Tuesday, April 30, 2013

"No need to ask
He's a tour operator
Tour operator, tour operator
Tour operator."

Da da-da da da da-da-da-da,
Da da-da da da da-da-da.
North Korea is putting an American tour operator on trial for plotting to overthrow the government.

Monday, April 29, 2013

Right now, there are ten Germans, one Frenchman and one Ukranian-ean on this site and they have no frigging clue what's going on here.
The arf, arf, arf was a giveaway. Now, what's the name of the group, huh? No-no don't look it up, cheater. CHEATER, CHEATER, YOU EAT PUMPKINS!

If you said "Baha Men," then you're...something. You're right but you're a right something.

Never, ever heard of "Baha Men." Heard that goddamned song a zillion times. Never heard of "Baha Men." Had to look it up.


WHO let their guard down! Arf, arf, arf-arf. Who LET their guard down! Arf, arf, arf-arf.
No, he doesn't get a picture. This was a tilt, not even a tilt, a lean, a slight lean, a barely perceptible inclination of the head, not a paradigm shift. No picture.

Seeking the Soul.

I read Friedman again. 
I know, I know.
It's safe.

I was wondering how...Friedmans would react to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's statement to police that the bombing was motivated by U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. My instant reaction was that Friedmans would say, "See!  Those wars were immoral" & etc. & etc. However, I then thought, "Maybe Friedmans won't react that way. That is so preposterous a justification for bombing the Boston Marathon."  There is something about this Muslim terrorist attack that threatens the soul of Friedmans. Here we have two American Muslim terrorists when the Friedman worldview is "The answer is not Islam: Islam is not bad, the way it is practiced and preached in America is not bad; the bad Islam is preached over there and bad Muslims may come here but American Muslims are not bad. American Muslims are not bad (though they should be watched). The Koran, however, is bad, and it is read in America by American Muslims. Friedman on Sunday did not admit that he was wrong; he repeats, in fact, that the answer is not Islam. However, there is a plaintive tone now, as if he is trying, a little, to convince himself; as if he has, a little, doubt now:

"We surely must not tar all of Islam in this. Having lived in the Muslim world, I know how unfair that would be."

Maybe I read too much into that; maybe I want to read into that what is not there but I have read Friedman for years and it strikes me as, slightly, different. It seems to me Thomas L. Friedman's soul is shaken, a little. Maybe that's too strong. Unsettled. Maybe a little "unsettled."

I am more sure that the tone of other passages in the article is different. There is more doubt here, there is frustration, and more pointed criticism of Muslims qua Muslims. On the Iraq/Afghanistan justification:

"This is a popular meme among radical Muslim groups, and, to be sure, some Muslim youths were deeply angered by the U.S. interventions in the Middle East. The brothers Tsarnaev may have been among them.

"But what in God’s name does that have to do with planting a bomb at the Boston Marathon and blowing up innocent people? It is amazing to me how we’ve come to accept this non sequitur and how easily we’ve allowed radical Muslim groups and their apologists to get away with it."


"A simple question: We caution readers prone to wish to perform the Solnit Maneuver on Friedman that you have no idea what his simple question is."A simple question: If you were upset with U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, why didn’t you go out and build a school in Afghanistan to strengthen that community or get an advanced degree to strengthen yourself or become a math teacher in the Muslim world to help its people be less vulnerable to foreign powers?"

I know, I KNOW!

But then, look at this, which immediately follows:

"Dzhokhar claims the Tsarnaev brothers were so upset by something America did in a third country that they just had to go to Boylston Street and blow up people who had nothing to do with it (some of whom could have been Muslims), and too often we just nod our heads rather than asking: What kind of sick madness is this?"

 And then immediately following that:

"It’s a double non sequitur when it comes from Muslim youths who lived and studied in America, where, if you’re upset about something, you have many ways to express your opposition and have an impact — from organizing demonstrations to publishing articles to running for office."
I just had an orgasm.

No, that is different. There is less Friedman qua Fridman here. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/friedman-judgment-not-included.html?ref=thomaslfriedman
Which is convenient because it happens so frequently. Practice.
The highest compliment I was ever paid was by a former girlfriend who said to me, "You always admit when you are wrong."

"Whither Moral Courage," Salman Rushdie, New York Times.


What a marvelous essay by Mr. Rushdie, which can be found here http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/28/opinion/sunday/whither-moral-courage.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0, excerpts of which are below:

[W]e have become suspicious of those who take a stand against the abuses of power or dogma.

It was not always so. The writers and intellectuals who opposed Communism, Solzhenitsyn, Sakharov and the rest, were widely esteemed for their stand.
...
As recently as 1989, the image of a man carrying two shopping bags and defying the tanks of Tiananmen Square became, almost at once, a global symbol of courage.
      
Then, it seems, things changed. The “Tank Man” has been largely forgotten in China, while the pro-democracy protesters, including those who died in the massacre of June 3 and 4, have been successfully redescribed by the Chinese authorities as counterrevolutionaries.
...      
Such is the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church that the jailed members of the Pussy Riot collective are widely perceived, inside Russia, as immoral troublemakers...
...
 
