Shaken witnesses reported that the ordeal broke out around 10 a.m. this morning, when in the midst of a Capitol building tour, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) suddenly burst into the National Statuary Hall with a pair of black panty hose over his head and began firing a Beretta 9 mm handgun into the air, shouting, "Everybody down! Everybody get the fuck down!"
The schoolchildren were then led at gunpoint into the nearby Great Rotunda, where an agitated, profusely sweating Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL) bound their hands and feet and duct-taped them to various sculptures, including a monument to women's suffrage and a marble figure of former president James Garfield. Although cell phones were confiscated immediately, one student managed to tweet a short video showing what appeared to be Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pistol-whipping a chaperone who attempted to yell for help.
"Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation."
Wow! Lincoln was a RINO and a commie- who knew? Didn't he realize that Job Creators were the only part of the economy that mattered? He should have been hanged for treason after such a nakedly socialist statement--- oh, wait...
The Christian Science Monitor has posted an editorial that everyone should read. An excerpt:
The length of the following list of examples, which was culled from mainstream politicians and commentators using simple Google searches, illustrates the extent of this phenomenon.
The left accuses the right of waging:
The right accuses the left of waging
War on the poor
Class warfare
War on working people
War on business
War on the middle class
War on the middle class (yes, both)
War on immigrants
War on savers
War on the family
War on the family (again, both)
War on children
War on marriage
War on the elderly
War on the American way of life
War on public employees
War on religion
War on teachers
War on Christmas
....................
For fierce partisans, demonizing the other side produces cathartic feelings of angry self-righteousness and attracts large audiences in the media, but such discourse has nothing to offer people who are genuinely interested in figuring out effective policy options.
........................
I've reached the point where I can no longer read the most popular political blogs- left or right- without being nauseated. Even blogs authored by accomplished people we are meant to respect- law professors, economists, professional authors, etc.- have degenerated into the most childish poo-flinging. Their shrieking demands for absolute ideological purity have more in common with cult indoctrination than reasoned principles. The road to blogging success is paved with extremist, pandering diatribes.
Dare to consider even one aspect of the opposing team's argument and you are verbally tarred, feathered and driven out of town on a rail. Independent thinking is no longer tolerated. Thinking is dangerous. It can lead to actual fresh ideas, and ideas can't coexist with cults and hero worship.
I would really like to think better of my fellow countrymen, but the immense popularity of this ugliness and stupidity is grinding away at my best intentions. In a world of basically reasonable people, one would think that such bloggers would drop out of the blogosphere under their own self-obsessed weight.
If this trend continues the blogosphere will be no better than a high-school cafeteria at lunchtime. (If it already isn't.) Serious thought will begin to migrate elsewhere, and being associated with the blogosphere will harm a writer's reputation.
That would be a pity, because up to now the ease and relative cheapness of blogging has introduced a range of new writers to the American reader- writers who would otherwise have no voice.
Ten years ago 40 strangers on a doomed airplane decided to work together- and together they saved thousands of people they would never live to meet.
Yet today, our remembrance of them remains incomplete. The Flight 93 memorial fund lacks $10 million dollars and the memorial remains unfinished.
Can we please follow their solemn example at least long enough to complete their memorial? Even if we can't cooperate on anything else these days, surely we can do this much.
Let's act like the country that the heroes of Flight 93 died to save. Let's do this.
I'm an extremely imperfect person, but I have some ethical standards I try to honor, no matter what.
That opening line up there is one of them. I put it up there today because I'm about to recommend a post over at Ace of Spades.
I don't have much in common with Ace of Spades or most of the people who comment there. But I just have to link this post, because Ace has nailed it.
For those of you just tuning in, here's the recap:
In 2007, Texas Governor (and now Presidential hopeful) Rick Perry signed an executive order mandating that all six-grade girls be innoculated against Human Papillomavirus with Gardasil. Human Papillomavirus- HPV- is responsible for 70% of all cervical cancers. Gardasil is- both in effect and by design- an anti-cancer vaccine.
Michelle Bachmann has decided to use Gardasil as a talking point against Perry. As Ace puts it:
So now an anti-vax lunatic buttonholes Michelle Bachmann (or so she claims, at least) and tells her the story of how Gardasil caused her child's autism. At age 12. Late onset autism, I guess. And despite there being absolutely no connection between Gardasil and late onset autism (whatever that is), she broadcasts her new medical findings out to the public.
