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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Today in Stochastic Violence and Terrorism: Bloomington, Minnesota Mosque Firebombed

Today in Stochastic Violence and Terrorism: Bloomington, Minnesota Mosque Firebombed

by Adam L Silverman|  August 5, 20179:34 pm| 98 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, domestic terrorists, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Religion

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FBI: 'Improvised explosive device' caused blast at Bloomington Islamic center https://t.co/tSzMw9qOy4

— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@Deanofcomedy) August 5, 2017

From The Minneapolis Star Tribune:

A blast caused by what the FBI called “an improvised explosive device” rocked a Bloomington Islamic center before dawn Saturday, just as a small group of Muslim worshipers had gathered for the day’s first round of prayers.

No one was hurt in the explosion, which heavily damaged an imam’s office at the Dar Al Farooq Center and sent smoke wafting through the large building. Windows in the office were shattered, either by the blast or by an object thrown through them.

The blast was reported at 5:05 a.m. as about a dozen people gathered in a room nearby for morning prayers and jolted awake many residents of the neighborhood. Congregants and neighbors expressed relief that there were no injuries, but also reacted with shock and dismay.

When police arrived, they found smoke and fire damage to the building, said Bloomington Police Chief Jeff Potts. Agents from the FBI and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives soon joined the investigation. A large area outside the center was taped off as investigators, including members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, combed through the grass.

At an early evening news conference, Special Agent in Charge Richard Thornton said an “improvised explosive device” caused the blast, but that investigators still must determine “who and why.”

WCCO CBS Minnesota:

Leaders at the center and the Muslim American Society of Minnesota say a worshiper saw someone throw an explosive device into the building and then speed off in a pick-up truck.

“The Muslim American Society of Minnesota condemns this arson and attack,” Asad Zaman said.

Meanwhile, federal authorities and Bloomington police investigate what led up to the explosion.

Within hours of the explosion, an outpouring of support from neighbors and community members of all religious backgrounds.

And since we have stochastic in the title, we might as well go for broke. Take it away WCCO CBS Minnesota!

 A bomb squad was called to the Cathedral of St. Paul Saturday afternoon after someone starting lighting papers on fire inside the building.

St. Paul police say a homeless man walked into the cathedral and started setting the fires, which were extinguished by bystanders.

The man was said to be carrying a brown paper bag containing a Bible and a Quran tied together, which at first was thought to possibly be an explosive device – but no such device was found.

The man was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Stay frosty!

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Reader Interactions

98Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    August 5, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    Minnesota has got some issues these days.

  2. 2.

    efgoldman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:40 pm

    A lone wolf with problems in the pickup truck I’m sure. Not someone who has been given permission to hate Muslims by the “president.”
    Too bad incitement won’t be part of the Mueller/impeachment smorgasbord.

    The other guy is probably a street person who’s demons got out of hand.

    ETA: At least nobody got hurt. No shooting.

  3. 3.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 9:41 pm

    Assholes.

  4. 4.

    Central Planning

    August 5, 2017 at 9:44 pm

    @Baud: I blame Al Franken. Actually I don’t, but I’ve been reading his new book and he’s the only politician I know from Minnesota

  5. 5.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:44 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Speaking of, you see this?

    As a patriot I offer to go to NSC, teach them how to fight and win memetic wars. McMaster fears me, well let's fight radical Islam together. https://t.co/nJdcZ4oVHT

    — Mike Cernovich ?? (@Cernovich) August 5, 2017

    Millhiser’s response is hysterical and spot on:

    Somewhere in Syria, a thousand militants tremble, fearing that this man will unleash a cat gif on them. https://t.co/4scknEfB3d

    — Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) August 6, 2017

  6. 6.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:45 pm

    @Central Planning: Jesse Ventura.

  7. 7.

    Gin & Tonic

    August 5, 2017 at 9:46 pm

    McMaster fears Cernovich? Pretty unlikely, if you ask me.

  8. 8.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 9:46 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Oh ffs.

  9. 9.

