Synchronicity says that their two employees missing in Mumbai—58-year-old Alan Scherr and 13-year-old Naomi Scherr—are dead. The State Department is not confirming their deaths, so this news is known only from Synchronicity. The say that the two were killed in the attack on the Leopold Café. The restaurant, a watering hole for visiting Westerners, was stormed by terrorists on Wednesday, who fired indiscriminately at the patrons with automatic weapons. The attack went on for ten minutes, leaving a large but as-now uncertain number of people dead and injured. The attack on the Leopold was one of a half dozen such attacks launched against civilians across Mumbai, attacks that are still ongoing now.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Archive for Sideblog »
There are no words. This is what we’re fighting against. Sheer barbarism dressed up in political and religious grievances and unwittingly fostered by the West’s vapidity and moral cowardice.
RIP.
Can you define “moral cowardice”? Because I think you mean “physical” or something else.
No, I meant what I wrote. Our squeamishness at calling people evil and backward b/c their skin is a darker hue is our Achilles heel.
Of course, our children are taught that the white man raped the New World and other nonsense, but at least we are a few decades ahead of the moral degeneration Europe is going through. In the end, however, this orgy of self-flagellation will lead to progressive countries like Yemen and Pakistan exporting their excess population to Europe which will die a quick death in our lifetime.
So sad the continent that gave the world Shakespeare and Newton and Locke and Hobbes and Copernicus and Brahe and Beethoven and Dante and…
is going to die of a self-inflicted wound courtesy of folks they invited to their shores that have different ideas than those spawned by the Enlightenment.
Openly-homosexual, pot-smoking park strollers and 10th-century Mohamedans who cover their women’s faces won’t mix well. I fail to understand why this is such a hard concept for my friends on the left to grasp. Fuck.
I’m curious — this is a sincere question. What is it that we, “the West,” are supposed to be doing in regards to the evil and backward masses of the Middle East instead of whatever it is we’re currently doing? (BTW, I can see backward, but I have a hard time with evil, both in general and in this specific case). We should be obliterating them before they obliterate us? Are you one with Ann Coulter on this issue?
Hey Will, how is white-supremacy world? Sounds like things are going along as usual?
Could you also fill us in on how the white man did not in fact rape the New World? I want to re-educate myself since I’ve obviously been taught liberal “nonsense”. These schools nowadays, I swear. They just don’t teach hate like they used’ta.
Signed,
A park-strolling pot-smoking homosexual.
I love park-strolling homos. I’m one of ’em except for the homo part. I wrote my arch-conservative delegate a couple years ago begging him not to include Prop 1 in the VA Constitution since it was excluionsary in nature and will one day be repealed and looked down upon as being ignorant (it is, too).
Nevertheless, the “white-supremacy” comments really bum me out in what is an otherwise erudite forum. I didn’t vote for Obama. I think Rev. Wright preaching about how the CIA created AIDS and America is inherently, forever racist is much worse than whatever Falwell, Robertson et al say (and I admit they suck).
It’s all good. But getting back to the murderous Muslims….I guess I think we should just kill the shit out of them like we did w/ the Nazis and Japs, oh sorry, Japanese. Mess w/ the bull and you get the horns. Fuck ’em. Napalm.
well, thanks for the thoughtful contribution to this erudite forum. maybe some other conservative thinker who feels the way you do about Islam and the Middle East can explain what we should be doing differently in regards to these issues in a way that appeals to (or at least respects) a broader coalition. For most people in the middle, your counsel (killing the shit out of them, napalm) is just going to harden their opposition. But I’m thinking that you’re not really interested in a good-faith attempt to persuade your opponents.
Ah, to be fourteen again. As Will is now, I was then, pissed off at the Iranian Revolutionaries who took US hostages. My anger and indignation lasted just about three or four years, at which point I began to learn a bit about the history of US foreign policy. Once I better understood the mechanics of our foreign policy, I began to understand how others might feel. I began to think of how we might feel if some bigger country propped up some asshole in our country (wait a minute, this just triggered a flashback of the Supreme Court installing W…OK, all better now). Will, if you don’t know about our foreign policy exploits over the years, and therefore cannot understand anti-US sentiment, please do a quick search for US-sponsored dictators. Here’s a site, if you’re lazy: http://www.tomveatch.com/dictatorships.html.
You could also look up the history of US military interventions:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html.
You might also want to google “US presence in Saudi Arabia” to get a better idea as to why some Muslims are angry at us.
The question, of course, is what to do now. Is more lousy foreign policy required, thus digging us deeper? Is it possible to change course? Should we have a foreign policy based on democratic and humanitarian values? Or should we continue with our capitalist-based system?
It will help to have leaders who have a shred of empathy and can understand the sorrow and anger we have created in the world.
Yes, yes I’m certain it’s all our fault. It always is for those expensively but poorly-educated denizens of the Left.
