According to the Knight-Ridder News Service, the man who killed defrocked priest and convicted pedophile John Goegan in prison, Joseph Druce, yelled “Let’s keep kids safe!” and “Hold pedophiles accountable for their actions!” as he was led away after his arraignment for the slaying.
Geogan was an old man when he went to prison and likely would have died there.
By virtue of the fact that he was in prison, he was being held accountable.
Druce was a criminal himslef, a self-avowed killer, and he has the gall to preach to the justice system about safety?
All this defies logic, of course:
Geogan and his attraction to children,
Druce and his vigilantism,
the fact that many would agree with the thoughts and feelings of both of them.
But that’s fine. Everything defies logic.
Logic, I’ve decided, is a hobbyhorse; it is, in the immortal words of Mr. Spock, “a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad.”
Logic, like its cousin mathematics, is a theoretical construct that exists solely on its own terms. Only when a real-world situation can be conveniently or artificially simplified to its most basic parts can logic be applied to it.
And even then only rarely.
George W. Bush, after all, has so utterly deluded himself that he truly believes that statements – like that there was ever any proof of Saddam Hussein having WMDs in the months before this last war – can simultaneously be admitted lies and pretext for war.
Bush sees absolutley nothing wrong with this.
This is no different than mobilizing our troops because we didn’t like the looks of a wart on Saddam’s nose.
No, it’s worse.
At least the wart scenario has a reason.
A contradiction isn’t even a reason.
Which is a sort of tautology, which is a redundant sort of logic, which, as we’ve seen, we can’t (officially) trust anymore.
Perhaps all this pining over the Death of Logic is pathetically Modern.
The PoMo paradigm calls for its abandonment in favor of hipness.
Think I’ll go to that web site where you can make Bush do aerobics.
That is, before I commence weeping.
In my inbox this morning:
—–Original Message—–
From: G.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:44 AM
To: P. H.; S. D.; K. D.; S. H.; ‘Roxanna’; ‘monoye@gg.com’; ‘Priss D’; ‘ll@yahoo.com’
Subject: FW: Fw: Must read poem!!!
> > ILLEGAL ALIEN’S POEM
> >
> > I visit US, get treated regal,
> > So I stay, who care I illegal?
> > I cross ocean, poor and broke,
> > Take bus, see employment folk.
> > Nice man treat me good in there,
> > Say I need to see welfare.
> > Welfare say, “You come no more,
> > We send cash right to your door.”
> > Welfare checks, they make you wealthy,
> > Medicaid, it keep you healthy!
> > I go to college, for me it’s free,
> > and now I have a Ph.D.
> > By and by, I got plenty money,
> > Thanks to you, American dummy.
> > Write to friends in motherland,
> > Tell them come as fast as you can.
> > They come in turbans and Ford trucks,
> > I buy big house with welfare bucks.
> > They come here, we live together,
> > More welfare checks, it gets better!
> > Fourteen families they moving in,
> > But neighbor’s patience wearing thin.
> > Finally, white guy moves away,
> > Now I buy his house, and then I say,
> > “Find more aliens for house to rent.”
> > And in the yard I put a tent.
> > Send for family (they just trash),
> > But they, too, draw the welfare cash!
> > Everything is very good,
> > And soon we own the neighborhood.
> > We have hobby– it’s called breeding,
> > Welfare pay for baby feeding.
> > Kids need dentist? Wife need pills?
> > We get free! We got no bills!
> > American crazy! He pay all year,
> > To keep welfare running here.
> > We think America darn good place!
> > Too darn good for the white man race.
> > If they no like us, they can scram,
> > Got lots of room in Pakistan.
> >
> > SEND THIS TO EVERY AMERICAN TAXPAYER
—–Original Message—–
From: H.A.T.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:52 AM
To: S. D.; T.A.; J. W.
Subject: FW: Fw: Must read poem!!!
How is this poem utterly wrong?
How is this poem utterly wrong?
Let me count the ways.
Not only is it a horrible use of rhyming sing-song;
but it’s bigoted in what it says.
Why does G. forward me these things? I always want to scream, “You’re a freaking Native American for Christ’s sake. Do you have no sense of minority compassion, or even cross-minority loyalty?”
“Beyond that, do you not see the irony of forwarding me this when you live in a ramshackle house with a roaming pack of partially-wild dogs and a bathroom that is basically a stall OUTSIDE? And you have the audacity to label OTHERS “trash”?”
Good God.
—–Original Message—–
From: J. W.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 9:55 AM
To: H.A.T.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
Well, she is native american. They, technically, have the right to piss on everyone here.
—–Original Message—–
From: H.A.T.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:06 AM
To: J. W.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
No one has the right to piss on anyone. That’s a victim mentality, and it’s ineffectual and petty. It does nothing but breed a sense of entitlement and a lack of personal responsibility (which is, ironically, something that the poem itself is poorly attempting to lambaste).
And, no, I don’t believe that one is allowed to be openly racist just because one is a minority.
—–Original Message—–
From: J. W.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:09 AM
To: H.A.T.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
Look beyond the minority. We took over their country and killed them off with diseases and superior manpower.
Nothing peaceful about it. Don’t see why they’d let it go.
Same with African Americans, who would arguably not be here in such large numbers if not for the slave trade.
Because of Anglo-Saxon greed, we created most of this hate. And because of stupid religious superiority, it has carried on until this day.
We bitch and moan about Israel and Pakistan not because what they’re doing is wrong, but because it’s gone on for so long. If it was ended within 5 years, everyone would be okay with it. Then they’d be just like the rest of us “civilized” nations.
Bleh. I need to get back to work, this stuff irritates me.
—–Original Message—–
From: H.A.T.
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 10:11 AM
To: J. W.
Subject: RE: Fw: Must read poem!!!
Conquests and violence are a part of history. Doesn’t make them “right” or “fair,” true, but it’s impossible to get past them if you use them to define your existence. The simple truth is: Life isn’t fair. Everyone suffers, and some suffer more than others.
Is it not this need to hold onto a sense of injustice that, in effect, created the attacks against us on 9-11, and, it is not this sense of injustice that has led us to retaliate on a world-wide scale?
Shall we really talk about how our own guilt at helping to create the Jewish state, and, in essence, this ongoing conflict, has led us to consistently take sides in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict?
Shall we really talk about how the Indian tribes were more than willing to help the white man, in bits and pieces, fight their own enemies (i.e. other tribes)?
Shall we really talk about how the same thing happened in Africa with the slave trade, and how competing tribes sold each other into slavery?
Shall we really talk about how the Irish people—now lumped into the Caucasian category—were vilified and treated the equivalent of African Americans and slaves between 1850 and 1920?
Shall we really talk about how the only thing that kept the Balkanized states from fighting each other for most of the last century was the common fear of Communism?
The devil is in the details, you know. But, so is personal responsibility and the messy, disgusting, not-so-nicely-divided-into-”good”-and-”evil” truth.
All right. Go back to work. I won’t write about this anymore. Swear.