Charlie Hebdo: Dealing With Difference

(From Jeremy Schultz, via Reuters, used w/o permission.)
("Police entering the supermarket."
(Reuters))

Here we go again. This time it's in Paris, France.

My guess is that body count will keep going up.

I'll skip the conventional 'it is the fault of the Jews/Muslims/police/whatever' rhetoric.

Oddly enough, cherry-picking facts from recent events could be twisted into a claim that Paris police declared war on a kosher supermarket.

I do not think this was a Zionist conspiracy to assassinate insufficiently-kosher Jews, or a plot by McDonalds to take over the kosher food industry, by the way.

Death at a Kosher Supermarket

"French forces kill newspaper attack suspects, hostages die in second siege"
John Irish, Emmanuel Jarry and Ingrid Melander; Reuters (January 9, 2015)

"Two brothers suspected of a bloody attack on the offices of French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo were killed when police stormed their hideout on Friday, while a second siege ended with the deaths of four hostages.

"The violent end to the simultaneous stand-offs followed a police operation of unprecedented scale as France tackled one of the worst threats to its internal security in decades. The heavy loss of life over three consecutive days also risked fuelling anti-immigrant voices in the country and elsewhere in the West.

"Officials said Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said, both in their thirties, died when anti-terrorist forces moved in on a print shop in the small town of Dammartin-en-Goele, northeast of Paris, where the chief suspects in Wednesday's attack had been holed up. The hostage they had taken was safe, an official said....

"...Minutes later police broke the second siege at a Jewish supermarket in eastern Paris. A police union source said four hostages had died there along with a gunman, believed to have had links to the same Islamist group as the Kouachi brothers, who was holding them.

"HOSTAGES RUSHED OUT

"News footage of the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in the Vincennes district showed dozens of heavily armed police officers massed outside of two entrances. The assault began with gunfire and a loud explosion at the door, after which hostages were rushed out...."

The folks who murdered Charlie Hebdo staff cartoonists Charb, Cabu, Honoré, Tignous and Wolinski; economist Bernard Maris; and two police officers on duty at the magazine; may have believed they were lions on Islam, defending their faith against blasphemers.

Outside their fan base, my guess is that they've added more fuel to the argument that Islam and the 21st century do not mix well.

Islam in the Information Age

"...During the attack the gunmen were heard to shout Allahu akbar, 'the Prophet is avenged', ... ^{[30][38][39][40]} President François Hollande described it as a 'terrorist attack of the most extreme barbarity'.^[41] The three attackers were identified as Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both French, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, whose nationality is unknown...."
(Charlie Hebdo, Wikipedia [emphasis mine])

This week's lions of Islam apparently had a reason for murdering eight folks at Charlie Hebdo. That's the November 3, 2011 issue's cover. I gather that the issue was "guest-edited" by Muhammad, and depicted Muhammad saying: "100 lashes of the whip if you don't die laughing."

Then, in September of 2012, Charlie Hebdo ran an issue with nude caricatures of Mohammad. That was after other lions of Islam killed folks at U.S. embassies in the Middle East. Those attacks were presumably a response to an anti-Islamic film: "Innocence of Muslims."

I run into folks who rant about some threat to their beliefs — based on what they read in The Onion, an American digital media company and news satire organization.

I've read a few Onion pieces: and can understand how someone with a negligible sense of humor and stunted imagination might mistake their satire for 'real' news.

But I don't think killing Onion staff would be a sensible way to express displeasure.

The good news, I suppose, is that Charlie Hebdo went this long without a lethal attack.

I do not think that the French government will respond to this week's events by suspending their Parliament, declaring France an Islamic state, and giving French citizens 24 hours to convert or die.

It's quite possible that Muslims will continue to enjoy whatever rights they share with the rest of the citizenry: but after this, I don't think their popularity will increase among the non-Muslims.

Dealing With Difference: or Not

Being a Catholic in America, I know a little about living in a country where one's faith is not universally respected.

Chick Publications occasionally publishes another warning against Catholic beliefs.

I'm not gleeful about that, or the continuing popularity of Maria Monk's perennial bestseller.