If only we could be more thoughtful, more compassionate, more – wait for it – nuanced in our foreign policy all the backward peoples steeped in their tribal cultures would suddenly like and appreciate the U.S. Right. Good luck with that. Worked out real well for that benighted Senatoe who, upon learning of the Nazis invasion of Poland exclaimed, “If only I could have talked with Hitler!”
That quote is attributed to Sen. William E. Borah, but it’s dubious that he ever said such a thing. The only record of it is from William K. Hutchinson’s “News articles on life and works of William E. Borah,” which I understand not to be a work, as such, but rather a collection of articles that were written about Borah throughout his life. I can’t get my hands on the collection (it exists in only a handful of libraries in the country), so its context and accuracy is consequently impossible to establish.
Good quotes like this are almost never accurate (and are often attributed to a variety of people over the years), but that doesn’t stop folks from repeating them. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story. :)
It is a good story, and I submit that even if it’s apocryphal it still acurately captures the cluelessness of those (like Obama) who believe talking with people committed to slitting your throat is helpful.
I can see how a person in Chile might be angry at the US if you saw a loved one killed or tortured by Pinochet. I can see how people in East Timor, Iraq, Iran, and Nicaragua might be angry. What I don’t get is the anger from right-wing fascists.
LOL. You should read “Liberal Fascism” by Jonah Goldberg. It documents how fascism was always a phenomenon of the Left that somehow got tagged as “right-wing” in modern parlance. Aren’t y’all the folks who call for more “cooperation” between business and the Leviathan?
I have an extra copy I’ll be happy to drop off at the Charlottesville Center for “Peace and Justice” (ha ha!) before your next meeting. It’s a noted fascist redoubt.
I guess first I’d like to say my sympathy to the friends and families of the victims.
Events like these make me wonder how it would play out if some nutjob decided to put a weapon in a duffel bag and walk on the Belmont bridge when there’s a big crowd at the Pavilion. What sort of freedoms are we willing to give up for what sort of security?
To briefly touch on some previous comments. Barbarism is practiced by a wide variety of folks of all races, religions, and political persuasions, and most perpetrators believe deeply that they are justified in their actions. Can’t say I felt much different than I did this week during the ” shock and awe ” bombing of Baghdad a couple years back. Whole lotta innocent civilians got killed there too.
The politics of the middle east are extremely complex, and ancient divisions are often fueled by “aid” to “people who don’t like us very much” from countries outside the region to further their own interests. That a lot of the borders were drawn by powers from outside the region hasn’t helped much either.
As part of the “war on terror” in Afghanistan, the U.S. has an ongoing financial aid relationship with the Pakistani gov’t and regularly exchanges info with ISI- their CIA.They like our money, but they don’t have the same goals.Pakistan refuses to allow US operations in the tribal areas, and their own inability/will to conduct meaningful operations there perpetuates the Al-Queda safe havens. Recent U.S. drone attacks in this region against the Pakistani’s wishes has contributed to tension in the region. That said, they may still be our best ally relative to the Afghan war , even if results are lacking.Hard to imagine supplying the war in Afghanistan from Iran…
However, Pakistan and India have this disagreement about Kashmir which goes back a ways, and I suspect will be in the news a lot in the days to come.Like I said- complex.
If any of this interests you, you may enjoy a book by Steve Coll called “Ghost Wars.” It’s a history of US involvement in Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to Sept 10,2001. Lots of covert ops, US Saudi and Pakistani involvement,cluelessness, shifting alliances, and backstabbing- good stuff!
I guess there’s room for lots of us under the fascism umbrella. My Webster’s has informed me that I may be a fascist, as I believe that a portion of our economy needs to be under governmental control. I was referring, though, to the “belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism” part of fascism.
I am neither belligerent nor racist, though I do “confess” to believing in a muscular military and foreign policy so my family can sleep well in warm beds at night protected by hard men ready to visit swift and terrible violence on those who would harm them.
VoD, I think your intellectual pretensions are comic, but perhaps you should read a little more before you embarrass yourself further. Best.
My bad. I mistakenly thought napalming countless innocents might be considered belligerent.
Better them than me.
‘Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned Sunday, saying he felt obliged to take “moral responsibility” for the brutal Islamist attacks in Mumbai,’ says AFP. By “moral” I think he means others made the practical errors, but as captain of the ship he is responsible.
When I think of “moral cowardice” I think of being unwilling to risk anything for your beliefs. You must have something at stake, something you are avoiding risking. But casting about for definitions, I see another one is accepted: to refuse to name something as “evil” or “good”. I prefer the more “courageous” definition myself.
These were friends of mine.
Lars – sorry for your loss. As I noted earlier, there are no words. RIP.
I second that. But let’s not forget about all the Americans who are shot right here in the U.S.A. everyday, plus your dedicated Wal-mart worker who gets trampled to death in the line of duty.
