Charlottesville: When White Supremacists/Nazis Snowflakes Turn Violent

A striking image from Charlottesville today: A black
cop trying to keep the peace while racists and the
KKK rally behind him.

It's a horrible day in Charlottesville, Virginia as a bunch of white supremacists and Nazis descended into town, and as of 1 p.m., there had already been violent clashes between these turds and counter-protesters.

Many of the so called white nationalists (read complete ass wipes) are toting guns, so it'll be a miracle if nobody gets killed.

I'm technically a target of theirs, too. Yeah, I'm a white guy, but I'm also gay. Last I heard, some of these jerks were chanting "Fuck you, faggots," at counter protestors. 

The Nazis that descended on Charlottesville last night with torches was a nice touch, too. Nothing like a good old revival of the violent KKK to cheer things up, right?

It does take two to tango, and if there is violence and fights, it's the fault of both the KKK types and the counter protesters.

However, the white supremacists are the aggressors here, and the stupidest people are the ones that think they'll get their way through violence and intimidation. Exhibit A of this stupidity is on full display in Charlottesville today.

And everybody, please start calling them the alt.right. They're not cool, like alt.country or alt.whatever hipster trend is out there.

Call them what they are: white supremacists, Nazis, horrible people, whatever.

Meanwhile, we set a low bar for President Trump, so given that low bar, I have to appreciate Trump for condemning the violence today.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has understandably declared a state of emergency in Charlottesville, so that the state can aid in keeping the level of violence down.

Even if Virginia and police manage to keep injuries and destruction to a minimum, that doesn't solve the bigger problem.

We all hear about terrorism perpetrated by Muslims, in America and abroad.

But so far, it seems we Americans have more to fear from white supremacists terrorists than Muslim extremists.

In June, we learned from The Nation Institute's Investigative Fund and The Center for Investigative Reporting's Reveal that most terrorist attacks on U.S. soil between January, 2008 and the end of 2016 where perpetrated by right wing extremists.

The problem is when a Muslim does something hateful, it's called terrorism by politicians and many members of the media. When a white guy does something similar, it's dismissed as just a lone nutcase.

But the database we got in June shows that 115 of the 201 terrorist attacks cited in the report were carries out by right wing extremists. This includes people like the supremacists, militias and "sovereign citizens."

Another 63 cases were done by Islamic extremists, and 19 were from left wing extremists, wuch as ecoterrorists and animal rights militants.

So when you hear ultra conservative snowflakes whine that they're being terrorized by maurading liberals, don't believe it.

The white supremacists can be violent, no doubt about that. But oppressed? Don't think so, bud.  Maybe get smarter, shut your trap when you want to spout hate speech and mind your own business and then you'll be more successful in life.

The reason nobody is hiring you is not because there's a big affirmative action thing going on. They won't hire you because you're a complete turd.

Still, complainers gotta complain. One incident crystallizes this. According to Gizmodo, idiot white guy Richard Spencer, en route to the Charlottesville shindig, said he stopped at a restaurant but they wouldn't serve him. He says it was based on his viewpoints, that he was being treated like African Americans attempting to go to lunch counters in the 1960s.

But the real reason why the restaurant wouldn't serve Spencer is because at the time he stopped by, the eatery wasn't serving anybody. It was morning, and they don't open until 5 p.m. The place was closed.

Restaurants tend not to serve would-be patrons when they are closed, dude.

Anyway, here's hoping the white supremacists in Charlottesville display their extreme dimwittedness today for all the world to see, all the while avoiding this devolve into violence.

However, as I write this, I just learned a car slammed into a crowd of people protesting against the white supremacists, and there are multiple injuries.

Let's all work together to call out all the white supremacists, expose them to harsh daylight of reason, and watch them wither away.

Comey Testimony Will Be Must-See TV; Groups Try To Discredit Him, Though

Oh, joy! Another train wreck. Donald Trump
says he's going to live tweet the Comey hearings.

You know Donald Trump and his minions are extremely frightened by former FBI Director James Comey's expected Thursday testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

If the Trumpsters had little to worry about, they'd let him testify without comment safe in the knowledge they did anything wrong, so there would be no awful bombshells or worse.

We have no idea whether Comey will drop any of these bombshells and  make Trump's already crippled, incompetent and deranged presidency any worse with new revelations of how the Trump campaign did or did not collude with the Russians.

The signs are, though, they are scared shitless. That's because Trump's tried and true attempts at defanging his "enemies" is to erode their credibility. Whether these attempts to do so will involve any truth telling or not remains to be seen.

I'm not counting on the truth, though.

Trump has reportedly said he will live tweet the Comey hearings, which will be an interesting side show. I'm sure anything that Comey says that The Donald doesn't like will be met with the usual fact-free responses and charges that will make Trump look dumber than he already is, except of course to his shrinking core base of true believers.

Donald Trump always gets in trouble with his tweets. He thinks the tweets help him get his message out, but they just destroy his credibility, as if the credility could be ruined any further.

Just this week, Trump has made a diplomatic crisis worse among several Mideastern countries by sending inflammatory tweets that are completely at odds with what his foreign policy team has been doing.

He's undermined his efforts to overturn his wannabe ban on Muslim countries in the courts with tweets that totally undermine his legal case.

And Trump picked a completely unnecessary fight with the mayor of London, England after last weekend's terrorist attack there, instead of just sending his condolences and moving on.

As the Guardian editorialized:

"How long can we keep watching this endless car crash that is Donald Trump's presidency? The world has pressing problems to solve, from climate change to global terrorism, but instead of contributing resources and wisdom from the United States, Trump relentlessly gets in the way of solutions and exacerbates problems, all the while turning our shared tragedies into his own spectacles."

And he's got helpers, and his tiny group of fans will "help' Trump during Thursday's Comey hearings.