In February 2012, a Saudi poet and journalist, Hamza Kashgari, published three tweets about the
Prophet Muhammad:       
      “On your birthday, I will say that I have loved the rebel in you, that you’ve always been
        a source of inspiration to me, and that I do not like the halos of divinity around you. I
       shall not pray for you.” “On your birthday, I find you wherever I turn. I will say that I
       have loved aspects of you, hated others, and could not understand many more.” “On
       your birthday, I shall not bow to you. I shall not kiss your hand. Rather, I shall shake it
      as equals do, and smile at you as you smile at me. I shall speak to you as a friend, no
      more.”
...
He found little public support, was condemned as an apostate, and there were
many calls for his execution. He remains in jail.
 

"Did The Police Let Their Guard Down?"-Boston Globe.


“Absolutely,” acknowledged Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis in an interview last week.
...
 "[R]eporting by the Globe raises questions about the quality of data shared [by FBI] about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the bombing suspect who died after a gunfight with police...No one was watching him. He and his brother were free to buy the materials needed to assemble their deadly weapons and saunter onto Boylston Street.


Good for Commissioner Davis. Stand-up guy, here.

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Tamerlane.


"Timur the Lame" in Turkish. He conquered West, South and Central Asia and founded the Timurid dynasty.  Timur envisioned the restoration of the Mongol Empire of Genghis Khan. As a means of legitimating his conquests, Timur relied on Islamic symbols and language, referring to himself as the sword of Islam...
        -Wikipedia




And now what has he? what! a name.
The sound of revelry by night
Comes o’er me, with the mingled voice
Of many with a breast as light,
As if ‘twere not the dying hour
Of one, in whom they did rejoice —
As in a leader, haply — Power
Its venom secretly imparts;
Nothing have I with human hearts.
       -Tamerlane, Edgar Allen Poe (1827).

Sporting News.


And now today's sporting news. Quick: Which country has the best club football teams?

Uh...England!  
No.
Spain!
Non.
Friggin,' I don't know, Costa Rica.
Germany!
Germany?
Germany.

Last week was the first leg of the European Champions League semi-finals. The four best English teams were long gone. The survivors included the two Spanish giants, Barcelona, the best club in the world with the best player in the world, Lionel Messi, and Real Madrid, managed by the "Special One," Jose Mourinho. Barca and Madrid got crushed.

Bayern Munich, runner-up in the CL final last year, beat Barcelona 4-0 on April 23. :o 4-0! The next night Borussia Dortmund beat Madrid 4-1. :o Both games were played in Deutschland and the returns will be in Spain. So it's possible...No it's not. Those margins are insurmountable. The Champions League final will be all German. And next year, Bayern's manager will be Pep Guardiola, Barca's old boss.

Germany. "Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles."


Does America Still Work?


The United States Congress can't kill the "Federal Helium Reserve," a relic of the Roaring Twenties meant to ensure that there was no "blimp gap" in America's national security. We have Chris Christie, how many more do we need? Washington Post story here: http://m.washingtonpost.com/politics/federal-helium-program-how-temporary-becomes-forever/2013/04/26/80ef1148-adb8-11e2-98ef-d1072ed3cc27_story.html

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Search keyword of the day: "tsarnaev mother shoplifts true or false."

True.

Now the American president, Barack Obama, sees great complexity in the world, which there is, and which taxes his analytical wattage. To the president there may be more to this "allegation" against Zub than there is to normal people. The president may have to personally interview the witnesses, he would certainly consult with the Attorney General before any "rush to judgment." And he will be concerned to make sure that whatever his subsequent "narrative" of this  alleged...purloining is it will not have anything to do with Zub's, and the president's grandfather's, Muslim religion.

In non-complex terms, TRUE.

Good night, Mr. President. Go have a cigarette on the balcony and get a good night's sleep. There will be more complexity for you to get entangled in tomorrow and we need you at full Barack Obama "strength."
EECK! Homosexual Chechen opera singer with CANNIBAL!




Rooski, Chechen cannibal with Poot-poot! KILL!



He terrorist? No look Muslim.

Rooski, other photo!


Rooski, wtf?  Star Trek opera with tiger and two homosexual? Wild Chechnya Kingdom? What they do to small tiger, Rooski.  Tiger look tired. Sexy time with tiger? Make hat for opera singer?

Rooski, who this opera singer? I google the Chechnya and get photograph.
Rooski, you good at police! You want police us? Obama not too good. Yah. FBI no goot. Yah. Boston police eat the donut. Ha-ha-ha. They eat too many the donut! Yah. Ha-ha-ha! Boston police funny. Yah.
"Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call." -Associated Press.

Zub? Naughty, naughty. Good Rooskis.

New Books.

And now for the new book news. We should like to make pageviewers aware of a new book published by Princeton University Press on moss.

"Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians" is, The Guardian tells us "the first book to help general readers recognize 200 common mosses" and includes "helpful tips on moss collecting." "Common Mosses of the Northeast and Appalachians" would make a handsome edition to your bookshelf or backyard.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Boston Police Failure.


Which way did they go, which way did they go, where did those little Muslim terrorists go?

Whoa! Zub stole (allegedly) $1600! worth of stuff from Allahu & Taylor. That's a felony where I come from. Sticky fingers (allegedly), Zub. What, did they have a sale on basic black?

"Obama! Obama! We Are All Usama."


Every issue of "Inspire" can be found here: http://publicintelligence.net/aqap-inspire-issue-10/

"Obama! Obama! We Are All Usama."


