Monday, May 4, 2015

Garland Texas


The whole thing was provocative. I'm not sure, possibly a Pamela Geller production, at least she is upfront and quite vocal and prepared in defending the Draw Mohammed art contest. I heard her say the winning entry is an ex-Muslim who in apparent Escher style drew a hand drawing Mohammed with Mohammed saying, "You can't draw me" and the hand saying, "That's why I draw you." 

You can buy a poster announcing the event at Pamel Gellers of Mohammed painting a self portrait of Mohammed by looking over his own painting in progress at a mirror of himself, so you get two face shots, the mirror and the painting, with the back of the artist, Norman Rockwell-style with the little photos of Mohammed tapped around the edges of the painting . It's cute. But then you'd have a poster of all those little Mohammeds on your wall. 

Imagining that you're outgunning an art exhibition in Texas is suicide. Apparently the attackers knew it. 


Accepted, atawaakul. You are now a sack of useless dead meat and stain soon to be rinsed off the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland where you and the bro with you bit it in defense of your ancient prophet and you two managed to hurt a man's foot.

The whole thing is basically staged. Pamela spoke of Curtis Culwell Center being chosen because it is the place where Islamists met to discuss introducing sharia law through their communities. The group choose the place for their AFDI/Jihad Watch free speech event to challenge jihadists and Texas' response to protecting the First Amendment right there. 

The challenge is staged, the jihadist response is predictable, and the police response to jihadist response is predictable, what is not predictable but with better chances in Texas is how do we respond to that? I'm sensing by staging the challenge in Texas Pamela is counting on the 1st Amendment being protected foremost and above appeasing monsters, as she puts it, also, "I will not give up my Constitutional rights to savages." 




Personal:

And then I thought, goodness, Garland Texas sounds familiar. Oh yeah, I send  pop-up cards there lately to my older brother and to his wife. Some half a dozen to Garland so far. They are the couple that share every thought. "Hey, Precious, guess what Chip just whispered in my ear! You won't believe what this guy just said." As if I'm not standing right there. As if I hadn't whispered. He couldn't bear his wife not sharing his little funny. Our little funny. (I picked an ice cube off the floor and chirped, "five second rule" and dropped it into my cup.) I just now used Google Earth to have a picture of their neighborhood from different elevations, kept in files on my desktop. I haven't decided which elevation to use as a background to geese flying over in the manner of the B-29 airplanes card.  Then I thought, geese would fly in a V formation and that leaves too much open space. It cannot be geese. So, some other kind of bird. It will be more than one layer, like peering down into a box with the neighborhood as background and layers of birds in formation as airplanes all flying south if not with urgency at least with organization, and so lacy it's hardly a box at all. That's the idea. 

And that idea is a heck of a lot better an idea than blowing the place up because people are drawing pictures of the ancient crackpot I worship. 

29 comments:

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The security guard shot in the leg was unarmed.

Michael Haz said...

Not only that, Lem, the security guard shot in the arm was unlegged.

Dad Bones said...

I've seen worse news on a Monday morning. Is there room for easily offended Muslims in Texas?

Shouting Thomas said...

I've met Pam and I still correspond with her from time to time. I also visit her website occasionally.

She's a warrior, and she's very pretty. Stacked like a brick shithouse. I thought seriously about asking her for a date years ago when she was available, but I decided that I didn't want to be involved with somebody with a cause dominating her life.

The good guys won for a change! The bad guys got what they had coming. Hallelujah!

Titus said...

Thanks for the link to the poster.

Just bought it-will be hanging in my loft!

tits.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
bagoh20 said...

We could start doing this all over the place as a trap for jihadis. Announce a big "draw Mohammed" event, and when they come to martyr themselves, help them to meet their pedophile prophet. Maybe even set up a special "Jihadi express entrance".

Aridog said...

