hwickline.com

Been meaning to post this for the past couple weeks, but things have been a bit hectic, what with quittin’ my job, starting up an independent consulting business, and getting ready for a trip to Kauai, on which we depart tomorrow. More about all of that, particularly the new job part, later.

But for now, let us focus on correcting the recent unpleasantness regarding treason and impending civil conflict which I linked to below. Our story begins with some local TV news “journalism” in Nashville, Tennessee:

After teasing viewers for days about its big exclusive report “Inside Islamville: Is a Local Muslim Community Tied to Terrorism?” Channel 5 finally gave us the answer last night: No.

​It’s a new low in broadcast journalism in this city. Based on the unfounded accusations in a crackpot video titled Homegrown Jihad, Channel 5 devoted two nights’ segments to this so-called investigation. On the first night, we heard all about the video. Channel 5 knew then that none of it was true, but didn’t tell viewers. For that, we had to wait until last night. With camera crew in tow, Nick Beres appeared unannounced at the Muslim “compound,” just like Mike Wallace on a 60 Minutes’ ambush…

So what did they find at the “compound”? “‘It’s kind of like going into any trailer park out in the country,’ says Sheriff Vinson.”

Our story continues:

Vandals spray-painted insults on a mosque overnight and left a hate-filled letter to Nashville’s Muslims. Islamic leaders blame Channel 5’s sensationalized two-night report about a crackpot organization’s unfounded accusations of terrorist ties against a Middle Tennessee Muslim community.

“Muslims Go Home” and a Crusade-style cross were scrawled across the front of Al-Farooq Islamic Center on Nolensville Road, says Salaad Nur, a spokesman. He says the mosque, which primarily serves members of the Somali community, has contacted the police and the FBI.

“They also left a letter at the youth center that says Muslims are friends of Satan and we are here to destroy the United States and to destroy Israel and things of that nature,” he says. “We’re a little bit shaken up. I hope this is just a scare and things don’t get any worse than this.”

But wait, you say, isn’t this just one more sign of our inexorable descent into rage, fear and paranoia?

Not entirely:

On a cold and windy February night, a man who gave only his first name walked up to the Al-Farooq Islamic Center in south Nashville and handed a gallon of stain-blocker paint and a bag of brushes, rollers and rags to a Somali man standing in the parking lot. Tim, an East Nashville resident, said he did the first thing he could think of when he drove by the center Wednesday and saw the words “Muslims Go home” and a crusade-style cross spray-painted in red across the front of the center, which doubles as a mosque.

“When I saw it, I just broke down crying,” the self-described unemployed truck driver said. “I went straight to Home Depot and bought a gallon of paint.”

And that, my friends, gives me hope– a small hope,mind you, but hope nonetheless– that the Republic might yet be saved.

See you in a couple weeks.

The New York Times has a fun-filled journey through the increasingly connected world of Tea-Partiers, the John Birch Society, Birthers, and the Patriot movement– they’re the militia-types. Here’s the conclusion:

Not long ago, Mrs. Stout sent an e-mail message to her members under the subject line: “Revolution.” It linked to an article by Greg Evensen, a leader in the militia movement, titled “The Anatomy of an American Revolution,” that listed “grievances” he said “would justify a declaration of war against any criminal enterprise including that which is killing our nation from Washington, D.C.”

Mrs. Stout said she has begun to contemplate the possibility of “another civil war.” It is her deepest fear, she said. Yet she believes the stakes are that high. Basic freedoms are threatened, she said. Economic collapse, food shortages and civil unrest all seem imminent.

“I don’t see us being the ones to start it, but I would give up my life for my country,” Mrs. Stout said.

She paused, considering her next words.

“Peaceful means,” she continued, “are the best way of going about it. But sometimes you are not given a choice.”

It really makes for some disturbing reading. You should read the whole thing, anyway.

Pleasant dreams.

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village

Sadly, this reminds me that I said I’d be writing more about China. It’s on the list, I swear.

It is a long list.

Say it with me friends: climate is not weather. Not that that would stop those rapscallions at Fox News from dropping a copy of An Inconvenient Truth in the snow. We’ve also had elected officials explaining why big snow storms in DC make climate change legislation less doable:

It seems mind-numbing, but Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said snowfall in D.C. has had an effect on policymakers’ attitudes. “It makes it more challenging for folks not taking time to review the scientific arguments,” said Bingaman, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

“People see the world around them and they extrapolate,” he added. “I think that it’s hard to see an economy-wide cap-and-trade [proposal] of the type that passed the House could prevail.”

Why, yes, that is mind numbing, because, well, weather isn’t climate. And climate science might have something to say about all of this:

The problem is that more severe winter weather tends to confirm rather than contradict climate change theory. Warmer overall temperatures produce moisture, which in winter tends to produce snow. Climate scientists have long predicted more turbulent winter weather as a result of climate change. And by the way, last month was the world’s warmest January on record.

As ever, Stephen Colbert breaks it down for us in a way that even the tiny-brained can understand.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c We’re Off to See the Blizzard www.colbertnation.com

Colbert: “It is dark outside… we can only assume the sun has been destroyed.”

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.

- Wallace Stevens, “The Snowman”

I’m guessing there ain’t too many minds of winter in the greater DC Metro area right now, f’rinstance. Or really anywhere back East.

Still, great poem.

Stay warm, everyone. And I’ll promise not to complain about the cold here in Northern California.

For those having trouble reading Robert Gibbs’ hand, it sez:

Eggs
Milk
Bread
Hope
Change

Some folks say this is beneath the office of the Press Secretary to the President of the United States. I say it’s funny as hell. If one cannot respond to puerile mockery with more of the same, well, where’s the fun in that?

If you have no idea what this is in reference to, see here:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c AmeriGasm www.thedailyshow.com

RH in Dublin (well, Citywest, but who’s counting?) sends the following tale of life in the Irish suburbs, which I post shamelessly without permission:

The funniest thing just happened. I’m cooking dinner listening to music and went to the back door for a smoke. A bloke on the other side of the wall who I can’t see shouts, in the best Dublin accent, “Joy Division. F**kin’ super”!

Good to know that good taste does not end at the city’s edge. At any rate, I laughed out loud, but that might have something to do with being able to hear the accent so clearly in my head.

Another in a series of excellent infographics from the New York Times. The budget itself seems responsible, taking steps towards reducing the structural deficit, still focused on job creation.

The coverage of it seems asinine: taking Obama to task for not doing more on the deficit, taking Obama to task for not doing more on jobs. Then a shot of some Republican Senator complaining about fiscal irresponsibility. No mention of George W. Bush and his two wars, plus every other damn thing he did, on the national credit card. Evidently we should be finished looking backward, blame Obama, and put Bush’s enablers right back into power.

He couldn’t stand another night with that smug hookah.

Via CG in Dublin, Unhappy Hipsters will make you smile.

More good stuff from Charlie Brooker.