"A detailed analysis of the bombs used at the Boston Marathon and during a firefight between the suspects and law enforcement shows how closely the bombmakers followed instructions from the digital al Qaeda magazine “Inspire,” according to a government document obtained by NBC News."

Zub CNN Interview: "Allahu Akbar!"

"Allahu?" Gesundheit, Zub. She's complex, isn't she Mr. President? 

http://m.youtube.com/#/watchv=muMu0ay9xJM&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DmuMu0ay9xJM

Failure.


America's leaders failed the American people.

The Boston police failed to see a person leave backpacks/duffle bags unattended in a crowded public place. 

The FBI failed to watch Tamerlan Tsarnaev after being alerted by the Russian government.

The do-it-yourself Al Qaeda bomb-building instructions were available--are still available--on the internet. If the Obama administration didn't ask search engines, including Google, an American corporation, to remove the content then the U.S. government failed. If the Obama administration did ask and the search engines refused then the administration should have shut the site down and failed to do that. The search engines, Google and whichever others, should have censored the site on their own initiative.

By virtue of being the world's search engine of choice Google is one of the most powerful leaders in the world. Google censors websites on its own, e.g. those involving drug sales, child pornography, and those advocating direct violence. Here, for God's sake, an Al Qaeda website teaching Muslim terrorists how to make bombs to kill Americans went uncensored by Google. 

The Obama administration, along with American opinion leaders such as Thomas L. Friedman, the New York Times, and Salon are engaged in a policy of appeasement toward Islam that made the other failures above possible. The Obama administration is reluctant to use the word "terrorism;" it justified the initial violence in Egypt and Libya in 2012 as "spontaneous" demonstrations, and blamed "Innocence of Muslims." The New York Times did not mark the anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks on its front page last year in a conscious attempt to forget, and to make its readers forget. The Times embarrassed itself when planned attacks on Americans and sovereign American territory occurred throughout the Muslim world on the anniversary that they consciously downplayed.  Mr. Friedman has written recently that "we probably overreacted" to 9/11/01 and has urged Boston to quickly remove the bloodstains and repair the damage caused by the Marathon bombings, to forget and to move one. Salon openly hoped for a "white male" terrorist in Boston. It is a failure of will. They are afraid. They are afraid of the Muslim enemy. They are too afraid to acknowledge even that that enemy exists. 

Failure: complete, unmitigated failure.
You mother-fuckers. Google, censor that.

United States government/Google, it took me about 30 seconds to find the edition of Al Qaeda's "Inspire" with the do-it-yourself pressure cooker bomb article. Why?
"...20 countries, including the United States,asked Google to look into removing the “Innocence of Muslims” video that circulated on YouTube last fall, leading to deadly protests in some countries where Muslims were a majority. Google said the video did not violate the company’s community guidelines, though it removed the video from 10 countries, either because it broke national laws — like in the case of countries including India, Russia, and Singapore — or because of what the company called “difficult circumstances,” as in Libya, where the video prompted deadly protests, and a United States ambassador and three other Americans were killed."-New York Times.

The Muslim terrorists responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing got the idea--and the step-by-step instructions--for the pressure cooker bombs right off the internet, on an Al Qaeda site. United States government: Did you ask Google to remove that Al Qaeda site? Google: Did any country, specifically the United States, ask you to remove that site?

Here's the link to the full "Innocence of Muslims" film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ySE-yYeelE&bpctr=1366992533

Thursday, April 25, 2013

"Boston Marathon Bombing Suspects' Mother Regrets Emigrating To US."

"I saw a very, very interesting video last night that the Marathon was something like a really big play. There is, like, paint instead of blood, like it is made up something."- Zubdeit Tsarnaeva, CNN interview.

Huh. Well, that is a very, very interesting point, Zub. It merits follow-up attention. We will check it out and get back to you, okay? Thanks.

"Boston Bombing Suspects' Mother Regrets Emigrating To US."


We have to do something here. We are losing immigrants like this. We are losing out on the great Muslim brain drain from Chechnya. We must have that carbon tax.

Image: Zub's mugshot.

"Boston Bombing Suspects' Mother Regrets Emigration To US."

"Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has said she is still undecided whether to go [to the US with her husband to get Tamerlan's body] because she was charged with shoplifting in the US last year and fears arrest if she returns."

"Boston Bombing Suspects' Mother Regrets Emigration To US."

"I would prefer not to have lived in America. Why did I go there?" Mrs Tsarnaeva said at Thursday's news conference in Makhachkala, Dagestan.




Good morning Normal Time People! Time to cockle-doodle-do! Today is the first day of the rest of your own selves lives. Up and at 'em! And let's be par-tic-u-lar-ly careful out there today.
Good morning.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

"Anthony Weiner 'Can't Say' That More Lewd Pix Won't Surface."-Global Post

Oh God.

Mr... is an American politician of the Democratic persuasion. He was a congressman, until lewd photographs he took of his own self (and sent to women of the female persuasion) "surfaced."  Then Anthony sub-surfaced, permanently we had hoped. But no. BUT NO! Now he's running for mayor of New York City. And "can't say" if blah-blah-blah.

I can say that.

I, Benjamin Harris, can say absolutely that no more...No: None, EVER...No lewd pictures I...
OR ANYBODY ELSE...ever took of my own gentiles will, would, or could "surface" if I were to run for something...or even if I never do. Which I won't, but even if I did. No photographs of the above-styled genre...Even if I were to run only to the grocery store.

