But they are changing us. I’ve written before about what I’ve called the Bollardization of the Western World: the open, public areas of free cities are being fenced in by bollards, as, for example, German downtowns were after the Berlin Christmas attack, and London Bridge and Westminster Bridge were after two recent outbreaks of vehicular jihad. This is a huge windfall for bollard manufacturers – Big Bollard – and doubtless it’s a huge boost for the economy, if your town’s nimble enough to approve the new bollard plant on the edge of town, or if your broker is savvy enough to divest your tech stocks and go big on the bollard sector. As I write, Geraldo is on Fox demanding to know why this bike path wasn’t blocked off with concrete barriers.
Why? Why does every public place have to get uglified up just because Geraldo doesn’t want to address the insanity of western immigration policies that day by day advance the interests of an ideology explicitly hostile to our civilization? Instead Geraldo wants to tighten up vehicle rental. Why? Why should you have to lose an extra 15 minutes at an already sclerotic check-in counter because Hertz and Avis and UHaul have to run your name through the No-Rent list? Why should open, free societies become closed, monitored, ugly, cramped and cowering?
And Bollardization doesn’t even solve the problem, does it? Last week I was tootling through Williston, Vermont, which has just reconfigured its highway system to run green-painted bike paths down the center of the streets. And the thought occurred to me that, once you’ve bollarded off every sidewalk, what’s to stop jihadists mowing down cyclists? After all, if the eco-crowd are installing them in the middle of the roadway, they’re kind of hard to bollard off. And then a second thought occurred: As inviting a target as bike paths are in enviro-poseur communities, they’re even more inviting in genuine bicycling cultures such as the Netherlands or Scandinavia.
And now eight people are dead and dozens more injured – at the hands of a guy who came here in 2010 because he won a Green Card in the so-called “diversity lottery”. Why was that stupid program not suspended on September 12th 2001?
So Uber and truck-rental places are expected to do background checks on people to whom we give “diversity visas.” Wonderful.
There is no good reason for trucks to be in civilian hands.
Somehow I think leftoids would love to make an argument for “truck control”, limiting who can legally buy, rent, or drive larger motor vehicles.
Well, their urban planning requires cities go on road diets to restrict the flow of traffic to make people walk, use public transit, or bike. Truck control would go right along with their larger mission.
“Sayfullo” is a Central Asian rendering of “Saifallah” – or “Sword of Allah”. Hmm, what a fascinating name! Do you think whichever brain-dead bureaucrat who gave Sword of Allah’s online Green Card application the once-over (assuming anyone did) so much as gave the name a second glance?
But don’t worry, the only reason he said “Allah Akhbar” when he exited the truck is because his English skills weren’t up to properly pronouncing “God help me, God save them”.
And “Happy Halloween” was right out.
Democrats will never give up on immigration so long as they need immigrants to do the voting that Americans won’t.
And what would the background check do? This guy was questioned by Homeland Security for relations with 2 known terrorist and yet nothing else was done but an interview.
So he goes into Home Depot to borrow a truck, ostensibly to deliver building supplies for DIY project that won’t fit in his NYC approved Prius or Fit, and the Home Depot check comes back with no criminal complaints, nothing on an unaccountable no rent list, and proper documentation that he’s in the country legally. Home Depot would still loan him the truck if such truck controls were passed.
Add to this that previous truck attacks in Sweden and France were carried out in vehicles that were stolen, not rented.
As for the bollards; interesting where and when it is cool to argue for barriers to prevent entry are allowed. I do think they can be effective, but there are better barriers and places to put them than on pedestrian or bike paths.
“Big Bollard” Steyn is absolutely the best wordsmith I know. It’s always a delight to read him.
Why was that stupid program not suspended on September 12th 2001?
Because most of our oil was coming from fundy Islamic theocracies. Doh. There’s no excuse for suspending it now, however, except some cucks will be called racists.
Most of our oil was not coming from them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_energy_independence#/media/File:US_oil_imports_by_country.jpeg
Most of Europe’s, maybe.
Yes most likely it was most of Europe’s that bought their oil.
But I think he was talking about the Diversity Lottery.
Only a small percentage of Muslims engage in jihad but the larger the population grows, the more people make up that percentage. Good vetting doesn’t even solve the problem as future generations are often the ones that turn to jihad.
There are better ways to show our compassion without making martyrs of ourselves.
These are solvable problems, just not by any group of people.
To expect a place like Home Depot to do the check is inane. In this case, if they thought he was a hazard, all they had to do was take his driver license away. I doubt they rent cars to people without driver licenses.
But anyway, I think it was basically impossible to prevent this particular case, unless you do like Trump wants and only let people with qualifications in into the country. Even then, you might still get cases like the doctor shooting at the Fort Hood US Army base a couple years ago. Sometimes it just happens. I do think these events are often blown out of proportion though.
Until it happens to you.
I would rather they spend the resources to find a way to mitigate road accidents.
Vastly more people die from heart disease and cancer than from road accidents, so I’d rather that money go toward medical research.
What the lottery means is that you get the right to apply for Green Card. You are not handed a Green Card.
If you are drawn, you submit your application in and go through the Green Card approval process. So if there is a problem here it is in the Green Card approval process.