Here's the clip Ace is referencing:
With this statement, Bachmann has placed herself firmly in the anti-vaxer camp. Ace notes this and launches into an excellent rant about anti-vaxers (including pundit Michele Malkin). Some quotes:
This is the whole point of the anti-vax movement, as I said before: They want vaccinations to be the exception, not the rule, so that they don't have to endure the hectoring of a doctor telling them that diseases are bad. They don't want to feel "weird," so they seek to make their own personal rule (which is in fact fringe) the rule for everyone. That way, they fit in, and no more arguing with doctors!
That's not liberty. That's not freedom. That's trying to use political power to force your beliefs on others.
........................
It's also using political power to force others to undertake the same risks you choose for yourself. Back to Ace:
Michelle Malkin goes on and on about this, about how doctors were so darn arrogant in telling her about the usefulness of vaccinations, and didn't seem to respect her skepticism, and so on. And I think she said a doctor said he'd drop her kid as a client unless he was vaccinated.
Well, that's the doctors right, isn't it? It's amazing to me how many conservatives believe their own personal liberty includes "freedom from confrontation or people disagreeing with me" and yet other people's freedom barely even includes plain-old freedom.
.........................
HPV is something that half the population has had. Most don't even know they've had it-- you get it, most people don't even know they've gotten it, then it goes away.
It's a fairly trivial "STD," except for one thing: It causes 70% of all cervical cancer.
That's why a vaccine was developed -- not to protect against a minor (and incredibly widespread) STD whose direct symptoms are fairly trivial, but to protect against the deadly cancer it causes late in life.
This is being demagogued as some "Pro-Sex" STD vaccination. But no one would have bothered to make a vaccine for it all -- it's pretty minor, as far as primary effects -- except for that "deadly cervical cancer" part.
It's an anti-cancer vaccine. Period.
......................................
Let that last phrase roll off your tongue for a moment: anti-cancer vaccine.
To those of us who came of age during the War on Cancer, the idea of any anti-cancer vaccine is medical nirvana.
My father has leukemia, one of my coworkers died of breast cancer several years ago, and recently another coworker lost her daughter-she was only 21- to ovarian cancer.
Think about that, and about any cancer victims in your own life, and try out that phrase again: anti-cancer vaccine.
Of course, Gardasil is only intended to protect against certains types of cervical cancer, not all the other types of cancer mentioned above. But the fact remains that it is an anti-cancer vaccine, something than can actually protect a person from a form of cancer. It's not another new treatment for an existing cancer, it's a preventative. It's not a new chemotherapy or a new form of radiation or a new surgical technique that might save the lives of some cancer patients, it's a preventative that will result in fewer people getting cancer in the first place.
That is a victory few people dared dream of when the War on Cancer began in 1971. And instead of celebrating, Bachmann and the anti-vaxers are shrieking with dismay.
Jenny McCarthy has a body count attached to her name. This website will publish the total number of vaccine preventable illnesses and vaccine preventable deaths that have happened in the United States since June 2007 when she began publicly speaking out against vaccines.
Is Jenny McCarthy directly responsible for every vaccine preventable illness and every vaccine preventable death listed here? No. However, as the unofficial spokesperson for the United States anti-vaccination movement she may be indirectly responsible for at least some of these illnesses and deaths and even one vaccine preventable illness or vaccine preventable death is too many.
Let's hope Ms. McCarthy is never forced to share credit with Michelle Bachmann.
(I will now return to disagreeing with Ace of Spades, and being regarded as a Mush-Minded Moderate by those who comment/post there.)
This documentary chronicles the life of Franciscan Friar Mychal Judge, the FDNY Chaplain who followed Christ into the burning towers and out of this mortal life. (His body was the first recovered from the disaster.) Through footage and interviews with friends and colleagues, Father Mychal emerges as a complex, vibrant, devoted Christian- and an equally devoted New Yorker and FDNY chaplain.
Director Steven Rosenbaum presents events in New York City through the eyes of several New Yorkers. It combines the catastrophic footage of the Twin Towers with footage of average New Yorkers both struggling alone and coming together to overcome the awful events of 9/11. A sensitive documentary that presents the entire spectrum of human emotion.