Thank you God, Jewish men have got to be the most sexually constipated creatures in Allah's kingdom Thank you and good night.
Six pageviews from Saudi Arabia today. God, I wish the U.S. would take that regime out.

Public Occurrences Challenge, Part Two.

President Obama labeled the Boston Marathon bombing terrorism the day after the attacks. When will he link the terrorism, however he does it, with Islam?

-Today.
-Tomorrow.
-This week.
-Next week.
-Before he leaves office.
-After he attends the next "Inter-Faith Service."
-Never.

"Islamic Radicalism Can't Be Denied."-Chicago Sun Times.

"In the understandably intense focus on the Boston Marathon terrorism, let’s not lose sight of the fact that it was the second terrorist attack on America in little more than a half a year. The other one was Benghazi last Sept. 11 when a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed...[Yes] [O]ur enemy is not confined to al-Qaida but encompasses the whole jihad movement waging war against the West.
...
Right from the moment the bombs exploded in Boston, denial was in the air. Liberals at MSNBC and Slate began speculating — even voicing hope — that the murders were the work of white far-right extremists trying to make a point of the date of the attack, Tax Day...[I had not heard that. Incredible.]  [T]here’s little reason to doubt that [the Brothers Tsarnaev] were immersed in the venom of Islamist jihadism...

Even so, the denial continues. The Boston Globe published an article headlined “Islam might have had a secondary role in Boston attacks.” It channels speculation that the brothers were more akin to the alienated killers of Columbine than Islamist terrorists. But there’s no getting around the Islamism drenching the two of them. We’ve seen this denial before. The 2009 attack at Fort Hood by Nidal Hasan that killed 13 Americans is labeled by the Obama administration as “workplace violence” even though Hasan had been in contact with Anwar al-Awlaki, a jihadist deemed so dangerous that Obama had him killed in a drone attack.[Absolutely right, that attack was clearly Muslim terrorism also but I did not know the Obamas classified it as "workplace violence." The Obamas and their supporters, like the New York Times and Thomas L. Friedman, are in denial as this writer says, but I would go farther: it is appeasement created by fear. Neville Chamberlain feared war more than anything, including Hitler. He knew what Hitler was doing as Germany re-armed and began making territorial demands to the east--it was all laid out in Mein Kampf. Chamberlain went into denial about Hitler and Mein Kampf and sought to appease Hitler with Czechoslovakia. (Churchill, no appeaser, called Mein Kampf "the new Koran of faith and war: turgid, verbose, shapeless, but pregnant with its message.") The Obamas, the New York Times, Mr. Friedman and, apparently MSNBC and Salon, will deny, deny, until they die. They are appeasers.]
...
Then, there’s the desire, in accordance with our history of tolerance, not to taint Muslims in general with the crimes of fanatics. [This is hard, too hard for the Obamas, et al, but we can do that. The German people supported Hitler; the Japanese people supported Hirohito. World War II was a war of peoples, not just governments. So too do the people of Islam make war on America and Israel. I have read the Koran, every turgid, pregnant page. It is an ugly, vicious text. I find support for terrorism in virtually every surah. The wonder, to me, is that any believer in the Koran is not a terrorist. But there are Muslims who are not terrorists. I know two lawyers who are Muslims. And we can wage war against Islam and against the Muslim people without warring against every single Muslim. We can do that and we do, we do that now. We don't war enough against Islam. The police should have been watching Tamerlan Tsarnaev; that Muslim should never have been allowed into a crowd of people with a backpack without being stopped and questioned. Because of the Koran all Muslims in America should be watched, not stopped, watched. If, as with Tsarnaev, there is reason to believe any Muslim might act on the Koran's teachings, then he should be stopped. We can not be in denial about the Koran any more than we could about Mein Kampf.]

But it gets ridiculous when the AP rewrites its stylebook to separate the word Islamist from the violence so often associated with it.[Didn't know that. Not sure I understand it. Maybe I'll look it up. No.] The tone-deft Council on American-Islamic Relations complained the word is a description for “Muslims we don’t like.” No, [No?  What do you mean "No?" Yes! I don't like Islamists. Who amongst us likes Islamists?... FBI, go interrogate that guy who raised his hand.] it’s a word for Muslims who don’t like us, who killed us in Boston, Benghazi, New York and Washington, and who are at war with Western humanist values. [Yes, yes, and yes. Sorry, si.]
...
All this denial engenders a politically correct attitude that can impede our defenses...[ditto]Boston marks the fifth time the FBI investigated someone for possible terrorism links and the individuals subsequently attacked Americans."[Swine FBI.]

 

Boston Marathon Bombing: The Answer is Islam.


The Islamic Society of Boston's Mosque in Cambridge, attended by Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Boston Marathon Bombing: The Answer is Islam.

"BOSTON — The mosque attended by the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon double bombing has been associated with other terrorism suspects, has invited radical speakers to a sister mosque in Boston and is affiliated with a Muslim group that critics say nurses grievances that can lead to extremism.

Several people who attended the Islamic Society of Boston mosque in Cambridge, Mass., have been investigated for Islamic terrorism, including a conviction of the mosque's first president, Abdulrahman Alamoudi, in connection with an assassination plot against a Saudi prince.