But I wouldn't kill anyone to express my disapproval: not even if I felt like it. I'm a Catholic, murder is against the rules, and that's another topic.

Related posts, not entirely in this blog:

• "Remembering 9/11, Living in a Big World"
  (September 11, 2014)
• ""Displaced Aggression:" Terrorism, Culture, and Assumptions"
  (December 1, 2013)
  Particularly
  • Sincere, Maybe: Justified, No
  • Dealing With Difference
  • From the Days of Abram to Cable TV and Beer in One Generation
• "Using a Machete in a Global Civilization"
  (May 23, 2013)
• "Religious Freedom, Niemöller, and Muslims in America"
  (April 7, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Why the Rights of Muslims Matter to This Catholic
• "Jesus Christ, Beer, Tobacco, Idols and Indian Law"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (February 22, 2010)

Gimme Peace, or I'll Punch Your Kid

It's nowhere near November, and people are already losing it. As passions rise, those who believe strongly in one cause or another blindly lash out. Or at least, that's how it seems.

Out-of-Control Conservative!

" Following pattern in the media, CNN's King uncritically repeated McCain campaign's false attacks on Democrats"
Media Matters for America¹ (Apr 3, 2008)

Excerpt:

"Summary: On The Situation Room, John King uncritically reported that "[i]n a statement, a McCain spokesman took a shot at the other party, saying, 'Americans can't afford the Democrats' liberal agenda to raise taxes, nationalize health care, cut off trade, and crush the economy under big government.' " Following what has become a pattern in the media, King failed to note the significant falsehoods and misleading claims in McCain's statement and simply read it without challenge."

You see? Someone in the McCain campaign "took a shot at the other party," a description of a violent act if I ever heard one.

Peace Lover Tested Beyond The Limits of Human Endurance

Conservatives aren't the only ones getting testy, though. One peace-lover was driven over the brink at a literary event recently.

"POLICE: BUSH BASHER SMASHES DISABLED TEEN"
New York Post (April 23, 2008)

Excerpt:

"A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents has told him to shut up, authorities said yesterday. German Talis, 22, was shouting obscenities at the Bushes, who were leaving the building Tuesday, when he crossed paths with Wendy and John Lovetro and their daughter Maureen, 18, who has cerebral palsy.

"They had been in the audience to hear the Bushes talk about their children's book, Read All About It.

" 'He began yelling about Iraq and Iran at Jenna Bush. She was waving at the crowd. I told the guy, "What are you doing? Shut up. This is about a child and books," ' said John Lovetro. 'He was unperturbed. I said, "Get out of here! You're being a moron!" ' "

That's when Mr. Tallis "allegedly" started punching Maureen (who "allegedly" has cerebral palsy). It can't have been too bad: Mr. Tallis only "allegedly" hit the girl's shoulder blades. Then thigh. The New York Sun didn't report which one.

Perhaps Maureen's father was "bullying" Mr. Tallis.

More seriously, I've been impressed with how violent peace-lovers can be. I've posted about this before:

• "Embrace Peace or I'll Kill You!
  Violent Peace Lovers (Not) in the News"
  (March 26, 2008)
• "Embrace Peace or I'll Kill You!
  More Violent Peace Lovers"
  (March 7, 2008)
• "Embrace Peace or I'll Kill You!
  Times Square Blast Linked to Peacenik(s)"
  (March 6, 2008)

I combed the news media for an equivalent violent attack by a non-peace-lover. The closest I found was the McCain spokesman who "took a shot at the other party".

I'm relieved that the young lady who had gone to hear the Jenna and Mrs. Bush speak about "Read All About It" was "not seriously injured." On the other hand, I can't help but think that her day would have been more pleasant if she hadn't been "allegedly" assaulted by a crazed peace-lover.

I supposed that it's hard, being gripped by a violent passion for peace while believing that your world is threatened by something like the "vast right-wing conspiracy." ²

That isn't an excuse for attacking a cripple, though.

---

¹ "Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media."

That's how they describe themselves, anyway.

² "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" is a phrase that seems to have taken on a life of its own. I might not believe that a respected national leader would have made such a daft remark, except for two things.

