Choose Your Heroes Wisely

So, as discussed yesterday, various conservative sources are running around with their hair on fire screaming that Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, the guy who made the anti-Islam film, is some kind of hero of the First Amendment. Well, besides the fact that the guy is a twice-convicted felon, various sources, including one of the actresses involved in the movie, clearly state that somebody (presumably Nakoula, whom the actress met) overdubbed and radically changed their lines from innocuous to slanderous. In short, from the git-go, this whole "film" was a fraud!

But, he's apparently "our" fraud, so we can't even question him about a possible parole violation.

We're also told that George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer who shot Travyon Martin, is clearly justified in his actions. The fact that, prior to Zimmerman inserting himself into the situation, Martin was doing nothing more dangerous than walking while on a cell phone is completely irrelevant. Of course Martin must have launched a completely unprovoked attack on a man his size in a cold rain. Zimmerman says so, and we must believe him.

Not only that, but we must believe that, because Martin apparently had smoked some dope at some point in the past couple of months, Martin was a dangerous dude. But Nakoula, a man convicted of cooking meth is simply a misunderstood person exercising his right to free speech. Martin should have stopped and quietly submitted to any questions put to him by any random dude in the neighborhood, while to ask who exactly paid Nakoula the 100 grand (or whatever money was actually spent on the movie) and why is grounds for a President to resign.

In short, I am amazed at who the Right picks to be their heroes, and what criterion are used to make that decision. I am amazed, but the choices are not inconsistent. They are in fact very consistent.

Nakoula is a hero because he said mean things about Islam. This supports a "bomb them all, God will know his own" mindset. The fact that his video was used as cover to kill Americans, and may have been paid for by people looking for cover to kill Americans, doesn't count. Zimmerman is a hero because he was busily keeping his block safe from the "bad people." The fact that Martin wasn't particularly bad doesn't count.

It seems that many in the Right are a bunch of 15-year-olds bummed that they can't get a tattoo on their ass and run off to Vegas for the weekend with Daddy's credit card. The Republicans are becoming the Beavis and Butt-head Party. They wonder why people aren't willing to vote for them.

Have We Been Stung?

Previously, I mentioned that I'd read and enjoyed Eric Frank Russell's novel Wasp. Not to give away too much of the plot, but in the book our hero, an Intrepid Earth-man, is dropped on an alien enemy-colonized planet and told to make trouble. The Intrepid Earth-man does this in part by hiring local criminals to assassinate people. The assassins neither know nor care why they are killing; they just want their money. Question - is Nakoula Basseley Nakoula being paid to cause trouble?

The scenario goes something like this - Nakoula is hired by a mysterious figure to make a movie. He, or somebody, later overdubs the thing, then translates it into Arabic. Our mysterious money-man then drops a dime on various hot-headed Muslim clerics who call attention to the movie. Whoever is calling the shots then uses the resulting rent-a-mob as cover to kill our ambassador.

Unfortunately for us, matters get worse. As I discussed earlier, any attempt to investigate the public front-man of this movie results in immediate protests from various Useful Idiots in the US. These protests are probably not enough to sway an election, but who knows? Stranger things have happened.