French brothers Jules and Gedeon Naudet set out to make a film about how a rookie becomes an FDNY firefighter but were swept up in the events of 9/11 when their camera accidentally captured the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. The resulting documentary is raw and riveting as they follow that rookie- and his entire unit- into the Trade Center during the desperate rescue attempt.
This is the only non-documentary I've included in my list, but it deserves a permanent spot. Director Paul Greengrass recreates the what is known about the events aboard United Flight 93 in tense but respectful detail. Working from primary documents- and even using a number of people who were actually working on the ground that day to recreate the FAA's desperate attempts to track the hijacked planes- Greengrass creates a compelling picture of the ordinary passengers who dared to attack their hijackers.
Although not directly related to 9/11, this documentary about Phillip Petits' highwire stroll between the Twin Towers in 1974places the buildings in their historical context. It reminds us that the World Trade Center was a symbol (albeit controversial) of power, modernity and progress long before it became an icon of tragedy.
Worthwhile Links
History.com has an excellent website featuring as interactive map of the area around the World Trade Center. When you click on various locations you are shown a video of that day taken by an ordinary person who was at that location. The homemade videos are short, but powerful: an NYU student watching from a dormitory, a man living in a nearby apartment building filming firemen taking refuge in the lobby.
New York Times: Portraits of Grief This is the NYT's now-famous collection of essay/obituaries, one for each Trade Center victim. They are now accompanied by a new feature, following up on the surviving families and where they are now.
Biography.com: About 9/11: A thorough overview of 9/11 including facts and figures, a powerful photo gallery, portraits of the victims, and more.
Interactive Publishing.net offers a fascinating collection of screenshots of the front pages of dozens of domestic/international newspapers on September 11&12, 2001. Well worth a look, even if you can't read all the languages.
Rescue at Water's Edge this short video offers a tribute to all the mariners- in craft large and small- who rushed to rescue survivors in New York and transport supplies and help.
Last and Certainly Least...
Here's a list of links to my previous 9/11 posts over the years:
Best wishes for this weekend of unhappy remembrance. Hug your loved ones; you never know what might take them from you. Shake a policeman, EMTs' or firefighter's hand; you never know when you might need them.
"If we're going to fight off all this evil, we've got to do better. We've got to pull together."
Charles Barkley, I May Be Wrong, But I Doubt It
What I am about to say will not be popular.
Ten years ago this week, nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered in a coordinated attack on the United States. The nation watched in horror as a handful of religio-political zealots siezed control of domestic airplanes and used them, kamikaze-style, to ram the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. One plane crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania when passengers overran the cockpit and attacked the hijackers.
By mid-afternoon the attacks were over, but something else was just beginning: all across the country Americans slowly stood up, wiped their eyes and got to work. How can I help? became the national question.
In the process we discovered each other. When all flights were grounded, many passengers found themselves stranded in unfamiliar places. Unable to fly, they rented cars and drove to their destination, sometimes crossing the entire country. These accidental tourists discovered a country of big skies and even bigger hearts. They were joined on the road by thousands of ironworkers, carpenters, EMTs and construction workers who spontaneously walked away from their regular jobs, packed their cars and headed to New York City to volunteer at Ground Zero.
Those who couldn't travel mobbed local blood donation centers, giving until officials had to ask them to stop. A network of free food service, donated clothing and even cheerleaders waving pompoms formed to support the rescue workers at Ground Zero. Schoolchildren sent them encouraging letters.
I am old enough to remember Iranian Hostage Crisis. A pop tune written during that national emergency seemed to capture the 9/11 spirit as well:
'Cause we'll all stick together
And you can take that to the bank
That's the cowboys
And the hippies
And the Rebels
And the Yanks...
We are unworthy now of the country we were then. We no longer deserve the firemen, police officers and EMTs who gave their lives, or the many volunteers who crossed the country to work on "The Pile," or the thousands who lined up to donate blood.
We have divided into vicious, self-righteous, tub-thumping enclaves.
STFU has replaced E Pluribus Unum.
The Capitol Building, with its grand dome and fluted columns, was designed as a kind of temple to our representative government. Today it is the playhouse of a pack of insane children. Legislators demand that peacefully protesting citizens be "investigated for racism" and publicize nasty emails declaring that a colleague is "not a lady."