Its sister mosque in Boston, known as the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, has invited guests who have defended terrorism suspects. A former trustee appears in a series of videos in which he advocates treating gays as criminals, says husbands should sometimes beat their wives and calls on Allah (God) to kill Zionists and Jews, according to Americans for Peace and Tolerance, an interfaith group that has investigated the mosques."
          -USA Today.

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

The "Johnson treatment."

Did the photographer win any award for those photos? Could you win a Pulitzer Prize for photographs in 1957?  I don't know the answer to those questions but the photographer should have won everything possible. Taking a great news photograph often means the photographer just happens to be in the right place at the right time. This guy was just lurking around, LBJ and Green didn't know he was there. Right? I mean look at their expressions, they're oblivious.  Second, this wasn't one "lucky" shot, it is four separate shots, a sequence. Which means, finally, that the photographer knew well the context: Lyndon Johnson was at the apex of his power as Senate Majority Leader; he had acquired that power through the force of his Texas-sized personality-immensely powerful-, which he used to work his will: by reasoning, by bullying, by frightening and by charming, all four of which seem to be captured in these four photographs!  It is brilliant work. The photographer captured not a moment, but an era, not one side of a man but the essence of the man. An amazing observer, amazing photographic history.
It's 8:00 pm Normal People Time which is midnight Weirdo Google Time so the day is over for Google stats.

There are these extraordinary occasions with a blog. For no apparent reason there will be totally aberrant spikes in readership. On this blog there have been a few such occasions associated with China: Wang Guangmei a few weeks ago, Song Binbin three or four times. There was also a sustained period, a few months, when every other reader seemed to be clicking on the first LeBron James post. But those posts were never obscure. "The Johnson treatment" was obscure. I was reading one of Robert Caro's books on LBJ, saw those pictures, laughed out loud and posted them.

That was ten months ago. Before today there had been 32 pageviews of that post. Today, 260.

?

Don't know nuffin. Weird day in Weirdo Google Time.

The "Johnson treatment," redux.

"One" of the funniest? No, that has to be the funniest sequence of photos in American political history. Here's Senator Green when not receiving the treatment and, again, the poor man when receiving it:


?

In the last 24 hours there have been 182 pageviews, 109 of them on one post, "The Johnson Treatment," May 5, 2012.

Monday, April 22, 2013

...Good night.


I was looking for a photograph of the Solnit Maneuver in practice as illustrative mot juste for the recent posts on Thomas L. Friedman.  Mistress Destiny at spittingbitches.com is as close as I could get.

The Answer is Islam.

"Until we understand what turned two brothers who allegedly perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombings into murderers it is hard to make any policy recommendation..."
                                -Thomas L. Friedman, Sunday.

Officials: Boston Suspects Appear Motivated By Religion.
                         -Headline today, many newspapers.



You are a fool, Mr. Friedman.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

I just tested the anatomy of the Solnit Maneuver. When you tilt your head far back it's difficult to breathe normally and your jaw naturally comes open so I wouldn't have to force Friedman's mouth open through clenched teeth. I was concerned he would bite me and then I would have to rip his lungs out but human anatomy seems to cause a reflex where the mouth opens. I could then keep his head back without much effort and then quickly spit into his mouth so I think I could perform the Solnit Maneuver on Friedman.

Good night.
I daydream of two responses to the Thomas L. Friedman Question. I imagine that I am sitting next to him and he is distracted, maybe he is waiting to speak and he puts his head back and closes his eyes briefly. Contemplating. I seize the opportunity and grab his head to stabilize it. I surprise him by Luis  Suarezing his nose. His little legs would kick out and his arms would flail but I would have a shark-like grip on his nose. I don't think my teeth are sharp enough or my jaw muscles strong enough to bite his nose off but I could probably require him to get stitches. He would be totally humiliated and look ridiculous for at least the time I was in jail.

My second fantasy is less violent, more humiliating to Friedman but I don't think I could pull it off logistically. It is taken from a book by Rebecca Solnit. Two guys had a long-standing feud in old frontier California. One was much bigger and stronger than the other. Every time the big strong guy would see the smaller Feiedmanesque guy he would approach him and with his vastly superior strength force the Friedman guy's head back and then force Friedman's jaws open (That's the part I don't think I could do) and then spit into Friedman's mouth. Every time he saw Friedman he'd do that.

Good night.
I haven't read the New York Times recently. During reading of Friedman's latest idiocy the Times gave me a popup that this was my last free article for the month. I haven't missed the Times. My aggravation level has been mitigated. But then I read this and I'm glad for the limit. Friedman just gets goofier and goofier-surreal-and he and Maureen Dowd and Nicholas Kristoff channel my inner Luis Suarez. I would like to bite Thomas L. Friedman really hard and I don't need to have those thoughts, do I? No I do not.

The Answer is Islam.

You can't make this stuff up:

"Until we understand what turned two brothers who allegedly perpetrated the Boston Marathon bombings into murderers it is hard to make any policy recommendation other than this: We need to redouble our efforts to make America stronger and healthier so it remains a vibrant counterexample to whatever bigoted ideology may have gripped these young men. We're trying to put America back on a sustainable growth track that will expand employment..."
...

"So what to do?...[T]he best place to start is with a carbon tax."