The Associated Press is reporting a group called the Great America Alliance will air television ads Thursday calling Comey, as Trump did, a "showboat" who "put politics over protecting America" even as "terror attacks were on the rise."

Sure, you can debate Comey's past job performance, but a substance-free negative ad in Trump's behalf proves he never stopped campaigning. He'll never be a real president.

As the president drags the United States and the rest of the world down with it, we still have too many Congressional Republican who will stand by Trump in the off-chance of getting their small, cruel agendas made into law.

That's where the real blame is. Too many members of the GOP have elevated their careers over the national interest.

And that's even more narcisstic than even Trump's enormous ego.

Sorry, But I Think This TSA Agent Was Getting His Jollies

Image of the creepy TSA patdown of a 13 year old kid at
te Dallas-Fort Worth airport recently. Ugh. 

A lot of people have been yelling and screaming in social media about Aaron Henderson, 13, who got quite the NSFW patdown from a weird TSA agent at an airport recently.

This all started at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport when agents detected what might have been a trace of an explosive substance in the kid's laptop.

There are a lot of false positives with these tests, but I can't blame the TSA from taking a closer, second look at the laptop, and Aaron. Better safe than sorry, right?

However, the "patdown" Aaron got looked like foreplay in a porn movie, though Aaron was clearly not happy about this. I wouldn't be, either.

This apparently is a new policy at the TSA, giving them permission to really feel out people for contraband.

Sorry to blame everything on Donald Trump, but things are getting more police state-ish under his administration, so the TSA "rubdowns" might be part of this.

In addition, CBS News reports that this is part of new TSA procedures that came after an undercover audit in 2015 revealed major lapses in security.

 Aaron's mother, Jennifer told CBS News, "I believe he was patted down excessively. They went over his sensitive areas, a little more than necessary, especially given that he wasn't wearing bulky clothing or anything like that."

The TSA says new procedures took effext March 2.

I get it that they're trying to prevent terrorist attacks.

But working for the TSA is a thankless job which pays poorly. Most people don't want to work there. But the desperate, sometimes the stupid, sometimes the perverts also want to work there, since nobody else will.

This won't end well.

Here's the creepy video from CBS, showing the patdown. To me, it's almost child porn, so I was reluctant to show it. But we need to know what the TSA is doing, so I tried to overcome my qualms to post it.

Three White Terrorists Planned Car Bombing At Kansas Mosque, Apartment Complex, Say Authorities

These three guys were arrested in Kansas for plotting
 a terrorist attack on an apartment complex where
many Somali immigrants live.

I get why people are worried about ISIS - inspired terrorist attacks in the United States.

They do happen, as we saw last year in San Bernardino and this year in Orlando, Florida.

Now, if we haven't done so already, apparently we need to start worrying about white terrorists attacking Muslims in this nation.

Yeah, it keeps getting worse.

The New York Daily News reports that the FBI has arrested three white guys for conspiring to blow up an apartment complex where many Somali immigrants live. The guys involved in the plot apparently call themselves "The Crusaders."

The apartment complex the three targeted has a mosque where many of the Somalis frequently gather for prayers.

According to the Daily News:

"Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 49, and Patrick Stein, 47, were charged Friday with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, according to the Department of Justice's national security division. The Crusaders call Muslims "cockroaches" and they had discussed brutal attacks on Muslims for months, federal prosecutors said.

FBI agents working on tips from an undercover informant said the three men planned to blow up four car bombs at the Garden City apartments. Allen, Wright and Stein hoped the attack on the 120-resident complex would 'wake people up,' the feds said."

I guess ironically,  "The Crusaders" MO was much the same as ISIS. Do a splashy terrorist attack to demoralize their enemies and more importantly, inspire like-minded idiots to do more of the same.

I obviously can't hold Donald Trump directly responsible for what these idiots planned, but I do blame him for doing a large part in creating a hostile culture that might have helped inspire these three idiots. 

Frighteningly, the "Crusaders" came pretty close to being able to carry out their plan. A paid informant helped squash the plot, though.

More from The New York Daily News:

"Allen, Wright, Stein and the informant met multiple times at Wright's business, the G&G Mobile Home Center in Liberal (Kansas). At one meeting in July, he used Google Maps to drop pins labeled 'cockroaches' on locations of potential victims, according to the complaint.

They talked about attacking targets such as city or county meetings, landlords who rent to Muslim refugees, organizations that assist Muslim refugees, a mall frequented by Muslims and Garden City's African Community Center, investigators said. They decided on the W. Mary St. apartment complex in August, according to the complaint."

Police also found a metric ton (!!) of explosives and detonators with these guys.

Glad that they got these guys. but here's the fear:

The climate is so toxic now, that if Trump loses the Presidential election, which seems quite likely now, his most ignorant, racist, hostile, misogynistic fans will erupt in extreme anger.

They already are, fueled by some pretty violent rhetoric, especially around the meme that the election is supposedly "rigged" if Hillary Clinton wins.

Even people in supposedly authority are using this rhetoric. Sheriff David Clarke, a Trump surrogate, tweeted it's "pitchforks and torches time" if Hillary is elected because she would "rig" the election.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, who should know better, is also accusing people of "rigging" the election.

Trump's true believers in the crowd are even worse.

Dan Bowman, a 50-year-old contractor told the Boston Globe at a Trump rally this week: "If she's (Clinton) in office, I hope we can start a coup. She should be in prison or shot. That's how I feel about it.....We're going to have a revolution and take them out of office if that's what it takes. There's going to be a lot of bloodshed. But that's what it's going to take... I would do whatever I can for my country."

That is, if "doing whatever he can for his country" is committing treason, I guess.

There's quite a few people like Bowman, who, fired up by Trump's incredibly irresponsible and wrong speech, won't accept an election, won't accept democracy.

Some people will act violently, I fear.

Ah yes, just what we need, domestic terrorists by people who are in a snit because the majority of us rejected a spoiled rich kid jerk/moron for president.

