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You are here: Home / The Answer is Never

The Answer is Never

by @heymistermix.com|  July 23, 20119:24 am| 105 Comments

This post is in: DC Press Corpse

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James Fallows thinks the Washington Post owes the world an apology and correction for Jennifer Rubin’s stupid piece speculating about Al Qaeda’s involvement in Norway. A taste:

Moreover, there is a specific jihadist connection here: “Just nine days ago, Norwegian authorities filed charges against Mullah Krekar, an infamous al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist who, with help from Osama bin Laden, founded Ansar al Islam – a branch of al Qaeda in northern Iraq – in late 2001.”
This is a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too expensive to wage a war against jihadists. […] Obama would have us believe that al-Qaeda is almost caput and that we can wrap up things in Afghanistan. All of these are rationalizations for doing something very rash, namely curbing our ability to defend the United States and our allies in a very dangerous world.

Don’t hold your breath on that one, Jim. She’s too busy telling us how Boehner pwned President Obama and how the White House conspired to kill the debt ceiling deal.

Meanwhile, as Fallows notes, the per-capita death toll in Norway is at least twice that of 9/11, all at the hands of a “Christian fundamentalist with right-wing tendencies”.

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Reader Interactions

105Comments

  1. 1.

    jeffreyw

    July 23, 2011 at 9:30 am

    Jennifer Rubin (artist’s impression)

  2. 2.

    nancydarling

    July 23, 2011 at 9:31 am

    I think apologies from Christian leaders for what one of their own has done are called for here. Isn’t that what is demanded of Muslim leaders when one “theirs” commits an act of terror?

  3. 3.

    Tunch

    July 23, 2011 at 9:31 am

    And before loco moko points it out, EDK posted something similar, but now has up a post saying, yeah, I was wrong, but only because he did it the way aQ would have done it.

    Tricksy there are, corrupting the minds of those nice white supremacists who would have never come up with on their own.

  4. 4.

    cathyx

    July 23, 2011 at 9:32 am

    A terrorist of the anti-muslim variety.

  5. 5.

    Cat Lady

    July 23, 2011 at 9:34 am

    WaPo- fishwrap or bird cage liner?

  6. 6.

    John Cole

    July 23, 2011 at 9:38 am

    “Christian fundamentalist with right-wing tendencies”

    Brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.

  7. 7.

    greennotGreen

    July 23, 2011 at 9:39 am

    To give Jennifer Rubin the benefit of a doubt, I’m sure it was just an autocorrect problem. She probably typed in “perpetrators” and her word processing program just stuck in “Al Qaeda.” And even then, it’s just semantics. After all, what’s the difference between Al Qaeda and violent right wing Christianists? They’re both just deluded theocrats who serve an angry, murderous god.

  8. 8.

    Suffern ACE

    July 23, 2011 at 9:40 am

    Please, MSM hired freak, tell us again why we can never ever leave Afghanistan and why it isn’t too expensive? Because the Norwegians arrested someone?

  9. 9.

    cleek

    July 23, 2011 at 9:41 am

    the accepted wingnut line is now “no, it wasn’t wrong to assume he was a Muslim, because it’s usually a Muslim, and it could still turn out that he’s in league with Muslims, and Muslims are bad, and 9/11!, Muslims, Muslims, Muslims!”

    see the idiot McCarthy at NRO for an absurd example

  10. 10.

    cathyx

    July 23, 2011 at 9:42 am

    So I don’t expect to hear very much about this story anymore, since it doesn’t fit in with the al Qaeda terrorist meme. Now it’s just a lone crazy guy.

  11. 11.

    General Stuck

    July 23, 2011 at 9:48 am

    The thing about the new age of digital info, and the thick as flies outlets to bomb our senses with the deep thoughts of folks like Rubin, is that if a body doesn’t take care, they can end up in a state of melancholy from too much tragedy intake, or go on an emo freakazoid binge fueled by an overdose of stupidity.

    We have it all right now, in triplicate. It is supposed to rain here today.

    So sorry for your losses Norway. RIP to all that died too young, before they had a chance to live. And for the deep well of grief caused by a crazy right wing nutjob. We got those here as well.

    Rubin, WAPO, and their fellow winguts, can eat shit and die. That is all.

  12. 12.

    dr. bloor

    July 23, 2011 at 9:49 am

    @Catlady:

    Use it for mulching in your garden. High fecal density–excellent fertilizer.

  13. 13.

    Obliterati

    July 23, 2011 at 9:49 am

    The Muslims made him do it. That’ll be the official wingnut line.

  14. 14.

    MattF

    July 23, 2011 at 9:50 am

    Well, Rubin joins other WaPo luminaries– Thiessen, Will, Krauthammer, Gerson, (ex) Kristol… Wait, wait… I feel light dawning… Is it possible that there’s a pattern here??!!!!

  15. 15.

    lllphd

    July 23, 2011 at 9:50 am

    yeah, this will be interesting to watch how it gets spun. replay of AZ, anyone?

    the horrifying thing to me is that most of these fatalities are kids; this monster walked through a camp of the youth of his brethren and shot them dead in cold blood as they ran (and swam) for their lives. this was his intent, which is even more chilling than mcveigh’s “collateral damage” at the murrah building pre-school.

    oh, and importantly, a liberal youth camp.

  16. 16.

    mellowjohn

    July 23, 2011 at 9:54 am

    it never would have happened if the liberals running that camp had allowed the kids to exercise their 2nd amendment rights!

  17. 17.