Sporting News.

It becomes our disagreeable duty to alert pageviewers that the "Cannibal of Ajax" is loose.

Mr. Luis Suarez of Liverpool Football Club let frustration get the better of him today...again. Luis was knocked off the ball by Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic and, well:
Ah jeez. Yes, he bit him. Luis, who is by the way, the leading goalscorer in the English Premier League, got the munchies once before
whilst playing in Amsterdam for Ajax and so yeah, the nickname. He was suspended then, he will be suspended again-at least-,he was suspended in England between chomps for racially abusing Manchester United's Patrice Evra. Luis' day was not a total loss however as he scored the game-tying goal for the Livers. Ladies and gentleman, "Luis Suarez."
“That evidence cannot be used against him in trial,” Graham said today on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. “That evidence is used to protect us as a nation,” Graham said. “Any time we question him about his guilt or innocence he’s entitled to his Miranda rights and a lawyer.”
                           -Senator Lindsey Graham.

What's the debate about? Senator Graham is exactly right again. Miranda confers personal rights. Without Miranda advisement a subject's statements cannot be used against him in a criminal trial against him. Law enforcement has always been able to talk to a person about any matter under the sun, for background, for national security, for any reason. The statements just can't be used against the subject personally absent a Miranda waiver. As a practical matter this means that the "national security" interrogation (sans Miranda) will occur first and the "personal guilt" interrogation afterwards. What if he says "I want a lawyer" during parte une? Sucks to be him, he's not entitled to counsel in parte une.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

"It's people like [Tamerlan Tsarniev] that you don't want to let out of your sight and this was a mistake." -United States Senator Lindsey Graham.
My mind has not been entirely in Boston.

China.

Yesterday an earthquake struck Sichuan province. One hundred sixty eight people are dead at this time, over 11,000 injured. The same area was struck in 2008. Over 90,000 were killed then. My heart is with the Chinese people while my mind has been in Boston.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombing.


"Within hours of the Boston Marathon bombing, investigators were already overwhelmed."
                 -Washington Post.

Ladies and gentlemen, it should not have been that way. Boston is a major American city with a large police force. And this was not 9/11/01. It was not an event of that complexity: three people were killed not 2,600. It was known very quickly that these were bombs, not gas or electrical explosions, unlike the confusion after the first plane hit the World Trade Center. Nor was it an unprecedented event as was 9/11/01.  Public security strategy changed drastically after 9/11. So much was learned, so much changed. Improved. The Boston Police Department handled Marathon security as if 9/11 had never happened.  No one should have been able to plant those bombs without being detected. This is so much a basic part of post-9/11 security as to be an introductory training exercise: guys with stuffed backpacks-watch them!  Guys with stuffed backpacks leaving them on the ground. That's a gimme! I would not have thought that possible at a major event in a major city in 2013.  And Tamerlan Tsarnaev as one of the bomb planters? Tamerlan Tsarnaev who the Russian government advised the FBI was a suspected Muslim terrorist? Who the FBI interviewed?  The police weren't watching HIM with a stuffed backpack leaving it on the ground?!  That's a Fail. That is an inexcusable, literally, to me, unthinkable, Fail. I am Benjamin Harris and this is Public Occurrences.

Boston Marathon Bombing: The Answer is Islam.


"Boston Suspect's Web Page Venerates Islam, Chechen Independence."


"Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev posted links to Islamic websites and others calling for Chechen independence on what appears to be his page on a Russian language social networking site."
...
"His 'World view' is listed as 'Islam' and his 'Personal priority' is 'career and money'."
(From Reuters headline and article.)

Boston Marathon Bombing: The Answer is Islam.


"[T]he FBI said in a statement on Friday that in 2011 it interviewed Tamerlan at the request of a foreign government, which it did not identify."


"The request stated that it was based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups," the FBI statement said."  -Chicago Tribune.

Friday, April 19, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Muslim terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in custody.

Boston Marathon Bombing.



"CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.-
Boston Police Dept.(@Boston_Police)"

Look at these self-congratulating, donut-munching morons. Why don't you twits tweat why you didn't see these two Muslim terrorists leave two six-liter pressure cooker bombs in backpacks on the ground at the finish line!  You going to conduct an "internal review?"  YOU are supposed "to protect and to serve."  YOU did neither here.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the other Muslim terrorist, was taken into custody alive at 8:44 pm.

Boston Marathon Bombing: The Hunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

What's up Dzhok?
I don't like Dzhokhar's chances here.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Dead Muslim terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

They're using Black Hawk helicopters in H2Otown!

Boston Marathon Bombing: The Answer is Islam.

"Sound of Gunfire Heard in Watertown, Mass."
                           -Los Angeles Times, 7:31 pm.

It's not going to be long now, Islam.

Boston Marathon Bombing: The Answer is Islam.

Wouldn't you know it?  The ONE time I don't immediately connect "terrorism" and "Islam" and I get caught. Silly Ben. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I'm so stupid I could be a Boston cop.

"Please don't be a Muslim."


"Tamerlan appeared to become more of an observant Muslim in recent years, according to his aunt, who lives in Toronto." -Reuters.
They're Muslims! They're Muslims!

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar are Muslims!

Chechnya.


Chechens!  Who this opera singer?

Boston Marathon Bombing.