Don't you love people like Donald Trump who insist on making things worse for all of us?

Wouldn't It Be Great If There Were Breaking Good News For Once

Bodies in the streets of Nice, France after
the latest in an unending series of terrorist attacks.  

Last night was the same old sad routine.

And to call the deaths of 84 people routine made the evening particularly sad.

As you well know by now, some scumbag drove a truck into a crowd in Nice, France who were out enjoying Bastille Day. 

Cue what happens with such hideous regularity now:

Networks broke in and gave updates. It was all Nice truck attack all the time on outlets like CNN and MSNBC.  It was the sad top topic on social media. Governments vowed vengeance, and we learned the stories of people who died while just living their lives and trying to enjoy the moment.

Mayhem and murder keeps happening  again and again and it's going to happen again and again. It's hard to stay positive in this kind of environment, isn't it?

I know this is fantasy, but wouldn't it be great if, just for once, some sort of shocking but wonderful breaking news came out of the blue?

Television stations would break into the mid-day game shows to breathlessly announce the news.

Wolf Blitzer and his CNN Situation Room would give us all the up to date news and rumors about how this Great Development just keeps getting better and better.

Rather than having somber and argumentive pundits give their take on what the latest tragedy means, they'd be forecasting the happy effects of this Great Breaking News.

People would be out on the streets celebrating. All you'd see on Facebook and Twitter is ecstatic reaction to the Great Breaking News. Wouldn't this be a great Top Trending Topic.

A smiling President Obama would hold an impromptu news conference, in which he announces this is the best day of his presidency and the United States would do everything in its power to ensure this Great Breaking News just keeps going and going.

Fantasy isn't reality, though.

The even sadder thing is I can't even imagine what my theoretical Great Breaking News would actually entail.

Depressingly, it's easy for me and everyone else to imagine the next terrorist attack. The guns, the bombs, the deaths, the bitter aftermath.

But what would the Great Breaking News look like? I can't even think of too many examples in history. Maybe the end of World War II? The moon landing?

The optimistic side of me wants to think that the reason the bad news dominates the airwaves is because things are basically good, and the bad is the exception. News is defined as something out of the ordinary happening. So a terrorist attack is out of the ordinary and an exception to the goodness maybe?

We also take comfort in the people who rush in to help the victims.

All that is well and good, but it doesn't feel like enough. What else can you do, though?

The darker side of me wants a little bit of torture against people like the idiot who drove the truck into the crowd in Nice, killing all those people.  I know torture is wrong and shouldn't be done.  I'm not talking about physical torture, though.

Most of the time, the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks are killed to stop them from doing further damage.

My idea of torturing the perpetrators is try to take them alive.  Meanwhile, videotape statements from victims and relatives of victims about the impact the attack had on them.  Get as many victims as you can who want to talk.

Then you put the perp in a cell forever. In that cell, 24/7 for years on end until the perp dies, you project the video of the victims' statements on all four walls of the cell, and play their words full volume. And just never stop

If it drives the terrorist in the cell insane, oh well. Let 'em suffer. The dark side of me says they deserve such awful mental pain.

Meanwhile, I keep longing for the Great Breaking Good News. Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were some anti-terrorist cell that keeps launching "attacks" of wonderful goodness and kindness on an an unsuspecting population

Fearmongering Is Behind The Orlando Atrocity And Many Others

People outside the Pulse nightclub massacre in
Orlando today. 

Everything about the Orlando mass shooting is about fear.

Obviously, the shooter, Omar Mateen, wanted to instill fear, directly on the people who were in the Pulse nightclub, and other people in general.  

Like me. And many others, of course. Probably everybody.

Mateen targeted gay people in a gay nightclub when he killed at least 50 people and injured dozens more early this morning.

Most readers of this blog know I'm gay, and married to what I and a lot of other people know to be one of the best, kindest men on the planet.

Most people support us, love us, or like us, or at least are perfectly willing to leave me and Jeff alone and let us live our life. This is as it should be.

Not everybody likes my sexual orientation. Or Jeff's. That's perfectly fine. Nobody owes us. Nobody has to like us just because me and Jeff exist.

The vast majority of people who don't like my sexual orientation  don't bring up the subject, or ignore us, or avoid us, and go on with their lives. And they let us go on with our lives. These are not fearful people.

Unfortunately, the world is full of fearful people. They're not in the majority, obviously. But this fearful subset cannot handle anyone or anything that is not like them.  So you get what you got today in Orlando.

People outside the Pulse nightclub shooting
in Orlando early today.  

To this fearful group, anyone who  is of a different race, has a different sexual orientation, adheres to a different religion, or has differing political viewpoints than theirs is to be avoided. Killed. Wiped off the face of the Earth like the scary spider in my kitchen sink that startled me this morning.

Of course, the consequences are far, far, far greater than a spider.  And the fear creates a worldwide spider web of hate and murder.

Omar Mateen was not born hating gay people. Somebody taught him to do that.  Somebody who fancied themselves a leader, who created the fear in Mateen that led him to do what he did.

NBC News reported that two months ago, Mateen became angry when he saw two men kissing in Miami.

It triggered the fear in Mateen - that toxic stew in Mateen's head brewed for two months until he killed all those people, who were just out for a good time.

Whoever instilled the fear in Omar Mateen knows their efforts worked.

I'm not letting Mateen off the hook here. He made the decision to kill all those people in the Orlando nightclub. He's no victim.

There are others, though, who had an indirect hand in this outrage, and in every other terrorist incident I can think of -- from 9/11 to Brussels and Paris and Charleston and Oklahoma City and countless others.

There are a number of people who call themselves leaders who exploit the fear they placed in the heads of people llike Mateen.  Pump them up. Encourage the fear.

That's because these so-called leaders really don't have any real solutions to any problems. Or, they're just trying to amass power.