    Brian S

    July 23, 2011 at 9:55 am

    Reza Aslan noted on Twitter that the switch from terrorist to madman was almost immediate the second that it became clear this wasn’t al Qaeda. Quelle surprise!

  18. 18.

    stuckinred

    July 23, 2011 at 9:57 am

    Neal Boortz tweet on Norway “Sure looked like Muslim MO in Norway. Muslim radicals will shoot children — in the back. Remember Chechnya? 8:19 PM Sat, 23 Jul 2011 00:19:10 +0000

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    July 23, 2011 at 9:58 am

    Check out this NYTimes readers comments thread from yesterday. A lot jumped to the muslim terrorist/this is what Norway deserves for allowing immigration and multi-culturalism bandwagon.

    http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/07/23/world/europe/23oslo.html?sort=recommended

    Jennifer Rubin needs to be gone from the WaPost.

    Although if you boot her, how do you keep the paper’s other rightwing serial fabulists pumping out misinformation?

    WPost has a (self/Fred Hiatt-created) problem there.

  20. 20.

    tamiedjr

    July 23, 2011 at 9:58 am

    jeffryw @ #1: Is that a turkey buzzard?

  21. 21.

    Ed Marshall

    July 23, 2011 at 10:00 am

    He was fjordman, guest blogger for Pam Gellar’s Atlas Shrugged. I can’t believe this shit.

  22. 22.

    John Puma

    July 23, 2011 at 10:01 am

    A stupid, knee-jerk, 180° wrong, racist piece in the WA Po?!?

    I’m simply shocked!

    Say it ain’t so, Mr mistermix, purty please!!!

  23. 23.

    The Pale Scot

    July 23, 2011 at 10:01 am

    Jesus Wept.

    As lllphd said, how does one shoot down kids over politics?

    Can’t help but be inclined to nod in agreement with the thought of Earth ending this whole naked ape experiment.

  24. 24.

    stuckinred

    July 23, 2011 at 10:03 am

    fjordman

  25. 25.

    chopper

    July 23, 2011 at 10:04 am

    @Ed Marshall:

    you’re shitting me. gellar’s guest blogger just shot and killed almost a hundred fucking people?

  26. 26.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    July 23, 2011 at 10:05 am

    All of these are rationalizations for doing something very rash, namely curbing our ability to defend the United States and our allies in a very dangerous world.

    All I can visualize is an aircraft carrier up on blocks, sitting in the WH’s front yard, w/ a for sale sign on it…

    We spend nearly as much as the rest of the world COMBINED on affairs military…

    What is this idiot talking about?

  27. 27.

    Ed Marshall

    July 23, 2011 at 10:05 am

    @chopper:

    yes.

  28. 28.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 10:05 am

    Him being Fjordman confirmed anywhere?

  29. 29.

    bkny

    July 23, 2011 at 10:06 am

    and to the offensive disinformation, you can add:

    …’were mimicking Al Qaeda’s brutality and multiple attacks.

    “If it does turn out to be someone with more political motivations, it shows these groups are learning from what they see from Al Qaeda,” said Brian Fishman, a counterterrorism researcher at the New America Foundation in Washington.

    honestly, that comment just stuns me. i guess mr fishman hasn’t heard about, you know, past incidents: ira bombings, columbine, oklahoma city, virginia tech …

  30. 30.

    chopper

    July 23, 2011 at 10:08 am

    great. no matter who does it and why, it’s still the muslims’ fault. just the fact that everyone jumped to that conclusion is proof that islam is really to blame.

    i hate this fucking world.

  31. 31.

    General Stuck

    July 23, 2011 at 10:13 am

    OT

    Ha! did I call this
    , or what?

    Key detail from the collapse of the debt deal negotiations: At the last minute, House Republicans demanded that any deal include a repeal of the individual mandate provision in the new health care reform law, according to the White House.

  32. 32.

    World Wide Caliphate Now!

    July 23, 2011 at 10:13 am

    I am sure we can all understand why there was a rush to judgement. I mean several buildings were blown up in a business district and children massacred. It has all the earmarks of a dangerous band of brown immigrants with a superficially different religion or the US armed forces. There was no wedding so the US is off the hook. The fact that the buildings were indeed blown up tends to make you doubt a right wing terrorist subject. RWTS are more of the “infiltrated and disrupted in the planning stages of a major attack” sort of player. Think about the Hutaree Militia or the Denver Neo-nazis, not the poster children for a successful terror campaign.

    *Anyone who would slaughter teens at a summer camp that focuses on involvement in government is a danger to all of civilization. There needs to be a measured denouncement of the mindset and actions that destroy the foundations of civility and peace no matter the ethnicity or political leanings.

  33. 33.

    donnah

    July 23, 2011 at 10:14 am

    This may have been posted here yesterday, but it broke my heart:

    UPDATE NO. 17: In a sign that the shooting spree at the youth camp on Utoya is still not yet under control, authorities are advising Norwegians not to call people they know who may be on the island for fear “giving off the location of those who are hiding in the bushes and elsewhere on the island, to the shooter,” BBC reports.

    Can you imagine?

  34. 34.

    Ed Marshall

    July 23, 2011 at 10:15 am

    @wrb:

    http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/07/22/rightist-wreaks-terror-through-norway/

  35. 35.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Denial of Fjordman rumor from Gates of Vienna:

    For the record: I did not comment on the rumor that the Utøya shooter was the same person as Fjordman because the assertion is too ludicrous to be taken seriously.
    Charles Johnson is free to believe any damnfool thing he wants, and probably will, but I don’t see why I have to concern myself with it.
    I strongly regret having to mention this stupid nonsense at all. It is demeaning to Fjordman, to myself, and to this blog to have to refer to it.
    However, I will do so here, for this one post only:
    I know Fjordman personally, I know exactly what he looks like, and he does not resemble the alleged murderer in the slightest.
    Furthermore, I was in conversation with Fjordman all day today, starting before the shootings, during the slaughter, and afterwards. If he was shooting up Utøya, he was doing an amazing job of communicating with his friends the whole time, even after he was thrown in a jail cell.