Police and Firemen are demonized by pundits and politicians as "greedy public sector employees." Members of the Senate balk at extending health benefits for first responders crippled by their work at Ground Zero.
Some pundits have criticized the killing of Osama bin Laden, comparing it to the 9/11 attacks- as if the assassination of a mass-murderer- enjoying the protection of another nation's military- is somehow equal to a sneak attack on thousands of unarmed, innocent civilians.
There is a classic bumpersticker that says: I love Jesus but fear his followers. These days I love my country but fear its "patriots."
But it is not only politicians and pundits who are to blame. Our national conversation has splintered into coarse, crude, self-serving fragments.
Search the web for "9/11 films" or "9/11 documentaries" and you will be treated to a long list of paranoid productions blaming the attacks on everything from Dick Cheney to the end of the gold standard.
Even the martyred passengers of United 93 are not spared. Oh no, say these self-appointed "investigators," these brave "truth-seekers;" that plane was shot down by a missile.
Never underestimate the ability of any dogmatist to look the facts in the face and promptly make up a new story that suits their prejudices better.
I am also waiting for the day when some ambitious blogger announces that he has researched the entire list of 9/11 victims and carefully sorted all the names into registered Republicans or Democrats.
See? X Republicans killed and X Democrats! We win!!!
It would not surprise me. Because the political blogosphere has sunk that low.
We are living in an era when each tiny group believes that only they have all the answers, only they are true patriots and that all opposing opinions should be not just ignored, but exterminated. The opposition, it is said, is not just wrong, but dangerous; they're obviously stooges of this or that secret, evil cabal trying to destroy the country. Only the ideologically pure "us" can save it.
Does anyone but me see the absurdity of calling any American a "pure" anything? Our country is defined by its vigorous, motley, mutinous mix of ideas, ethnicities and backgrounds. It is this very mix, the constant lending and borrowing of solutions and viewpoints, that created the unshakeable safety net of September 12th.
That same mix might just pull us through our current problems, if we let it.
Frequent readers of Deafening Silence will know that I'm a big fan of the food blog Crepes of Wrath.
The Crepes of Wrath was created by Sydney, whose gifts for food and photography never disappoint. I've tried several of her recipes in my own kitchen and the results are always outstanding. In addition, Sydney does her own photography and the pictures are always crisp, fun and drool-provoking.
Best of all, Sydney is one of those rare bloggers who has achieved online success but who remains gracious and unaffected.
(In fact, she is, to date, one of only 2 bloggers who have ever left a message on Deafening Silence to thank me for recommending their blog. Yes, she's that nice.)
Now we have an opportunity to reward Sydney for her terrific work and pleasant personality. Her blog has been nominated for an award by Country Living Blue Ribbon Blogger Awards!
This link will take you to the page on Crepes of Wrath where you can access the contest. Please hustle over there and vote for Crepes of Wrath. It's not often you get the opportunity to reward someone for being both talented and nice.
Oh, and here's a photo of the next recipe from Crepes of Wrath I plan to try: Creamy Tomato Soup.
Robert Blaskiewicz, writing for The Skeptical Inquirer, says something I wish all of us- bloggers especially- would always keep in the front of our minds:
"One of the characteristics of a self-sustaining conspiracy theory is an alternative set of facts that are exclusive to the conspiracist narrative. These claims of facts are repeated endlessly, and any explanation that does not accept these assertions as true is rejected out of hand."
I have run across this kind of circular thinking endlessly: in specious claims that Native Americans are really the descendants of Muslim explorers and their converts, for example.Another good example is the "anti-vaxer" narrative in which fanatics use psuedo-science to "prove" that parents should not vaccinate their children.
The article from which I drew this quote, You Can't Handle the Truthiness: A Night Out with the 911 Truth Committee, is here.
UPDATE:
Davis Thomas, also writing for The Skeptical Inquirer, adds this slightly pithier definition:
Soon, a picture emerged of a massive pseudoscientific movement based on faulty physics, cherry-picked data, and demonization of opponents as complicit in the “conspiracy.”
That's a good bit less polite than Mr. Blaskiewicz' description, but on point. Mr. Thomas' article, How I Debated a 911 Truther and Survived, is here.
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