ignore them and just go on with my life. They have become routine. However, the suicide bomber is a new variation on evil that makes us sit up and take notice. But why, if Halloween is about death in so many ways, is it so much worse to dress up as one kind of murderer than as another kind of murderer? Aren't they both abhorent? Maybe, just maybe, we should think a second time about what, exactly, we are honoring on this, one of the nation's most popular holidays?
And for the record: I hate slasher/gross-out horror movies, have no problem with spoofy parodies like "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein," and may or may not have problems with things in between, depending on what they are.
And also for the record--just in case anybody thinks I am being self-righteous or preachy or am some sort of killjoy :)--although my family does not celebrate Halloween, we do give out candy when trick-or-treaters come to the door. And isn't that what tolerance is about? We don't celebrate it, but we tolerate those who do.
Everybody draws their line somewhere. I hope I have explained better where and why I draw mine.
P.S. I think suicide bombers are evil. I am quite sure that when they detonate and die that they go to that hot place down below (you know where I mean; I'm not sure if Townhall will censor me if I spell it). And I am GLAD that they go there. And I'm even more glad when they detonate and only kill themselves--one less evil person on this planet. |
|
Your follow-up comment makes me think I started off defensively while thinking about your first comment.
To those of us who value life (Judeo-Christians, mostly), the deathday of Halloween is an excuse to party but also a cause of concern. I'm glad our culture has a little window into the subject of death, horror, gore, etc. -- but emphasis on "little"! Taking one day a year to indulge in this is ok with me. That's what I usually do. But people who are into death, horror and gore as fashion or as a lifestyle choice trouble me (goths, punks, teens into self-mutilation, etc.). And I am concerned for them.
I'm also concerned that our culture indulges heavily in Halloween. A recent news item suggested that it rivals Christmas for popularity and money spent on celebrating it. That's a big cultural problem if we are not conscientious about it. I think Halloween is also a measure of the infiltration of various pagan elements into our culture, something we should be on guard about.
Oh, and I do not like horror movies, either.
Best wishes |
|
I'm glad we're more or less on the same page.
No hard feelings. :) |
|
|
|