  36. 36.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 10:16 am

    Denial of Fjordman rumor from Gates of Vienna:

    For the record: I did not comment on the rumor that the Utøya shooter was the same person as Fjordman because the assertion is too ludicrous to be taken seriously.
    Charles Johnson is free to believe any damnfool thing he wants, and probably will, but I don’t see why I have to concern myself with it.
    I strongly regret having to mention this stupid nonsense at all. It is demeaning to Fjordman, to myself, and to this blog to have to refer to it.
    However, I will do so here, for this one post only:
    I know Fjordman personally, I know exactly what he looks like, and he does not resemble the alleged murderer in the slightest.
    Furthermore, I was in conversation with Fjordman all day today, starting before the shootings, during the slaughter, and afterwards. If he was shooting up Utøya, he was doing an amazing job of communicating with his friends the whole time, even after he was thrown in a jail cell.

  37. 37.

    evinfuilt

    July 23, 2011 at 10:18 am

    I’m so saddened by this, hard for me to think properly. The mirrors to okc bombing was evident right away. The shooting though, that is what has me so shocked.

    My anger this actually causes me will make me ask a lot of “moderate” Christians to denounce this act.

    My hopes go out to Norway, as I am worried that this event could change them. I shouldn’t be, their love of peace and reason will triumph over right wing mentality.

  38. 38.

    Amir_Khalid

    July 23, 2011 at 10:22 am

    The Norwegian cops did their job. They identified the perpetrator from security video footage very quickly. They had him in custody within hours. By talking to him directly, they found out exactly what he was before the end of the day. There was never any real need here to speculate, never any need to rely on prejudice and prove to be so wildly wrong. But pundits must pontificate, bigots must air their bigotry; and Jennifer Rubin (among others) is clearly both.

  39. 39.

    Ed Marshall

    July 23, 2011 at 10:22 am

    @wrb:

    If it’s not true, it would mean Anders Breivik claimed to be fjordman to another right wing blogger and lied. It’s also possible that fjordman is more than one person.

  40. 40.

    chopper

    July 23, 2011 at 10:22 am

    @Stuck:

    jesus, we really are boned. seriously, i used to think that at least boner would come back at the 11th hour and make something happen just to keep the country from falling apart, but these guys are pure-D insane.

    i’m going to have to stock up on canned food, aren’t i?

  41. 41.

    Frapalinger

    July 23, 2011 at 10:23 am

    I bet they won’t even mention this on Beat the Press, Disgrace the Nation, or This Weak tomorrow morning (needless to say Fox News Sunday won’t touch this with a ten foot pole, because terrorism, like everything else is IOKIYAR). Instead, we’ll get a half dozen republicans and a bunch of centrists talking about how radical the democrats are being in the debt negotiations.

  42. 42.

    jeffreyw

    July 23, 2011 at 10:27 am

    @tamiedjr: Yup, the pups had mauled a mole they dug from the yard, and left it there. Amazing that such a tiny morsel drew his attention from on high.

  43. 43.

    MikeJ

    July 23, 2011 at 10:29 am

    @Ed Marshall:

    it would mean Anders Breivik claimed to be fjordman to another right wing blogger and lied.

    You don’t think a guy that could shoot 80 kids could lie to pump up his ego, do you?

  44. 44.

    karen marie

    July 23, 2011 at 10:30 am

    It wasn’t hard for me to figure out very early on that the bombing and shootings were not AQ related. A quick Google to find out the provenance of the camp and the group AUF brought up the fact that both targets were linked to the Norwegian soshalist Labour Party. Who hates soshalists? Wingnuts.

    Perhaps we should take up a collection to pay to educate Jennifer Rubin and her fellow travelers on the use of the Google.

  45. 45.

    jonas

    July 23, 2011 at 10:31 am

    Al Qaeda is so devious and insidious that they’re now recruiting blonde Norwegian, anti-Muslim neo-fascists to do their dirty work, possibly using secretly implanted hypno-chips or something. Man, will those Islamic terrorists stop at nothing?

  46. 46.

    chopper

    July 23, 2011 at 10:35 am

    the per-capita death toll in Norway is at least twice that of 9/11

    or, to put it another way, about 35 McVeighs.

  47. 47.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 10:36 am

    Ed Marshall:

    What some GoV people are claiming is that he posted to the same blogs as Fjordman under his own name, and praised him.

    One of them collected posts made under his own name, translated them and posted them here

  48. 48.

    vtr

    July 23, 2011 at 10:43 am

    I’m sure heard he the voice of God in his head telling him to go out and kill people he’s never seen before. Sometimes I think I just heard God tell me to kill someone, too. But I’m skeptical. Some of my friends tell me God’s in another line of work.

  49. 49.

    Kane

    July 23, 2011 at 10:47 am

    A Christian fundamentalist.

    Does this mean that all Christian leadership and Christian organizations must put out statements condemning all Christian fundamentalists? Can we expect Peter King to chime in to condemn this Christian fundamentalist terrorist?

  50. 50.

    Basilisc

    July 23, 2011 at 10:57 am

    #16 mellowjohn –

    Exactly.