    Davebo

    August 5, 2017 at 9:46 pm

    This wasn’t stochastic violence. It was neither random not unpredictable.

  10. 10.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:47 pm

    I’ll just leave this here:

    Which do you prefer? The candid shot of Gorka and Sessions or the posed? pic.twitter.com/0vS6d7S0Gr

    — Nell Scovell (@NellSco) August 5, 2017

  11. 11.

    efgoldman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:47 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Ideologues at both ends are the most unjustifiably self-important, un-self aware alleged adults on the planet, to the point of self-parody.

  12. 12.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:49 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Useful idiots gonna useful idiot.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:49 pm

    @efgoldman: He’s just in it for the lulz.

  14. 14.

    Central Planning

    August 5, 2017 at 9:49 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Ok, you got me there. I guess I could add the qualifier “currently serving”

  15. 15.

    efgoldman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Which do you prefer? The candid shot of Gorka and Sessions or the posed?

    I’m surprised that Kelly hasn’t turfed General Field Marshall for Life Sebastian yet.

  16. 16.

    RandoMonster

    August 5, 2017 at 9:50 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Obama. Or Crooked Hillary.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 5, 2017 at 9:51 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: McMaster fears me,

    Oh my. I figured the guy was more than a little goofy, but that’s just…. he shouldn’t be allowed car keys or grown-up scissors.

    that actually made me chuckle in spite of the godawful subject of this post. Anecdotally, I saw a tweet the other day school counsellors are reporting an increase in bullying. A trans woman was beat up in NYC yesterday. I try not to give in to gloom but it does sometimes feel like the center is not holding.

  18. 18.

    rikyrah

    August 5, 2017 at 9:52 pm

    This is DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

  19. 19.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 9:53 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Sessions would have done so much less harm as a dentist.

  20. 20.

    debbie

    August 5, 2017 at 9:54 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Further down, Cernovich retweets someone who thinks Stephen Miller will be the next Communications Director.

  21. 21.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 5, 2017 at 9:55 pm

    @debbie: Why not! He is skinny like his idol, Goebbels.

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    @efgoldman: I’m sure it’s on the planning matrix. The issue is, like with Miller, they’re both favorites of the President for how they do on TV. As well as being favorites of Bannon.

  23. 23.

    efgoldman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    @debbie:

    Cernovich retweets someone who thinks Stephen Miller will be the next Communications Director.

    What could go wrong?

  24. 24.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 5, 2017 at 9:56 pm

    @rikyrah: Yup

    @debbie: apparently they were all high-fifing each other after he called that CNN guy “cosmopolitan”. We’ll have to see if that word starts appearing in trump and other MAGA tweets.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: As opposed to the crap (memetic) that the Rhesus Rightway to Live guy is pitching, what you’re seeing is mimetic. The President and several people he’s empowered demonstrate the behavior. It is then modeled. This is going to be one of the hardest things to fix.

  26. 26.

    debit

    August 5, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    I believe it was at a rally in the southern suburbs of Minnesota that a crazy old lady told John McCain that Obama was Muslim. After checking, yep. Lakeville. Just south of Bloomington.

  27. 27.

    efgoldman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:59 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    they’re both favorites of the President for how they do on TV. As well as being favorites of Bannon.

    I expect that we’ll eventually see Kelly tell the boss “either Bannonazi goes or i go.”
    That will be fun. I’d bet on Bannonaszi surviving. He seems to have a Rasputin-like hold on Amber Asswipe.

  28. 28.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:59 pm

    @Davebo: It’s in the title. No backsies!//

  29. 29.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 9:59 pm

    @RandoMonster: huh? I am not following. Please clarify.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:00 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: And he most likely would have gotten the same perverse kicks he’s gotten doing what he’s actually pursued as his life’s work.

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:02 pm

    @debbie: This has been reported in several places. Apparently the President, Bannon, and several others in the West Wing were thrilled with Miller’s performance on Thursday. So we will have to wait and see.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:04 pm

    @efgoldman: Given the war on McMaster that Bannon’s allies are waging, as well as the Russians, this is going to be interesting to watch. I’m fairly sure that the attempt to oust McMaster is a red line for Kelly.