Chechens!  You separatists, eh?  America and amigo friends Rooskis going separate your Chech from your nya. We explode meteorite over you. You ask Rooskis about meteorite.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev?  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?  Get outta town.  Rooskis?  Rooskis, you swine, I eat your children. Whoa, no they're Chechens. Chechens! Chechens hate Rooskis too, right? Shouldn't that have been a bonding opportunity? How weird. Why Boston?  Did they make a wrong turn at Minsk? Can Chechens be Muslim? Can we still hope?

Boston Marathon Bombing.


Number one is dead, numero dos soon will be. They are brothers according to police.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombing.

      Victim #3, Lu Lingzi.

Pisses me off.

Boston Marathon Bombing: "an emerging picture" of police incompetence.


"Boston Marathon bombing investigators today entered the third day of their hunt with an emerging picture of the target: a suspect or suspects carrying heavy bags or backpacks made of dark nylon."-Chicago Tribune.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Boston Marathon Bombing.


"A person who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on said that the explosives were put in 6-liter pressure cookers, placed in black duffel bags and left on the ground. They were packed with shrapnel, the person said."
                                  -Associated Press.

How could the police miss this inside a duffel bag left on the ground at the finish line of the Boston Marathon?  They couldn't have missed it if they were doing their jobs. They weren't doing their jobs. This was a terrorist attack that the police should have foiled, and they failed. Basic security, and the police failed to provide even basic security. The police failed.

Image: 6 liter pressure cooker sold by luxeyard.com. 

Boston Marathon Bombing.

"Do Not Leave Luggage Unattended."

Everybody who goes to an airport in America hears that public safety announcement. Every adult in America is conditioned to be on alert for any unattended item left in a public place, and to report it immediately to security personnel.

How did the police miss this?

Boston Marathon Bombing.

At least one of the bombs was in a pressure cooker, a common, fairly large, household item. Nylon has been found with remnants of the pressure cooker bomb, suggestive to investigators that it was in a backpack. The bomb was left on the ground. The bomb was in a pressure cooker inside a bookbag left on the ground at the heavily policed finish line of the most famous footrace in America with 35,000 participants and a lot of spectators.

Police and race security personnel should not have missed seeing a bookbag left on the ground at the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

The third victim was a graduate student from China attending Boston University.
Ah jeez.

"Please Don't Be A Muslim."


Injured Saudi Is A Witness, Not A Suspect, In Boston Bombing.
                            -Washington Post headline.

That's a load off.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

The winners in the "Public Occurrences Challenge" are those pageviewers who predicted that President Obama would publicly call the Boston Marathon bombing a terrorist attack today:

"This was a heinous and cowardly act and given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism. Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror."

"What we don't yet know however is who carried out this attack or why – whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual."


I predicted next week.


Monday, April 15, 2013

Boston Marathan Bombing.

"Please don't be a Muslim."

Right now, in what will be the last post for the night it appears Muslim prayers are going unanswered once again.  The New York Post, CBS News, and Hollywood Life are reporting that a Saudi Arabian man is the main suspect.  Now he could be a Presbyterian, the president and Ambassador Rice will be looking at all possible non-Muslim angles before making a "rush to judgment" on the issue. Be assured.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Three now dead according to the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Reuters, Chicago Tribune...there are now three dead. The injured are between 100-130 depending on your carpal-tunnel afflicted wretch of choice.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has issued a statement saying that today's bombing at the Boston Marathon was not an act of terrorism but rather a spontaneous demonstration of ball-bearings in response to a crude anti-ball-bearing movie.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Contest for pageviewers:

When will President Obama call the Boston Marathon bombing terrorism?

-Tonight.
-Tomorrow.
-This week.
-Next week, after Susan Rice has appeared on the Sunday talk shows saying it was not terrorism.
-Never.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

"Happy to see the horror in America."
                                       -Mohammad al Chalabi, Jordanian Salafi leader, per Washington Times.

See, Islam, that's why we think of you.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

"Please don't be a Muslim."
                                  -Twitter message from Libya.

Right?  I bet that's the thought among Muslims. This is the first time in my memory that I didn't immediately think "Islam" as the prime suspect in a terrorist act. I thought...North Korea. This is the day, after all. Never thought Islam.

Boston Marathon Bombing.

An eight year old boy is one of the two dead. Many people are in critical condition. Fox News reports that a "senior White House official" has said the bombings were terrorist acts. The president did not so label it. CNN reports that medical personnel "are pulling ball bearings out of people."

Boston Marathon Bombing.

Here is the explosion as it happened at the finish line, via the Boston Globe from the Chicago Tribune. http://my.chicagotribune.com/#section/-1/video/p2p-75428181/
At 2:45 pm Eastern Standard Time two explosions occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. So far, two people have been killed and two dozen injured. No source at this time.

Sunday, April 14, 2013

This is former police sergeant Ron King.

A tenth-grade teacher at Albany High School in New York gave students the following assignment in "persuasive" writing:

"You need to pretend that I am a member of the goverent in Nazi Germany and you are being challenged to convince me that Jews are evil...You do mot have a choice in your position: you must argue that Jews are evil..."

The teacher is being protected by school officials who refuse to identify him or her by name. The teacher should be fired and should be idenified by name and face. The latter will surely occur through media leaks. The school officials who protected the teacher by failing to name him or her should be fired.