The way to do that is to incite fear.

Nobody makes good decisions when they're fearful. Fearful people are easily led. Or more accurately, easily led astray.

So called leaders who exploit fear know that doing so distracts the fearful from the real issue, or from the real bad stuff these "leaders" are up to.

People who exploit fear know creating scapegoats can cow the masses, and let these "leaders"  get away with whatever they're up to.

That creates a population that hates gays. Or Muslims. Or Christians. Or women. Or Jews. Remember Hitler? He was the world's greatest master at exploiting fear by targeting Jews. The greatest masters at this cause the world's greatest tragedies. Like the Holocaust.

Fifty people dead in an Orlando nightclub is horrific, but obviously not anywhere close to the level of the Holocaust.

But the same fear exploiting playbook was at work here.

Fear and anger are close cousins. Fearful animals often lash out at what makes them fearful. Terrorize a dog and it might bite you out of fear. '

People are the same way. Mateen was fearful and lashed out.

Fear and anger mestasize like cancer.  Mateen knew his actions would make people fearful and angry, and they did. I'm fearful and angry over this, because that's the natural human reaction.

But remember, like I said, fear and anger make us irrational, and I think Mateen knew that on some level.

So called leaders know this. And they'll exploit Orlando just like they exploited so many other terrorist incidents. Because that's what they do. Each outrage lets them build on others.

They'll try to whip up the population. Let's ban Muslims! The gays deserved it! Let's take people's freedoms of speech and assembly and due process away in the name of combating terrorism!

Some leaders will do this out of genuine concern for our well being and that of the nation. A smaller number of other leaders will do that to continue amassing power, and screwing the rest of us.

I'm gay, so Orlando proves that I have a target on my back. I'm fearful and angry, yes.

But please, let's all try to rise above this fear and anger, and think rationally. Yes, we need to super aggressively go after the bad guys and gals, and the people who inspire them to kill and terrorize.

Let's also escape the fear cocoon that keeps us fearful of everybody that's different from us. The best antidote to fear is knowledge.

Knowledge is power. Fear is weakeness.   Instead of hiding away from what we don't like, try to understand it. Learn about it. What makes those who are "different" from us tick.

Once we get to know these "different" people, religions, orientations and such, we still might not like them. But I bet the knowledge will make us less likely to lash out in fear.

It's everybody's responsibility to do this. The nation's and the world's top leaders must do this. You and I must do this.

I don't think we'll ever stop these terrorist tragedies. But if we rise above the fear, and embrace facts and knowledge, I bet we can reduce the number of these atrocities and the level of death and suffering.

We have to. It's our only hope.

TSA Harming U.S. Economy Like The Terrorists Would

Long TSA lines at Denver's airport recentlh.  

One of the goals of terrorists who want to attack the Good Ole USA is to disrupt our economy.

After all, spectacular attacks, cyber attacks or just the fear generated by terrorists deflate our economy.

The cost of attacks, the problems with travel, the problems with security are all a drag on commerce.

If I didn't know better, I'd now think the terrorists have hired out the TSA to harm the U.S. economy.

I know, I know, the TSA is meant to enhance our security, not mess it up.

But the huge lines at airports generated by various Congressional and TSA bureaucratic failures mean the economy is going to be harmed, at least a bit.

I'll admit the TSA doesn't mean to harm the United States, at least I don't think so, I worry they are causing harm.

As the New York Times reported earlier this month:

"A combination of fewer Transportation Security Administration screeners, tighter budgets, new checkpoint procedures and growing numbers of passengers is already creating a mess at airports around the country.

While federal security officials say they are hiring and training hundreds of additional screening officers, matters are not expected to improve anytime soon.

Airline and airport officials have said they fear that the current slowdown will last through the year and could cause a summer travel meltdown when more than 220 million passengers are expected tto fly during the peak travel months of July and August."

Already, we've gotten numerous reports of three-hour waits at TSA lines.

These lines are already disrupting business. The Tiimes article quoted Ben Cheever, a support engineer for a cybersecurity firm, who missed a flight despite showing up more than two hours ahead of his scheduled departure from Seattle recently.

"It was the most miserable business trip I ever had," he said.

American Airlines says slower security lines are causing flight delays and forcing them to rebook passengers. I'm seldom sympathetic toward airlines, but these delays and rebookings are certainly costing airlines money.

Airport managers are fuming, too. One example was on March 25 when 600 people missed flights at the airport in Charlotte, North Carolina because an inadequate number of TSA screeners caused waits of three hours or more.

It keeps getting worse. USA Today reported at least 450 people stranded overnight at Chicago's O'Hare airport because of hours long security  lines.

There's plenty of blame to go around. Working for the TSA is a thankless job, what with the lack of training, poor morale, low pay while the muckymucks get big bonuses, nasty passengers and such. People are quitting the TSA in droves.

Congress won't appropriate enough money for the TSA to do its job. Airlines are saddling us with fees, so more people are carrying bags aboard planes to avoid paying checked luggage fees, which slows everything down.

Perhaps the airlines could perhaps ease checked baggage fees? That's too much to ask for.

We, the public screw it up, too, by either accidentally or on purpose trying to bring stuff on board planes that we're not supposed to. Everytime they find something we have that's wrong, it slows the works down.

Airports like the one in San Francisco and Phoenix have kicked out or are considering, kicking out the TSA in favor of private contractors.

As BoingBoing points out, that's maybe even worse, because private contractors are not held accountable for incidents like when their agents damage or steal passengers' possessions.

It amazes me that the TSA, Congress, airlines and everyone else can't -  or more likely won't -- get their acts together.

There are worse things that can happen to a person than get stuck in a long security line. I get that.

But in claiming to prevent the problems associated with terrorism by causing things that terrorists want -- disruption -- is a little weird.

I'm not optimistic the TSA, Congress or whoever is in charge will fix this problem.

