TBogg takes wry notice of the latest headless-chicken stampede over at Pajamas Media (scroll south). A man went on a vehicular rampage in San Francisco, killing one and injuring at least two dozen more. What makes the rampage worthy of twelve updates and a hysterical air of urgency is the fact that driver's name is Ohmeed Aziz Popal and one of the victims was run down in front of the Jewish Community Center. So to the banshees in the right blogosphere this is further evidence of domestic jihad, never mind that there seems to be "no pattern" to the and that this seems more like another case of a cracked psyche running amuck behind the wheel. Recall that it was only last month that a Muslim man went on a shooting spree at the Jewish Federation in Seattle, killing one woman and wounding five others. PJ and associates tried to whip this up into a clear-cut case of jihad, only to have the case turn a darker shade of murky when it was revealed that the suspect had recently converted to Christianity and was baptized. Hardly the profile of a homegrown terrorist. Truth is, there are a lot of scrambled eggs out there capable of lethality. This weekend we had a man in the New York area who became convinced he was being targeted by the Bloods and started shooting at red cars, killing one man, and earlier today Fox News did live coverage of a police chase involving a man who allegedly fired a gun at police and had to be gang-tackled after his car finally came to a crashing stop.
In the comments section at Pajamas Media, a blogger named AskMom, popping her curlers and roiling her muu-muu, asks the heavens:
"Soon the accusations from the left will be leveled at us, for daring to assume this might be an Islamist/Jihadist inspired event. Just because the suspect was from Afghanistan, lived in a heavily Islamic community, recently had an arranged marriage in Afghanistan, was the usual gender and age for terrorists, etc, etc, etc.
"What is there about being a liberal that wipes reason and common sense, along with the ability to speak clearly, from people's brains? And having lost those abilities themselves, how can they be so sensitive to those of us who still have them?"
Dear Mom, it doesn't seem to have dawned on thee that the reasonable, commensensical thing to do when terrible news hits the wires and airwaves is to not "assume" anything until more facts are in, because initial assumptions are often wildly, injuriously wrong. Just ask Richard Jewell. There's nothing "daring" about making snap judgments; it's the lazy, reflexive thing to do.
What's clear from this Pajamas Media clusterfuck and the ominous drumbeat over dhimmitude in its precincts is that warbloggers want the scary news to be true, they're lusting for evidence of jihad in order to satisfy their worst fears and justify a crackdown on militant Muslims and the liberals who abet them. It's the domestic front of the clash of civilizations they seem so eager to have others wage for them.
On a separate note, I am saddened to see that Ron Rosenbaum has signed on a Pajamas blogger. It's painful that it should come to this. Rosenbaum was one of the star writers at The Village Voice in its hairy heyday, and few were hairier than Ron with his flaming Dostoyevskyan beard. He's far too intelligent and erudite a sensibility to be associating with this discard pile, on whom his Nabokov allusions will be wasted. It's one thing to kiss the Left goodbye, another thing to end up in this inglorious foxhole.
