Well, actually, very little of this post is about that, but it got your attention didn’t it?
I haven’t been posting much because I’ve been on the road, but you long-time readers know what that means–you’re going to be tormented with a long and tedious transterrestrial travelogue.
I got out of LAX a couple hours before the shooting gallery excitement over at El Al, and arrived safely in St. Louis. What is the deal of this idiocy in not calling it terrorism? A hate crime? Puhleeeeeze. If you want to play that game, what happened September 11 was a “hate crime.” Certainly, if you listen to their rhetoric, Al Qaeda was largely motivated by hate. Can we please put this politically-correct stupidity to rest? Crimes are crimes. That they’re motivated by “hate” is irrelevant, and renders them thought crimes.
My opinion: the FBI is too embarrassed over their failure to prevent this at what was supposedly one of the most secure (and targeted) locations in the US. It sounds less like they were asleep at the switch if they can call it something other than “terrorism.”
But it’s unreasonable to think that this could have been easily prevented, anyway. We don’t have security at the ticket counters–it starts at the entrance to the gates. My biggest concern now is that they’re going to use this as an excuse to move the brain-dead security policy (and lines) to the airport entrance, instead of the gate entrance. If I were the paranoid sort, I’d think that big (and blundering) government partisans were setting these things up to give them an excuse to increase their intrusions on our lives.
Anyway, on the fourth, we went downtown and watched a spectacular fireworks display, framed by the Arch. No terrorist incidents, other than some squirt guns. We were in a perfect position to watch them destroy the Arch, if they were of a mind to, but it didn’t happen. As similar fearsome scenarios didn’t play out elsewhere.
I’m finding myself in agreement with those who think that Al Qaeda shot their wad last September. The guys who pulled that one off weren’t the brightest bulbs on the string, and they were likely the best they had (at least of those willing to sacrifice themselves).
Which doesn’t mean, of course, that it’s no longer necessary to drain the Arabian swamp.
I’m heading off back east for the next week and a half. I’ll take a laptop, but posting will be sporadic, at best. In the meantime, check out my Fox column tomorrow (which will be basically my column about commemorating, rather than celebrating the holiday, and celebrating our liberation from the planet) and in the meantime, check out Ken Barnes’ Independence Day quotes and notes.
Dennis Ross has an essay about the Arafat myths in this month’s Foreign Policy.
Some worshipers see the Holy Mother in a cowflop, others see Dale Earnhardt’s number on a goat.
Some worshipers see the Holy Mother in a cowflop, others see Dale Earnhardt’s number on a goat.
Some worshipers see the Holy Mother in a cowflop, others see Dale Earnhardt’s number on a goat.
Joe Farah has a different perspective on tomorrow’s holiday. Sadly, I think that he’s right.
Tony Woodlief has a disturbing post about the Oprahization of America and our public school system. It explains Bill Clinton’s success.
Speaking of anniversaries, today is the 139th anniversary of Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg, which was the high-water mark for the Confederate cause.
In the words of Faulkner:
For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two oclock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet…”
Lee’s army retreated that evening, and Grant took Vicksburg the next day, sundering the would-be nation in half, on the Fourth of July. A little less than two years later, Lee would surrender to him at Appomattox Courthouse.