It's just another of a million examples of our dysfunctional government.

No matter so many voters are so angry and frustrated. And there's nothing we can do about it, which makes me sad.

Doing Math On A Plane Can Get You Pegged As A Terrorist

Guido Menzio is a briliant economist and mathematician,
but not a terrorist, despite his habit of doing
math equations of airline flights.  

I'm not particularly good at math, and in fact I'm terrified of advanced equations.

Still, math does not, um, equate to terrorism,.

Except for one paranoid woman aboard a recent airline flight who decided that the professorial guy next to her scribbling math equations just had to be a terrorist.

Why else would a guy intently work on complicated math equations unless he was a terrorist plotting to blow up the plane?

Because if you're doing math equations, the next step is to build a bomb and set it off, right?  Never mind you can't just build a bomb out of nothing but math equations, but whatever.

This guy really had to be a terrorist because he had olive colored skin, had dark curly hair and spoke with a foreign accent.

Everybody who is not lily white is a terrorist, right?

At least that's what one really weird, paranoid woman apparently thought. She delayed a flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse the other day for two hours because she reported the guy next to her as a terrorist.

The guy doing math.

As Catherine Rampell in the Washington Post writes, the woman saw Something.

"That Something she'd seen had been her seatmate's cryptic notes, scrawled in a script she didn't recognize. Maybe it was code, or some foreign lettering, possibly the details of a plot to destroy the dozens of innocent lives aboard American Airlines Flight 3930.

She may have felt it her duty to alert the authorities just to be safe. The curly-haired man was, the agent informed him politely, suspected of terrorism."

It turns out the "terrorist" doing math is Guido Menzio, a brilliant Ivy League economist and among many other awards, was declared the best Italian economist under age 40, says the Washington Post.

He was doing math as part of his focus on search theory, which is too technical to get into here.

It seems that anything anybody does now is suspicious.

I'm afraid I'm going to get kicked off a flight soon for my behavior. On flights, I sometimes read books. Not on a Kindle or something like that, but a physical book. Nobody does that anymore. That's suspicious.

Plus, I'm a hopeless weather geek. If I have a window seat and see some particularly interesting clouds, I'll sometimes snap a photo of them with my smart phone. Taking pictures aboard a plane?

Terrorist!

Luckily I'm white, so Paranoid America won't suspect me as much as some Italian mathematician, who has darker skin.

For his part, Menzio told the Washington Post he was treated respectfully through the whole thing, but he is troubled by the ignorance of his fellow passenger, and a rigid security protocol that stops everything for often no reason, and relies on people who are clueless.

The Paranoid Woman didn't reboard the flight, safe in the knowledge the mathematics didn't kill her.

Or anybody else.

Lesson learned: Don't do math on a plane.

U.S. Military Advisor Says Head Scarves Are "Passive Terrorism." The Internet Mocks

Look carefully at this scene from the opening
credits of the early 1970s sitcom "Mary Tyler
Moore Show" The woman in the lower left
is wearing a scarf on her head. She
must have been a terrorist  

So here's something that might give you a bit less confidence in U.S. military intelligence and preparedness.

A document is being distributed within the military that tells us that Muslim women who wear headscarves known as the hajib - the majority of them -- are practicing "passive terrorism."

That's right, the mere act of wearing a head covering is terrorism, at least according to some guy named Tawfik Hamad, who, according to The Intercept, is a self-described former Islamic extremist and fellow at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

According to The Intercept, Hamad believes, "the hajib contributes to the idea of passive terrorism' and represents an implicit refusal to 'speak against or actively resist terrorism.'"

Which would come as news to so many women who do wear the hajib and who live peaceful lives and speak out against terrorism.

The overall manual the military has does contain a lot of sensible information, at least the parts not written by Hamad.

It was first released to the military in 2011 but was re-released to the military as part of a renewed push to combat terrorism.

This time, though, the hajib causes terrorism idea has captured the imagination of social media, often hilariously. Hey,  stupid, simplisitic ideas need to be mocked, right?

Basically, every head covering is fodder for this meme.

Under the hashtag #PassiveTerrorism, people have been showing all kinds of examples of women amd others with their heads covered, and so therefore are terrorists.

This includes nuns, old women shielding themselves from rain, a pug in a head-covering robe and a cat with a pink scarf tied around its head, Mother Teresa, Queen Elizabeth, Amish women, Orthodox Jewish women, random guys and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousatzai.

You noticed I got into the act in this post. The photo up at the top is from the opening credits to the old 1970s "Mary Tyler Moore" show. Notice the old woman in the lower left in the background.

She's got a scarf on her head. My God! There were Islamic terrorists in Minneapolis in the early 1970s! Who knew?!?!?

It's cold and rainy outside my house in Vermont as I write this. A little while ago, a ran out to get the mail. I wore a hat because of the weather. A head covering!

I guess I'm a terrorist, too!

Oregon Whack Jobs Sure Don't Know How To Run A Revolution, Or Whatever They're Doing

Members of "Y'all Qaeda" are still holed
up at an Oregon wildlife refuge. Sigh. 

I was going to follow the lead of law enforcement and pretty much ignore the crazy guys who took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge  over in Oregon.

Apparently, they're annoyed by what they think is the evil federal government taking away our rights to the citizens' land.  Or set fire to it to control varmints or something.

Or maybe they just want to play dress up and pretend they're life sized GI Joe action figures and Wild Bill Hickok or something.

This place is a wildlife refuge, which, um, is open to the public. Anyone. At least until these yahoos showed up. Now nobody can go there except them. Are they the only people who think they are U.S citizens?

I hope they're not quintessential U.S. citizens, because such citizens would be bozos.

If not for the expense this takeover is costing us taxpayers, and the fear and inconvenience to the Oregonians living near the refuge, this would seem like a farcical movie comedy that gets mixed reviews.

Let's go over some of the highlights of this takeover.