  33. 33.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:04 pm

    @rikyrah:

    This is DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

    Yep, it is. Just sickening and awful and sad and infuriating. I feel pretty much the way I felt in 1963 when the Birmingham church was bombed. Helpless but determined to do whatever may be in my small power to help turn things around.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:07 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    As a patriot I offer to go to NSC, teach them how to fight and win memetic wars. McMaster fears me, well let’s fight radical Islam together.

    I recognise all those words, but I have no idea what the tweet means.

    (Might help if I knew who Mike Cernovich. Off to consult Mister Google.)

    ETA: Okay, I looked up Cernovich and he sounds like a very nice person //snark// but there must be a complicated backstory here that I know nothing about.

  35. 35.

    Schlemazel

    August 5, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    @Baud:
    There used to be a nice old Lutheran gentleman in St. Paul that would send anonymous hate mail to people of color whenever they made the news. He was particularly sweet to mixed race couples. He was finally exposed and while he never expressed remorse he did stop sending them.

    There is a nasty streak that goes back long before the Muslims arrived here. Minnesotans did, after all, send Batshit Bachmann to Congress.. It is a small minority and they generally have to hide in the shadows but they exist. I don’t think any place is pure

  36. 36.

    Chris

    August 5, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    @rikyrah:

    This is DOMESTIC TERRORISM.

    Yes it is.

  37. 37.

    Schlemazel

    August 5, 2017 at 10:10 pm

    @Central Planning:
    He and Kieth Ellison are the only two that matter. Kieth, sadly, is a Bernie bot but he does a great job. This happened in his district & he is a Muslim BTW

  38. 38.

    Mike J

    August 5, 2017 at 10:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    (Might help if I knew who Mike Cernovich. Off to consult Mister Google.)

    Don’t do it. It’s really not worthwhile.

  39. 39.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 5, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I have no idea and don’t care. Also not fond of the General Fan Club.
    How soon we forget.

  40. 40.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: ::shudder::

  41. 41.

    Schlemazel

    August 5, 2017 at 10:12 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Jessie The Boobie Ventura was the prototype for hair furor. Loud mouthed profane grifter with no clue how to govern and no interest in learning

  42. 42.

    Miss Bianca

    August 5, 2017 at 10:14 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Goddammit, I just got ginger ale up my nose. I blame you!

  43. 43.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:20 pm

    @Mike J:

    Don’t do it. It’s really not worthwhile.

    Too late. There’s ten seconds of my life I’ll never get back.
    @schrodingers_cat:

    I have no idea and don’t care. Also not fond of the General Fan Club.

    This entire (mal)administration makes it so hard. When you hate all factions and players, and there’s nothing to root for except injuries and meteors — well, it just seems grossly unfair. They are all loathsome.

  44. 44.

    NotMax

    August 5, 2017 at 10:22 pm

    Gotta be on site or nearby CCTV footage. Can’t be all that much foot or vehicular traffic at five in the ante meridian to pore through.

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    August 5, 2017 at 10:23 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I never thought I’d see somebody bragging about their membership in the Tweeting Catbirds of the 101st Chairborne.

  46. 46.

    Schlemazel

    August 5, 2017 at 10:23 pm

    @debit:
    I remember the event but not that it took place in LAkeville. On the good news side there was a billboard just South of Bloomington on 52 with a photo of hair furor and only one word: EMBARRASSMENT!

    I took that as a good sign

  47. 47.

    MomSense

    August 5, 2017 at 10:24 pm

    Oh FFS. Cernovich is an asshole. His ideology has no place in a modern democracy. I’m disgusted by this. I just got home from the hospital ( dad had a setback) to pack and head back tomorrow. The CNA who cared for my dad most of the day is a Somali immigrant who treated my dad with such compassion and skill. When I peaked in the door after coming back from dinner I could hear her speaking so reassuringly and it really put me at ease.
    Cernovich, trump, the asshole who firebombed the mosque, and the rest of those hateful “alt” jerks don’t possess one ounce of the dignity and beauty of Sandrine.

