Monday, May 24, 2010

I feel sick: How many days until November again?

Yes, I love photographing pretty things, and am even a bit giddy about the record breaking late snowfall we are having today.

But then I read this in an editorial by the brilliant Mark Steyn.
Maybe you missed reading it.
I think maybe you should; I've copied some of the more significant portions below:

Like a lot of guys who've been told they're brilliant one time too often, President Obama gets a little lazy, and doesn't always choose his words with care.

And so it was that he came to say a few words about Daniel Pearl, upon signing the "Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act."

Pearl was decapitated on video by jihadist Muslims in Karachi on Feb. 1, 2002.
That's how I'd (Mark Steyn) put it.

This is what the president of the United States said:

"Obviously, the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world's imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is."

Now Obama's off the prompter, when his silver-tongued rhetoric invariably turns to sludge.

But he's talking about a dead man here, a guy murdered in public for all the world to see.

Furthermore, the deceased's family is standing all around him.

And, even for a busy president, it's the work of moments to come up with a sentence that would be respectful, moving and true. Indeed, for Obama, it's the work of seconds, because he has a taxpayer-funded staff sitting around all day with nothing to do but provide him with that sentence.

Instead, he delivered the one above, which in its clumsiness and insipidness is most revealing.

First of all, note the passivity: "The loss of Daniel Pearl."

He wasn't "lost." He was kidnapped and beheaded.
He was murdered on a snuff video.
He was specifically targeted, seized as a trophy, a high-value scalp.
And the circumstances of his "loss" merit some vigor in the prose.

Yet Obama can muster none.

Even if Americans don't get the message, the rest of the world does. This week's pictures of the leaders of Brazil and Turkey clasping hands with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are also monuments to American passivity.

But what did the "loss" of Daniel Pearl mean?

Well, says the president, it was "one of those moments that captured the world's imagination."

Really?

Evidently it never captured Obama's imagination because, if it had, he could never have uttered anything so fatuous. He seems literally unable to imagine Pearl's fate, and so, cruising on autopilot, he reaches for the all-purpose bromides of therapeutic sedation: "one of those moments" — you know, like Princess Di's wedding, Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction, whatever — "that captured the world's imagination."

I just want to take a moment here on my blog to express my anguish about the horrific murder of Daniel Perlman. It has been eight years now. We must never forget what was done.

I personally will never be pleased that the "freedom of the press" allows murderers to release their acts on video so their sympathizers can glory in it.
I also want to point out what other Jewish people are currently facing in their own country of Israel.

If you have eleven minutes, watch this video by a former US general who will spell it out for you.

If you have just a few seconds, then please...pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

3 comments:

Vicki said...

Excellent commentary by Mr. Steyn.

Bad, bad president.

ellen b. said...

Our government at present turns my stomach...and I pray everyday, "Lord have mercy on us and protect us from evil!"

Lovella ♥ said...

It is very sobering indeed to see what the middle east is facing. It certainly puts trivial concerns into perspective. The video was well worth the 12 minutes.