Some things stick in the craw
Here’s one of them: A military “expert” I’ve come to detest even more than U.S Representative John Murtha. This smart aleck nobody ever elected goes by the name of Scott Pelley. He did a TV “interview” with Marine Corps SSgt. Frank Wuterich on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago.
I don’t know how Wuterich retained his composure as Pelley verbally assailed him for being less than judicious in shooting at suspected Iraqi terrorists, a “crime” in which Wuterich is the only remaining Marine directly charged in that so-called Haditha incident, with a court marital pending. His buddies in the raid have all been cleared.
Smirky Scott Pelley deserved to have his face smashed in , and Wuterich should have done it. His late comrade in arms, Marine Corps Maj. Doug Zembiec, would have. He once told a reporter, “One of the most noble things you can do is kill the enemy.” But Pelley’s oily questioning of Wuterich was like a preacher scolding a kid over why he hadn’t been more thoughtful and considerate, since women and children were among the enemy killed in the heat of battle. Wuterich retained his composure throughout the condescending interview, despite Pelley’s baiting.
Rep. Murtha earlier had publicly called the raid “in cold blood,” and is being sued by freed Marines for slander. Good. Further, someone ought to entrap the old garbage mouth in a men’s restroom stall somewhere.
As for today’s ACLU pecksniffers, recall that Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who had been an infantryman in the Civil War, described war’s combat as an "incommunicable experience," adding that "detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife."
So try to forget Pelley’s ignorant interrogation. It was only too typical of 60 Minutes in recent years, but I wouldn’t know. I seldom ever watch it anymore. Now I should simply blank it out; the Pelley segment was that repugnant, as other viewers later attested even more colorfully. I hope you didn’t see it.
On another chafing subject in the news, you couldn’t help but be reminded time and again of poor little New Orleans’ fate since Hurricane Katrina leveled the place two years ago. Despite blanket remembrances on TV, it seems that nothing much has happened since, despite the huge infusion of funds and support from taxpayers and volunteers.
As I wrote here about that misfortune for the miserable city shortly after the storm, “New Orleans is the grouchy old uncle living in the attic with his pigeons and dirty pictures. Nobody knows much what to do about him, especially since the accident.” I guess we still don’t.
Fact is, nobody in his right mind would have chosen New Orleans, even before Katrina, for a demonstration of how government or citizens could help restore it to decency.
So it’s worse now than before, with a murder rate 40 percent higher post-Katrina. The city’s more prosperous evacuees have learned to like life elsewhere, and the returnees include most of the low-lifers. The lack of progress in cleaning up the place—despite an infusion of over $100 billion of federal taxpayer money (over $400,000 per current resident)-- is understandable, in a contrarian sense.
For the skeptic who thinks the feds nowadays screw up most everything they try anyhow, New Orleans’ unrelieved agony is but another shining example:
N After all, over a year ago, Washington decreed that a long protective border fence with Mexico be built. A stretch about like one from here to Fredericksburg has been completed so far.
N State and local efforts to constrict illegal immigrant abuses meet court resistance despite the demonstrated federal incompetence in doing anything about detention and deportation.
N Ethanol gums up the gasoline distribution system, elevating prices at the pump. But never mind; our taxes subsidize it and federal law mandates it. Farmers applaud as Congress gets ready to pass another outlandish farm bill subsidizing mainly the wealthiest farmers.
By the way, there’s something about our country’s most financially handicapped folks. Officially poor, they’re about 12 percent of our population, a share inflated by aliens from Mexico. Of course, some downtrodden truly need help, and you can do so by supporting the Salvation Army. I do.
But thanks to charity, government largess and the nation’s prosperity, our poor fare well compared with just about anywhere else, and better even than the average European. For instance, according to a new study by the Heritage Foundation:
"[T]he typical American defined as poor by the government has a car (31 percent of poor households own two cars), air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR, or DVD player, and astereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair…his family is not hungry…If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three-quarters of the nation's impoverished youthwould immediately be lifted out of poverty...”
