The American media has a shockingly short attention span and is prone to bouts of hysteria. Just as September 11th was a game changer that was the Event to Change All Events, so the media tells us that the economic downturn is the new Event to Change All Events. These are unprecedented times. The law must be cast aside in the name of our collective panic attack. Torture be damned! There's no time for rules!
We've been here before. We even have the same cheerleaders leading the frenzy. I wish I could dismiss people like Peggy Noonan as a silly blogger, but unfortunately she's considered a "serious" political expert who frequently makes the rounds on Sunday morning panels. So her words are fair game for analysis. Here we go!
Peggy Noonan is a terrible columnist whose first response to tragic events is to rip open her shirt and throw herself at burly men who claim to have a "plan." When there's the slightest hint of an impending conflict, Noons practically shouts that she wants a penis inside of her. During the critical weeks after 9/11, she freely expressed her longing for John Wayne because he fits her image of one of those "burly men," even though Wayne was a draft-dodging, woman-abusing drug addict.
Now, the Noons chastises Democrats for not thinking critically enough, and falling victim to the "Leader Knows Best" syndrome under Obama's reign. Fair enough, but Peggy Noonan can't seriously be lecturing from a pedestal. This is the woman, who just said we shouldn't investigate into possible war crimes because "some of life has to be mysterious," and it's important to "just keep walking."
Noons opens her column citing the agenda-setter, Matt Drudge, who has sarcastically labeled Obama's First One Hundred Days, the "Best President Ever Campaign," something Noons describes being (my emphasis) "marked by an abandonment of critical thinking among otherwise thoughtful men and women who comprise, roughly speaking, the grown-ups of journalism, the old hands of the MSM who have been through many presidents and should know better."
Sometimes, I wonder how Peggy Noonan doesn't experience constant brain aneurisms from all of the cognitive dissonance rattling around in her head. Yes, Noons. We need critical thinking. We need investigations into the Bush torture memos. Bush officials need to be held accountable. We can't just "keep walking." You're one of the grown-ups you're writing about. Except, you've regressed to a childlike state (again,) and you're trembling behind poppy's legs. Grow up.
Suddenly, the Bush apologist is summarizing those glorious years of Bushie's war as something that "angered major allies. For seven years there was constant agitation, and the world was allowed to make a caricature of U.S. leadership." But wait, I thought the Noons loved caricatures. At least, she did in the wake of 9/11. She masturbates writes:
I missed John Wayne.
But now I think . . . he's back. I think he returned on Sept. 11. I think he ran up the stairs, threw the kid over his back like a sack of potatoes, came back down and shoveled rubble. I think he's in Afghanistan now, saying, with his slow swagger and simmering silence, "Yer in a whole lotta trouble now, Osama-boy."
Make sure John doesn't crack you across the face during one of his drunken stupors, Noons. You wouldn't believe how fast the romance of saving you from a fictional burning building wears off. Now, Noons performs mental gymnastics to explain why we need critical thinking, but we mustn't stir up too much trouble will any silly investigations.
A problem with the release of the [torture memos] is that it opens the way--it probably forces the way--to congressional hearings, or a commission, or an independent prosecutor. It is hard at this point to imagine that what will follow will not prove destructive to--old-fashioned phrase coming--the good of the country.
Here we stare into the eyes of the beast. Yes, Noons. This very well could lead to independent prosecutions, and all kinds of truth-telling, and it could besmirch the names of men you've been shamelessly defending for close to a decade. And wouldn't that be terrible for the country you?
It's time all parties grow up and pay penance.
Cross-posted from allisonkilkenny.com. Also available on Twitter and Facebook.