    Pivot in rightwing kneejerk response from “It was obviously a Muslim” to “If only someone on that island had been allowed to pack heat” in 3 … 2 … 1 …

  51. 51.

    JGabriel

    July 23, 2011 at 11:00 am

    NY Times:

    “We are not sure whether he was alone or had help,” a police official, Roger Andresen, said at a televised news conference. “What we know is that he is right-wing and a Christian fundamentalist.” So far Mr. Breivik has not been linked to any anti-jihadist groups, he said.

    This was an act of Conservative Terrorism — aimed at the center-left.

    The victims were Labor party members, and, unbelievably, their children.

    While I wouldn’t be surprised if the terrorist had racist, or anti-Muslim views, the targets weren’t Muslims. Breivik has no known links yet to anti-Jihadi groups. Breivik is reported to be a right-wing Christian fundamentalist. And he attacked social democrats.

    This is Conservative Terrorism.

    Let’s get used to using that phrase. Wingnuts won’t like it, but it’s the most accurate description.

    .

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 23, 2011 at 11:08 am

    This is Conservative Terrorism.

    No, it’s not conservative at all. These reactionary assholes have taken that term and turned it into something entirely different. They’re opposed to freedom for everyone but a tiny elite…they’re actually neo-feudalists and theocrats, opposed to egalitarianism and social justice. They want to impose their mental illness of an invisible sky buddy on everyone by force.

  53. 53.

    Anya

    July 23, 2011 at 11:11 am

    It’s strange that most of the articles I’ve read about the massacre, while identifying the killer as a right-wing Norwegian, they still devoted more ink to Al-Qaeda and “muslim extremism”. It’s as though they don’t know how to talk about terrorism without the muslim angle. Case in point: Norwegian massacre gunman was a right-wing extremist who hated Muslims

  54. 54.

    nancydarling

    July 23, 2011 at 11:12 am

    It is worth posting Ed Marshall’s link @34 again.

    http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/07/22/rightist-wreaks-terror-through-norway/

  55. 55.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 11:13 am

    Here are some excerpts posted under his own name.

    Sounds like he wasn’t Fjordman but was an admirer and follower (and of Gates of Vienna).

    Seems clear he participated in and was nurtured by the right-wing blogosphere.

    Focus seems to be mainly maintaining cultural purity. Muslims were the particular threat.

    Read Fjord Man’s work “Defeating Eurabia”. This is f as the perfect Christmas gift for family and friends.
    I now use these funds to be able to work full time to further develop / promote the Vienna Academy (Vienna school of thought) that Fjordman, Bat Yeor, Spencer + many others have already contributed so much till. The last three years I worked full time with a cultural conservative works that will help to further develop / promote these political doctrines further.
    It is actually essential that people like yourself and Fjordman continues to develop theories of their (our). These are about to lay the foundation for our “Vienna School”. What moderate cultural conservatives believe this work should worry less about. They will come after a few years and shout “hallelujah” when “NOK” evidence supporting these claims;)Do not take it personally but rather as a compliment. You will have to read between the lines sometimes (we have actually gone so far that we have learned some of the Marxists – war is deceit, etc. ..). The truth is there. But do not believe that truth can only benefit us, it can actually harm us if we do not use it properly. The truth is so ugly that it has the potential to scare many moderates cultural conservatives back into apathy. Yes, you (we are right), but we have not such a bad self-image that we have to gloat with it all the time?To put it another way. It is critical that individuals / ideologues who Fjordman / Hårstad presents the unpackaged truth to other moderate but experienced cultural conservatives. These moderate cultural conservatives will then make their own judgments and take the necessary precautions. If you believe that the broad strata (individuals who do not have the same intellectual conservative culture knowledge like us) are ready for the full packaged truth will take you wrong. I, with several years of study of this truth is still sick and poor to think about it.
    I see such ideologues as a martyr-ideologues (I might be in this category, even with similar theories, even though I was not familiar with Fjord Man’s works until 2008). They provide the basic ideological lines to more moderate individuals, the ugly truth beauty, foundation, other more moderate build on this. It will often be expedient to distance himself from these martyr-ideologues for tactical reasons (especially if your goal is to reach out to the large masses). How is the game whether we like it or not. Individuals have different functions. Do not be offended because of that, but take it rather as a compliment;)
    Do you think kulturmarxister will ever be so stupid that they admit that they want to implement Marx’s doctrines? The fact that they use humanism to advance a Marxist utopia? No, they distance themselves from Marx for strategic reasons. They are not born yesterday and it is not we.
    We were honest once, but Marx and Muhammad has forced us to become more like them, unfortunately.
    They had their “Frankfurt School”. We are going to develop our own “Vienna School” of necessity.
    Embrace it! DE has made the rules, we just follow them. ;)
    Do not know quite where to take it up but our own Fjordman is about to be cut to 3 position among the most recognized / influential European intellectuals anti-Jihad/anti-multikulti/anti-Marxist / bloggers.
    After Gates of Vienna (No. 1) and New English Review (2). Ovverraskende NOK Fjordman is actually possible to turn himself Brussels Journal!
    In other words. Those who have not yet read Fjord Man’s book, “Defeating Eurabia” has not been followed by an hour. I know it’s hard to be prophet in his own country but this is beyond all expectations. Congratulations Fjordman:)
    You have of course absolutely right. What I was referring to were individuals Yellow (leader of the Humanist Association), which only attacks Christianity while ignoring the spread of Islam.
    It is tragicomic that an important NGO that NHA has been the coup of a cultural Marxist, then it should be led by a liberal anti-Jihadist-type Bruce Bawer.
    The next 20 years, we must work hard to regain control of at least five major NGOs. The fact that the Progress Party has been living clean makes this task easier.
    It is wonderful to reflect that multiculturalism is a self-destructive ideology. The European cultural conservative movement is small at the moment but we are growing every day. And within 70 years, it’s time for regime changes in Europe. At this point, the multi-cultural neo colonial regimes either imploded or become very Stalinist.
    Before that, we must focus on the following:
    1. Creating a cultural conservative newspaper with national distribution
    2. Regaining control of several NGOs
    3. Develop and consolidate the cultural conservative intellectual movement
    4. Build an “EDL” type of youth

    That last line is rather haunting

  56. 56.