  48. 48.

    Patricia Kayden

    August 5, 2017 at 10:25 pm

    @rikyrah: Not if the perpetrator is White. /s

  49. 49.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 10:26 pm

    @Miss Bianca: Consider re-positioning your straw.

  50. 50.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 5, 2017 at 10:30 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: I have decided to disconnect from the minutia of politics. Its serves no purpose, except aggravation. I don’t need to know every happening of the kitchen cabinet stocked with generals and Nazis.

  51. 51.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 10:30 pm

    @Patricia Kayden: I see your /s, but we really have to stop saying that. It is domestic terrorism and we need to say it aloud. Like saying Voldemort’s name if you will.

  52. 52.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:31 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: He’s an alt-right guy. The alt-right’s signature tool is creating and using Internet memes to achieve their goals. He’s not the sharpest knife in the plastic chopstick drawer, so I’m sure to him PSYOPs or counterterrorism or unconventional warfare, none of which he has any experience with, just need better memes to be created and deployed so that the US can successfully defeat ISIS.

  53. 53.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:33 pm

    @Miss Bianca: You’re welcome.

  54. 54.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:34 pm

    @MomSense:

    Sorry about your dad’s setback, and wish him well, but very glad you have Sandrine to care for him. Thinking of you. It’s really hard when our fathers begin to demonstrate human frailty.

  55. 55.

    Miss Bianca

    August 5, 2017 at 10:35 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Now, don’t *you* start…

  56. 56.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 5, 2017 at 10:36 pm

    @MomSense: {{ }} wishing your dad and you all the best.

  57. 57.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:37 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I have decided to disconnect from the minutia of politics. Its serves no purpose, except aggravation. I don’t need to know every happening of the kitchen cabinet stocked with generals and Nazis.

    You are wise, and much stronger than I am. I know it serves no good purpose, and almost certainly is taking something of a toll on my physical and mental health, but I still feel the need to follow along. But good for you in your decision to disconnect.

  58. 58.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 10:39 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: Suggesting that McMaster isn’t afraid of a random neo-fascist blogger isn’t being in a fan club. It is acknowledging reality and mocking someone who doesn’t. My political beliefs were/are quite different from those of about 75% of the officers with whom I served. I do not, as a result, doubt either their competence or their patriotism. I do despise those who showed up as racist or sexist.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    One of our resident trolls keeps lecturing me that the Democrats are obviously losers because Hillary won Minnesota, a solid blue state, by only a couple of percentage points. Hmmm …. ?

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:40 pm

    @Roger Moore: He’s a tough guy! It’s all about the Mandril Mentality!

    "Weird Mike" @Cernovich being assaulted. (gently bumped into after being asked to leave)

    I synced WM's audio with @MikeLewisATX's video. pic.twitter.com/SeXnFGmiDm

    — Vic Berger IV (@VicBergerIV) April 16, 2017

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:41 pm

    @MomSense: Keeping good thoughts.

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 10:43 pm

    @MomSense: Good thoughts.

  63. 63.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:46 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks, that was the missing link I didn’t know about. Better MEMES?? Seriously, for real? Like, they will hear the lamentation of the women as long as they deploy the “that’d be great” guy from Office Space, or Grumpy Cat, or even their stupid Pepe?

    Thanks. I was feeling a bit apprehensive, but no longer. Not if they’re this stupid.

  64. 64.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:50 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Cernovich is a failed, non-practicing attorney living off of a reported seven figure financial settlement from his ex-wife. She is a high priced Silicon Valley attorney. What he’s done with that is write a couple of largely incoherent and unreadable self help books for men who want to be alpha men and brand some ridiculous supplements while making memes, doing YouTube videos, tweeting, and now periscoping. He clearly has a source inside the White House based on some of the stuff he’s tweeted. He’s also pro-rape. And he’s made some really disgusting statements about transgendered people.

