Saturday, September 18, 2010

Thinking It Through

Jonah:
Is Michael Bloomberg to blame for the deaths of the 18 Muslim men in Indian-controlled Kashmir who rioted over reports that someone in America burned the Koran?

Let's think it through.
Uh-oh. See what Jonah wants to say without saying it is that had Bloomberg put the kibosh on The Dreaded Not-Mosque Built On The Piled-Up Skulls Of YOUR GRANDMOTHERS then the book-burning adventure wouldn't have taken place and gee whillikers and so on and so forth. So, can we string Bloomberg up?
Alas, no. While we should criticize him for his thumbless grasp of church-state issues and his megalomaniacal incompetence, he's not to blame for the actions of others. And it isn't fair to hold people legally accountable for the evil or misguided deeds of others.
Thank you Jonah: not only can you not blame Bloomberg, but you can't even jail him. Nevertheless: AHA! Pastor Terry Jones is off the hook too!
And the same basically goes for Jones. His plan to burn the Koran was stupid, irresponsible and repugnant, but it's not his fault that there are a significant number of Muslim men who are not only ready but eager to riot and kill in response to insults to Islam.

If you deny this, you are basically denying the humanity of Muslims.
Got that? If you opposed the book-burning because you thought it might make trouble, YOU ARE THE REAL MONSTER! Because, you know, you can't distinguish between people who go bananas over nothing and everyone else who would not go bananas over nothing. They're all Muslims dontcha know. Also they're all monsters because BECAUSE.

But maybe he has a point: I cannot tell the difference between the two Republicans below:

12 comments:

mikey said...

Actually, under the current circumstances, Jonah actually deserves a little credit. He's still using code words and dogwhistles while the rest on the wingnut community has come out of the closet of forbidden hate and just let their bigot flag fly.

Of course, it's also possible that Johan just didn't get the memo. I suspect he'll discover at some point that the bandwagon he's on was abandoned in 2008 and he'll trundle off in pursuit of the new one...

Big Bad Bald Bastard said...

And it isn't fair to hold people legally accountable for the evil or misguided deeds of others.

Unless, of course, they are Muslim.

He's still using code words and dogwhistles while the rest on the wingnut community has come out of the closet of forbidden hate and just let their bigot flag fly.

He still wants to get invited to parties at the homes of polite people.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

He still wants to get invited to parties at the homes of polite people.

He'll get the memo, just like Rove did.
~

Hamish Mack said...

I'm calling shenanigans, the sign has no speeling mistakes on it.
Goldberg has shot himself in the arse here. He absolves Ahmadinejad since he is repugnant etc. but it's not his fault if nutjobs act out about what he says.
Why does Goldberg hate America???

tigris said...

Let's think it through.

I can smell the smoke from here.

mikey said...

Actually, I'm somewhat disappointed in me. When I visualized Jonah discovering the bandwagon was leaving without him, and him chasing it down the middle of the road (whoa. Crissy Hynde reference to jonah goldberg? That's just not natural), I became truly gobsmacked, or perhaps even more smacked than that, and the best verb I could come up with was 'trundle'. I'm certain there are much better choices...

Smut Clyde said...

Goldberg is very proud of the coinage "thumbless grasp" and uses it regularly once a Friedman Unit. I counted seven different occurrences in his oeuvre and then lost track. He should sue himself for plagiarism, or self-parody, or something.

In this case, what was wrong with Bloomberg's understanding of state / church separation? That he recognised its existence?

ckc (not kc) said...

...I tried "graspless thumb", but it wasn't much good except for sitting on

Smut Clyde said...

When you scroll down far enough through the Google hits for "thumbless grasp", you finally find one where it's Rich Lowry picking up on the phrase in respectful imitiation of Jonah. Which is kind of sad.

W/v is "phrugl", which is apparently what kids today with their L33T-speak are saying instead of "thrifty".

mikey said...

He's the worst kind of ideologue, in that he knows what he's supposed to be for, and even more importantly, can recognize that which he's supposed to be against. His problem is he hardly ever understands WHY, the underlying ideological architecture that would lead one to that specific conclusion. In recognition of his own shortcomings, he avoids addressing the developmental steps in his thought process, leading him to a kind of eternal "Step 2: ?????" sensibility that brings him so much mockery...

Substance McGravitas said...

Unless, of course, they are Muslim.

I should have identified that more clearly in the post, but yeah, obviously. Freedom For The Guys I Like is his position and he's trying to make a Freedom Is For Everyone argument in support of it.

guitarist manqué said...

Anybody that calls Bloomberg incompetent is just not paying attention. In Johan's world it means 'not doing what I want him to'. Like money, Bloomberg has competence in big sacks full.

I can't forget the photo (it must have been in Granta) of the suburban Mass. Boy Scout troop that had Paul Theroux and little Mikey Bloomberg. It looked like they both got a lot of wedgies.

wv: ramisi no, harder, harder