"We angry white males were right about the sniper"

By Mark Steyn in the London Sunday Telegraph.

A reader has alerted me to the lastest work of genius from the world's finest columnist:

.... On Thursday, after being informed that the two suspects were a black Muslim called Muhammad and his illegal-immigrant Jamaican sidekick, The New York Times nevertheless reported in its early editions that the pair were being sought for "possible ties to 'skinhead militia' groups". The Feds had already released a photo of Muhammad looking like one of the less goofy members of the Jackson Five and, though one should never rush to stereotype, it seems unlikely that a black Muslim with big hair would have many "ties" to skinhead militias.

But in the early hours of Thursday morning, the Times wasn't ready to give in: C'mon, there's gotta be some angry white male National Rifle Association Right-wing redneck Second Amendment gun-nut neo-Nazi militia types in here somewhere, preferably living in a compound Janet Reno can come out of retirement to surround and torch.

Sadly not. Instead, we have a Muslim convert. A Muslim convert who last year discarded the name "Williams" and adopted a new identity as "Muhammad". A Muslim convert called Muhammad who publicly expressed his approval of al Qa'eda's September 11 attacks. A pro-al Qa'eda Muslim convert called Muhammad who marked the first anniversary of 9/11, to the exact minute, by visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles in Camden, New Jersey. Two minutes after he left the building, the cops arrived to deal with a mysterious bomb scare.

What are we expert profilers to make of such bewilderingly contradictory signs? Well, obviously, those of us in the media should not to be too hasty in connecting the dots. Instead, we should rush to disconnect them. So CNN's Aaron Brown found it easier to call Mr Muhammad "Mr Williams", a formulation likely to be encouraged by the guy's lawyers, once they're in place. And my local radio news described him as "an ex-soldier" and "an African-American male".

Anyone spot the missing category? You can discern the preferred narrative: an African-American male from a deprived background driven psycho by military culture. But he left the army years ago and his transformation into a killer seems to be more or less coincidental with his transformation into Mr Muhammad....

Did you get that? Let's play the best part again.

Well, obviously, those of us in the media should not to be too hasty in connecting the dots. Instead, we should rush to disconnect them.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/26/02 10:13:05 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

Diocese of Pittsburgh Homily Guide

My diocese published the other day a "homily guide":

The Diocese of Pittsburgh has published a major resource linking the liturgical themes of the Sunday readings and feast days to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

To Proclaim the Gospel, a 228-page homily guide, will be presented by Bishop Donald W. Wuerl, bishop of Pittsburgh, to the diocese’s 319 priests and 41 deacons during the annual Clergy Convocation held October 22 and 23....

The local paper had an article on it yesterday, which I forgot to mention. Nota Bene linked to an on-line version:

.... Preaching and teaching about doctrine is sorely needed because it has been neglected as the church emphasized social justice and personal spirituality since Vatican II in the 1960s, said the Rev. Kris D. Stubna, the diocese's secretary for education....

I haven't seen it, but I'm already willing to say Bravo!

P.S. The Roman Catechism — a.k.a. the Catechism of the Council of Trent — was written specifically for priests as an aid to preaching and teaching the faith.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/26/02 03:13:20 PM
Categorized as Religious.

"The resolution we should have passed last year"

By Aaron Nagano, September 25, 2002.

See it at The Last Best Hope; it's a gem:

The People of the United States of America do hereby find and declare the following:

WHEREAS the United States is guilty of unspeakable cruelty for its defense of the Muslim countries of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in 1991;

WHEREAS the United States’ involvement in Bosnia and Kosovo to protect Muslims from genocide, despite having no strategic interests in that region whatsoever, was in truth a cruel act against the Muslim world; ....

RESOLVED that the United States shall respond to September 11 not by escalating the cycle of violence but by immediately convening a United Nations Conference on American Crimes Against All Humanity in Syria, whose current ruler has shown his benevolence by calling for the deaths of all Jews, to examine the feelings and anger of terrorists, to apologize for provoking them with its promotion of the insensitive values of liberty and democracy, and to discuss reparations to them for making them upset.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/26/02 02:50:38 PM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.

News Filters on the Snipers

A reader writes:

I'm glad that you noticed and noted that the media has avoided the harsh truths of the backgrounds and mentalities of the snipers. They keep emphasizing the military background of Muhammed and, as you said, the Jamaican nationality of Malvo. One is a black Muslim, probably a follower of Farrahkan, and the other an illegal alien.

And, of course, the gun is the problem; not the evil men who pulled its trigger.

That they are terrorists is beyond doubt -- they killed to instill terror in order to try to force the police into conceding to their money demands. Whether they had any ties to other terrorists is not known at this time. Did either of them work in Tacoma? Where did they get their money during their long spree? Who is this Nathanial Osborne who owned a car with them? Maybe he was just a dupe or maybe it's more sinister than that.

My husband said that if it hadn't been for political correctness, the police person chasing Malvo in Montgomery would have shot at him when he continued to flee after shooting the cashiers. We might been spared the horror that followed.

The only hopeful sign is that they seemed to be in it for the money. If they hadn't contacted the police, they might have been able to continue on their rampage for a long time.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/26/02 11:23:46 AM
Categorized as Media.

The Mighty Barrister Speaks

"Somebody hit the snooze button after 9/11. This is our wake up call."

The Mighty Barrister made some very good, and very troubling, points yesterday about the Beltway Sniper events:

.... Eleven people died. Four people were grievously wounded. A region, perhaps an entire nation, was held in the grip of terror once again for 22 days. People stayed home. Children were kept out of school. We flooded a tips hotline with 17,000 calls. Thousands of police officers, detectives, and other law enforcement personnel were completely and utterly at a loss to catch the culprits, who constantly teased, poked and prodded the police (which, in the end, turned out to be their Waterloo). Here's my thought:

ALL of this damage, all of this terror, was accomplished by a homeless man living out of a car and his 17 year-old sidekick....

Later:

.... Somebody hit the snooze button after 9/11. THIS is our wake up call.

Don't know if anyone blogged about this. I haven't heard any Limbaugh commentary or news reports. I haven't seen any op/ed essays on this topic, either. If you haven't seen them yet, I predict you will.

My question is this: How many wake up calls are we going to need?

P.S. See also his fine blog on Leadership.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/26/02 10:07:08 AM
Categorized as Social/Cultural.