The Blood-Dimmed Tide

There has been yet another sickening homicidal rampage today, this time in an immigration-services center in the decaying city of Binghamton, New York. It seems that horrors of this sort are happening more and more often in recent years.

Incidents like this throw fuel on the gun-control debate, with restrictionists arguing that the problem is easy access to deadly weapons, and Second-Amendment libertarians arguing that when such havoc erupts, a disarmed citizenry is helpless to stop the rampaging murderer. (My own sympathies are with the latter view.) Certainly these incidents are symptomatic of some sort of societal necrosis, of an increasing breakdown of the mutually supportive relations and obligations that bind human communities (it is perhaps not insignificant that this latest killing-spree occurred at an immigration center). The world is at once more prosperous and more desperate than ever, it seems; more crowded and more lonely, more connected and more fragmented, and the rate of disorienting change will only increase.

When something becomes common enough, it usually acquires a name. Many years ago I read a remarkable book called Stand On Zanzibar, by John Brunner, in which this process of increasing disaffection and violence in a densely crowded and rapidly changing near-future (2010!) world was the central theme. In this dystopic milieu it had become commonplace for people stressed beyond the limits of sanity to run amok in this way — suddenly to slaughter, indiscriminately, until they were killed themselves — and Brunner coined a word for them. He called them muckers. We may all be familiar with the term before much longer.

25 Comments

  1. Mabruk says

    Ok, Let’s get his name, his religion and publicize that. As a Muslim i would like to help as i have a lot of experience with i am going to suggest. He is WHITE! Christian!!! Now we should act as a country the same way we acted the last time we had an act of terror like this. Let’s round up all the christens in this country and profile them, stop them at their airports for figure printing, and questions such as who did they lost their virginity to. Let is look in the bible for Crusade “Jihad” terms and bold them out and air them. I really want to see that happening because clearly this guy is WHITE!, CHRISTIAN! and religious..Lets also since we are at it stop every girl who is wearing the cross, lets start with churches but lets not stop there as Starbuck cafes, bars and night clubs are known to hold WHITE!, CHRISTIAN individuals.

    Posted April 3, 2009 at 4:47 pm | Permalink
  2. Fothermuckers.

    Kevin

    Posted April 3, 2009 at 5:03 pm | Permalink
  3. Mabruk, if you can show that this man was clearly motivated by Christian doctrine, then you might have a point, especially since — as you have so reasonably reminded us — all Muslims in America were rounded up after 9/11.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    Posted April 3, 2009 at 5:20 pm | Permalink
  4. Charles says

    I went to school in Binghamton (well, technically Vestal, but the school takes its name from the city). This is quite a shock to hear.

    Ditto what Kevin said.

    Posted April 3, 2009 at 6:53 pm | Permalink
  5. Arthur of Eleazar says

    Well, well,… New York has the strictest gun control laws in the country; yet, this gentleman (?) seemed to procure and possess them. Hmmm. Oh, now I read that religion is again the center of some peoples frustrations! Ok, well, for most of us “rednecks”, as I have been called by several black Americans (?); even though I am an Acadian/Scandinavian; it seemed on September 11th, that most of my “redneck” “christian” “friends” and family were all for simply turning the whole of the Middle East into a glass parking lot. Not just the Muslims! Yep, if you recall, Tariq Azziz was catholic! We, in my family… catholics, were more than happy to suggest that he and Mr Hussein (R.I.P.) would do well by diving feet first into a meat grinder. We had one set up. We sent some of our boys over there to get him in it… alas, due to the kind and gentle nature of the Cheney / Bush administration, we were not allowed to impose our glass parking lot policy. How unfortunate.

    But again… I guess that’s why we have “civilization” and “laws”… to prevent people from getting guns and killing people in New York, and to go to war and maime another civilization rather than kill it! … there is a time for peace, there is a time for war… Ecclesiastes!

    Posted April 3, 2009 at 7:33 pm | Permalink
  6. Arthur of Eleazar says

    Please excuse my poor spelling. That’s my Scandinavian ancestry coming out… you know… the saga thing….

    Posted April 3, 2009 at 7:36 pm | Permalink
  7. Mabruk says

    Horace Jeffery Hodges, The wasn’t the point. All Muslims are harassed every day and night, every time the pass by US borders or airports. I know because i have been asked millions of questions every time i fly. The point is that this guy has committed a crime because of his or his people feeling of injustice somewhere somehow. He may have felt that he is been discriminated against, and my sarcastic view was that we should treat his race/religion the same way we treated Muslims after 911. Just so the American decision makers won’t be accused of racism. Get it now! Only in situations like one can illustrate how horrendous the US policy been towards Muslims in the last 8 and counting Years.

