Posted on 07/23/2005 3:40:37 PM PDT by bayourod
It is probably not a good idea in terms of job security to publicly call your boss a horse's ass. So have some sympathy for Will Adams, spokesman for Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo. He was asked by reporters to explain the asinine thing the congressman said last week. Adams told them Tancredo is just a "free thinker." By which standard Michael Jackson is just a tad eccentric. Or haven't you heard? Tancredo thinks maybe the United States should bomb Mecca. You know Mecca. City in Saudi Arabia. Birthplace of the prophet Muhammad. Holiest shrine of Islam, a religion practiced by one of every six people on Earth. That's the place a U.S. congressman thinks maybe we should lob some ordnance at.
Tancredo made this contribution to the national dialogue last week during a talk show on WFLA, a TV station in Orlando, Fla. Host Pat Campbell had asked how we should respond if U.S. cities are ever struck by terrorists using nuclear devices. "Well," said Tancredo, "what if you said something like, if this happens in the United States, and we determine that it is the result of extremist, fundamentalist Muslims, you know, you could take out their holy sites."
"You're talking about bombing Mecca," said Campbell.
"Yeah," said Tancredo.
Predictably, Tancredo's suggestion has been a little controversial. That is, if you can call statements of condemnation stretching from Moscow to the State Department to Ankara, Turkey, "a little controversial."
Tancredo has refused to apologize, but he did issue a written "clarification," which said in part, "I do not advocate this. Much more thought would need to be given to the potential ramifications of such a horrific response."
Actually, you don't need to give any thought to the ramifications of such an action, because they should be self-evident to anyone smarter than the average hamster. We would become an international pariah. Muslims would hate us with renewed fervor, and Osama bin Laden would thank us for writing his recruitment material.
In other words, the same situation we have now, except worse. Much, much, much worse.
And I wonder: Am I the only who feels that lately - lately being defined as since Sept. 11, 2001 - the nation seems overrun by yahoos?
Granted, the presence of yahoos in daily life is not a new torment. They have always been among us, the simplemindedness of their thinking exceeded only by the volume at which they express it. Think Cliff Clavin, the cogs of his brain lubricated by beer, holding forth from his stool at the end of the bar. Of course, the only thing you had to do to avoid Cliff was to stay out of Cheers.
But the 9/11 attacks have unleashed yahooism on an unprecedented scale. Cliff is no longer confined to his bar stool. Under the name Mona Charen, he once wrote a newspaper column advocating the expulsion of Muslims from America. Under the name Rush Limbaugh, he has a radio talk show on which he compared the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib to a fraternity prank. Under the name Ann Coulter, he calls for the racial profiling of travelers from the Middle East. And under the name Tom Tancredo, he is apparently a member of Congress.
What he doesn't get - what yahoos usually don't get - is that things that seem to make sense while you're hoisting a few rarely hold up in the sober light of day.
Tancredo has cast his refusal to apologize as a blow against political correctness. Which is silly. One can be plain-spoken without being reckless, blunt without being stupid, straight-forward without sounding like a fool.
Assuming, that is, you have something worthwhile to say. Tancredo evidently does not. Somebody tell him his beer is getting warm.
"A fuel-air bomb just to wipe out the big borg cube. That way we can savour the moment on camera."
I like that. And then we should go back and do it again the next day so they know we meant it.
For the most part, Leonard is a good boy but every now and then he fancies himself somewhat of a pundit and he unleashes his sling in the last-known trajectory of a soft target.
Most times he misses, his bosses move his desk a bit farther from the window and he goes back to his sandbox.
I doubt that Tancredo has ever been concerned with the perpetually disaffected and I doubt that he is any wiser of his own fall from popularity that Mr. Pitts is.
"A fuel-air bomb just to wipe out the big borg cube. That way we can savour the moment on camera."
I like that. And then we should go back and do it again the next day just so everybody knows we meant it.
Responding in kind? Responding in kind to what?
Mecca hasn't bombed us.
If you want to exact revenge on people simply because they are Muslims, why don't you just go to your local convience and blow the head off the clerk.
Why would Bayou ever come up biased against Tancredo. I mean he stands for all the same things Bayou does right? Oh I forgot. Tancredo does not like unrestricted immigration from Mexico. Therefore Bayou does not like anything about Tancredo. Makes sense to me.
I don't agree with pitt's rhetoric or tancredo's.
All tancredo had to say was to say to the question of, God forbid, a nuclear attack on the US by islamofascists is that the reaction would be quick and overwhelming, but no Mr. loudmouth cheap headline grabber tancredo, gives the islamofacists propaganda points.
Bayourod you just don't get it....
Old Leonard did have one good column in his career:
http://www.ornery.org/essays/2001-09-12-1.html
Host Pat Campbell had asked how we should respond if U.S. cities are ever struck by terrorists using nuclear devices."
Kill them all
Muslims would hate us with renewed fervor
What muslims?
Actually, you don't need to give any thought to the ramifications of such an action, because they should be self-evident to anyone smarter than the average hamster."
Where does this leave LEONARD PITTS and bayourod?
Chicago to me is as much a holy site as is Mecca. If US cities/industrial complexes are hit with nuclear bombs the Saudis, Syrian, Pakistanis and Iranians better be shivering in their boots or sandals. If you want to coddle them than coddle them. I vote for a direct response. Do you have any idea what would happen if major cities and industrial centers were wasted? The world's economy would face a major depression. It would take years to rebuild our city and industrial centers. Would China offer us a Marshall Plan? Would France or Germany? My God, what are you smoking? They have a choice. They can control their fascist tendencies or attack us. If they decide to attack let it be known we will not go down alone.
"please don't upset the muslims, they're crazy, vengeful and murderous, and I don't want them to kill me."
I think we should walk around the world being very very careful not to piss off any islamic terrorists. sarc
Or any pro illegal immigration idiots.
One out of six is a pretty dismal performance for a 'religion' which removes your head if you don't join up and removes your head if you quit. My guess is that ninety percent of those whose misfortune it was to be born into Islam would walk away tomorrow if they did not fear for their lives and the lives of their families. Islam is a criminal enterprise tenuously held together by the preponderance of ignorance and the threat of violence.
Great post and great title for it Bayou.
Yeah..
You might have a Cultural Jihad.
:)
Capital idea!!!
1. They only understand force and power.
2. Maybe the "90%" of mohammedans who aren't pro-terror will get off their chicken-sh*t a$$e$ and reign in the kooks.
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