1. Nobody is taking them seriously.  Like the late, great Rodney Dangerfield, "they don't get no respect."

Federal law enforcement is ignoring them. A lot of the rest of us are not exactly calling them terrorists, but things like "Y'all Qaeda""Yee-hawdists" and "Vanilla ISIS" since they're such wannabe but failing militants.

I've also seen them referred to, as Raw Story points out,  "Yokel Haram," "Fail Qaeda" who are participating in an "Infantada."

There've been some great Tweets about this outfit, such as "Y'all Qaeda follows a strict interpretation of Shania (Twain) law." and "Every successful revolution starts with the takeover of a closed visitor center with a gift shop."

2. The group put out a call via social media to get supplies, like food, clothing and the like. They probably got some of that, but many people, also inspired by social media, sent lots of dildos instead.

Dildos for the dildos. The militants there were not amused. One video showed one of the Y'all Qaeda guys angrily sweeping the dildos off a table. Temper, temper!

3. One of the idiots, Joe Oshaugnessy, collected donation money for the cause. When a newspaper revealed that Oshaugnessy lied about being a U.S. Marine, he got depressed and went to a hotel and used the donation money to drink his sorrows away.

Another Vanilla ISIS member tearfully announced this turn of events on Facebook. Awwww. So sad!

 4. Robert "LaVoy" Finicum, who is pretty much Y'allQaeda spokesman in Oregon, complained that the state of Arizona took away the foster kids who have been staying with his wife Jeannette at their Arizona home.

Now, I can't knock Finicum for helping boys from troubled homes find a sense of self-worth and independence at his ranch.

However, as Talking Points Memo notes:

".....having one parent away from home for a significant period of time committing a number o fhigh profile federal crimes would seem like at least a plausible reason to remove the children. This doesn't seem to occur to Finicum."

Also, says Talking Points Memo and Oregon Public Broadcasting, Finicum and his wife got most of their income from being foster parents. For a guy who wants government off our backs and likes his individualism, it's a little strange he's living off government subsidies.

Oh well, I guess it's OK to be a bit of a hypocrite if there's money to be made.

5. Then we have this video, a bizarre little battle cry with strange horns. Really guys?  It sounds like they're pretending to be mating mountain goats.

Which proves their little revolution is completely off the rails.

"You Ain't No Muslim, Bruv!" And Other Rallying Cries. Do They Help?

Among those embracing the "You Ain't No Muslim, Bruv"
slogan is British Prime Minister DAvid Cameron. 

The phrase on seemingly everybody's social media lips Monday was "You ain't no Muslim, Bruv!

This came from a extremely viral video in which a bystander video'd some moron attacking innocent passersby with a knife in London's Underground. The attacker yelled some nonsense about his assault being for Syria or something.

Three people were hurt, one seriously in this attack. While cops tackled the suspect, you can hear, very clearly in the video, another bystander shouting angrily at the suspect, "You ain't no Muslim, Bruv!"

("Bruv" is the British equivalent of "Bro" in th United States.)

"You ain't no Muslim, Bruv"  instantly became a rallying cry and a top trending hashtag on Twitter. Muslims in particular embraced the slogan, as the overwhelming majority of them clearly don't think terrorist attacks are consistent with their religion, Donald Trump's opinion notwithstanding.

Among those praising the unidentified man who said "You ain't no Muslim, Bruv" was British Prime Minister David Cameran, who noted the man "said it better than I ever could," and thank the man on behalf of the nation.

Many people for many years have been stating the obvious for years, saying that jihadists aren't really Muslims, even if they think they are.

But "You ain't no Muslim, Bruv" crystalizes the sentiment more perfectly than any politician or pundit or writer could ever manage.

The phrase is an instant way for all of us to demonstrate solidarity against ISIL and its terrorist ilk.

As a practical matter, slogans don't solve problems. At least not directly. I can't imagine an ISIL jihadist hearing "You ain't no Muslim, Bruv," and saying, "Geez, that's right. I'll lay down my weapons get rid of my bombs and lead a peaceful life from now on."

But such slogans offer us cohesiveness, a way to tell the world we're speaking with one voice against terrorism.

Oh, I know here in America there is a pretty big bunch of people taking the opposite tack, coming up with more and more over the top ways to "ban" Muslims because they are "all terrorists" or something.

As President Obama pointed out in a televised address Sunday, that attitude plays directly into the hands of ISIL, which insists the West is waging a war against Islam. (So come join us at ISIL to save Islam and bomb the hell out of those sinful Westerners!)

You Ain't No Muslim, Bruv is a counterweight to ISIL's sick recruitment efforts. The slogan won't save us from terrorism, just as #Port Ouverte  or open door for refugees in France after Paris attack didn't save us from terrorist. Nor did the popular hashtag #JeSuisCharlie after January's terrorist attack on the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.

However, we all feel like we need to do something, even if we are, as individuals, pretty powerless to stop ISIL. But the defiant Twitter hashtags like #YouAin'tNoMuslimBruv does its small part to reject and overpower Islamic extremists.

It isn't much, but every little bit helps.

Why Do Terrorist Threats Bring Out The Crazies?

Some random thoughts on the responses to the world's growing terrorist threat, and related news:

REFUGEES:  OK, I totally understand the desire to vet any potential refugees coming here from Syria, to make sure they're really just families fleeing war and violence and depravation. Makes sense to me.

But, as always, we have politicians going over the top with this one.

The one that made me groan the most came from U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Alabama, according to Think Progress.

As Think Progress reported, Brooks thinks all those refugees want to come to the United States because they're a bunch of greedy welfare queens.

"We're paying them about $15,000 a year in free health care, free food, free shelter, free clothing, free transportation...That answers very quickly why so many of them want to come to the United States of America.

"We're paying them to come here....It'a a paid vacation!"

