Comments on: THE HOPELESS BANALITY OF THE BLOGOSPHERE

By: Dee

Dee — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:46:28 +0000

“Trying to glean motive when a madman acts insanely is an exercise in futility. ” You are spot on! Trying to tie Hasan to radical Islam is like trying to link Jodie Foster to John Hinkley.

By: No Bull Mom

No Bull Mom — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:46:54 +0000

The Hasan debacle is just another example of political correctness run amok.

By: lionheart

lionheart — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:13:55 +0000

He attempted to contact Al Qaeda. He told his neighbor “I’m going to do good work for God.” He attended a militant Islamic mosque. He praised suicide bombers as being the equivalent of heros that die SAVING other people. Oh yeah, he killed 12 people while shouting God is great.

Are you ready to call him a terrorist yet? How much more proof do you need?

You know Rick, sometimes a person is not a partisan racist when they draw conclusions based on stereotypes and empirical evidence. It seems like the world is much too worried about offending every identity group from homosexuals to Muslims.

In the end, when something walks and quacks like a duck, it’s almost always a duck, and it doesn’t make you wrong to state the obvious, even if you’re wrong. Of course, this time, nobody was.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:17:25 +0000

Great post Rick. Personally, I think he was an alienated individual, as many similar mass-murderers are. The factors that led to his alienation aren’t as important, IMO, to understanding why he did what he did.

By: UNRR

UNRR — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 10:26:08 +0000

This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 11/7/2009, at The Unreligious Right

By: repsac3

repsac3 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 09:38:14 +0000

An excellent take, sir… I’m beginning to think it likely that his warped understanding of his faith and his obligations to it is what drove him–with apologies to some, it’s not the faith, but the man’s understanding of it that drives some (like this guy, and like abortion clinic bombers, too) to kill in the name of… — but I prefer to keep an open mind as more facts are released and more people who’re familiar with the case speak out. Fear and stress over his deployment, after years of hearing and seeing so many of the physically & psychologically injured (which is, I think, what many who say “PTSD” as regards this case really mean) is still running a close second in my mind, but some of his statements about radical islam are pretty damning.

how do you “know” that Hasan joined the Army out of “duty?” Because some relative told some reporter that and you read it somewhere online?

By that logic, how can we “know” anything about this guy? Almost all of what we’re hearing is second hand, offered by people who likely have their own prejudices for or against the guy, the Army, muslims, America, …, …? People report what they claim to know, or hear, or see, and we evaluate both the people making the claims and the claims themselves, and judge the credibility of both.

Generally, one assumes that folks who join the military do so for noble and selfless reasons, but there’s no doubt that some do it to get out of their one horse town, to get the school benefits, or for some other reason that revolves around what they can get, rather than what they can give. Still, we assume the best, and give soldiers the benefit of the doubt until they say or act otherwise.

By: busboy33

busboy33 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:44:14 +0000

@M. Simon:

“Why don’t Protestants go out in a blaze of glory as often? Or Catholics? Or Jews? Or Atheists?”

All the postal rage mass shootings, school shootings, “suicide by cop”, people who opened fire in McDonalds, and all the other blaze of glory mass killings in the United States . . . you think the majority of them were Muslim?

If that makes you feel better . . . sure.

By: M. Simon

M. Simon — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:31:42 +0000

Why would he need to be brain washed at a Mosque? Jihad is one of the seven pillars of Islam.

Out of a billion people there are some who are going to take it seriously. And some one heard him yell the jihadis death cry. Allah Ackbar. And then the firing starts.

Is is he unbalanced? Yep. Not part of a plot? High probability. Did his religion have some influence in his choice of suicide methods? Well duh.

And this isn’t the first “Islam Is Not The Problem” shooting in the Army. Why don’t Protestants go out in a blaze of glory as often? Or Catholics? Or Jews? Or Atheists?

What makes Islam different? Really tough question. Can I have a week or two to do some Google searches?

By: Doug King

Doug King — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:34:13 +0000

I agree it’s best to refrain from pre-judging this case and waiting for all relevant facts to be known. But ultimately we are going to have to categorize this crime as either: terrorism, insanity, deliberate treason, hate crime, “ordinary” criminal behavior, or some combination thereof. How do we distinguish between these terms and their differences in motivation?

By: busboy33

busboy33 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 05:18:41 +0000

@angullimala:

I buy that the stories that he heard in his job may have driven him over the edge — there’s no evidence yet that it did, but there’s no evidence that it didn’t, either.

But that ain’t PTSD (or SPTSD). That’s just the thing his crazy grew off of. Like a kid that commits suicide because his Dungeons & Dragons character got killed, it may be the “reason”, but its not the reason.