more people to be skeered of!!1!

The headline is kind of inevitable, if depressing:

Teen’s essay leads to arrest

...hey wait a minute. ARREST? Didn't they just used to suspend kids from school for this kind of thing?

Told to express emotion for a creative writing class, high-school senior Allen Lee penned an essay so disturbing to his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct, officials said.

Lee, 18, a straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School in Cary, Ill., was arrested last week near his home and charged with the misdemeanor for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.

[snip]

“In light of recent events (at Virginia Tech), that is part of the context of what happened that makes the reaction all the more reasonable,” said Tom Carroll, first assistant state’s attorney in McHenry County.

School officials declined to say whether Lee had any previous disciplinary problems but said he was an excellent student. Authorities said Lee had never been in trouble with the police.

Well, as compared to Cho, who was evidently a deeply troubled guy to begin with, Mr. Lee was showing, well, nothing resembling a homicidal tendency.

What about what he wrote?

The essay, written April 23, reads in part, “Blood, sex and booze. Drugs, drugs, drugs are fun. Stab, stab, stab, stab, stab ... So I had this dream last night where I went into a building, pulled out two P90s and started shooting everyone, then had sex with the dead bodies. Well, not really, but it would be funny if I did.”

Well, it's no Wodehouse, but even if it is disturbing it's hardly material for bringing charges against someone.

The teacher told students: “‘Be creative; there will be no judgment and no censorship,’” Loizzo said. “There was never any warning from the teacher that if she determined the paper to be offensive, she would then pass it along to the authorities.”

[snip]

Some legal experts said the charges are troubling because they stem from an essay that even police admit contained no direct threats against anyone at the school. A civil rights advocate said the teacher’s reaction to an essay shouldn’t make it a crime.

Well, he WAS being creative, as he was asked to do. After all, do we insist Stephen King get followed around by the police 'cause he wrote disturbing stuff and might therefore be a potential killer? How do we KNOW mystery authors aren't really writing about the murder of their enemies and so need to be under surveillance? And why is this purveyor of blood'n'sex fantasies not under psychiatric supervision as a possible menace to society?

Couldn't have anything to do with ethnicity, now, could it?

Seung Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, was from South Korea. Albert Lee would not say whether he thinks the fact that his son is Chinese-American had any bearing on the incident.

...

NAAAAAAAH. None whatsoever.

Just Like Lincoln

From CNN.com:

President Bush empathized with Abraham Lincoln on Monday, saying they both stood by their principles in the face of criticism during wartime.

[snip]

He showed the group a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. He said Lincoln was unpopular during the Civil War but maintained his belief that all men are created equal.

"Look what would have happened to history" if Lincoln had abandoned that principle, Bush said.

You know, it's a mystery to me just why Lincoln's rotting corpse didn't tear its way out of the grave and come after Chimpy for demeaning his memory like that.

I'm not sure I even understand what "principle" Bush is referring to. The principle that America deserves its oil no matter whose desert it's under? The principle that we need to invade countries based on what their leaders might be thinking about doing sometime in the future? The principle that we need to be doing everything we can to confirm the Arab world's dismal view of America, while telling them they need to be more like us then wondering why they reject the idea?

Which is all aside from the point that I'm not about to accept a lecture on history from an ingorant pissant who can't even be bothered to read the newspaper and undoubtedly got his view of the Civil War era from Bugs Bunny cartoons.

Just like old times

Back long long ago (well, about a decade anyway) when I lived on Long Island, one of my habits was to read the morning's edition of Newsday, including the latest right-wing dribblings from the resident James Pinkerton. (I have no idea if Mr. Pinkerton has any relation with the union busters who share his name, but it wouldn't suprise me a bit if he did.)

Well, it's nice to see that some things never change - Mr. Pinkerton waxes lyrical about the virtues of having someone else fight your crusades for you:

A radical Islamic regime bites the dust: In Somalia, "regime change" works smoothly, without much cost to America. There are some lessons there.

"Lessons", eh? I sense some major wankery ahead.

The UIC was the real Taliban-like deal, forcing women into veils, banning movies - it even outlawed watching World Cup soccer games on television.

Yep, there's all you need to label a Muslim government as a nefarious dictatorship these days - forbidding the watching of professional sports. Not exactly death-camp-level material, I'll admit, but I'm sure Hitler would have forbidden the Jews from watching "American Idol" if it hadn't been half a century too early for it to even exist. (And "banning movies"? I can think of a few, specifically those featuring Adam Sandler or Pauly Shore, that SHOULD have been made felonious acts.)

America has had to relearn that lesson periodically. The nation went in with a light footprint in Afghanistan in 2001, but then heavied up its presence in the years since. The result was predictable: a significant guerrilla war. And, of course, America went in even heavier in Iraq, and the results there speak for themselves.

I'm sure if America had just trodden lighter in Afghanistan, nobody would have NOTICED the invasion and overthrowing of the Taliban government. Of COURSE not. People don't object to you entering their countries as long as you do it "lightly", after all.

Happily, the latest Somalia experience demonstrates that the United States has learned a valuable lesson about dealing with Muslim radicals. Specifically, using surrogates, as opposed to U.S. troops, to do the fighting works better. Not only is the cost to America lower, but prospects of success are better - because, as we have seen, the American flag is a red flag in many parts of the world.

Whee! Yes, happy happy happy! 'Cause, you see, it's FOREIGNERS dying, and not Americans, so who gives a rat's ass? And nobody will ever notice the puppet strings! People NEVER pick up on stuff like that!

And these "good" Somalis have been good to us in return: The restored prime minister, Ali Mohamed Gedi, has pledged to eliminate the UIC and turn over to the United States any al-Qaida types he catches - including those linked to the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya that killed 257. Sweet.

Yeah, 'cause nothing prompts a comment like "Sweet." like the prospect of another bunch of innocent shlubs rounded up and sent off to Guantanamo to be waterboarded until they admit to being bin Laden's right hand man.

The term "sociopath" comes to mind, somehow.

There's no guarantee that the Somali mission will be a success in the long run, but so far, so good. More fighting is certain, although "world opinion" is not likely to worry much, so long as the 82nd Airborne is not involved. Nor is there much chance that Somalia will emerge as a democracy.

Oh, well, who gives a damn after all about "democracy" when the Mooslofascists have been defeated and there's the possibility of another (at least temporarily) freindly dictatorship in control of Somalia?

Why, it's not like there's oil or anything there, right?

Oh, wait, maybe there is.. Gosh, WHAT A COINCIDENCE.

Time to rename some more food, methinks

Maybe we can call them Freedom Muffins:

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met with some of the 15 British military personnel held in Iranian custody for almost two weeks, shortly after pardoning the group and vowing to set them free.

Okay, who's going to be the first warblogger to use the phrase perfidious Albion? Or the first to suggest that now that the soldiers are safe it's high time to nuke Iran without worrying about hurting them?

Personally, I'm waiting for the first assertion, probably from Ann Coulter on CNN (and she STILL will be invited back on, regardless) that the next time London's attacked by terrorists they will bloody well deserve it for this.

Me, I'm just cheered not only at the peaceful resolution of the crisis but at the whining and kvetching we can expect from the wingnuts over the next week or so. Should make for high comedy.