I don't know the precise details of what benefits refugees who arrive in the United States get, but somehow I think a family fleeing bombs and machine guns aren't just looking for a pleasant weekend getaway on Dauphin Island.

Besides, why all the focus on refugees? If I were a terrorist wanting to cause mayhem in the United States, I'd get here on a tourist or student visa. Much less vetting there. Why not scream and holler about those visas?

Just a theory, but maybe because tourist and student visas bring in money? And refugees, at least when they first get here and are not employed yet, cost money? Is this really about economics and not security?

Just askin'.

THOSE CELEBRATIONS IN JERSEY CITY: Much has been made in the past couple of days about Donald Trump's assertion that "thousands" of Muslims in Jersey City, New Jersey celebrated as they watched the Twin Towers fall during the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Of course, that didn't happen, but here's the mystery: Every time Trump tells a whopper like that, he gets more popular. Do that many people just want to hear this fiction to reinforce their own wackadoodle opinions?

Of course, Trump's campaign manager has figured out why we haven't seen film of these celebrations. It turns out the main stream media is colluding to suppress the videos, thereby tensuring an establishment candidate like Jeb Bush is elected instead.

Boy, this guy doesn't know how journalists operate. If such a video exists and a journalist found it, they'd be blasting it out far and wide. It would be a career making scoop.

WHAT ABOUT THE WHITE TERRORISTS?   Everybody is rightly worried about the possibility of Islamic terrorists causing mayhem in the United States. It's also a legitimate argument whether President Obama's administration is doing enough to prevent that type of thing.

It seems we're too dismissive of white male terrorists in our own country, though. True, how do you define terrorism? Does it include every person who causes mayhem, like the movie theater shooting in Colorado a couple of years ago?

Or must it have a political agenda. Even if you go by that definition, there's plenty of worry to go around about some white, super right wing men in America. Tim McVeigh and the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 comes immediately to mind.

Then there's the guy who shot up the Charleston, South Carolina church in June and killed nine people because racism. And just this morning, we learned some white supremists shot and wounded Black Lives Matters protestors in Minneapolis a few nights ago. 

Obviously, I don't have the skill and ability to tamp down terrorism and all the societal and political complications that go with it

But I just think those three things I just described are among the things we should be at least thinking about.

Boko Haram, Boca Raton, Same Thing, Really

U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona
had a little trouble recently
with the difference between Boko Haram
the terrorists and Boca Raton,
the Florida city.  

Congressman Paul Gosar, R-Arizona is concerned about terrorism, as are many leaders around the world today.

During an appearance on CNN, he said if the United States paid ransom to terrorists to free kidnapped Americans, then "every American citizen traveling abroad becomes a subject in regard for kidnapping and then the plight of how much money has been captivated by the Boca Raton group.

Huh? Are the fine citizens of Boca Raton, Florida terrorists?

He meant Boko Haram, a bunch of horrible Islamic terrorists in Africa.

Boca Raton, Boko Haram, what's the difference, right?

Boca Raton Mary Susan Haynie said she does't think the terrorist group is in her fine city, reports Anne Geggis in the Sun-Sentinel down in Florida.

"While I'm pleased that the congressman from Arizona would hav the name of Boca Raton on his lips, i am disappointed that he would confuse our vibrant, beautiful city with a movement promoting Islamis insurgency in Nigeria," she said.

(Note: Geggis is a former reporting colleague of mine in Vermont, now working at the Sun-Sentinel. She gets all the fun stories, doesn't she?)

Actually,  I'm not going to bash Gosar. Everybody stumbles over their words and makes goofy errors.

It's embarrassing to appear on CNN and seem like you're confusing a nice, quiet midsize Florida city with wild eyed, deluded, scary and murderous terrorists.

These things happen, though.

A tongue in cheek press release issued by Paul
Gosar's spokespeople after the gaffe. Click on it
to make it bigger and easier to read.  

Why I like about this is the response from his press office.

Gosar's spokesman issued a press release with a great tongue in cheek response to the gaffe.

"Today, U.S. Representative Paul A. Gosar is pleased to announce that the Boko Haram terrorist group has been routed from Boca Raton, Florida and the residents are free to celebrate.

I am pleased this was a short dispute and the good people of Boca Raton can go back to tehir lives of leisure, fun and sun.....

.....Mayor Susan Haynie must have rounded up a solid group of citizen defenders who courageously protected their homeland. I look forward to visiting Boca Raton in the near future and I promise never to confuse it with the group Boko Haram ever again."

OK, we'll take that. Though next time, I'm afraid Gosar or somebody else might end up confusing Boca Raton, or Boko Haram and end up referring to Procol Harum.

I've got an idea: I bet we could rout the terrorist group Boko Harum by getting the fine citizens of Boca Raton to sing and record the Procol Harum classic "Whiter Shade of Pale" to drive those awful terrorists out of Nigeria, and maybe inspire them to just quit.

Here's "Whiter Shade of Pale" so you can start practicing:

Latest Outrage: Extreme Right Wing THRILLED Humanitarian U.S. ISIS Hostage Died

The thoroughly odious Debbie Schlussel is
apparently about the only person on the planet
happy that American hostage Kayla Mueller died.  

For the past 24 hours, it seems all I heard on the news was what a great person Kayla Mueller was.

She was the 26-year-old American held hostage by ISIS, that horrible fundamentalist bunch of idiots who kill, behead, torture, and otherwise brutalize anyone they disagree with. Her death was confirmed yesterday. 

Mueller's death really does sound like a huge loss.

Everyone who came in contact with her talked about what a humanitarian she was, how she would help anybody in need, how she was a model for the rest of us to follow. How we need more people like Mueller.

Judging from the news, I'm totally inspired by Mueller. I hope everyone else is too.

But that's too much too hope, of course, because there are idiots in the world. Some people are not like Mueller. Far from it.