  65. 65.

    NotMax

    August 5, 2017 at 10:50 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    It ain’t over ’til the fat crazy memes.

    Or something. :)

  66. 66.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 10:53 pm

    @NotMax: In German at Pearl Harbor.

  67. 67.

    eclare

    August 5, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    @MomSense: Sorry to hear, glad he has someone like Sandrine.

  68. 68.

    MomSense

    August 5, 2017 at 10:54 pm

    Thanks, everyone. I’m trying to stay positive.

  69. 69.

    Roger Moore

    August 5, 2017 at 10:56 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne:
    Strictly speaking a meme is any self-perpetuating idea. That includes big things like religions and other belief systems. So there’s a grain of truth to the idea that we need to fight terrorists with better memes. We need ideas and belief systems that will convince people who might otherwise join the terrorists to adopt our point of view instead. That would be memetic warfare. Of course you could also call it by one of its well established names, like propaganda, public relations, or information warfare. Calling it “memetic warfare” just makes it sound like something new and cool that we aren’t already working on.

  70. 70.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 10:58 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Sounds like a sweetheart. Tell you what, I’ll try to forget I learned anything about him, and if by chance he does anything of consequence in future, I’ll rely on you to bring it to our attention and explain the inexplicable.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    August 5, 2017 at 10:59 pm

    @Roger Moore

    When it comes to the Rs, emetic is more apt.

  72. 72.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 5, 2017 at 10:59 pm

    I have no idea what the fuck “memetic wars” are, but I’ll bet it has something to do with a shirtless Vlad Putin and Cernovich swooning over same.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 11:00 pm

    @debbie: And in case you were wondering, here is the wunderkind giving his speech for student body president at his high school in Santa Monica, CA. From all the reporting on him he was booed off the stage.

    Vid: "sick & tired of being told to pick up my trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us" Trump Adv Stephen Miller pic.twitter.com/cpoSGAdOGv

    — Scott Dworkin (@funder) August 5, 2017

  74. 74.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 5, 2017 at 11:02 pm

    Cernovich claims to have mastered making his semen “addictive” to women, which explains why he has an ex wife, or something.

    The guy is a disgusting sack of MRA manure.

  75. 75.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 5, 2017 at 11:02 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Suggesting that McMaster isn’t afraid of a random neo-fascist blogger isn’t being in a fan club.

    Point taken.

    OT: I am listening to the oldies, Hindi movie songs that were popular when my parents were kids in the 50s. Soothing. I don’t even remember the first time I heard them

  76. 76.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 5, 2017 at 11:03 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Legions of acquaintances from both HS and college confirm that he’s an asshole.

  77. 77.

    NotMax

    August 5, 2017 at 11:04 pm

    @Adam L. Silverman

    (Repeating from below.)

    HINO.

    Human in name only.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 11:04 pm

    Oy vey…

    Virginia man sues Republican Party, claiming GOP lawmakers defrauded contributors with promises to repeal Obamacare https://t.co/p5fTFEHcYC pic.twitter.com/BotsiJSxvi

    — ABC News (@ABC) August 5, 2017

  79. 79.

    SiubhanDuinne

    August 5, 2017 at 11:04 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Calling it “memetic warfare” just makes it sound like something new and cool that we aren’t already working on the core argument of a David Brooks column in FTFNYT.

    Yes, seriously, I take your entire point, and do not disagree. But Jeezus Murphy, this guy.

  80. 80.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est: Including his relatives:
    https://www.buzzfeed.com/ellievhall/stephen-millers-liberal-family-members-have-some?utm_term=.hmON1JeJA#.oc7p59J98

  81. 81.

    ruemara

    August 5, 2017 at 11:06 pm

    @MomSense: Sending good vibes

  82. 82.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 5, 2017 at 11:09 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: Aaaarrrgghhhh!!!!! He would enjoy IOBC; the infantry school makes the lads do a police call at 5:00 AM.* Assuming he got through OCS, 60 % passage rate when I went through. Lower for College Option people like I was and he would be.