Many others have said most of what I’d have responded, including our nation’s rather regrettable history of foreign policy towards the Middle East and Latin America. It’s a philosphy which ultimately led us to train the people that became the Taliban in “unconventional warfare”.
One bit I’d add is that that in condemning “Muslims” in a one fell swoop is that it treats all branches of islam as effectively the same. For example, the danger posed to us by Sufi Muslims is probably about as great as what we have to fear from Quakers or the Mennonites.
There is this whole myth I’ve been encountering recently that all the great accomplishments of the world were made by Western Christian Society. For example, try doing any significant math without the number 0. Will’s point of view seems to be parroting that propaganda, which completely ignores that even fundemental aspects of what we consider American were adopted from pre-Christian societies. For example, try to find Democracy in the Bible. It ain’t in there. For that matter, according to the Athenians, most of us are Barbarians (i.e. literally not Greek)
Heck, even the Bible itself was adopted from the Middle East. You know that whole “God’s chosen race” thing? If you’ve got European ancestors, as I do, then it wasn’t even written about you. For that matter, if the Romans had merely taken up Will’s foreign policy suggestion, then I suspect our conversation today might be very different indeed.
Again with the number 0 thing, eh? You guys never get tired of that and the other significant contributions made by non-Europeans. But the funny part is that, when compared honestly side-by-side with what dead, white, European males have given the world, no other race’s/ethnicity’s contributions stack up anywhere near it.
So keep on talking about “0” or whatever other meager contributions were made by Arabs/Africans. While you’re at it, ask yourself what they’ve been up to lately. As far as I can tell building soaring scryscrapers and transcontinental aviation was Christendom’s contribution. Slashing the throats of unarmed stewardesses and ramming airplanes into said scyscrapers was Islam’s helpful role.
You’re not fooling anyone but yourself.
…and obviously you’ve been nowhere near a research lab in the past 20 years. Walk into any science lab at UVa and count the number of “non-white” (and non-Christian) scientists just at UVa alone.
Speaking of Science, I’d challenge the entire idea of “white people”. Genetic studies simply don’t give any credance that there is somehow more similarity between a Norwegian and an Italian than an Italian and an Egyptian. What we call “white” is actually way too heterogenious to be lumped together as all the same “race”.
…And as for women, a woman was the first computer programmer, without which you’d have had no forum to spew your ignorance.
I believe it is well-known Charlottesville is home to an American Nazi branch and its captain (Kevin Strom). Will is no doubt a member. And for what it’s worth, people like him represent our darkest soul and may well be our decline and destruction.
Will is doing a bit of baiting right now, and there is therefore little point in trying to discuss this with him. It may even be that he doesn’t completely agree with all the things he’s saying, but he knows he’s getting a rise out of us nutjobs.
If he does agree with these statements, then it is clear that Will is ready to defend almost any behavior in the name of the United States of America. The problem with this way of thinking (i.e., “fuck them, kill them all”) is that it is exactly the same as Osama’s way of thinking which is exactly the same as Hitler’s way of thinking. The only difference is that Will’s state is the USA, Osama’s is Islam, and Hitler’s was Germany.
If Will lived in France today, he would be a French nationalist. If he lived in Germany, he would be a German nationalist. If he lived in Saudi Arabia….
The job of rational people is not necessarily to reason with these sorts of people (we’ve seen here how effective this is), but to help others to see their views for what they are.
People like me won the Cold War by ourselevs w/out assistance from much of the Left which was (at best) ambivalent about the great evil that was aggressive, expansionist Communism and (at worst) sympathetic to its goals.
We will win the war against global Islamist terrorism w/out your help as well. It’s amazing what 50-some% of this country can achieve on its own.
Wow, I hate to admit it and appear to be naive, but I didn’t know there are a bunch of closet nazis running around the C’ville area. That’s a worrisome thought. Also, with all of this heated exchange (including racial overtones), I’m surprised no one has been disemvoweled by the management. Think I’ll sit this one out.
Just b/c most people are cowed by the leftwing PC zealots out to stifle debate by shrieking “Racist!” whenever someone has the temerity to speak his mind doesn’t mean we all are.
Surfer, we live in a little progressive oasis, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have our demons as well. Kevin Strom and his cohorts (notice will did NOT deny being associated with the bigot and convicted peddler of child pornography) are still here. Studies have shown signs of pervasive racism here, there are occasionally racist fueled incidents all around and we have a legacy of being one of the great hotbeds of massive resistance. It’s no wonder the National Vanguard feels at home here.
So it becomes our job to tell them to go to hell.
Convicted pederast and reviled Nazi Kevin Strom? Why he’s in my fantasy football league. He’s actually just misunderstood and is a real sweetheart. Kevin, Karl, Dick & I are all getting together for golf sometime in the spring. Can’t wait!
A fantasy foursome with a huge fear factor. Birds of a feather…
Kev used to play with Larry Craig, Barney Frank, and Mark Foley, but he needed a better class of people.