    Posted April 3, 2009 at 11:21 pm | Permalink
  8. Mabruk, you wrote:

    “Now we should act as a country the same way we acted the last time we had an act of terror like this. Let’s round up all the christens in this country . . . .”

    I cannot read your mind, just your words. You would communicate better if you would write with precision. I’d suggest that you begin by exaggerating less.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 12:58 am | Permalink
  9. Mabruk says

    Horace Jeffery Hodges, I am not exaggerating at all. On the contrary. You are clearly not a Muslim and that is why you do not see what i am talking about, and also clearly you do not have Muslim friends or colleagues who can give you an idea. Muslims are rounded in the US, their Mosques( Place of Worship) are monitored, they are called Islamists by Islam haters who were opportunists, and used 911 to advance their own agendas such as the Zionist lobby whose members carry Israeli Passports and have loyalty only to Israel and have Hijacked the United States for years to serve their own criminal doctrine(Which can be summarized as: GOD! told them to kill, destroy and burn all Palestinians and take their land and that is because GOD said so..) Muslims are being stopped at all US airports every time they fly, taken to a separate room, photographed, fingerprinted, interrogated, questioned about even their credit cards activity(Their buying habits) .. These Muslims are your ordinary people not terror suspects in any way. One time i was flying and i was taking to that room again! and found an attractive Persian lady so we talked and turned out that she is a stripper and she is here because she happened to be born in Tehran. Dude, just look at your CNNs, FOXnews’ of the world, to see how much hate’s been thrown out there for the idiots to use. This is to me is a modern day rounding up! if not worse. So lets do the same to Christians this time since the terrorist here is from them, otherwise US is the land of the Hypocritical who is far from being brave.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 12:28 pm | Permalink
  10. The killer is apparently a Vietnamese immigrant who lost his job, and I’m not sure that anyone has mentioned what religion he was.

    Kevin

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 12:41 pm | Permalink
  11. Malcolm says

    Mabruk, the issue under discussion here has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam, or even religion, for that matter. Before any details of the massacre had come out at all, you had already appropriated this space as a soapbox to rail against white Christians, and Americans generally.

    If you would like to lobby for better treatment of your co-religionists (who are not exactly working hard, I must say, to curry favor amongst the infidels), you are welcome to do so, but please find a more appropriate venue, or at the very least a more appropriate post. Perhaps this one.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 12:49 pm | Permalink
  12. Mabruk says

    Malcom,
    Those pictures are fake! It shows that you are a pig posting garbage like that. This should be reported as hate provoking message. How sick do you need to be to put text like that on top of peaceful message by Muslims in London. The actual messages that you omit were ” STOP KILLING CHILDREN IN GAZA!!” ..”ISRAEL, STOP WAR ON CIVILIANS”..

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 2:52 pm | Permalink
  13. Malcolm says

    Fake? I don’t think so. But if that is actually the case, Mabruk, I will take them down. I assure you I do not need or wish to be using faked photographs, and there is certainly no need for anyone concerned about the spread of this toxic ideology to rely on exaggeration: authentic examples abound.

    By the way: if you are trying to demonstrate that is unfair to single out Muslims as dangerous and easily provoked, and as not fitting in well here in the secular West, you could do better than to go around calling people “pigs”, and talking about “reporting” them for expressing their opinions.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 2:58 pm | Permalink
  14. Mabruk says

    I really encourage you to take them down because they are indeed fake!. Use any debugging software out there, and it will tell you so. Dude, they are not done well! couldn’t you tell!? These, if not made by you, are made by Israeli lobby groups to make Americans hate Muslims, and thanks to people like you, it is spreading. Muslims do not say this stuff in their living rooms, let alone on London Streets!. For Gods’ sake they are so outrageous, they are laughable!

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 3:13 pm | Permalink
  15. Mabruk says

    Check the credible news agencies, BBC just to name one, instead of the no-name sites that makes up stuff to advance its paid for agenda.. and i thank you for taking them down, if you did.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 3:18 pm | Permalink
  16. Malcolm says

    Well, Mabruk, at work I use Visual Studio 2005 for “debugging”, but I don’t think it would be any help here.

