THE PLANK APRIL 20, 2007
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"What can be said about the Virginia Tech massacre?" writes Charles Krauthammer in the Post today. "Very little. What should be said? Even less." But there are, of course, column inches to be filled.
Krauhammer bemoans the fact that "in today's supercharged political atmosphere, there is the inevitable rush to get ideological mileage out of the carnage"; he then, inevitably, rushes to get ideological mileage out of the carnage.
His first target is gun-control advocates who've leapt on the tragedy. "If we are going to look for a political issue here," he writes, "the more relevant is not gun control but psychosis control." There may be merit to his suggestion that more unbalanced people should be institutionalized (it's hard to say, as he's vague on details). But it's a little rich for Krauthammer, a former practicing psychiatrist, to mount this hobbyhorse a few short graphs after condemning gun-control proponents for mounting theirs.
But wait, there's more. He then proceeds to attack Barack Obama for the tone-deaf speech he offered after the massacre, a complaint he concludes by sneering that Obama "proudly opposed overthrowing the premier mass murderer of our time, Saddam Hussein." Get it? He's soft on mass murderers everywhere, from Blacksburg to Baghdad.
Krauthammer concludes by proposing "a decent interval of respectful silence before turning ineffable evil and unfathomable grief into political fodder." Yes, it'd be nice, wouldn't it?
--Christopher Orr
8 comments
in Salon today, he was also on Fox a couple of days after the shootings, trying to link them to Islam and the Middle East.
- SMacEachern2
April 20, 2007 at 12:16pm
talk about a sociopath! He doesn't even care if he's consistent, better get that face on the boob tube, that trumps all.
- Wandreycer1
April 20, 2007 at 12:27pm
Yep - it was in the Plank yesterday - how Krauthammer in particular and the right in general were trying, hoping, to make some Islamic terrorist link. And of course Barak Obama was soft on Saddam. They share the same name.
- dubyadoubte
April 20, 2007 at 12:56pm
Wait, it's because Saddam was a murderer that we invaded Iraq? I thought it was...oh well, doesn't matter now does it?
- glacialspeed
April 20, 2007 at 1:26pm
"What can be said about the Virginia Tech massacre? Very little. What should be said? Even less." So Mr. Krauthammer goes on for 801 words. "With an event such as this, consisting of nothing but suffering and tragedy, the only important questions are those of theodicy, of divine justice." Which he doesn't discuss. "Unfortunately, in today's supercharged political atmosphere, there is the inevitable rush to get ideological mileage out of the carnage." Which is exactly what he does in the remainder of the column. Upon reading Mr. Krauthammer's column, I learned: 1. He opposes stricter gun laws. 2. He favors stricter psychosis control. 3. He favored overthrowing Saddam Hussein. 4. He opposes invading the Sudan. Yeah, it's awful when people try to get ideological mileage out of the carnage.
- JACKA
April 20, 2007 at 7:39pm
Wiggenstein: Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent
- raycon
April 21, 2007 at 1:21pm
I couldn't find the graphs in Krauthammer's column.
- epackard
April 21, 2007 at 2:11pm
Did he get that odd knob when someone tipped over his wheelchair? Naah, guess not.
- brozte
April 22, 2007 at 11:31pm