1. I heard and saw her say it, in a video taken while she was meeting with a number of her supporters

Hillary Clinton's used the term, "vast right-wing conspiracy," in two other rather well-documented interviews. One was with Barbara Walters on ABC, June 8, 2003. The other was in 1998 -

From "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Hillary Clinton Quotes" (Snopes.com): Quotes from an interview between Matt Lauer and Hillary Clinton, on NBC's "The Today Show," January 27, 1998.

Lauer: "I'm sure you like [Democratic political strategist James Carville], especially at this time. He has said that [the Monica Lewinsky scandal] is war between the president and Kenneth Starr. You have said, I understand, to some close friends, that this is the last great battle, and that one side or the other is going down here."

Clinton: "Well, I don't know if I've been that dramatic. That would sound like a good line from a movie. But I do believe that this is a battle. I mean, look at the very people who are involved in this, they have popped up in other settings. This is the great story here, for anybody willing to find it and write about it and explain it, is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president. A few journalists have kind of caught on to it and explained it, but it has not yet been fully revealed to the American public. ..." [emphasis mine]

Also See "Hillary Clinton: 'This Is A Battle' "
all politics CNN (January 27, 1998)

TSA: Our Tax Dollars at Work; Protecting the Flying Public from Nipple Rings

I am not making this up.

"Traveler says she was forced to remove nipple ring"
CNN (March 27, 2008)

Mandi Hamlin's nipple rings set off metal detectors when she was trying to get on a flight from Lubbock to Dallas.

The TSA agents got a look at them, and could see that they were the usual sort of nipple piercings. Then they said that she'd have to take them off. Or, rather, out. One came out with relatively little trouble. The other took a pliers to pull out.

Then the agents let her on the plane, even though she was still wearing a belly button ring.

Given how the TSA agents apparently thought, that was a major blunder. She might have pulled that ring, and blown up her belly!

Maybe the TSA should consider placing employees with twelve brain cells or less in management positions, where they will be comparatively harmless.

Or maybe Congress should appoint a special committee to determine whether nipple rings are deadly weapons. If they aren't dangerous, perhaps a costly training program might get the point across to those people at the airport checkpoints.

Seriously, I hope that the majority of people who operate those security checkpoints are intelligent, reasonable, people. The minority (I hope) of alternatively competent ones make me profoundly glad that I'm unlikely to use commercial airlines again.

I have two artificial hips, and don't want to think about what it would take to remove them in an airport.

---

Update March 29, 2008

"Nipple ring search procedures faulty, TSA admits"

CNN (March 28, 2008)

You don't say.

More seriously, TSA's statement that the nipple ring incident resulted from TSA officers following an established protocol makes the situation worse. Earlier this week, I could think that we might be looking at a few irresponsible agents.

Now, I'm reminded of what an Israeli said, several years ago, comparing Israeli and American air travel security system: 'We have a system for detecting terrorists. You have a system for annoying people.'

Hey! Look at the Babe With the Rings!

Excerpts from the article:

"More officers were called over, and the group grew to four male and two female TSA officers, according to Hamlin. Also, a small crowd of onlookers had started to gather. ..."

"She eventually was taken to a private area behind a curtain to remove the piercings, Allred [Hamlin's lawyer] said. One came out easily, but the other would not, and she called to an officer that she was having trouble and would need pliers. She was handed a large pair, Allred said.

" 'As Ms. Hamlin struggled to remove the piercing, behind the curtain she could hear a growing number of predominately male TSA officers snickering in the background,' Allred said in the letter [to the TSA]."

"Afterward, Hamlin underwent another scan, but realized she had forgotten to remove her navel ring. She offered to remove it, Allred said, but an officer told her it was not necessary because he could see it. Hamlin wondered why a similar visual inspection of her nipple rings would not have sufficed, Allred said."

Fear Not! The TSA is On Watch!

And I do mean "watch," snicker-snicker.

"... the TSA said it 'is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body. Therefore, we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm that we discover.'

"TSA included in its statement a picture of a prototype training device it will use to simulate a "bra bomb" in training and testing its officers.

