BallsFrozenInTime

I guess that I am going to try to accomplish three things today and at best hope for a marginal outcome on all three. It won’t be the first time that I have been a-Juggiling.

I have been commissioned to repair a letterpress printer of unknown provenance and vintage, so I am going to school and trying to download everything on the subject I can get my grubby hands on. I am going to try to catch up on a lot of reading and whatnot and lastly attempt to cobble something together in this space to deal with the knot in my throat that has numerous drafts devoted and started with the Charlie Hebdo incident and the reaction to same.

Fucking tragedy that was. A fucking tragedy that Vultures had to swoop in and make it about their agenda. Many have written beautifully about the tragedy and its meaning, many more have taken advantage of the opportunity provided in our wonderlicious landscape, to stoke fear, inflame hatreds’ and breed misunderstanding. It is almost as if there was a concerted effort to extinguish empathy from the face of the earth, which is itself a fucking tragedy, and might lie at the root of what sticks in my craw.

A buddy of mine at one of my haunts brought the following to my attention via facebook and I found in its brevity the soul of wit:

Muslim does it = Blame the religion.
Black does it = Blame the Race
White guy does it = Lone wolf, act of a crazy man.

(I paraphrase)

Tracks nicely with what my lying eyes seem intent to show me on a nearly daily basis. The thing that is getting in the way of me catching up on reading and jousting jocular with the alicuratti was the first thing that Roy brought to my attention this morning.

Picture a guy who while involved in shaving related program activities managed to bathe himself in blood. Still alive there is no way that it could be his own, in an attempt to cover the fact that he kept slipping in the blood he has managed to cover himself with about 30 rolls of toilet paper in an attempt to “fix” the situation. I know that I am torturing this metaphor like the teen-aged kid so enamoured of his first whiskers that he can not wait to bloody his face on his first attempt at shaving.

The Charlie Hebdo case has given our usual suspects plenty of opportunity to cover themselves in glory. Charles C. W. Cooke finds a roundabout way to a what-France-needs-is-more-guns argument:

Certainly, things might have been different if the events had unfolded in heavily armed states such as Oklahomhat constructiona or Texas — or, for that matter, if someone in an adjacent office had been possessed of a rifle of his own.

This guy:

page_2014_200_cooke_square_0

Here we fucking go again. “Certainly, things might have…” Right out of the fucking gate. “Certainty” and “might have been,” separated only by “things” in one sentence that pays his fucking bills.

That construction should nuke the rest of his “argument” out of whatever backalley shithole (NRO, natch) nook of the Intertrons from which it hatched. The bloodsoaked stupidity of the rest of his argument which makes sense only in a land populated by M-16 laden Unicorns and Landmines, is simply more butcherblock boilerplate.

Here is the first graph:

To the foreign or uninitiated visitor, it must appear somewhat peculiar that the most prominent, recognizable, and provocative public figures in all of these United States spend the majority of their time in cities that are indifferent toward their security. Taken together, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Los Angeles host almost all of the more controversial media personalities in America; and, taken together, these cities have some of the worst self-defense laws in the country. Had Charlie Hebdo been an American publication, it would most likely have been located in Brooklyn or in Silver Lake or in Columbia Heights — positioned, in other words, in precisely the sort of place in which attacks on its employees would have been most likely to succeed. This, as the French might say, is “absurde.”

Or “merde.” “…in all of these United States…” Who writes like that? I’m afraid words have yet to be invented or have escaped my ken to describe, tripegnossis maybe .

Fuck this asshole.

The usual lineup of Shitbergers we know and love immediately jumped on the bandwagon to condemn the entirety of Islam on the acts of a few Zealous MadMen. Goldberg took to Fox to immediately call out the President for not immediately and at the top of his lungs proclaiming the tragedy a Terrorist attack.

Yesterday LoadPants was at it with everyone else in calling out Obama for not making an appearance in Paris. Dig this argument:

Goldberg said the decision not to send a high-profile US leader to the march is part of a pattern of the administration’s approach to combating terrorism.

“It fits into a pattern that this president and this White House has an ideological rule, that has gone forth, that says, ‘we are never going to overreact to terrorism. We’re never going to make a big deal about the war on terror if we don’t absolutely have to. We always say it’s a lone wolf, an isolated incident, until it’s way too late.'”

Goldberg, however, also suggested another underlying reason for what he said was a serious political oversight.

“I think you can never rule out incompetence as an explanation for anything in Washington,” he said.