    Constance

    July 23, 2011 at 11:13 am

    I’d never heard of Jennifer Rubin until somehow her vicious comments about Dudley Clendinen’s thoughtful, beautiful piece about living with ALS were linked. I doubt she had read what Dudley had to say. I got the impression she read what David Brooks wrote about Dudley’s decision and assumed Brooks had a clue.

    Fortunately, I don’t read WaPo so will probably never have to read her again. She’s just nasty.

  57. 57.

    MikeJ

    July 23, 2011 at 11:14 am

    @Villago Delenda Est: Preserving power for those who have it is pretty much the definition of conservative.

  58. 58.

    WereBear

    July 23, 2011 at 11:15 am

    Our mental framework shapes how we view the world.

    If someone is suspicious and paranoid and convinced there are swirling conspiracies keeping them oppressed and miserable and lonely… if they feel their beliefs and skin color should be celebrated far more than they truly are… if they are so short of admirable attributes they have to make some up… if they feel the world must be reshaped to suit them…

    Then it’s no surprise they manage to seek out like-minded others who spin fantasies of mayhem and bloodshed. The problem is that every so often, there’s someone like this who decides to take it to the next level.

    And the people who encouraged it; darn right they should be called on it.

  59. 59.

    Punchy

    July 23, 2011 at 11:17 am

    I sure hope Norway has the brains to try this idiot at Norway’s Gitmo, b/c god knows he’s too powerful and omnipotent to be tried by Norwegian judges.

  60. 60.

    JGabriel

    July 23, 2011 at 11:17 am

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    No, it’s not conservative at all. These reactionary assholes have taken that term and turned it into something entirely different.

    Yes, they have. And, consequentially, that “something different” is exactly what Conservative means now.

    .

  61. 61.

    Joel

    July 23, 2011 at 11:20 am

    The past is prologue, as Shakespeare would say.

  62. 62.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 11:33 am

    The blog that posted Breivik’s posts goes on to defend him:

    Reading through Anders Behring Breivik’s comments on the document.no website, it’s clear that he had effectively given up on democracy. That’s what drove him to despair and to an act of apocalyptic violence. He felt there was a conspiracy among the media and political elite to suppress any derogatory information about Muslims or mass immigration. And, of course, he was right. He dwelt on instances of Muslim rioting that were being ignored by the mass media. And he was right about that too. The media does tend to ignore Muslim wrong-doing for as long as humanly possible, then when it becomes too extreme to be ignored, describes the perpetrators as “Asians”, “Islamists”, “les jeunes”, etc. Breivik made the point that democracy only works in an information environment that is honest.

    He was particularly struck by the Andrew Neather revelations about the Labour’s government’s conspiracy to flood Britain with immigrants in order to “rub the right’s nose in diversity.” The left rubbed Breivik’s nose in diversity and he rubbed theirs back in blood. Well done Neather. Well done Blair. Well done Rusbridger.

    It is the left-wing that is responsible for this outrage, not the right-wing. This act of violence is the consequence of a deranged political elite attempting to demographic re-engineer an entire continent against the wishes of its people; exploiting imperfections in the democratic system so that the people are never allowed a real choice; passing laws to criminalise free speech so that honest discussion is scarcely possible any more; and a media conspiracy (embodied in laws or informal agreement’s like the NUJ Guidelines on Race Reporting) to systematically suppress information about the negative consequences mass third-world immigration, and particularly the Muslim component of it, is having on Europe.

    So as the BBC, the Guardian and the EU Commission prepare their denunciations of this attack with a glee disguised as righteous indignation, they should reflect on the part they played in bringing it about.

    http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.com/2011/07/why-left-shouldnt-gloat-about-anders.html

  63. 63.

    Joel

    July 23, 2011 at 11:34 am

    For the record, these people have no shame. Rubin is just the tip of the iceberg.

  64. 64.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    July 23, 2011 at 11:39 am

    But remember folks, this was a lone wolf crazy, and in no way a terrorist. This means we can safely ignore any implications surrounding this attack and be safe knowing that only swarthy brown folk with exotic religions can be terrorists.

  65. 65.

    Ed Marshall

    July 23, 2011 at 11:40 am

    @wrb:

    At least they are honest about who the guy was. I checked to see what Pam Gellar would have to say and she has decided to just lie and say the guy was some sort of deranged lunatic (which is true) and just paper over the fact that he just carried out her paranoid bullshit to it’s logical conclusion.

    On edit: It’s not fair at all to call him crazy. He knew exactly what he was doing in targeting that camp. Those kids were the best and brightest of the politically active social democrats. He wiped out a generation of leaders and he knew it. As evil as it was, it was far from crazy.