" ... 'People who are pierced should not be snickered at, should not become the object of ridicule, should not be singled out for special and uneven and unequal treatment,' Allred said. 'They should be respected just like everybody else.' "

I've personally regarded piercing as a silly, and remarkably long-running, fad. But, that said: "They should be respected just like everybody else." is spot on.

Good News, but Not Very Good

One idea I salvaged from the wreckage of this collision between a bureaucracy's procedures and the real world was the knowledge that the TSA is considering the possibility of changing its ways.

Or, at least, willing to say that it is.

There's no question that terrorists are getting more sophisticated about hiding explosives and weapons on, and probably in, people. I'm relieved to hear that the TSA is aware of this: and seems to be actively pursuing a response to the terrorists' new tactics.

On the other hand, I'd have hoped that the TSA would have considered the possibility that it was necessary to train its agents to distinguish between a woman's breasts, and a bomb.

Finally, I find the behavior of the TSA crew that Hamlin ran into appalling. Calling the guys over to, ah, look over the situation, might be understandable, if the girl TSA agent was the crew's junior member. But, snickering as a woman removes nipple rings is something else.

It wouldn't be particularly surprising behavior from some frat boys and one of their girlfriends.

Snickering TSA agents is another matter.

Quite aside from giving the public more reason to dislike federal agencies, it makes me wonder about the competence of TSA planners.

If the TSA procedures encourage, or require, TSA officers to turn an airport screening into a girlie show, and TSA hires people who enjoy treating women like that, the TSA needs to change, or be changed.

After this incident, if I were a terrorist planning an attack, I'd seriously consider using a pierced woman as a decoy. It's possible that she could distract and detain the agents enough, so that the next several passengers wouldn't be quite so carefully screened.

Particularly if they had low entertainment value.

What Would Constitute "Success" in Iraq: And How Could "Success" be Achieved?

I ended the last post with an implied question as to what would be "success" in Iraq, by the traditional news media's standards.

"Success," I think, would not be merely a total and immediate withdrawal from Iraq. The withdrawal would have to be part of a global disengagement of American aggressor armed forces, followed by the dissolution of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and (for the most part) Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard would continue, after restructuring, as an agent for change and ecological responsibility, saving whales, manatees, and sharks who are endangered by the cancerous human encroachments on their sovereign territories.

I suggest that this transition might be expedited by the adaptation of a tactic used with mixed success some forty years ago.

I submit that, should the younger and more attractive female anti-war activists burn their bras in front of the White House, this would provide an incentive for the largely-male American armed forces to accept retirement.

In such an eventuality, I think we could have "success," by the standards of the traditional news media, and all the (self-described) best thinkers of America.

Peace, man! Groove on.

Waterboarding: the Moralizing Has Begun

I was right. After President Bush vetoed the congressional attempt to protect terrorists from American interrogators, passionate blog posts began sprouting. This afternoon, the top ten hits I got from Google Blogsearch (four search terms: waterboarding harsh torture military) included this lot.