    I can assure you that I haven’t been making any faked photographs, and I doubt very much that these are fake. If you look at the first two photos (we are talking, readers, about the pictures at this post), you will note that the same poster, carrying the friendly slogan BEHEAD THOSE WHO INSULT ISLAM, is visible in both, from different angles (this is true of other signs as well). Compare the details.

    The pictures, I think, are real.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 3:23 pm | Permalink
  17. Mabruk says

    If someone takes out the sentence ” ISRAEL, PLEASE STOP KILLING CHILDREN” and substitutes it with “INFIDELS, WE WILL KILL YOU” or something like..in my opinion, does not really stand far from the “pig” picture. I am welling to have an intelligent conversation about all things wrong with Muslims today, but in a comparative terms, anytime. However, have issues with people posting fake pics of Muslims and forming opinions based on that. in comparative terms with Christians, Jews. For example when it comes to killing, lets see who is doing more of it. Are Muslims using the Quran more than Christians using the bible, or Jews using the Otestment, to go out and kill innocent people? issues like that i can respectively discuss and you may find that i am harder, but fair, on my people than you are.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 3:30 pm | Permalink
  18. Malcolm says

    Again, Mabruk, I do not think these photos are fake. Find me a link to the original versions, if they are.

    If you want to be harder on radical Islam than I am, as you suggest, then you certainly have my blessing. But you needn’t tell me; you’re preaching to the choir. Go find some more effective venue.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 3:37 pm | Permalink
  19. Malcolm says

    Oh, and by the way: following your advice, Mabruk, I did go looking on the BBC for evidence that these photos are fakes, but all I found was this, and a lot of stories about riots.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 3:49 pm | Permalink
  20. Mabruk says

    Exactly, people were upset about their sacred person been portrayed in unflattering way. You can find similar pics of people angry everywhere, in Europe today, in LA, south America. People behave differently in different part of the world. That, is no way close to what you are posted. Get a grip man!, take them out!, they are not real, otherwise you would have seen the BBC posting them. Posting fake pics makes you fake and unworthy of intelligent conversation. At least take them down until you prove they are real, which they are not!

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 5:13 pm | Permalink
  21. So, Mabruk, in response to my suggestion that you not exaggerate, you claim, “I am not exaggerating at all.”

    Well, let’s check and see if you’re prone to any exaggeration: “i have been asked millions of questions every time i fly.”

    I rest my case.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 5:18 pm | Permalink
  22. Malcolm says

    Again, Mabruk, and for the last time, I do not believe the photographs I have posted to be fake. If you have images of the unretouched versions, I’ll be glad to reconsider. Otherwise, please stop hectoring me about them. It seems much more likely to me that you merely wish them to be fake, and would prefer not to confront the threatening and virulent form that your religion has taken in the minds of a great many people, which is another matter altogether.

    I have no quarrel with Muslims as people. I do, however, have rather a dim view of religion generally (Christianity included), and of certain forms of religious thinking in particular. What I have consistently expressed in these pages is criticism of a set of ideas that I see as starkly incompatible with, and inimical to, the foundations of Western culture.

    You are entitled to your own opinions, of course, and in this culture (unlike Islamic societies), you enjoy the freedom to express them. Given how utterly unproductive this conversation has been, however — and given that I am, as you say, a “pig” who is “unworthy of intelligent conversation” — I’ll be grateful if you would henceforth express them elsewhere, “dude”.

    It is my custom, when these conversations have reached the point of diminishing returns, to offer my interlocutors the last word. So go ahead, if you like.

    Posted April 4, 2009 at 8:21 pm | Permalink
  23. bob koepp says

    I’m coming the party too late for any favors, but just wanted to mention to Mabruk, that calling Malcolm a pig is at least as bad as portraying your prophet as a pig. Further, I think it is grossly unfair to use ‘pig’ as a term of abuse. Since they can’t speak for themselves, I feel it my duty to defend the honor of my (and your…) porcine cousins.

    Posted April 5, 2009 at 1:08 pm | Permalink
  24. Malcolm says

    Thank you, Bob.

    Posted April 5, 2009 at 1:10 pm | Permalink
  25. As for the photos that Mabruk claims are fake, they were in many, many newspapers at the time of the famous cartoon controversy, so I find Mabruk’s ignorance of them very difficult to understand.

    But as assistance to him in his search for truth, I went to You Tube and found this video of the protest in London, along with several other videos that I didn’t waste my time watching. Mabruk can use his own time on that.

    No objective, fairminded individual can claim that these are fake.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    Posted April 5, 2009 at 7:29 pm | Permalink

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