Open Thread
I am truly heartbroken
Yesterday’s massacre at Fort Hood was a sobering moment. I am truly heartbroken. For our brave soldiers, for the obvious decline of our country, and for the cowardice of those whose only interest is their own public image and political capital.
I am embarrassed by our President, who, at 5PM offered only “shout-outs” and stuck to the script of his teleprompter; and when the tragedy at Fort Hood was finally mentioned, it was in an offhand manner that seemed to be one of those things you hope nobody would remember afterward, kind of like the warnings on some drugs, where “possible death” is thrown in between “restless leg syndrome” and “erections lasting four or more hours”.
I had planned on writing something so much more poignant today; so much more substantive than this. But my heart just won’t let me.
I did, however, find someone who articulates my feelings so much better than I am able to at this moment.
This courageous lady says it best:
What a horrible, horrible tragedy. I am offended to hear commentators say that the shooter suffered from PTSD from hearing stories by others. No doubt he was disturbed, but no way he had PTSD. If listening to soldiers was a traumatic stress, he needed to get out of his job.
Obama mentioned (a couple of times) that he would keep the soldiers and families in his thoughts and prayers. I wonder if anyone in the WH feels funny when they hear him praying to himself?
“…he needed to get out of his job. ”
He’s been trying for several years.
should say, apparently had been trying:
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/722108–suspected-army-base-shooter-had-troubled-history
“In an interview with The Washington Post, Hasan’s aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church, Va., said he had been harassed about being a Muslim in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and he wanted out of the Army.
“Some people can take it and some people cannot,” she said. “He had listened to all of that and he wanted out of the military.”
She said he had sought a discharge from the military for several years, and even offered to repay the cost of his medical training.
A spokesman for the Army, Lt. Col. George Wright, told the Post he could not confirm that Hasan had sought a discharge.
Yes, he had been trying, but he also had a contract to fulfill and the Army does not take contracts lightly–nor can it. You let one person out because they have second thoughts, suddenly everybody is getting out. War is a terrible thing and nobody really wants to do it.
An officer’s means of entering the Army is different from an enlisted man’s entry. I imagine he was direct-commissioned based on his medical schooling and degree. He owes the Army time for money spent. Additionally, doctors can make more money civilian side than they can in uniform so the Army usually has a shortage of medical professionals. They try to hang on to every one.
This guy got a medical degree. He was smart enough to know who are enemies are as well as his obligations to the country. He should have never joined if he did not want to fulfill his contract.
His superiors should have put him through a psych eval to see if he was just a nut or if he was ready to crack. In that sense, there was a leadership failure, but the responsibility for his actions rests squarely on his shoulders.
Personal accountability is sorely lacking in today’s PC society.
I’m not suggesting he’s not to blame, but you must admit, a muslim who likes to proselytize his religion to people injured by muslims, who gives speeches on the Quran, who is said to have taken extra weapons training, who posts pro-jihadi comments on the internet, and who has been saying he wants out of the military because of his sympathy for his fellow muslims might have set off a few red flags for anyone paying attention.
They could have given him the less than honorable discharge, mandated that he pay back the cost of his education, and sent his sorry ass on its way.
One imagines they are now wishing they had done so.
I am sure they wish they had pegged him. At the same time, political correctness is a plague on the Army. Funny how I would not be able to proselytize my faith . . .
But muslims are “in” and racial profiling is “out”. I would not be surprised to find out that his immediate supervisors did notify their supervisors and were told to deal with it.
I was in the Army, I understand the culture and I can see how this was not prevented — I am not trying to excuse it, but I can see it. Hindsight is 20/20 and no one wants to believe that their co-worker is so unhinged that he would shoot them. I also suspect that the psychiatric community in which he worked blinded themselves and would not allow themselves to diagnose him.
“political correctness is a plague on the Army.”