  66. 66.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    July 23, 2011 at 11:41 am

    @Joel #63:

    Oh, they have shame. The only problem is that they only feel shame when, mercy upon mercy, they end up actually agreeing with a goddamn lib or hippie. That’s when they feel shame. Race baiting, religion baiting, demonizing a whole giant swath of people because they’re convinced they’re all terrorists or terrorsts-in-potentia? That’s just good conservative wisdom.

  67. 67.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 23, 2011 at 11:42 am

    the guy was some sort of deranged lunatic (which is true) and just paper over the fact that he just carried out her paranoid bullshit to it’s logical conclusion.

    A deranged lunatic.

    Just like the Gellar cow.

  68. 68.

    JPL

    July 23, 2011 at 11:42 am

    wrb They are dangerous folks..

    There is no doubt the deranged Left is going to have a field day with this

    I don’t think the author quite knows what the word deranged means.

  69. 69.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2011 at 11:43 am

    @JGabriel:

    This is Conservative Terrorism.

    No, it’s right-wing terrorism. There’s nothing conservative about shooting unarmed teenagers.

    You’re not obligated to buy into decades of lies about what conservatism means.

  70. 70.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2011 at 11:46 am

    This should be an interesting day, if it starts out with Villago and I on the same side. ;-)

  71. 71.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 11:52 am

    Ed, JPL

    Yea, I was surprised that they were translating and bundling the stuff for us, but I think the owner of Islam v. Europe is so far gone she thinks him justified and his action a needed warning to the s o c i a l i s t s, a demonstration of what they are bringing down on themselves as patriots are inevitably driven to respond in the ways a patriot must.

    I suspect that is the private opinion of many who remain aware enough to not say so publicly, like Gellar.

  72. 72.

    WaterGirl

    July 23, 2011 at 11:53 am

    burnsqbesq

    Did you ever see, or try, the fix I posted for the annoying scrolling thing with Lion? I am not using Lion yet, but as a future user, I would love to know whether the fix solves the scrolling issue.

  73. 73.

    JGabriel

    July 23, 2011 at 11:53 am

    @burnspbesq:

    No, it’s right-wing terrorism. There’s nothing conservative about shooting unarmed teenagers.

    Please describe to me the difference between right-wing and conservative. Because, in my experience, it’s a distinction without a difference, both words used interchangably.

    The only time anyone attempts to make a distinction between the two is when conservatives wish to disassociate themselves from the violence that conservatives have been urging all along.

    In fact, if you go to someplace where today’s conservatives gather, like PJ Tatler or Free Republic, you’ll soon see that they make no distinction either, and will be equally offended whether you call this right-wing terrorism or conservative terrorism.

    I choose to call it Conservative Terrorism, because I don’t want to give conservatives the cheap excuse of a meaningless distinction.

    .

  74. 74.

    Danny

    July 23, 2011 at 11:55 am

    Here’s some info on Brevik from a scandinavian daily + Google translate:

    He hated Muslims, the political Left and the Labor Youth League, which he calls Stoltenberg [Norway’s Prime Minister of the Labor Party]-Jugend. The image of the arrested person Behring Anders Breivik is slowly becoming clear.

    On Facebook, he has expressed extreme right views. Online his hatred of Muslims and the political Left has become increasingly clear, writes Dagbladet.no.

    On the Islam-critical site Document.no he called former Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland and the Labor Party “traitors”. About the Labor youth organizations, he wrote on the same site two years ago that “we can not accept that the Labor Party is subsidizing these violent Stoltenberg-Jugend who systematically terrorize political conservatives.”

    In his posts on the Norwegian site the 32 year old Anders Behring Breivik he describes himself as a conservative Christian, according Dagbladet.no. He also writes that he has been politically active since he was 17-18 years.

    On Saturday, the xenophobic Framskrettspartiet confirmed that Behring Breivik has been a member of the party.

    Sounds like your run-of-the-mill teabagger to me… Leftists are traitors, conservatives are persecuted, what’s new?

  75. 75.

    Elie

    July 23, 2011 at 11:57 am

    Stuck @ 31 —

    Yes, you called it completely and remember reading your comment that posed that scenario yesterday…

    It was the only relative “face saving” way for the Repubs… they had no other way that the Dems and Pres would agree to. They painted themselves into a corner and then had to crawl out of the window.

  76. 76.

    Frankensteinbeck

    July 23, 2011 at 11:58 am

    Kryptik @66
    I disagree. They feel shame. They feel so much shame that it dominates their thinking. They feel vastly more shame than we do, which is why our political discourse is dominated by arguments about what the right thing to do is. Theirs is dominated by arguments about what the wrong thing to do is.

    We try to not do things we’re ashamed of, and as a consequence don’t feel much shame. They constantly do things they’re ashamed of, and spend enormous mental and emotional energy fighting that shame. The current conservative movement could be used as a textbook of Freudian and Jungian defense mechanisms.

    Burnspbesq:
    Obviously, the argument about ‘conservative’ is semantics. I do fall on the side that we should call it ‘conservative’. At some point you have to let Usage win, and politically I think it’s important to use a word that makes people understand that this man is a part of the current ‘conservative’ movement.

  77. 77.

    Bob

    July 23, 2011 at 11:59 am

    PZ Myers makes me smile, often. Here he reacts to the drivel at hand:

    Well, leaving aside the point that it’s not clear how more tanks, stealth bombers, and drones would make the streets of Oslo safer, this is a great idea, marred by the poor aim of the conservatives who always seem to go after the wrong target. I would support more tanks for the army iff they were immediately dispatched to take out the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Discovery Institute, Focus on the Family, a few thousand megachurches, and miscellaneous other extremist organizations. It’s a nest of snakes, you know. And as these loons are always urging us, stomping on a nest of snakes really, really hard always works to end the problem. (For the snark impaired, cock one eyebrow and read the last two sentences sardonically.)