    *Artillery was such a good choice.

  83. 83.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 11:10 pm

    @NotMax: I think you’re being generous.

  84. 84.

    Immanentize

    August 5, 2017 at 11:10 pm

    @MomSense:
    Realistic with large helpings of optimism. I am sending you and Dad my best wishes.

  85. 85.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 11:12 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Given that, by his own admission, the two most impactful things on his perverse worldview was LaPierre’s book on crime and guns and 9-11, and he was in high school during 9-11, and he made a proper response to 9-11 his litmus test for everything, had he wanted to serve there were plenty of opportunities. Instead he went to Duke, palled around with Richard Spencer, and made a name for himself going on Fox defending the lacrosse team. And while he had no way to know at the time and he was just gambling, it turned out he was right about the lacrosse team.

  86. 86.

    Jeffro

    August 5, 2017 at 11:21 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    the two most impactful things on his perverse worldview was LaPierre’s book on crime and guns and 9-11, and he was in high school during 9-11, and he made a proper response to 9-11 his litmus test for everything,

    Call me crazy, but I think that a significant portion of the U.S. is still dealing with the aftershocks of 9-11…especially the portion of the population that watches Fox and has their fear buttons hammered on 24/7 about any & everything. It’s nuts. But by now the country may well be sorted into ‘those who long ago surrendered to their anxiety’, and ‘those who are anxious about what the first group’s irrational fears will drive them to do’.

  87. 87.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 5, 2017 at 11:24 pm

    @Jeffro: This is why I’m so cynical about the National Anthem. Since 9/11, this country has been anything BUT the “Home of the Brave”.

  88. 88.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 11:24 pm

    @Jeffro: No argument at all. I’ve remarked many times, including some here, that the US essentially lost it’s collective mind as a result of 9-11 and how it was covered. And it has yet to recover. Largely because it doesn’t believe it needs to go to therapy. Or that anything is wrong with it.

  89. 89.

    Mnemosyne

    August 5, 2017 at 11:33 pm

    @Adam L Silverman:

    If I had to guess, he was probably that affected by LaPierre’s book because he was in elementary school when the LA Riots happened in 1992. Lots of images of scary black people beating people up and setting fires until the National Guard marched in with M-16s.

    (Obviously, it was much more complicated than that, but that’s what a sheltered kid in Santa Monica would take away from it.)

  90. 90.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 5, 2017 at 11:38 pm

    @Jeffro: Call me crazy, but I think that a significant portion of the U.S. is still dealing with the aftershocks of 9-11

    Not only do I think you’re absolutely right, I think it’s one of the under-addressed (ha! now who’s not afraid to look crazy?) reasons trump won– he was gonna get ‘tough’ with terrrorists–, and in general an issue the internet left, broadly speaking, doesn’t give enough consideration to when talking politics. It’s also one of the reasons that let’s just say certain counterfactual theories of how 2016 should have gone strike me as less than convincing.

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    August 5, 2017 at 11:53 pm

    @Jeffro: @Villago Delenda Est:
    http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-truth-about-colonel-klink-when-americas-favorite-comedy-nazi-commandant-was-played-by-a-jewish-refugee

    Comedy should be edgy. Comedy should be triggering. By learning how to laugh at Klemperer’s “HO-gggan!” and Sergeant Schultz’s “I see nothing,” we were saying “I fear nothing”—and am hungry to learn about everything.

    If refugees from Nazism could use comic Nazis to skewer Nazi evil, we can learn to love laughing lovingly at our more benign foibles, to better ourselves and our society.

  92. 92.

    Cheryl Rofer

    August 5, 2017 at 11:54 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Well, after 9-11, it was all too easy to paint “terrorists” as the dark-skinned other. And that was a convenient way to deal with the problem. Plus some folks who had been itching to go to war against Saddam Hussein distorted the facts (most of the “terrorists” on those flights were Saudi) to have their war. And that war messed up, badly. Additionally, W ended the Agreed Framework with North Korea, loosing them to make their nukes, and left the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to give Vladimir Putin something to be scared and annoyed about.