I have seen some stupid things like telling women marines to wear headscarves http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,539660,00.html?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a4:g4:r4:c0.000000:b0:z5, but this is still the same army in which rape of women soldiers is twice that of the civilian population http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3848/, the one that boots out openly gay soldiers. They’re only pc where women and gays are screwed.
Yes, they protected him Mockazine. I wonder how they will be sleeping this week.
I have little feeling for this man. His own parents told him not to take the money and join. I am highly troubled by the people that supervised him. I wonder what Krauthammer would say about this.
Mockazine…..I am sure it is more of not walking the talk on Beelzabama’s part.
“Say What You Will….It Feels So Good”
PC has gone too far. This man was a mess from medical school days. He should have been shown the door as soon as he began to legitimize beheadings in the Koran.
There are no words Anthony. Truly, if there were, you of all would have found them.
We must all look to tomorrow and know that we will get through this without our leader. I prefer him not to lead us during this period of sorrow.
Orlando office shooting, 2 dead, at least 6 more wounded, shooter still at large.
Jason Rodriguez, former employee let go in June 2007 from architectural and transportation engineering firm for “performance issues”, still on loose
apprehended
now saying 1 dead not 2, rest of injured stable
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/11/pelosi_breaks_pledge_to_put_he.asp
I am sure that you will be shocked, but Pelosi is NOT going to put the bill online for 72 hours before the vote
…as the Nation and the world waited to hear the President’s response to this horrific incident — what light he could shed on who did it and the motive, as well, of course, as an expression on behalf of all Americans of sympathy and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones — the commander in chief’s focus was elsewhere.
(Michael Moore’s virulently anti-Bush film “Fahrenheit 911” damningly transformed that brief moment in a Florida classroom into an agonizingly protracted period of indecision and cynical calculation. I mused on air whether Moore and his ilk would now find similar fault with The One, whose initial public reaction to the Fort Hood attack made W’s to 9/11 seem a model of swift decisiveness, even though the former had had several hours to take aboard reports of the attack and to decide how to address it. Fat chance.)
http://www.newsmax.com/frank_gaffney/Fort_Hood_Obama/2009/11/06/282652.html
http://rawstory.com/2009/11/calif-power-company-seeks-higher-rates-energy-efficient-customers/
California power company wants to raise rates 5% on its most efficient customers in order to subsidize its biggest users, those residential customers who use between 131% and 300% percent of average customers– you know, rich people.
“It’s necessary to avoid the continued shifting of costs associated with utility services to a limited set of residential customers,” PG&E spokesperson told blogger Heather Duthie.
More socialism for the wealthy, aka plutocracy.
Somehow, The Sibyl seemed the most appropriate place to post this sad news …
the fuckers passed the bill …
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/07/open-thread-pelosicare-vote-coming-tonight/
Be sure to see the surreal, yet strangely fitting video featured: “Chocolate Bunny Kill”
I stayed up to watch too, it was a disgusting spectacle.
Couldn’t do it. Too disgusting to watch.
My only question is:
Was the Fort Hood shooting a distraction from the bill? Or was the bill a distraction from the Ft. Hood shooting?
Can’t tell with these assholes.
both are a distraction from something else?
woot, say thank you to Catalan:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091105102729.htm
“Thank you, Catalan” (
)
Good find, Nom
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126057.html
Israel proposes to house illegal migrants in work camps.
http://theburningplatform.com/economy/harvey-organs-have-you-already-ordered-your-tungsten-bar
chinese find tungsten in their gold bricks
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/143891/rachel_maddow%3A_corporations_are_%22child_labor-endorsing%2C_pro-slavery_freaks%22_for_trying_to_skirt_trade_laws?page=entire
I don’t say she needs to get off probation but one must admit this is a step in the right direction
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/13/eminent
“Homeowners in New London, Connecticut took on the city’s leaders after they announced plans to condemn all of the homes in one neighborhood to make way for a private development project for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. The city said it would bring in thousands of jobs. After a 2005 Supreme Court ruling against the homeowners, the entire neighborhood was bulldozed. This week Pfizer announced it is shutting down its research center.”