Some Top Blog Reactions to the Waterboarding Veto

• " 'Just Say Yes To Torture' "
  "MO'THANSKIN" (March 8, 2008)
  Among many quotes: "Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch, said Bush 'will go down in history as the torture president' for defying Congress and allowing the CIA to use interrogation techniques 'that any reasonable observer would call torture.' " (If you don't agree with her, you're unreasonable?)
• " We were lied to! Bush to veto waterboarding, improved homeland security, long term security deal with Iraq, we're still not safe, they wonder why? Duh"
  (That's the post's title - rather long, isn't it?)
  An Average American Patriot (March 08, 2008)
  "I keep saying the chief idiot has given me something different to worry about with my sons being in his wars now that he is telling the so called terrorists it is okay to waterboard and torture if they follow the chief idiots directions!"
• "Bush’s Veto of Anti-Torture Legislation and Its Damage to America"
  Reflective Pundit (March 08, 2008)
  "Several months after 9/11, in an interview with al-Jazeera, Osama bin Laden said, 'The values of this Western civilization and under the leadership of America have been destroyed. Those awesome symbolic towers that speak of liberty, human rights, and humanity have been destroyed. They have gone up in smoke.' "
• "United States of Torture"
  Bad American (March 8,2008)
  "When I was trained by Army professional interrogators at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, it was reiterated to me over and over by seasoned professionals that torture doesn’t garner any uselful information - people will say anything to make the pain stop.
  "When I reiterated this to a friend of mine yesterday in my store he asked the million dollar question: why do they do it then?
  "The answer is simple and sinister for anyone who has bothered to do the research on the subject and observed something otherworldly in Dick Cheney’s smirk: they do it because they enjoy it."
• "Bush Wields A Necessary Veto"
  Cheat Seeking Missiles (March 8,2008)
  "The Dems and Soros-funded Human Rights Watch would restrict all interrogations to those allowed in the Army Field Manual -- but what does that mean?
  "It’s easy to find what interrogation techniques are banned by in the new Army Field Manual. Obviously, it bans all the stuff we all used to think of as torture: anything that could cause death or physical injury. Think Jack Bauer." (Jack Bauer is a protagonist in the television series "24.") (This post is worthwhile reading, if for no other reason that the author discusses actual interrogation techniques - something which traditional news media doesn't seem willing to do.)

Waterboarding isn't widely popular, I take it. That's no surprise, the way it's been presented: in vague, emotion-charged terms. That doesn't mean it's wrong. 'If two hundred million people really believe in a dumb idea: It's still a dumb idea.'

Hystrionics Aside, What is the Problem with Waterboarding?

Serious discussions on waterboarding seem centered on whether or not it's "torture." The more I learned about waterboarding, the less it seemed like "torture:" unless we stretch the definition of "torture" a bit ("anguish: extreme mental distress / unbearable physical pain" are some generally-accepted definitions).

I suppose what's "unbearable" depends on the individual. The "extreme mental distress" part of the definition raises an interesting point.

Final Exams as a Form of Torture

It's arguable that final exams are a form of collegiate torture, routinely inflicted on helpless studets by a cold, calculating, uncaring faculty. Anyone who has survived the first quarter (or semester, or whatever) has heard a fellow-student cry out "this is torture!" - or words to that effect.

With an election coming up, voting age at 18, and a substantial fraction of the late teen/early twenties crowd in college, I make this suggestion to open-minded and forward-looking politicians:

End the Agony! Stop Test Torture Now!

America must not allow the brutal traumatization of final exams to go on!

Young minds have endured this assault on their self-esteem too long. Millions suffer from Post Traumatic Test Syndrom (P.T.T.S.). Over a hundred thousand each year lose a job or end a relationship as a result of nightmares, flashbacks, or other psychological phenomena stemming from taking final exams.¹

(Given what passes for serious ideas these days, a disclaimer: "End the Agony!" is a joke, a spoof: not intended to be taken seriously.)

Previous Posts about Waterboarding in this Blog

"Waterboarding: Harsh, Yes - But is it Torture?"
Another War-on-Terror Blog (March 8, 2008)
"Waterboarding: What is it? Why Do it?"
Another War-on-Terror Blog (March 8, 2008)
"Waterboarding Ban Set for Veto Tomorrow: Let the Moralizing Begin"
Another War-on-Terror Blog (March 7, 2008)

¹According to research I imagined for this post (Eustace Finagle and Eugenia Glockenspeil. A Study of Post Traumatic Test Syndrome in Selected Populations. East Village MA: Jong Press, 2005.)

Redneck Special Forces: An Idea Whose Time has Come??

Probably not, but I thought this photo and the text that goes with it is funny: "...Redneck Special Forces (USRSF). The latest ploy to drive the Taliban and Al Qaeda out of the mountains of Afghanistan ...."

Not politically correct, I think, but funny.

Updated (August 5, 2008)

The original link for this post is no longer valid. I'm updating this post with a currently valid link: Photo posted on Bravehost.com.

This photo seems to have been around for several years. One of its other current appearances is "Breaking News Report- USRSF" (Blue Collar Republican (February 19, 2008 )).