Much as I respect Pam Geller, versus the raving uninformed idiot in my town named Schlussel, I think Pamela needs to stick to New York and environs. Never the less, she does put her money where her mouth is (she paid for the security and police protection)...something most pundits do not do....such as the schmuck Terry Jones who visit my town now and then and demands free protection....though he pays not a dime of tax here. He and his kind have effectively shut down "free speech" here....it's their speech or no speech. So I'll support her, even if I think her judgment was off kilter a tad in this case.

I despised the "Piss Christ" but felt no urge to go all "Lord of the Flies" over it near any exhibit of it. Now had I met the "artist" in some nice Irish saloon, that might be another mater. :-) In this case in Texas provocation of a loon or two certainly seems to have been a motive if not the motive.

Free speech is sacrosanct to us all, but equally likely is the fact we might get our butts kicked or worse for it...that's the "free" part, y'all.

Good for the Garland PD in their immediate response (which I support hands down), but are we not asking something extra when we clamor for "free speech" then insist someone else, like government, enforce it on our behalf? Where does our responsibility start and end? At least Pamela paid for hers.

Aridog said...

bagoh20 said ...

Maybe even set up a special "Jihadi express entrance".

Now there's an idea I could go for...and I suspect most of my rather Muslim neighbors would as well. They came here as refugees to escape the loons, and hardly welcome them now to tear down what they have built...that has helped us all living here.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

If all it takes a a few cartoons of big mo to flush them out like cockroaches - lets do it. I agree 100% with Bagoh.

PS - they are here and we are screwed.

Amartel said...

Ari-I read that Geller purposefully held the event at a location where a Muslim group held a pro-Sharia law event. (No shootings at the pro-Sharia law event even though Sharia law is extremely offensive to anyone who is not Muslim, and some who are.) The location is on public property. I don't know whether Geller was required to pay for security or whether she paid for it voluntarily. Regardless, she was well within her rights to hold her event and speak freely however much it provoked a certain segment of the community. Provocative speech is just as free as any other free speech. There is no right to not be offended, appalled, pissed off, irritated, frustrated, despairing, or otherwise beset with negative emotions. People who cannot handle provocative speech should stay home (or in college).

Regressive reactionaries of all stripes ("social justice" warriors, Islamists) always try to shut down speech and, failing that, coopt and reorganize it. They want a monopoly, or at the very least command and control, because they fear competition in the marketplace of ideas. Ideological competition. These are state religions after all.

Amartel said...

"Our" responsibility is to make sure that free speech stays free.

Aridog said...

Amartel ...if you read what I said carefully, I did not say Pam Geller shouldn't have her say where he she chooses. I am rather a fan in fact. However, given the reason you cited (prior use for a Sharia event), there was likely a better place to hold her event....with less risk. This psychological war were are engaged in with radical Islamists isn't a game of one oneupmanship.

It can be dangerous, just as running off at the mouth on the street can be dangerous...just because you have a "right to do so" doesn't mean you get you butt trounced for it.

The point I keep trying to make on subjects such as these is that prudence is not a crime nor is it abrogation of rights. Our rights are limited only by our ability to enforce them. Geller's were enforced and I am very pleased with that.

I just won't make the presumption that the risks aren't very high at times....such as in my home town where our rights have been crushed by radical evangelicals....from out of town. Where an ethnic celebration is cited as a religious one...never mind the various Christians in attendance of various sects....such as the Marionite Catholics whose liturgical language is Aramaic and are predominantly Arabic, even the few in Israel.

Do you think they like Catholics like me much more, if at all, than they do Muslims? Do they really even know the difference?

My point is the various radicalevangelicals come here to provoke, not to heal or teach...those pigs heads on poles are pretty much all you need to see.

Yes, they are "free" do it and we, the taxpayers here, are "free" to pay for their provocation. Terry Jones refused once to pay even $1 for a permit for his street theater.

Aridog said...

Clarification:

Where I said: Do you think they like Catholics like me much more, if at all, than they do Muslims?

I was referring to the radical fire breathing evangelicals, not Muslims, Jews, or Christians of various Catholic or Protestant faiths.

Think: Westboro Baptist Church and others like them...never from your town, but seem to show up to cause grief....and it IS on purpose.

bagoh20 said...

