Sorry to write about the same topic two nights in a row, but it’s pretty big news; people have been killed in several countries, all sorts of dramatic videos show smoke billowing from buildings in cities we’ve barely heard of, American flags are being burned and, in Lebanon, an angry mob trashed a KFC.
Kirk vs. Kang, 1968
So, it’s worth examining why, but also it’s a great excuse to link to this article from the Onion. (Do not open this when there are children in the room. If you are a child, do not open this when adults are in the room.)
Michele Bachmann thinks it’s all about how Barack Obama is weak and appeasing (as opposed to manly man Marcus, I suppose), and it’s radical Islamists who are out to control the world and had nothing to do with a silly little film.
I kind of wonder whether it’s about the film, myself. As the Klingon captain said to the little, shiny, floating, pure energy creature “HAHAHA! We need no urging to hate humans!” Substitute “Americans” for “humans” (in fact, you could also substitute “Westerners” “Jews” “Infidels” and people who wear shorts in the summer) and there you have it. They didn’t really need a film to set them off.
Bachmann also pointed out that it happened on September 11th. Which is quite a coincidence, but possible. It’s also quite a coincidence that September 11th happened on September 11th, 28 years to the day after the CIA coup that killed Allende (and tens of thousands of others) and installed Pinochet as the dictator of Chile.
So, maybe September 11th has just become sort of an international holiday of violence, or anti-Americanism. Maybe the film was just the McGuffin.
As Ross Perot once said “even a blind pig (that would be Michele Bachmann in this analogy) finds an acorn once in a while.”
I was reading the comment thread over at Huffpo and read one from some guy, probably a Paulican, who was going on about how it was a false flag operation, a COINTELPRO made film to stir up tensions in the middle east so that Halliburton, flying the American flag, can sweep in and dominate the Middle East good and proper, because even though that whole Iraq thing didn’t work out so well, this time it’s bound to for sure. My first thought was “this guy’s paranoid.”
My second thought was “this guy could be right.”
In any event, I think blaming the filmmaker is ridiculous. He may well be an offensive, irresponsible, ignorant bigot. (He’s certainly no great film director.) But he’s not the one burning down embassies and killing people.
The other conclusion I draw from this story is that Obama is handling it about right. He’s not stoking the fear. Beefing up security, working with local authorities to make arrests, stuff like that. Mostly, not bombing anybody or making hollow, blustery threats.
Hopefully, the whole thing will blow over in a week or two.
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