So here we are. As was the case with the wannabe shoe-bomber Richard Reid in 2001, we have another failed attempt at holiday havoc by a sad lightweight wanting jihad martyrdom.
You might recall Reid as being the guy who was so dumb, he put the match in his mouth when it first appeared that he was going to be caught trying to light his shoes. Mr. Abdulmutallab, this year's stooge, was perhaps slightly more competent. But then again most reports suggest he was probably too depressed in general to have really pulled this off.
The difference between now and 2001 is that the now-minority Republican party has gone way further as they fall all over themselves to exploit the event for political gain.
Well gee, who could have imagined that?
And while I've sat back and fumed over these last few days as their vicious smears get echoed by our passive/submissive media, it dawned on me: everything I need to know how to fight back about this nonsense, I learned in kindergarten.
You see, at that time I had a bully who came up to me and yelled, "I'm going to kill you." After I cried, "no, please no!" he came back with "ok then, I'm going to kill your family." Guess I had to make a choice, right? Somehow I thought this little five year-old dope could actually pull that off, and I was afraid of him the rest of the school year at which point I changed schools.
The upside of all that is, eventually after being shocked by a bully's intimidation that way, you learn how truly weak he is. His aggression is usually the result of his own problems, most likely a harsh upbringing. Once you know that, you are then much better able to stand up to him. You may have even gone the route of Ralphie in A Christmas Story and started wailing back at the fool, full force. (I myself did this many years later in the corporate world.) At that point the bully then cries and exposes himself for the true weakling he is.
That same principle can be applied to the likes of Cheney, Hoekstra and every other two-bit GOP operative trying to gain political advantage via fear over the kind of havoc that the jock bomber might have done.
Now I realize that referring to other human beings as weak isn't very nice. Many of us are in fact weakened by bad luck and many other life circumstances beyond our control. When I see a fellow human that has been weakened, I often try to lend a hand to make that person strong again. When I see a dirty-pool adversary like Rush Limbaugh befallen by a health crisis, my first thought is to pray that the experience makes him or her a better person. It has been said that even Lee Atwater repented on his deathbed.
But when you are dealing with the world of vicious, sleazy politics, sometimes this oversensitivity to semantics really needs to go out the window. You need to address these cretins on their own terms.
And, in fact, dictionary definitions of weak (for example, this one) demonstrate many various meanings of the word that are suitable in these cases. Among them: "lacking persuasivenss," "unconvincing," "resulting from a lack of intelligence."
Accordingly, in the case of the GOP attack machine's treatment of the Abdulmutallab security lapse, allow me to give you some examples of what truly is weak:
The GOP congressman attempting to raise campaign funds by exploiting this near-catastrophe? Weak.
Attacking our current President because he prefers thinking before speaking about the jock bomber security lapse? Weak.
The GOP senator blocking the confirmation of the post that oversees TSA because of his imaginary fear of an over-organized labor force? Weak.
Delaying the defense appropriation vote (and thus putting our armed forces at peril) solely for the purpose of obstructing health care reform? Weak.
Attacks by the former Vice President, who ditched Vietnam via five deferments and who presided during the worst terror attack of all time due to negligence under his own administration's watch? Insanely Weak.
And that is just a sample of the weakness. You can easily think of more.
My resolution during this incoming election year is to make this version of the word weak, the "lacking persuasiveness and unconvincing" kind, a mantra for myself and the 70% of America that isn't crazy. Make it stick with voters like those credit card ads that use the tag line "priceless."
Cheers, Kossacks. Let's have a happy and strong New Year, and call these fools out for their weakness as often as needed.