The Stones on these people. And you can bet the family farm that had Obama made an appearance in Paris, they would have been singing a different tune. Thank god we have a liberal media.

Personally I think the Hebdo toons such as the are, are offensive. They offend me on many levels, but mostly I think they are in the poorest of form and accomplish nothing other than make bigots chuckle, good people uncomfortable and Murderers Murder. Ha fucking Ha! I understand the impulse to be sure or I would not be here. But I like to think that the work we do here is directed at proper objects of scorn and done with a defter touch. One of the first thoughts I committed to what might have been this piece:

Sandy Hook seems to have had less attention paid than the recent murders in France.

Both were tragic events involving angry and unstable shooters motivated by who
knows what really. In the case of Sandy Hook a child, for all intents and purposes,
shoots up a school filled with children and then himself. of course we will never have a clue of what motivated his actions for he is no longer available for comment.

At the end of the day in France we can only guess what motivated the shooters for as far as we know they are dead and themselves no longer available for comment.

Reams have been written about not only the motivation, but how this plays into the bigger picture, a “clash of civilizations” a fierce battle between the east and west for the soul of humanity, a battle between Islam and Christianity. But we really cant know for certain. There will be no trial, there will be no psychological
evaluation, really, no closure on these accounts.

And there will be none whatsoever. the evil that rules the world will continue to do so, division fomented will continue to provide profit for monsters and the enablers of evil will continue to nip at our heals. The following cartoon from Joe Sacco pretty much sums up my feelings on the subjects involved.
joesaccoonsatire1200

 

Comments: 25

 
 
 

Other day I saw a story about a COP who was so discombobulated by a tense sitch at a domestic call that he shot at a woman’s D O G —missed, and ended up (whoops, sorry!) killing her. So if this is a “trained professional” who cannot manage to control and properly aim fire in a crime setting HOW would we expect well meaning amateurs to do better? Gun advocates act like every gun owner is Clint Eastwood. Most of them are closer to Elmer Fudd.

 
 

joanne, he didn’t miss the dog. The dog took multiple shots. He just emptied his gun and also shot the woman through the chest.

I’m not sure the comic gets the point across in the last frame to hold up the mirror of behavior. I see the intention, but… We can’t do that.

 
 

Speaking of apologies… Just wondering…

Have white Christian southerners ever apologized for slavery and lynching?

Until that day, they should STFU when it comes demanding apologies from blacks and Muslims.

PS Also waiting for the day when the GOP apologize for the Iraq invasion, or the Wall St. banksters apologize for causing a worldwide recession.

 
 

Various commenters at Alicublog have marvelled at the mentality of someone who chooses Oklahoma — the location of America’s worst incident of domestic terrorism — to exemplify how gun availability prevents terrorism.

repair a letterpress printer of unknown provenance and vintage
Not a Heidelberg? I am disappoint.

 
 

I own a number of guns and I am quite a good shot. I always qualified “Expert” when I was in the Air Force.

I have never seen a need to wander around public carrying a gun.

Even when I was in combat, my sidearm was issued to me as I walked out the door to go fly and was promptly returned to the armory when I got back from a mission.

 
 

Smut, I know heidleburg is the shit. Attended graph expo once when i worked for a company that developed online training software for the printing industry. The heidleburg quadrant was mind blowing.

This is the machine i get to attempt to bring back to life. I know more about letterpress printers now than I did yesterday and am lookibg forward to the challenge. Old school baby. No lectricity required.

http://excelsiorpress.org/Chandler_and_Price/index.html

 
 

That looks like it could be fun, Provider.

 
 

I can almost smell the methyl-ethyl ketone.

 
 

I’m amazed that they were still building that printing press as late as 1965!

 
 

Has any progress been made in investigation of the bombing of the NAACP office in Colorado? That story just dropped off the map in the last few days.

 
 

Blew me away too, Kong. Must have been brilliantly designed and they were still doing a lot of letterpress then as well. Shit is perfect for wedding invitations, and other smallish lots of high end paper finery, stuff that was still popular before everyone decided that polyester was cool to wear.

NAACP bombing?!?!?!?

Last I heard they were still looking for a middle aged balding white guy with sunglasses and a red pickem up truck. They’ll get him next time…

 
Big Bad Bald Bastard
 

If the office had been in Brooklyn or Silver lake…

They sure love their Dead Liberals fantasies.

 
 

I know it’s satire because satire is where Black-Man-As-Monkey and Jew-Counting-Money and Fanatic-Slitting-Throat are the same kinds of things.