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    July 23, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    @ JGabriel

    A lot of your comments have been great lately, though I haven’t replied because my kitty has taken to lying on my computer as I read. You even got me to laugh out loud on a particularly bad day this week.

    In the past few days, though, I have noticed you using the “.” spacer at the end of your posts – an affect also used by one very arrogant poster here, and unless that is your goal, I am not sure it is having the positive effect you may have intended.

    Your posts stand out because of your content, and your “.” is just a distraction. Just thought I would share my two cents (which may not matter to you at all).

    Edit: Love the “conservative terrorism” phrase. I also really liked the “right wing extremists” phrase that someone else suggested we start using. Maybe some of these can catch on.

  79. 79.

    Ed Marshall

    July 23, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    @Danny:

    Tim Phillips traveled to Norway earlier this year to coordinate with Framskrettspartiet. The tea partiers and the Framskrettspartiet are sister organizations.

  80. 80.

    Sly

    July 23, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    @Kane:

    Does this mean that all Christian leadership and Christian organizations must put out statements condemning all Christian fundamentalists?

    Where are all the moderate Christians?!

  81. 81.

    Jewish Steel

    July 23, 2011 at 12:07 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: Well observed. Shame and guilt are some of the big drivers here.

    And speaking of conservative vs right wing, Davis X had some interesting observations on the migration of meaning behind the word republican. For him a modern Republican, he argues is essentially a monarchist

  82. 82.

    Anya

    July 23, 2011 at 12:10 pm

    I wonder if he had any links to Dutch politician Geert Wilders who is ardently anti-Muslim/immigration. I doubt he would be a fan of the Atlas Shrugged lunacy, and not a bigot and a lunatic from his own backyard.

  83. 83.

    MikeJ

    July 23, 2011 at 12:12 pm

    @Sly:

    Where are all the moderate Christians?!

    And they call it a religion of peace. Hah!

  84. 84.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 12:14 pm

    The owner of Europe v. Islam helpfully shows up in the comment to the post I quoted above to confirm my speculation.

    In response to someone who suggested that the attack could set back nationalism in Norway:

    Cheradenine Zakalwe said…
    @ADB Of course that may well be. But if that’s the case, and since those are the conditions that drove Breivik to do what he did, we can expect many more Breiviks in future. It could break either way though. In the 70s, Enoch Powell once spoke about the “gearing effect of terrorism”, about how it drives governments to suddenly sympathise and seek to understand the motivation of the perpetrators, propelling their cause into the spotlight.
    It certainly seems to have had that effect for the jihadists. Maybe it will for the Counterjihadists too.

    Arguing for terrorism?

  85. 85.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    Yeah, I did. It’s a non-starter for me, because I don’t use a mouse. I’m getting used to clicking on the trackpad with my thumb and dragging with my index finger, but my thumb wants to fuck me with a rusty pitchfork. May have to get a trackball.

  86. 86.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    @JGabriel:

    Please describe to me the difference between right-wing and conservative.

    If you don’t perceive a difference between Bruce Bartlett and Erick Erickson, then I don’t know that anything I can say can solve this problem for you.

  87. 87.

    JGabriel

    July 23, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    A lot of your comments have been great lately … In the past few days, though, I have noticed you using the “.” spacer at the end of your posts – an affect also used by one very arrogant poster here, and unless that is your goal, I am not sure it is having the positive effect you may have intended.

    Thanks. As far as I know, I’ve been using a single period as a spacer at the end of my posts a lot longer than UCT has been here. I’m sorry for the association, but, really, it should be the other way around, and I don’t want to stop using my spacer (which is really very habitual at this point) simply because another commenter copied it in a much more exaggerated fashion.

    Edited to Add: Honestly, I don’t mean for it to be some sort of signature. I’d be more than happy if more people adopted it, simply because it makes comments a little easier to read, IMO.

    .

  88. 88.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    July 23, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    i am only shocked that soccer wasn’t involved.

  89. 89.

    Danny

    July 23, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    @86

    Didn’t you smell scotsman when you typed that?

  90. 90.

    JGabriel

    July 23, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    @Danny: Seconded.

    .

  91. 91.

    wazmo

    July 23, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    STARTFOR’s initial analysis if it was a domestic right-winger:

    If an individual, grassroots or organized domestic group with far-right or neo-Nazi leanings perpetrated the attack, the significance for the rest of Europe will not be large. It could lead to a temporary loss of popularity for the far right, but long-term repercussions for the far right are unlikely since these parties have begun tempering their platforms in order to attract a wider constituency.

    There is also the possibility that the attacks are the work of a skilled but disturbed individual with grievances against the Labor Party. This possibility would have few long-ranging repercussions beyond a reworking of domestic security procedures in Norway.

  92. 92.

    wrb

    July 23, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    Anya:

    He was an admirer of Wilders. However, he also cited and linked to Atlas Shrugged and other American blogs. He admired The English Defense League.

    He was a product of the right-wing internet, it looks to me.