According to Talking Points Memo,  evil conservative blogger Debbie Schlussel is already dancing on Mueller's grave, thrilled that she is gone.

Here's the odious Schlussel's headline to her latest blog post:

"Kayla Mueller: Dead ISIS Hostage was Jew-Hating, Anti-Israel Bitch."

Why the cruelty? Apparently, Mueller's humanitarian work included helping some Palestinians. Mueller might have been sympathetic to Palestinians distrust and anger toward Israel.

In Schlussel's blotto world, that means she was basically a terrorist.

I don't know exactly what Mueller's viewpoint on Israel and Palestine was. Whatever Mueller's opinion, it's totally fine to either agree or disagree with it.

But if you disagree, you gleefully dance on her grave?   Debbie, darling, you are one sick, consumed by hate, scary ball of dark clouds, to say the least.

Oh, and I'm not done with our Debbie. Oh, no. She's got a world of hate up her sleeve.

Apparently Little Debbie is ecstatic that other American hostages died at the hands of ISIS:

"Ever single of of these hostages has been a leftist America-hater. They are anti-American 'journalists' there to tell us how 'moderate' and 'democratic' these beheaders and live-human burners are. Or are they anti-American 'aid workers' (that's like the Middle East version of Barack Obama's 'community organizer.)'"

Hmmm. Interesting. I follow the news pretty damn closely, and I have not heard of one instance of an American hostage, or anybody, left wing or right wing, tell us how "moderate" and "democratic" the terrorists from ISIS who behead and burn innocent people are.

All I ever hear is how ISIS must be stopped ASAP to stop them from committing more horrors.

But Little Debbie lives in her own parallel universe where everybody except her is bent on the destruction of Israel, and with it her sicko blog that is apparently the source of her income.

She tries to outdo everyone, so you really have to give Little Debbie an "A" for effort.

Back in 2011 she was kind of happy that a monster, Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in Norway, including many children and teens, because he was unhappy that Norway's ruling party, in his mind, was too multicultural and endangering Norway's identity.

Little Debbie apparently LOVES it when kids or young adults are killed by a mad murderer.

The teens that died were at a camp run by the party that was ruling Norway at the time. Pretty innocent. Very much as if the Republican or Democratic parties in the United States sponsored summer camps for kids here.

But, the campers in Norway were too leftist for her taste, so it was probably good that the kids died, in Little Debbie's sick mind. To her, the Norwegian teens were Hamas terrorists

"What goes around comes around. You support terrorists against innocent civilians in Israel, then you get attacked by terrorists who are upset with your support.

"I shed no tears for thes Hamasnik campers with a Scandinavian dialet. Perpetrators are not victims. Hamas collaborators don't get my pity. They never will."

I probably should't waste time on Little Debbie. But it's probably for the best we try to be aware of sick people like Little Debbie.

You always gotta watch out for the wackos.

Inspiring "Imagine" Moment From Paris Rally

During the largest demonstration in French history, some of the 1.5 million people marching for freedom and peace broke into singing John Lennon's "Imagine."

Gives one hope in a brutal world:

Heroic TSA Agent Saves World From Diabolical Rooster Monkburn, The Sock Monkey

A diligent. heroic TSA agemt in St. Louis possibly saved the world in the past week.

Rooster Monkburn, the diabolical terrorist
sock monkey named in St. Louis. 

Phyllis May of Redmond, Washington was trying to board a plane when the TSA agent uncovered the evil plot in which May had a role.

It turns out May had a little sock monkey named Rooster Monkburn in her baggage. And Rooster Monkburn had a gun!

It was a little toy gun, two inches long in his little holster. Imagine the carnage had Rooster Monkburn gotten on that plane with that gun! Oh, the humanity!!

Or, as the TSA reportedly said to May once she discovered Monkburn and his gun. "If I held it up to your neck you wouldn't know if it was real or not."

Well, that TSA agent certainly showed her analytical skills. Personally, I would probably know the difference between having a tiny two-inch toy gun held against my temple, compared to a Glock 9 mm, but what do I know?

That's why we have those wicked smart and on top of it TSA agents protecting us.

Those TSA agents are also so, so compassionate, too! The agent said she should have called the cops, but she didn't, perhaps judging that May was just an unwitting stooge in Rooster Monkburn's dangerous plot.

The holster and gun confiscated from Rooster
Monkburn, next to three quarters, for
comparions' sake. 

As is always the case, it seems, the TSA sidestepped comment on this incident just issuing their usual bland statement. You know, to keep those terribly terrorists among us off balance.

Said the TSA statement: "TSA officers are dedicated to keeping the nation's transportation security systems safe and secure for the traveling public. Under longstanding aircraft security policy, and out of an abundance of caution, realistic replicas of firearms are prohibited in carry on bags."

Especially when sock monkeys are involved. They're particularly dangerous.

On the bright side, everyone, espcially all of us naive Americans who don't understand terrorism like the TSA does, will probably want a Rooster Monkburn sock monkey for Christmas.

May is going to have her hands full in that terrorist hotbed of Redmond, Washington, making more Rooster Monkburn sock monkeys with their teeny, tiny, fake guns.

Which means the TSA is really going to have its hands full during the holiday travel system.

New York Yankees And Their Fans Are Totally a Wonderful Class Act

Any Red Sox fan worth their salt knows they always play Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" at the bottom of the third inning during home games.

A very nice gesture at the Yankees game last night. 

I'm not sure how that tradition got started, but what the hell. It's awesome.

Last night, at a New York Yankees home game, they did the same to honor Boston and the city's response to the marathon bombing

As Jon Stewart said this week, New York and Boston have had a long, long rivalry, but its a sibling rivalry.

When Neil Diamond himself got wind of what happened in Yankee Stadium, he tweeted:

"Thank you for playing "Sweet Caroline" for the people of Boston. You scored a home run in my heart. With respect, Neil. 

Indeed!

Here's the video: