I have had the privilege of simultaneously working from home, not having a home and crashing at a friend's place out in Ballston. That puts me in walking distance of the justifiably famous, though declining, Food Factory. Notice that the review in that link is over a decade old. If I am within walking distance of a place that serves zabihah meat, it, as the kids say, is on, a state of affairs that bodes poorly for my wallet, waistline and [entirely unconnected] ability to attract women when I move to Crystal City later this month. So, when I am taking a break from my current projects on paper markets, waste trading and other pants-tentingly exciting research, I walk myself down to Food Factory to recharge with roti, keema and the owner uncle's thoughts about whatever CNN is talking about.
Most recently, that has been the bridge and mine collapses. While we were sitting there today, word came across the wire that the mine had three hundred (300) violations in the last three years, happily, only 118 of them were serious enough to potentially cause death. The best part of this report for those who like mine collapses was that this is an above average safety record for coal mines in this country. Though the mine may have collapsed, the owner IS drilling down to supply them with food, water and air proving, once again, that unions are for pussies and anarchists. I bring this up because Uncle's response is to brandish a piece of roti with which he has picked up some channaa and declare "300 violations, in this country!" questioningly while shaking his head. As the owner/operator of an eating establishment for nigh on a quarter, my guess is that he is quite familiar with violations of code.
The other big CNN stories not dealing with the national heat wave were the story of the two Muslims stopped and arrested in South Carolina and the Marines' trials for the massacre in Haditha and the one about execution style murders in Newark. Unfortunately, all I know about the first case comes from CNN because teh liberal mediaz will stop at nothing to aid the Moslem takeover (dhimmification!!!!) of America, including not reporting a traffic stop in South Carolina where they found an explosive device ("that made a loud bang, similar to a firecracker") and detained a couple Muslims. Thank sweet Baby Jesus that CNN is not letting them get away with it. Now, for those of you whose soles have never been lovingly caressed by the gossamer red clay of Lower Carolina, you may not be aware that all manner of wildly dangerous fireworks are totally legal there. In fact, there are a whole series of racist signs (the worst "Sleepy Mexican" signs must have come down or people have the good sense not to put pictures of them online) coaxing you into a huge fireworks store immediately as you cross into South Carolina on I-95. All in all, driving fast, explosives in cars and things blowing up in South Carolina are neither uncommon events nor national news, especially since no charges have, as yet, been filed. Now, it could be that on Monday, I will look like a real asshole when it turns out that these two were carrying homemade bottlerockets filled with anthrax and nuclear bombs and are charged with attempting to explode Charleston but my guess is that I will be able to maintain my self-righteous indignation at this story. As an aside, since I am touchy about traffic stops getting out of control (story of my arrest coming later), it sure is weird that they are showing the bomb removal equipment next to the open trunk and these two were stopped for speeding. I would love to know the series of events that led from point a to being put in jail.
As far as the Marines' story, I do not want to make this space all about the Iraq war, but come on. Due mostly to laziness and ignorance, I do not know the chain of command in the Marines but if Captain Stone was charged with dereliction of duty for not reporting facts of the murders, and the murders were not even investigated until after Time reported on this story, it seems like everyone up the chain of command who knew about the massacre and hoped it would just go away should be up on charges of dereliction of duty. If the charges really are unwarranted (and it sounds like the other guy's were) good for the justice system for not just trying to scapegoat these men. My issue with this is that CNN reported on the dropping of the charges today as a relief for those families. Nothing about the cover-up and outright fabrications or the cold comfort for the families of the dead, a cynical total of $38,000, which seems like important context.
Apart from all of these stories I am opining on being CNN news broadcasts that I watched while stuffing my fat, white, American face, the tie that binds them is that all of them mention terrorism. The hopes and fears about terrorism playing a part, the terrorist insurgents that made up the victim's cast in the original version of the Marine's story about the Haditha killings, all feeding into a vast meme that terrorists are lurking everywhere news happens. When the bridge and mine stories have soothing pronouncements that "officials can find no evidence of terrorism," they remind the viewing public that in another incident, on another day, it very well could have been terrorists attacking our freedom by way of our bridges and rural coal mines.
And the worst part of all is, I can feel it impacting my brain. I am a Muslim, I am sitting and conversing with an uncle from Afghanistan, also Muslim, about the best parts of Islam. We agree that it is the focus on scholarship and learning and share an outrage at the ignorant mullahs who want to keep women from schools because they do not know any better themselves. In this context even, I am watching CNN, afraid that the next story is going to be about Muslims doing something crazy and that the present story about the heat index being deadly across the country is somehow linked to Islamofascistical activity. That's nuts! I should never have the thought "I hope it was not a Muslim" just because there is an unsolved murder in Newark being discussed on CNN.
I would love to say that this is because my friend Sabri Benkahla was just just put in prison for perjury charges in a practical double-jeopardy. He was found innocent of charges that he trained in a terrorist camp and supported the Taliban but was found guilty of perjury for not remembering particular names and conversations from five to seven years before when questioned about them. The prosecutors in the second trial claimed that was the equivalent of wiping clean a hard drive so that the government could not get evidence from it. I would love to say that my concern for the next image on the screen being a friend of mine up on terrorism charges is what makes me afraid in this way but it is not true. It is a different fear, one viscerally about terrorism by Muslims just like the assholes I overheard on the subway two days ago talking about towelheads. When I feel my subconscious buying into such a vicious narrative, I think to myself: "Self, this is probably as close as we are ever going to get to understanding what Said was talking about with regard to internalized Orientalism."
No comments:
Post a Comment