The difference with Westboro Church is that they go to other peoples' solemn events and disrupt them with offensive - although free - speech. Still legal, but highly uncivil and immoral.

Gellar did this at her own event and forced no one to endure her opinions if they didn't want to. Perfectly civil and moral.

What Westboro does is provocative and inflammatory. What Gellar did is exactly how effective free speech is done and did not entice anyone to violence unless they already wanted some, which these guys did.

bagoh20 said...

The actions of both the jihadis and Westboro are intended to stop the exercise of others' freedoms. Geller's are not.

Chip Ahoy said...

You will not hang it in your loft, you loon, it's not decorative, it fits no motif, derived, and not even interesting.

Amartel said...

Geller's speech IS provocative! Purposefully, by design, with intent. That's the point. (The point is not to "draw Mohammed.")

Titus said...

I loved the VLOG she did while swimming in the ocean.

She has huge tits and they literally floated on top of the water-thats hot.

edutcher said...

And, oh, how the Lefties have swooned over the idea their beloved religion of peace was suckered in.

The soft bigotry of low expectations.

Titus said...

When I was in Wisconsin, at my parents cottage, i saw tits sinking.

When I went to the ocean the first thing I noticed was all the floating tits.

I was enthralled.

Synova said...

Except that my brain is pudding (had a final this morning at 7:30) and it's not going to be something other than pudding for a while... I have an idea that wants to be an article, though that's not going to happen since I have non-optional writing to do, about...

This seems like a situation where "you can't cheat an honest man" applies.

People think Geller is unseemly because she's deliberately provoking... but she can't provoke an "honest man" or a non-violent non-jihadist to murder or violence. Just as a naked woman dancing down the street couldn't *provoke* a non-rapist to rape her... some fellow isn't going to suddenly loose control of his body and do something he wouldn't do.

It really and truly doesn't matter how *provoking* she is... even if she's every single bit as hateful and awful as the Westboro group. If they didn't *provoke* people who weren't murderers to kill any of them, no matter how hard they tried, it simply can't be done.

Geller doesn't have the power to make a murderer of an honest man.

bagoh20 said...

If I follow you around saying "you and your religion are ridiculous." That's provocative. It provokes you and is an attempt to force the provocation into violence.

If I hold an event where I and my friends say the same thing without you being there, it's not very provoking.

If what Geller did is "provocative" -and it may well be by some definition of the word - then what do you call what Westboro does where they call your KIA son a "fag" at his funeral, and disrupt it. Maybe we need another word. We probably don't have one because it's so fucking offensive nobody ever imagined we would need such a word.

bagoh20 said...

Everyone knows that there are people out there somewhere making fun of their religion every day. It should never provoke you, and it doesn't unless you live to be provoked, in which case you can always find the trigger you pine for.

Titus said...

I just love her floating tits and floating tits around the world.

Floating tits are inspirational.

She is rich through divorce too-that is very cool. She milked her ex hubby for millions.

Amartel said...

She provokes all the right people.

chickelit said...

Titus said...

She is rich through divorce too-that is very cool. She milked her ex hubby for millions.

The only thing you've ever milked for millions is your husband too, Titus.

chickelit said...

@Titus: Am I sensing a gay outrage at people like Geller and Ben Carson? Your buddy Howard at Althouse seems pretty disturbed about all Republican candidates and every news story not going Dems' way.

Where is all the gay political money flowing these days? The "would you bottom for Hillary" movement suggests that HRC is winning big.

Aridog said...

bagoh20 said ...

... what do you call what Westboro does where they call your KIA son a "fag" at his funeral, and disrupt it ...

If I could get away with it, it'd be a very good reason to gut shoot the idiot, being sure to hit the spleen, for a slow painful bleed-out.

The marksmanship of that off-duty police officer in Garland, Texas, was awesome. Flat out awesome. Don't know where he hit the body(s)of the armored assailants, but if in the head, even better. Even if though the armpit of an armored vest/chest, it's still awesome. That dude can shoot a pistol or revolver...with "authoritah!"