No wonder foreigners clamor to get here by hook or crook.
I don’t know how Wuterich retained his composure as Pelley verbally assailed him for being less than judicious in shooting at suspected Iraqi terrorists, a “crime” in which Wuterich is the only remaining Marine directly charged in that so-called Haditha incident, with a court marital pending. His buddies in the raid have all been cleared.
Smirky Scott Pelley deserved to have his face smashed in , and Wuterich should have done it. His late comrade in arms, Marine Corps Maj. Doug Zembiec, would have. He once told a reporter, “One of the most noble things you can do is kill the enemy.” But Pelley’s oily questioning of Wuterich was like a preacher scolding a kid over why he hadn’t been more thoughtful and considerate, since women and children were among the enemy killed in the heat of battle. Wuterich retained his composure throughout the condescending interview, despite Pelley’s baiting.
Rep. Murtha earlier had publicly called the raid “in cold blood,” and is being sued by freed Marines for slander. Good. Further, someone ought to entrap the old garbage mouth in a men’s restroom stall somewhere.
As for today’s ACLU pecksniffers, recall that Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., who had been an infantryman in the Civil War, described war’s combat as an "incommunicable experience," adding that "detached reflection cannot be demanded in the presence of an uplifted knife."
So try to forget Pelley’s ignorant interrogation. It was only too typical of 60 Minutes in recent years, but I wouldn’t know. I seldom ever watch it anymore. Now I should simply blank it out; the Pelley segment was that repugnant, as other viewers later attested even more colorfully. I hope you didn’t see it.
On another chafing subject in the news, you couldn’t help but be reminded time and again of poor little New Orleans’ fate since Hurricane Katrina leveled the place two years ago. Despite blanket remembrances on TV, it seems that nothing much has happened since, despite the huge infusion of funds and support from taxpayers and volunteers.
As I wrote here about that misfortune for the miserable city shortly after the storm, “New Orleans is the grouchy old uncle living in the attic with his pigeons and dirty pictures. Nobody knows much what to do about him, especially since the accident.” I guess we still don’t.
Fact is, nobody in his right mind would have chosen New Orleans, even before Katrina, for a demonstration of how government or citizens could help restore it to decency.
So it’s worse now than before, with a murder rate 40 percent higher post-Katrina. The city’s more prosperous evacuees have learned to like life elsewhere, and the returnees include most of the low-lifers. The lack of progress in cleaning up the place—despite an infusion of over $100 billion of federal taxpayer money (over $400,000 per current resident)-- is understandable, in a contrarian sense.
For the skeptic who thinks the feds nowadays screw up most everything they try anyhow, New Orleans’ unrelieved agony is but another shining example:
N After all, over a year ago, Washington decreed that a long protective border fence with Mexico be built. A stretch about like one from here to Fredericksburg has been completed so far.
N State and local efforts to constrict illegal immigrant abuses meet court resistance despite the demonstrated federal incompetence in doing anything about detention and deportation.
N Ethanol gums up the gasoline distribution system, elevating prices at the pump. But never mind; our taxes subsidize it and federal law mandates it. Farmers applaud as Congress gets ready to pass another outlandish farm bill subsidizing mainly the wealthiest farmers.
By the way, there’s something about our country’s most financially handicapped folks. Officially poor, they’re about 12 percent of our population, a share inflated by aliens from Mexico. Of course, some downtrodden truly need help, and you can do so by supporting the Salvation Army. I do.
But thanks to charity, government largess and the nation’s prosperity, our poor fare well compared with just about anywhere else, and better even than the average European. For instance, according to a new study by the Heritage Foundation:
"[T]he typical American defined as poor by the government has a car (31 percent of poor households own two cars), air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR, or DVD player, and astereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair…his family is not hungry…If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three-quarters of the nation's impoverished youthwould immediately be lifted out of poverty...”
No wonder foreigners clamor to get here by hook or crook.
posted by Ben Blankenship at
7:57 PM
