ECCENTRIC TANTRUMS
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Copyright 2010 by William A. Mays, Proprietor
On Thursday afternoon, November 5, 2009, Major Malik Nadal Hasan of the United States Army entered the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood in Texas and turned it from a boring, sterile building into a fun house for mental defectives of an Islamic bent. The depraved joyride lasted for 10 minutes as Hasan, using two handguns–an FN Five-seven semi-automatic and a .357 Magnum–induced the bodies of 43 persons to spring leaks and gush blood all over the walls, tables, floor and grounds of the Readiness Center–13 of them to the point of death.
On Friday afternoon, December 4, 2009, Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, a graduate student at Binghamton University–a SUNY university center–brought a six-inch kitchen knife into the Science I building, found Professor Emeritus Richard T. Antoun and thrust the knife four times into the 77-year old professor's chest, killing him instantly. The American professor had specialized in Islamic and Middle Eastern anthropology.
On Friday morning, December 25, 2009–Christmas Day–Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the son of a Nigerian business and banking baron–one of the richest men in Africa–lit the fuse on a hunk of the powerful plastic explosive PETN as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 flew above the United States near Detroit, and attempted to murder 289 people. His own professors of engineering must have shaken their heads at the incompetence with which Abdulmutallab mixed up his medicine as the attempt failed. But did it really fail?
Like Orson Welles in "The Stranger," it's enough that they are among us. They may hold the most respected positions, come from the most respected families, or take part in our most respected institutions. But still, they are among us. They are no longer gangs of dozens of perpetrators organizing vast plots. They are invisible individuals hatching their own small schemes, taking out one here, thirteen there, maybe more. The body count of the victims no longer matters. It's the unknown number of individuals hiding in the shadows plotting to strike that does.
And like the Roman Empire before it, the United States will react to the mounting "barbarian" incursions with ever more resource-consuming security and military initiatives, causing either an eventual collapse of the economy as the Republican method of paying for the military through borrowing and the Democratic through taxing can no longer be sustained, or a capitulation. The United States will simply cede victory to the outsiders, and move its capital east–perhaps to London, itself already the capital of the 51st state.
We here find neither alternative tasteful... though we are keeping an eye on travel schedules to England.... QE3 only, please. No airplanes.
On Friday afternoon, December 4, 2009, Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, a graduate student at Binghamton University–a SUNY university center–brought a six-inch kitchen knife into the Science I building, found Professor Emeritus Richard T. Antoun and thrust the knife four times into the 77-year old professor's chest, killing him instantly. The American professor had specialized in Islamic and Middle Eastern anthropology.
On Friday morning, December 25, 2009–Christmas Day–Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the son of a Nigerian business and banking baron–one of the richest men in Africa–lit the fuse on a hunk of the powerful plastic explosive PETN as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 flew above the United States near Detroit, and attempted to murder 289 people. His own professors of engineering must have shaken their heads at the incompetence with which Abdulmutallab mixed up his medicine as the attempt failed. But did it really fail?
Like Orson Welles in "The Stranger," it's enough that they are among us. They may hold the most respected positions, come from the most respected families, or take part in our most respected institutions. But still, they are among us. They are no longer gangs of dozens of perpetrators organizing vast plots. They are invisible individuals hatching their own small schemes, taking out one here, thirteen there, maybe more. The body count of the victims no longer matters. It's the unknown number of individuals hiding in the shadows plotting to strike that does.
And like the Roman Empire before it, the United States will react to the mounting "barbarian" incursions with ever more resource-consuming security and military initiatives, causing either an eventual collapse of the economy as the Republican method of paying for the military through borrowing and the Democratic through taxing can no longer be sustained, or a capitulation. The United States will simply cede victory to the outsiders, and move its capital east–perhaps to London, itself already the capital of the 51st state.
We here find neither alternative tasteful... though we are keeping an eye on travel schedules to England.... QE3 only, please. No airplanes.
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