I woke up this morning to discover that the explosions in Boston have created a version of a real-life “Die Hard” movie, with suspects engaging in shoot-outs and throwing pressure cookers at police. It’s surreal. As the nation continues to reel from this terrible tragedy, it’s depressing to watch some public figures attempt to use these acts of terror to further their own puny political purposes.
The day after the attacks, former Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank took to the airwaves to ludicrously claim that “no tax cut would have helped us deal with this.” How on earth is this hideous event in any way correlated with tax cuts, or tax increases, or taxes at all? Such blatant partisanship immediately after a tragedy is extremely unsettling, yet that didn’t stop former presidential advisor David Axelrod from appearing on MSNBC and insinuating that conservatives opposed to high taxes chose “tax day” to carry out this deadly terrorist attack. Because, you know, conservatives like blowing people up on Tax Day.
That’s worse than foolish. It’s vicious nonsense, and it has no proper place in our public discourse.
Any political manipulation of this tragedy is disrespectful to the victims of the attack, and it diminishes the integrity of those who engage in it. But it doesn’t seem to be going away. “Normally domestic terrorists, people, tend to be on the far right,” said MSNBC host Chris Matthews, ignoring groups like the Weather Underground or individuals like Ted Kaczynski, AKA the “Unabomber,” and other domestic terrorists who used bombs to further their far left agendas. Indeed, bombs were the weapon of choice for 60s-era radicals. Normally domestic terrorists like Bill Ayers and such tend to be on the far left. But such examples are conveniently flushed down the Matthews memory hole.
Others have been unabashed in their attempts to leverage this calamity to further their own policy positions. Many have suggested that this increases the likelihood of passing stricter gun control legislation. On Twitter, actor and comedian Jay Mohr tweeted that this is the moment that proves that the “2nd amendment must go.” That’s an absurd premise. This attack has absolutely nothing to do with the Second Amendment or guns. It was carried out with makeshift explosives fashioned by ordinary pressure cookers, which, barring the banning of common household appliances, would not have been thwarted in any way by legislation, least of all new gun laws.
In times of crisis, it is natural for people to turn to their leaders for guidance. It is therefore the responsibility of our leaders to provide the kind of prudent governance that sets politics aside in order to meet the needs of the public. Tragedy is a terrible platform for demagoguery
And, no, I didn’t forget about Retro Friday!
That graphic is going to get old pretty quickly, isn’t it?
Anyway, here we go…
HAPPY LABOR DAY – posted September 3, 2007
My shortest post to date. It says “Unions suck. That is all.” This link blurb is about three times longer than the original post.
SWEET BABY JAMES – posted September 4, 2007
THE MORMON DIALOGUE CONTINUES… – September 5, 2007
More Q&A about LDS, following up on my Mormon weirdness post.
FRED, RUDY, AND A BLOCK OF CHEESE – posted September 6, 2007
A rather dated and quaint assessment of the 2008 presidential race, where I fretted about Rudy Giuliani winning the Republican nomination. He got a single delegate that year. Simpler times, simpler worries.
HOOEY – posted September 7, 2007
Exactly as advertised. A series of random thoughts on disparate subjects from global warming to Martin Short to cascading style sheets.
ON REQUEST: WEIRD MORMON STUFF – posted August 29, 2007
Just what it says. A reader asked about the more Galactica-esque points of Mormon doctrine, notably Kolob and human deification, and I do my best to answer him without sounding like a lunatic.
MISSING LANGY – posted September 8, 2007
I posted a video about the history of my battle with Languatron to the tune of Diana Ross’ “Missing You.”Herein I explain all the inside joke references. Kind of stupid, really, but still mildly amusing. YouTube blocked the video on copyright grounds, so I had to reembed it. Unfortunately, I can only find the earliest version that doesn’t include half the video, so this edit feels incomplete.
GLOBAL INTEGRATED JOINT OPERATING ENTITY – posted September 9, 2007
I complain about a proposed anti-American GI Joe movie that never ended up happening, and then I worry about the lunatics who commented about this over at Ain’t It Cool News.
HOLIDAY EUPHEMISMS – posted September 10, 2007
One of my anti- “Happy Holidays” rants. This has actually gotten better over the years as “Merry Christmas” has come back in style.
THE HEALING FIELD: CONNECTING THE DOTS – posted September 11, 2007
An unapologetically pro-American 9/11 post.
Tune in next week for:
MY BRUSHES WITH GREATNESS
SPAMALOT
WILSON ON POLITICAL WOMEN
And much more!