The easiest phrase in the world to write is: terrible news out of the Middle East. At times the region seems to be the world’s largest loony bin. This is one of those times.
The murder of Chris Stevens the US Ambassador to Libyaseems to have been ginned up by demagogery over an anti-Muslim film that nobody has seen.We wouldn’t have heard of it without this attack either.
I am once again struck by the eery similarities between Islamist extremists and American Islamophobes. Both are gifted at whipping up hysteria but our nutjobs then claim that any consequences aren’t their fault. It’s classic Americana: the late historian Richard Hofstader wrote a great book about it in the wake of the second Red Scare, The Paranoid Style in American Politics. If you ever get a chance to read it, please do so. We’re still paranoid after all these years.
It’s going to be a nasty few days as the wingnuts gear up to politicize another atrocity.Mitt Romney’s initial response was to-surprise, surprise-try to capitalize on the first reports of the mobs in Benghazi and Cairo. I guess Karl Rove finally returned the Mittbot’s calls and advised him to continue claiming that a relatively hawkish President is a hippie peacenik.
We started the day with Bibi Netanyahu intervening in our Presidential campaign by whipping up hysteria over Iran’s unbomb. It’s quite rich for Bibi to denounce anyone else for lacking moral authority. I can’t wait to hear his overripe rhetoric about the mob violence. Actually, I can but hear it we will. Speaking of predictable responses: I’m sure Senator Walnuts and Holy Joe will call for bombing the shit out of Libya any time now. Of course, Western countries arming the anti-Qadaffi rebels is the reason there are grenade launchers floating around Libya right now. Logic, however, is *always* lost on the neo-Cons.
Okay, I’ll stop rambling. For now. Time for more coffee and some Warren Zevon:
