By any other name

April 17, 2013

Doc: Why do you let this cracker follow you around?
Troy: He’s a good kid.
Doc: He’s a wall-eyed cracker.
Troy: He’s got no high school, man, he’s from a group home in Jackson —
Doc: I don’t give a shit if he’s from Johannesburg. I don’t want to hear dune koon or sand nigger from him or anybody.
Vig: Captain uses those terms.
Troy: The point is, Conrad, ‘towel head’ and ‘camel jockey’ are perfectly good substitutes.
Doc: Exactly.
Vig: I’m sorry, man, it’s a little confusing is all.
— ‘Three Kings‘ (1999)

PlanesTrainsCarBombs_coverClear and cold this Wednesday morning on California’s north coast, and we’re expecting good weather the next few days — but that doesn’t mean anything because who’s to know tomorrow?
Or even this afternoon?

Weather in its complexity is fairly predictable, but human beings? We can be unpredictable as shit.

Now a couple of days beyond the Boston bombing, there’s still no clue to who and why — though evidence shows a pressure cooker was used for one of the bombs, there’s no indication who could be the shithead-asshole behind the horror: “This is what you worry about the most,” a source with knowledge of the investigation said. “No trail, no intelligence.”

(Illustration found here).

And no perpetrator. Despite what happens next, the white race has always been the most-murderous, hypocritical bunch of people in history. We kill most-easily anybody that’s not white, and we also kill most-easily other white people who are disagreeable.
Despite all that, there’s no real nasty name for us — ‘whitey,’ ‘cracker,’ honkey,’ ‘white asshole?’ Nothing really fits. Meanwhile, blacks have the ‘n‘ word; Latinos, the ‘b‘ word; and Orientals, the ‘c‘ word — and a shitload of others in between.
But nothing real-mean for the worst assholes ever!
In the screenplay snip above, “Doc” is played by African-American, Ice Cube — so we can also see the perspective.

Modern living has become so f*cked that seemingly Islamic peoples everywhere are praying no one from their religion is responsible for the Boston bombing.
From the OnIslam Website:

Feeling the brunt of the 9/11 attacks, Muslims worldwide have raced to social media websites to pray that perpetrators of a deadly bombing in Boston would not be Muslims.
“Please don’t be a Muslim,” Hend Amry from Libya wrote on Twitter cited by The Washington Post.
Jenan Moussa, a journalist for Dubai-based Al-Aan TV, retweeted the message “Please don’t be a ‘Muslim’” and added that the plea was “the thought of every Muslim right now.”

And so far, there’s been absolutely no evidence of a Mid East connection — even a denial from perennial bad boys, the Pakistani Taliban: “Wherever we find Americans we will kill them, but we don’t have any connection with the Boston Explosions,” Ihsan said.

And a most-interesting post yesterday from DigBoston, where reporter/blogger Chris Faraone examines a minute-by-minute breakdown of the horrible event in near-real time.
Some snips, starting with a warm, wonderous Boston afternoon:

I’m bumping a medley of classic Biggie and some underground funk, strolling down Newbury Street with an obnoxious bop in my step and a noggin full of hip-hop.
It’s almost 3 p.m., and I’m headed to a pair of Patriot’s Day parties — one in a friend’s office that’s right above the Boston Marathon finish line, and another in a nearby restaurant on Boylston Street across from the Public Library.
I’m a broke local reporter, but there are fringe benefits to being in the media around here, the sexiest of which involve smorgasbords on occasions like Marathon Monday.

The so-called elite runners and many others have already finished, and lots of them are strolling through the Public Garden.
I’m thinking about how they’re less out of breath from hoofing 26-plus miles than I am from walking swiftly for a few minutes.
I can’t believe how easy this scrum is to navigate.
Despite the commotion, I’m making good time.
And then a teenage girl walks by, bawling, with an older woman guarding her closely.
She’s not the only one sobbing.
My music is interrupted by an incoming call beeping away. It’s my roommate in Jamaica Plain: “What the fuck is going on? Are you down there?”