If I find some satirical content to be justified, I’ll always be willing to accept other satirical content as acceptable, even when I’m appalled: because the really remarkable thing about satire like Sacco’s is that while appearing to address issues that matter, his method renders them meaningless.

Kind of a relief from pain, really.

 
 

No shit quadB.

I had heard of the asshole before, but didnt realize he was but a scamp with part in the middle.

One can play a real tough guy when your enemies are made of straw and the servents make absolutely certain that the underside of your matress is free of peas.

 
 

Just ran across this AWESOME “Jack Chick” tract. Must share. http://i.imgur.com/2NVC7.gif

 
 

speaking of tough guys, does anyone else burst out laughing every time they hear bill orlly scream, ‘they are censoring your news!!!’

if you have not witnessed this shock and awe campaign wapo has you covered…

 
 

Contra Sacco

Been meaning to chime in on this topic with my “islamophobic” viewpoint but just too damn busy packing and making arrangements and shit. Even though I’m ot with him 100% Sam Harris expresses a lot of what I would say. http://www.samharris.org/site/full_text/the-reality-of-islam

 
 

Thanks for that Sam Harris link, Pup. He comes the closest to my take on the reactions to the Charlie Hebdo massacre:

So many journalists and cartoonists are reacting as if their freedom of speech is being challenged. This is a mistake. These Muslim radicals aren’t trying to suppress free speech. It’s not that complicated. They are filled with a bloodlust for revenge, pure and simple.

Cartoonists now drawing Mohammed to “prove to the Islamists that we won’t be censored” are only giving the remaining bloodthirsty radical Muslims just what they want: more targets, and more opportunities to die in the pursuit of jihad.

Of course, we should all be free to draw and say what we want, Mohammed or Mickey Mouse or Butterflies and Unicorns, whatever is necessary to make our point. Just know what you’re really doing. If the point is to prove to the Taliban or ISIS that you’re not afraid of them, then you’re wasting ink. They just Do… Not… Care. Worse, they *want* more targets. More targets just represent more opportunities for them to earn their virgins in the afterlife.

If that’s what you want, fine. If you know this and still want to simply fling shit, fine. Fling away. Just know what you’re doing and don’t pretend you’re proving anything to these assholes.

 
 

so. much. hatred. plus a tonne of glitter!

 
 

Muslim does it = Blame the religion.
Black does it = Blame the Race
White guy does it = Lone wolf, act of a crazy man.

I appreciate what you’re getting after here but I did want to say that the formulation leaves a bit to be desired. Black guy does = blame the race is obviously, indisputably, the genetic fallacy. White guy does it = lone wolf is … anti-genetic fallacy? Maybe compartmentalization and / or No True Scotsman.

But … as Sam Harris points out, Islam is extreme. Period.

Mainstream Islam itself represents an extremist rejection of intellectual honesty, gender equality, secular politics and genuine pluralism. The truth about Islam is as politically incorrect as it is terrifying: Islam is all fringe and no center. In Islam, we confront a civilization with an arrested history. It is as though a portal in time has opened, and the Christians of the 14th century are pouring into our world.

 
 

There’s no israeli attrocity for which sam harris won’t claim muslims are worse.

http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2014/11/24/glenn-greenwald-takes-apart-sam-harris/

 
 

Oh, I don’t subscribe to Harris’ assertion that there is no moderate center in the Muslim community. I’m not lumping all followers of Mohammed in the bloodthirsty fanatic category. But there is clearly a surplus of those who will react with deadly intent to the mere depiction their prophet.

There are plenty of followers of Christ who are just as loony, but it doesn’t mean that all of ’em are.

Now, those FSM zealots, those are the ones you have to have to look out for. Not a one of ’em are moderate.

 
 

Greenwald used to be reasonable. He went off the deep end at some point. Whatever, the linked article doesn’t say what you said it says, eddie.

I don’t agree with Harris completely – as I said before – but the sort of criticism of him as the hated “New Atheist” that I see there is just more whining about those mean obnoxious atheists. Note how the Glennster reflexively mentions Dawkins because … well because all those accommodationist types like Singham just love to find fault.

“deep anti-Islam animus” puhleezz.

 
 

new post

 
 

Pup, havn’t gotten around to you harris cite. But imagine i might have some issues with it given what has been brought on board.

The black=race muslim=religion came from a facebook feed someone else brought to my attention. Thought it a perfect distilation of the general reaction.

When i think about it I know far too few muslims. However, the ones i do know behave as people, and i do know people. Only ever given cause to fear, by white ones.

 
 

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