    Kind of like 52-pickup

  93. 93.

    Another Scott

    August 5, 2017 at 11:56 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: I’m not sure if the American people lost its mind or whether just the conventional political wisdom of the GOP and the press did.

    W: “And I encourage you all to go shopping more.”

    :-/

    I’m surprised that the DC Sniper and the Anthrax attacks have disappeared down into the collective memory hole. And the Ft. Hood shootings. And the Navy Yard shootings. And the Virginia Tech shootings. …

    We all remember the soldiers and marines being ill-equipped and the bake sales to buy them body armor when they went off to Iraq. The rhetoric of the country “being at war” with a global “battlefield” that covered every square inch of land never matched the governmental response. It was always fought “on the cheap” without demanding that the country explicitly pay for it and recognize the costs, have serious oversight, and debate the alternatives.

    Yes, indeed, there was lots and lots of insanity in our reaction to the attack by roughly 19 people on 9/11. Helping to overthrow the Taliban made some sense, and tracking down bin Laden was a just cause. The argument that we had to stay (implicitly forever) and rebuild the country and install a government, didn’t (the case wasn’t made that the only choices were: to do nothing and let it fester, or to try to convert it into a client state).

    And, of course, Americans are still dying in Afghanistan.

    [ much more stream of consciousness ]

    If we were willing to go about our lives during the weeks of the DC Sniper attacks and forget about it afterwards, I think that shows that we haven’t lost our minds. We can put things in perspective. We simply need to have a “conservative” party that can do the same.

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  94. 94.

    joel hanes

    August 6, 2017 at 1:08 am

    police call at 5:00 AM

    If it didn’t grow there and isn’t a rock, pick it up.
    I don’t want to see anything but asses and elbows.

    Army police call taught me how to leave a park campsight _clean_:
    not one bottlecap or cigarette butt or scrap of plastic,
    regardless of what the place looked like when I walked into it.
    It was my father who taught me to leave behind enough split kindling and firewood for one small fire.

  95. 95.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 6, 2017 at 1:54 am

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    I think 9-11 gave American racists their first taste of hard, open racism in a long time, and they LIKED it. They got to publicly unload the kind of open bile they’d get slapped down aiming at blacks. They had validation for their fear of a brown world. They had constant reassurances from cable news that it is a perfectly reasonable debate to ask if all Muslims are inherently evil whether Islam isn’t actually a religion. Actual terrorist events they brush off. it’s being allowed to openly hate and fear brown people they got addicted to. And then the other half of the country, who live in an entirely different world, elected a black president.

  96. 96.

    Mnemosyne

    August 6, 2017 at 2:09 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    I’m not going to post the clip for the hundredth time, but Chris Rock called it back in (IIRC) 2009 — once the door was opened for open anti-Muslim hate, it wedged it open to bring back all of the other religious and racial hatred that was barely kept under the surface.

    “That train is never late!”

  97. 97.

    Gvg

    August 6, 2017 at 7:27 am

    I truly don’t get the 911 panic stop thinking endless fear. I never felt as scared as most people seemed to have. It was a tradgedy and we needed to do things about it but terrible things have happened before and we handled it. what upset me and still does is the allowing Bush to misdirect the energy into pointless nonsense. Not just Iraq latter on but clearly messing up the Afghanistan issue from the start. Trying to do it too cheap instead of right. Not having a plan. Torture screwing up true information and our reputation. Not listening to unpreferred facts. And too many people buying into his mistakes so they would not and could not quit even with years of evidence.
    I think the dead of 911 have been betrayed by the non serious response. It’s too late to correct. Have to come up with plans to contain our own mistakes.

  98. 98.

    Gelfling 545

    August 6, 2017 at 9:49 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: Ah, someone familiar with the oeuvre.

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