Boston being Boston, I run into more than half-a-dozen friends and fellow reporters within minutes of shit smacking the fan.
There’s a former intern of mine who is live-streaming.
Then comes another media friend, followed by a national blogger, and a Herald cat.
All reporters on the scene—just a block from the explosions—are pooling info.
It’s clear that this is some sort of terrorist attack, and we all start asking questions, checking for the bad guys around corners.
Emergency responders are on ladders in the alley behind Boylston Street, helping people evacuate restaurants through second-story windows.

Faraone passions the post with flashbacks from Sept. 11, 2001, when he was in New York to help work on a city-council campaign. A most-revealing piece.

Also most-revealing — a story from the Chicago Tribune about two passengers removed from an United Airlines flight from Boston to Chicago on Tuesday, because of, yes indeed, “suspicious activity.”
Terror breeds terror:

The men, aboard early morning United Flight 636, were questioned by authorities and returned to the plane, only to be removed again after at least one passenger complained, passengers said after they arrived at O’Hare International Airport.
It was unclear whether the questioning had any connection with Monday’s bombings at the Boston Marathon.
The Boston Globe reported that the two passengers were later booked on a different flight.

Passenger Rich Siok, 31, of Elk Grove Village, said he didn’t initially notice the two men — one of whom was in his row.
To him, they looked like “average citizens.”
However, Siok, who also finished the marathon Monday, said he and others began to notice the men’s behavior after they were allowed back on the plane.
The men, who were rows apart, began talking in a foreign language and using head and hand gestures to communicate, he said.
“It was very nerve-wracking being on the flight,” Siok said.
“Everyone was already nervous that they were getting back on because we didn’t know what was going on.”

Siok said the atmosphere on the plane after the men were removed was “relieved.”
“Many of the marathon runners on the plane didn’t have places to be today,” Siok said.
“You know, it’s better safe than sorry.”

Even if safe is way-more dangerous?
One criminal still at large in the terrorist game is home-grown — George W. Bush, or George Jr. as I like to call him. One question has always puzzled me — how in the f*cking-world did Osama bin Laden know that George Jr. would take the World Trade Center horror and make it way-way worse?
Even in the face of a report issued yesterday that it’s “indisputable” the US working under George Jr. used torture, the little sonofabitch still thinks he’s the bee’s knees?
In an interview published in the Dallas Morning News over this past weekend, George Jr. is still struggling with reality (h/t C&L):

Taking measure of a driving philosophy behind his presidency, Bush said in an exclusive interview with The Dallas Morning News that discussion of his legacy should start with a fresh look at his record.
“The best way for people to understand what I meant by ‘compassionate conservative’ is to look at the programs we implemented and look at the results,” he said.
The spotlight will turn again to Bush next week, when the four other living U.S. presidents are slated to visit Dallas for the dedication of the center.
And Bush is ready to retake the public stage on his own terms.

Bush did not voice such comparisons to the tenure of Obama, who inherited an economy in a deep slide and who hasn’t been shy in blaming Bush for the mess.
“My only point,” Bush said, “is that when there’s an objective analysis of our fiscal record, people will say, ‘Well, that’s different than I thought.’”
..
Bush said he’s not interested in “finger pointing” or “self pity.”
But he was happy to share history from his view.
Asked what he might have done differently — with the benefit of hindsight — Bush listed the same regrets he mentioned upon leaving the White House: the failure to overhaul Social Security and immigration policy.
But he also noted that his presidency was shaped by the unexpected, such as the 9/11 attacks and Hurricane Katrina.
“Much of my presidency was defined by things that you didn’t necessarily want to have happen,” he said.

He likewise reiterated his support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying that he’s “confident the decisions were made the right way.”
Near the Iraq war’s 10th anniversary — as many stepped forward to revisit their criticism of the conflict — Bush made no mention of weapons of mass destruction, “enhanced interrogation techniques” or other controversies.
But he reflected on the “realities of the situation 10 years ago”: that the Iraq invasion had bipartisan support and that seeking regime change in Iraq had also been the policy under Clinton.
“It’s easy to forget what life was like when the decision was made,” Bush said.
Since he left office, Bush has been a punching bag for Obama, Democrats and even some Republicans.
But while he said “nobody likes to be criticized all the time,” he brushed aside the constant pummeling.
“I’m comfortable with what I did,” he said.
“I’m comfortable with who I am.”

He’s the absolute-only one.

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