Gunbroker.com, which sold the "Trayvon Martin" shooting targets, Ron King, the police Sergeant fired for offering them for use to others, all who bought, sold, and used them should be hunted down, publicly identified, prosecuted in every conceivable way civilly and, if possible, criminally, and their names and faces should be affirmatively identified with their actions for the rest of their lives, and for all time.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

North Korea.


Metaphorical love bites to Professor Jeremi Suri, University of Texas at Austin, who called for a preemptive U.S. strike against the DPRK in an op ed piece in the New York Times yesterday. Professor Suri, he is mature.

Friday, April 12, 2013

And I am mature.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

"Pentagon: North Korea Has Capacity To Make Nuclear Warhead For Ballistic Missile."-Washington Post

That's not good now is it. No it is not. They don't know for sure; this is just one view; there are others.
Why is this even a topic of discussion? That is: If there is even reasonable doubt there wouldn't the prudent course be to take them out, huh?

Apparently not.

Hey, no prob! You're okay, I'm an asshole, I completely understand that point of view.

No
frigging
problem.

"Missile movements: Is N.Korea trying to 'mess' with the world?"-CNN

That headline followed this headline, also from CNN:

"North Korean missile in upright firing position, official says."

The article accompanying the post headline goes on to say the "upright" missile had been retracted. A sort of international coitus interruptus, a sort of missile erectile dysfunction. Sort of.

In any event. If they don't fire, they certainly will have messed with the world. If they do, what is the plan?  The latest I read was that the U.S. could quickly ("minutes") determine the missile's trajectory and intercept it if it were headed for Japan or Guam. Which means by exclusion if the missile were not headed for Japan or Guam the U.S. would not intercept it. What about if it were headed for South Korea? Can a missile with such long-range capability be programmed to hit nearby Seoul instead? I don't know. Long-standing opinion here: The U.S. should not be defending South Korea. Long-standing opinion everywhere else: we should and we do. My interest is in the safety of the 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea. Long-standing opinion here and elsewhere: if U.S. troops are attacked in South Korea, North Korea must be destroyed.

In any event. The U.S. should take out the North's missiles, its nuclear capability, its regime. North Korea must be destroyed. I don't like coitus interruptus. One man's opinion. Obama still hasn't called.



Tuesday, April 09, 2013

"Colonel Dai Xu of the People’s Liberation Army wrote online that the new strain of bird flu hitting China, known as H7N9, is an American “bio-psychological weapon” meant to destabilize China."
...
"In general, Chinese Web users appear to have rejected Dai’s argument. In response to the criticism, though, he’s only dug in. “It is common knowledge that a group of people in China have been injected with mental toxin by the U.S.,” he wrote at one point. “I will not retreat even half a step.” He urged Chinese officials to ignore the virus’s apparent spread and argued that the disastrous 2003 SARS outbreak was also an American plot."
...
[Dai] is a lecturer at the National Defence University, giving him a not insignificant platform for his theories and the worldview behind them."

Umm, the Obama strategy to use the Chinese to talk sense into the North Koreans...he needs a new strategy.
...
"Dai’s conspiracy theory does not appear to be widely held, although fears about the United States and its supposed secret desire to topple the Chinese Communist Party are not uncommon among Chinese officials."

:o  How did Dai know my secret desire?  Pssst, Dai: Obama has the secret desire too. We share secret desires. He called me just the other day.
"Responding to concerns that North Korea is preparing to test a medium-range missile after weeks of bellicose threats, the commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific sought to reassure Congress on Tuesday that the Pentagon would be able intercept a missile aimed at the United States or its East Asian allies."
 ...
"The U.S. has never sought to shoot down a North Korean missile, and it's unclear if such a move would escalate the tension that has roiled the region."
                                          -Los Angeles Times, today.

Really? It's unclear if shooting down a North Korean missile would escalate tension? To whom?  To whom is that unclear?  Boy, I sure think it would.
Obama never calls. Never writes anything-and I'd publish it-, he's not a member, it's like I don't exist!  I bet he calls Paul Krugman.
Nobody listens to me.
It hurts my feelings.
I have a suggestion for a new strategy.

"North Korea Warns Foreigners in South of Nulcear War."-New York Times, April 9.

“The situation on the Korean Peninsula is inching close to a thermonuclear war due to the evermore undisguised hostile actions of the United States and the South Korean puppet warmongers,” the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, a North Korean state agency, said in a statement on Tuesday. “It does not want to see foreigners in South Korea fall victim to the war.”

Umm, the Obama strategy to "ease tensions" by cancelling the missile test over the weekend...he needs a new strategy.

Monday, April 08, 2013

And now more of today's sporting news:

The University of Louisville is one of the ten best colleges in the American state of Kentucky and tonight...What? It is. ...and tonight scholars from "U.L." became the best college in the Whole of America at playing men's basketball.

And now today's sporting news:

Manchester City Football Club...love bites...defeated Manchester United Football Club...hiss, pfft, pfft...to remain champions of Manchester althoughswineunitedarechampionsofengland.

And there you have it, today's sporting news from Public Occurrences. Fair and balanced.

Margaret Thatcher, 1925-2013.


The great Conservative Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1979-2000 died of a stroke earlier today. Thatcher formed a strong and warm partnership with U.S. President Ronald Reagan.