    As Zakalwe put it:

    There is very little that he said that I would disagree with. It is clear that he is a Counterjihadist and visits the same sites that most of us do, Gates of Vienna, Jihadwatch, Atlas Shrugs, etc. He cites Fjordman’s “Defeating Eurabia” many times. (Apparently some people have even hilariously claimed that Fjordman was himself the perpetrator. This is lunacy.)
    Breivik also follows political developments in Britain and reads the Telegraph and Daily Mail. The revelation of the Labour government’s conspiracy to flood the country with immigrants to “rub the right’s nose in diversity” was of great interest to him. I’m sure the bien-pensants in the British left will now want to reflect soberly on the folly of pushing people too far.
    What emerges very clearly from the comments is that he harbours resentment against the mainstream media for pushing a culturally Marxist agenda and covering up Muslim wrong-doing and the negative effects of mass immigration and multiculturalism in Europe generally.

    http://islamversuseurope.blogspot.com/2011/07/anders-behring-breiviks-comments-about.html

  93. 93.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    July 23, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    You want to know who else is going there?

    One last question: if, as preliminary evidence suggests, it turns out that Breivik was “inspired” by the extremist hatemongering rantings of Geller, Pipes and friends, will their groups be deemed Terrorist organizations such that any involvement with them could constitute the criminal offense of material support to Terrorism? Will those extremist polemicists inspiring Terrorist violence receive the Anwar Awlaki treatment of being put on an assassination hit list without due process?

    85 fucking kids died and not even 24 hours have passed before he’s tying it to the Awlaki bullshit.

    Fucking clinical.

  94. 94.

    tomvox1

    July 23, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    Fallows might also want to call out his colleague Jeff Goldberg for the same sin (commenting in haste and with a political agenda, aka talking out of your ass):

    Of course, asking the question, “Why did jihadists attack (x)?” could lead people to believe that these sorts of attacks are responses to particular events. They are not. At the deepest level, they are responses to Western existence.

    So, um, whoops, I guess?

  95. 95.

    Elie

    July 23, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    As we all can tell, these are unsettled times across the globe — in some ways perhaps as distressed and dislocated as during the Depression or one of the World Wars. The established order is being challenged by “outsiders”, whether new populations with access to power, or the role of corporations being challenged by exposure to the light of what they have cost us. The ‘keepers” of the established order — many times certain groups of white people, see themselves as the guardians of that order and are taking a pretty much all or none, war like view of what to do. This is particularly true for the white wannabes — people who took their hegemony and rank from the reflected glory of their white betters. Suddenly, they feel alone and weak, their power threatenned and they are striking back.

    This era will pass though who knows how long it will take to play out. These folks are raising H right here at home as you all know. Their ruthlessness and almost suicidal drive is pretty scary, but is evidence of their desperation and weakness. They are dangerous but we must surround them and continue to be calm but assertive — the way medical professionals deal with the dangerous mentally ill.

  96. 96.

    Frankensteinbeck

    July 23, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    Lawman Blackity Black:
    He’s a libertarian. He’s a classic, hardcore libertarian. The government is evil. Period. The government is always evil, whoever’s currently in charge is evil, whatever they’re doing is not merely wrong but evil, and it’s his job to tell everyone that loudly.

    It’s his admitted political philosophy and it’s consistent with everything he writes.

  97. 97.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    @the Sherrif’s a N:

    What I’d like to know is whether reading Greenwald constitutes the criminal offense of material support of stupidity.

  98. 98.

    burnspbesq

    July 23, 2011 at 1:15 pm

    OT, NYT is reporting that Amy Winehouse has died.

  99. 99.

    Danny

    July 23, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    @98

    Another one for the Forever 27 Club. A shame.

  100. 100.

    JGabriel

    July 23, 2011 at 1:52 pm

    Zakalwe @ Islam Versus Europe (via wrb):

    I’m sure the bien-pensants in the British left will now want to reflect soberly on the folly of pushing people too far.

    Shorter Zakalwe: Those damn social democrats made Breivik kill those kids! And the British better watch out or they’ll be next!

    It’s almost like Zakalwe doesn’t know that using a violent attack to inculcate wider fears for political purposes is the very definition of terrorism.

    Almost.

    .

  101. 101.

    trollhattan

    July 23, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    While I suppose “Amy Winehouse Dead at 27” may be the most unsurprising headline ever, I’m very sad she couldn’t turn it around. I thought she was quite talented.

    On a lighter note: Aussie, Aussie, Aussie; Oi, Oi, Oi! Ride of a lifetime.

  102. 102.

    kindness

    July 23, 2011 at 4:24 pm

    A Christian Fudamentalist with right wing tendencies. Wait, who are we talking about? Oh, for a minute there I thought it was Michelle Bachmann. But that would be

    A Christian Fudamentalist with right wing Dominionist tendencies.

  103. 103.

    kay

    July 23, 2011 at 4:32 pm

    This is a sobering reminder for those who think it’s too expensive to wage a war against jihadists. […]
    Obama would have us believe that al-Qaeda is almost caput and that we can wrap up things in Afghanistan. All of these are rationalizations for doing something very rash, namely curbing our ability to defend the United States and our allies in a very dangerous world.

    Besides being inaccurate, it is..troubling (as people at the Washington Post might say) that Rubin was cheerily lobbying for increased defense spending and her political Party while the shooting was still going on.

    Personally, I think a psychological screen is in order here. There’s something deeply wrong with her.

  104. 104.

    Maude

    July 23, 2011 at 5:55 pm

    So, when does Pete King hold hearings?

    RIP Amy

  105. 105.

    BruinKid

    July 23, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    Since Charles Johnson cut off his ties with the Pam Geller crowd several years ago, I wondered what he would say about this. So going there, it seems Geller is desperately trying to avoid any connection to Breivik, and is instead trying to pass on blame to Johnson, based on ONE link to his site from Breivik, which Johnson pretty easily showed was pure bull from Geller.

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