House of Eratosthenes

Andy adroitly sums up what’s going on with Nidal Hasan. Not so much the man, not so much the crime, not so much the human tragedy that resulted, but the cognitive dissonance taking place within the skulls of the good folks who are supposed to be telling us what’s going on.

Faced with the obvious – that Hasan is a jihadist, an America-hating, Islamic murderer, the media still did their level best to paint him as the innocent victim. That wretched tactic having failed them, presumably because America is very quickly getting to the end of its patience with this shit, the media limbers up, pins its ankles behind its egos, and will be piling on so much evidence of Hasan’s guilt that the only natural reaction from apologists and pusillanimous hand jobbers the world over will be to blame, accuse, and denigrate the US Army for either being too stupid to detect it, or choosing not to stop it.

Another artful deflection of responsibility and reality by the sweatily throbbing, self-engorged media juggernaut.

All those seeking an example of what Andy is describing, need look no further than this exchange between Bill O’Reilly and Sally Quinn. It is quite unbelievable. But if you can somehow track down the audio, toss me a link wouldja? And give it a listen. Because man, that is even more unbelievable.

O’Reilly says she’s brilliant. Me, I’m wondering how in the world the woman gets out of bed and gets dressed in the morning. I don’t mean that to be insulting. I just find her method of thinking things out to be…well…how do you get anything done this way? Like strangling someone with a wet noodle.

O’REILLY: “Impact” segment tonight, the controversy over how to define Major Hasan continues. According to a new Rasmussen poll, 60 percent of Americans want the Fort Hood shooting investigated as a terrorist act. Just 27 percent think it was a criminal act to be dealt with in civilian court.

But in the media, it’s a different story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUINN: There’s been so much focus on the fact that he’s a Muslim. When the focus should be on the fact that the military did not pick up on the fact that this guy was emotionally disturbed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O’REILLY: Joining us now from D.C. is Sally Quinn, founder of “The Washington Post” feature on faith. So why can’t we do both here, Ms. Quinn? I want to find out.

QUINN: Actually.

O’REILLY: .about the Army and what they knew and why they didn’t take action. But why can’t we call the guy a Muslim terrorist because he is one, and investigate as well? I mean, you seem to have a problem with the Muslim terrorist designation.

QUINN: No, actually, I don’t. I — what I think is that right now, everybody is trying to simplify the situation. And it is extremely complicated. There are so many different factors involved. And we don’t know a lot.

O’REILLY: Okay, but.

QUINN: I mean the guy may well be a terrorist.

O’REILLY: I’m one of the guys.

QUINN: The way Timothy – yeah.

O’REILLY: I’m one of the guys trying to simplify.

QUINN: Right, okay.

O’REILLY: So I’m going to say how I see it and you say — you tell me where I’m wrong.

QUINN: Okay.

O’REILLY: Okay.

QUINN: Okay.

O’REILLY: Here you got a guy who is a troubled man. You agree?

QUINN: Right.

O’REILLY: Okay, troubled man . We start there. He gets a poor evaluation at Walter Reed, where he works prior to Fort Hood. Not doing his job very well. Transferred out to Texas.

Then they find out, the FBI does, that he’s emailing a big shot in al Qaeda in Yemen. Okay. So now we have a troubled man who’s interested in jihad. He’s interested in al Qaeda for some reason. All right? So far you with me?

QUINN: I’m there.

O’REILLY: Okay, I’m simple, I’m keeping it real simple.

QUINN: Yeah.

O’REILLY: Okay, so then for some reason, he blends the jihad with the troubledness, picks up a couple of guns, and murders 13 people and wounds 30 others. Okay. I am ascribing that to his jihad philosophy combined with whatever neurosis was eating him was eating him. Simple, right? Am I wrong?

QUINN: Well, actually, that’s very complicated.

O’REILLY: Why? What’s complicated about that?

QUINN: What you just said. No, well, because I mean, Timothy McVeigh was called a terrorist.

O’REILLY: And he is.

QUINN: And I don’t know whether that’s the right.

O’REILLY: Was.

QUINN: .yes, probably he was.

O’REILLY: He was. Terrorist act, you blow up an office building.

QUINN: Yeah.

O’REILLY: .and you kill people. It’s a terrorist act.

QUINN: This guy was clearly disturbed. He was clearly – I mean, jihad means many different things. You know, he was Muslim. Most Muslims believe that violence — they’re against violence. But there are a large number of Muslims who.

O’REILLY: But he was a Muslim interested in jihad.

QUINN: Yeah.

O’REILLY: He was a Muslim emailing al Qaeda. He was a Muslim screaming “allah akbar” when he was gunning people down. Come on. I don’t get why you guys, and I’m generalizing with a minute.

QUINN: Wait a minute. I’m not…

O’REILLY: I don’t get it. I don’t get why you don’t call it what it is. He’s a jihadist.

QUINN: Well, that may well be. And I do think that there should be a lot of investigation about this. Not some, but a lot. Starting with how did he get into medical school? How did he get through.

O’REILLY: The Army put him through school. He enlisted in the Army and they did everything for him.

QUINN: Why was he treating patients? Why were they not picking up on the fact that he was making speeches and saying that this was a war — that Iraq and Afghanistan were wars against Islam.

O’REILLY: All of that is valid.

QUINN: I mean, all of these. The guy had red flags coming out of his ears.

O’REILLY: Fine.

QUINN: So yeah.

O’REILLY: And we need to know that.

QUINN: Right.

O’REILLY: But you — you have a hard time saying the words “Muslim terrorist.” and so does Obama. He has a hard time saying it. I don’t know why you guys aren’t saying it. Why? Why?

