Today’s column is going to be a grab bag of stories I either just saw, or haven’t had a chance to comment on. Because even in a 3-column week, there are more rant-worthy stories than I’ve had time to rant about.
For example, if you would have asked me one week ago, “Martin, do you think it’s metaphysically possible for you to be more disgusted with Anthony Fauci?” I would have said absolutely not.
But then Fauci said, “Hold my orb and my scepter and my holy chalice, and watch this.” And he gave an interview to the BBC in which he explained that while he “identifies as a Catholic,” his own personal ethics are so awesome that he doesn’t need to practice religion.
First, his “identifying” as a Catholic is no more meaningful than Richard Levine “identifying” as a woman named Rachel Levine (not to mention his identifying as Admiral of the Seven Seas). Or the Pale Puritan Senator from Massachusetts “identifying” as the “Miss Cherokee Cheekbones” winner from the Great Plains Pow Wow of 1980. (#wemustneverstopmockingher)
Second, who could have guessed that a guy who had no problem identifying himself as the embodiment of capital “S” Science would also give himself an A+ for moral and theological perfection?
(I still think that continuing to prop up and defer to Fauci was one of only two significant failures of Trump’s term. Due to our dysfunctional government employment bureaucracy, Trump might not have been able to fire Fauci, but he certainly could have banished him to some remote clinic doing STD testing, and ensured that he would never represent the White House on national tv again.)
To summarize, Fauci is The Science. And also, apparently, the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Science except through him!
As long as we’re here in theology corner for the moment, did you catch the story on Tuesday of the Turkish member of parliament who gave a dramatic speech berating Israel? His name is Hasan Bitmez, and he called out his fellow Turks for not being sufficiently pro-Hamas and pro-terrorism.
He ended his stemwinder by addressing Israel directly, saying “You will not escape the wrath of Allah!”
Then he said to his fellow pols, “I salute you all.”
And then… DOWN GOES BITMEZ! The guy went from hate speech to horizontal in two seconds!
And this wasn’t a Joe Biden-style collapse – which happens thrice a week, and can be caused by anything from sandbags to stairs to a stiff breeze. This was a full-on heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital, where he died yesterday.
If this was a theological column, I might cite Jehovah on the issue of Israel (to wit, that He will bless those who bless Israel and curse those who curse her). But this is not a theology column, and I’m not a theologian.
So I’ll just cite Nelson Muntz, from my namesake tv show: “HA! HA!”
As long as we’re on the subject of Israel and Hamas, I came across yet another dishonest and emotionally manipulative article on the current war, this time from CNN. (Surprise!)
It is a tear-jerker tale of a Palestinian “writer and academic” named Refaat Alareer who stayed in a part of Gaza that the IDF had warned civilians to leave, and was killed in an airstrike on December 7th.
The story paints him in glowing terms, stressing that he was a civilian, that he was “trapped” in Gaza, and that he had edited several collections of essays, pics and poems depicting the suffering of “Palestinians” under “blockade” and “siege” by Israelis. He somehow never mentions why such a blockade or siege might be in place. (Hint: Even after Israel pulled out of Gaza 17 years ago, Gazans kept murdering Jews in unprovoked rocket and terrorist attacks.)
He was called “a towering figure in Gaza,” a “generous, gracious, gentle, patient” man and “a force for good.” The article ends with the words of a former student of his: “We remember and carry on Refaat’s legacy. Refaat the storyteller, father, husband, son, teacher, and friend.”
But in the middle of the story, as a kind of throat-clearing aside – quickly mentioned and then dropped –is this little nugget: “While Alareer’s death is being mourned by Palestinians (sic), some of his comments have caused offense. In a BBC interview he described the October 7th attacks as ‘a pre-emptive attack by Palestinian resistance’ that was ‘legitimate and moral.’”
Huh.
Again, I’m no journalist, but I think I can fix this story’s headline: “Dishonest, Anti-Semitic ‘Palestinian’ Terrorist Supporter Reaps What He Sows.” You’re welcome.
And while we’re on the topic, I’m seeing an awful lot of video of “Palestinian” civilians weeping over their loved ones killed or injured in the war, and their grief is understandable. However, I’d like to hear just one of the “reporters” covering those stories ask the mourners a simple question: “What do you think of the 10/7 attack on mostly unarmed Israeli civilians?”
If the “grieving” “civilians” respond by condemning Hamas and their evil actions that have caused these air strikes, God bless them, and they deserve sympathy.
But if they respond by spitting out some genocidal hatred for Jews and praise for Hamas, the reporters should thank them for their thoughts, then hop into a Jeep and drive a safe distance away. And then call in another airstrike on that location.
Because “friend you,” malicious sufferers of karmic justice!
Speaking of the dishonest MSM, when CNN scooped PBS with their lying about Gaza, PBS tried to keep up, by lying about what caused recent Irish riots in Dublin.
On 11/24, a man the media worked diligently to NOT identify stabbed five people, including three children. After many months of crime and social unrest prompted by many unvetted immigrants being allowed into Ireland against the will of most citizens (sound familiar?), many Irish were fed up, and started protests that definitely did not remain peaceful.
The Irish press and authorities made things worse, as is their wont, by imposing an information blackout that fed rumors. The cops had no information to release on the stabber – except, oddly enough, that they were 100% certain that the motive was NOT terrorism! They wouldn’t comment on rumors that the knifester was an illegal immigrant from a Muslim country.
After several weeks went by, it turned out that he was in fact an Algerian immigrant who had come to Ireland legally 20 years ago, and had been living on the dole before he went all stabby. But the MSM focused much more on how terrible the Irish protestors were, decrying the evil xenophobes who carried such inflammatory signs as ones proclaiming, “Irish Lives Matter.”
No good person excuses the subsequent riots and vandalism. But the same kind of arrogant leftist governments who happily go down endless rabbit holes searching for the “root causes” and excusing every murderous rampage by preferred groups – jihadis in the Middle East and around the world, BLM and antifa in the states, etc. – directed their ire solely at the put-upon Irish citizenry.
When Bill Maher asked PBS “journalist” and first-class gaslighter Jane Ferguson about the potential reasons behind the riots, she gave a very wordy answer that never mentioned Ahmed al-knife-bladi. Instead, she described the riots as a “fomented” act by a “very tiny minority” that’s “very loud and very violent.” She further characterized the movement as “anti-immigration” and “basically the usual populist kind of conversation.”
Funnily enough, even when MSM critics had to admit that Ferguson’s response was BS, the best they could do was to point out that the riots “were triggered by a variety of factors, not solely anti-immigration sentiment,” and claim that social media was another culprit. In other words, they did everything but admit that the Irish people might have some legitimate cause for concern.
Guys, I’m no journalist – neither are most of you, apparently – but you’re burying the lede, and missing the point, and you can’t see the forest for the trees (along with whatever other phrases might indicate that your heads are up your arses).
Here’s what started the riots – which you would be calling “peaceful protests” if you were at all ideologically consistent: Against a backdrop of a wave of crime and social disruption caused by illegal immigrants from Muslim countries throughout Europe and in Ireland, an unemployed and non-contributing immigrant stabbed three Irish children. And most Irish people tend not to like that.
There. Was that so hard, PBS cranial-rectal inversion lady?
So what have we learned here today?
That although I’m no theologian, I’m still a better theologian than Tony Fauci and Hasan Bitmez, and although I’m no journalist, I’m still a better journalist than anyone in the “mainstream” media.
Sure, those are low bars… but I am clearing them!
Hamas delenda est!
Martin Simpson 