Given today’s cultural mentality to view everything with either a red-state/blue-state frame of reference, it was not surprising to me that political blogs (both left and right-leaning) were at the top of the list. Specifically, blogs highlighting the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalists / Muslim terrorists / Islamic terrorists / Islamic extremists / militant Muslims / Wahhabis / Islamists / Islamic fanatics/ jihadists / Mujahideen / Islamic radicals / Islamofascists / the boogeyman, run supreme. ---Interesting aside, apparently “blog” is not a recognizable word in my version of Microsoft Word but “Islamist” is. I always knew Bill Gates was a closet Zionist.
Anyways, I ended up on the website of the well-known syndicated conservative columnist—or bitch—Michelle Malkin. Commensurate with her archetypical ball-busting I’m holier than thou commentary, Malkin was aghast over a photo that showed Amy Gutmann, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, posing with a student costumed as a “suicide bomber” (in the student’s words, “freedom fighter”) at an annual Halloween party Ms. Gutmann holds at her house. Here is what Michelle had to say:
"Here is how they celebrated Halloween at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania:"
"The woman on the right is the president of the university, Amy Gutmann. Sick, sick, sick."
I would have to agree with Malkin that the costume is distasteful, disrespectful, and hurtful. The kid simply shouldn’t have done it. Michelle also posted additional pictures that either she or someone with a UPENN email address obtained from facebook.com, showing the costumed student ‘holding people hostage’, pointing the toy gun at people while reading the Quran, and other pretty inappropriate actions.
For Gutmann’s part, she should have maintained herself as a representative of the university—I mean, she’s the friggin president. That is to say, even if Gutmann believed that the student was well within his right to accoutre himself with whatever costume he deemed fit, she should have not posed with him given the controversial nature of the costume and her position within the university.
The end.
It could have been the end. (I wish it had been). I mean, what is there more to say?
As my research on “what constitutes a successful blog” revealed, making a simple point—hell, simply making A POINT—is not the making of a popular blog. You need overkill; you need to engage the reader. And you don’t engage readers by logical, coherent arguments. Humdrum methodical argumentation is for loser academicians, who must go through some silly process known as “peer-review” before they actually publish something. But in Blogistan, you become well read (and a Fox News contributor as in Mrs. Malkin’s case) by going into frothy, apoplectic diatribes, self-centered in ignorant opinion—appealing to your dimwitted audience on a visceral “It’s us-against-them” level.
You see, Michelle is a heroine, or at least on it. What I saw as a stupid costume by some puerile college kid who probably didn’t fully realize the offensive nature of his costume, Michelle amplifies as the inner workings of an ivy-league terror cell. As CIA Operative Malkin righteously points out, the student is of Syrian ancestry (strike 1), is an engineering student (strike 2), and apparently participated in an anti-Bush video which he and his friends posted on GoogleVideo (strike 3 homeboy). If that’s not a clear casus belli for enemy combatant status, I don’t know what is.
But wait, there’s more! (I’m starting to feel like an infomercial announcer). Apparently, the Halloween Terrorist recently traveled to Turkey and Syria. How do we know? Because Malkin was so gracious enough to come down from her pedestal, and provide links to the student’s personal websites. Nothing screams terrorist more than a family picture in front of the majestic “Blue Mosque”. Oh crap, did I just say mosque?
Sultan Ahmad Mosque (“Blue Mosque”)Istanbul, Turkey
source: Wikipedia