QUINN: Well, I think, you know, first of all, there are different kinds of terrorists as I said…

O’REILLY: He’s a Muslim terrorist. What do you mean different kinds of terrorists? He kills people under the banner of jihad. That’s who he is.

QUINN: Right.

O’REILLY: What — look, what do you want him to come to your house with a strap-on bomb? The guy did it for jihadist reasons. Allah akbar. That’s the slogan. Emails al Qaeda. Ms. Quinn, you’re a brilliant woman. And I’m not saying that facetiously. You are. This is – – a third grader gets this. And you’re resisting it. I want to know why.

QUINN: No, Bill, you’re making a very good case. I mean, he’s a Muslim. And he may well end up being a terrorist. We don’t know for sure.

O’REILLY: I know for sure.

QUINN: Okay.

O’REILLY: 90 percent of the people watching me know for sure.

QUINN: Right.

O’REILLY: I don’t know why you don’t know for sure. What else do you need?

QUINN: Well, I mean, you know, you can call the guy who blew up – you know, who shot up the Holocaust museum a terrorist.

O’REILLY: Did he yell “allah akbar?” If he yelled “allah akbar” and he emailed an al Qaeda in Yemen, I’d call him that, Ms. Quinn.

QUINN: Okay, he’s a Muslim terrorist.

(LAUGHTER)

O’REILLY: Thank you. Sally Quinn, everybody . We appreciate it. A long road but we got there.

Yay, he got her to say it.

Yay.

This is shocking and unreal. If you wrote it up as fiction, no publisher would touch it. But here we are.

Update: Thanks to Louz, here is the embedded video.

That wretched tactic having failed them, presumably because America is very quickly getting to the end of its patience with this shit…

ALL of us in America, Andy? Wishful thinking. Yeah, we on the Right have been calling a spade a spade for years, especially since Sept 11th. But I personally see little evidence that the leftmost one-third to one-quarter of the political spectrum…is the least bit interested in pulling the dogs off those dangerous Christians and right-wingers who wave signs at rallies demanding lower taxes and control of their own health insurance.

Remember Andy (and Morgan)…the secular Left has a certain marriage-of-conveinience with jihadists. It’s a bit like the deal-with-the-devil that the Allies made with the USSR back in the early years of World War II, because the two sides had a common enemy.

In our case, both groups hate Judeo-Christian culture, tradition, and its adherents, more than they do each other. One of the many tragedies in all this. is that once this nation has been turned into yet another socialist mudpuddle, no longer having the resources to root out terrorists in its midst (much less fight aggressive wars against same on the far side of the world)…the jihadis will turn on the leftists and slaughter them all.

The only bright spot is that the US – for now, anyways – seems to have a bit more of a survival instinct than its European brethren. And hey, you could yet be right. Wouldn’t it be great if the murders of those servicemen at least served as a wake-up call to get rid of the political correctness in the military and other parts of our political culture? The mere fact that this subject is being discussed in the media of late is an encouraging sign.

I saw a news item today over on foxnews.com that our government is preparing to seize several pieces of property on the grounds that they’re being operated by front groups for the Iranian government. Another good sign. Chilling, however, is the revelation that one of the four properties is right here in Sacramento.
- cylarz | 11/13/2009 @ 01:21
Here is the video I watched on this yesterday.
- louz | 11/13/2009 @ 06:51
Thank you, louz. And interested link-clickers will see my word was kept. The transcript doesn’t quite do justice to the sheer lunacy.
- mkfreeberg | 11/13/2009 @ 07:21
Never forget that Sally Quinn became a columnist on the strength of her sleeping with Ben Bradlee while she was his secretary – another “feminist” who earned her prominence the Old Fashioned Way.

And cylarz, excellent point on the secular Left/Jihadi connection.
- rob | 11/13/2009 @ 08:52
Wishful thinking? Sure, I’ll take the hit on that. A little optimism and faith in my fellow Americans serves me better in this lousy Seattle weather than the usual doomsday cynicism, which is evident in the other 90% of my post.

I’d say a 90/10 cynicism to optimism ratio is safe and healthy – darn near miraculous, really – for a conservative in Seattle, no?
- Andy | 11/13/2009 @ 09:42
And because we know Morgan likes his bumper stickers, I have one to offer:

Mainstream Media – We’ll Crumble Your Democracy As Soon As We Get Finished With This One
- Andy | 11/13/2009 @ 12:00
I think Andy’s optimism is well placed. The only government institution held in general high regard by a majority of the public is the military. The people won’t like seeing this honored institution, one that holds generations of their family member’s service, egregiously attacked by the media or Washington. They will want it honestly held to account if its policies were complicit in keeping a terrorist in its midst.

I fear the media and our government are trying to paint Hasan as demonstrably insane to dismiss the obvious conclusion that he is an islamic terrorist. First, I’d say the two aren’t mutually exclusive. Second, I’d argue that we still fail (particularly the leftist media and many in government) to grasp the simple fact that the men who commit these acts of terror in the name of Allah and their religion are not radicals. They are devout sunni muslims following their faith in word and deed. This is a strain of islam followed by 15% of muslims and we need to start dealing with the reality that they will act on their beliefs in violent ways.
- Daphne | 11/13/2009 @ 14:13
Daphne –

Excellent points – and the first thing everybody needs to do is to loudly and often shout down this “Muslims can’t be expected to go to war against other Muslims” crap.

Muslims have been murdering other Muslims in their millions for lo these many centuries. What the hell do you think all that Sunni-Shiite mess is about?
- rob | 11/13/2009 @ 19:33

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“Faced With the Obvious”Thursday, November 12th, 2009

“Faced With the Obvious”
Thursday, November 12th, 2009