NYT: Tamerlan Tsarnaev Radicalized Because He Couldn't Box

The New York Times has finally given us the root cause behind the Boston Marathon bombing. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was barred from the national Tournament of Champions because he was not a United States citizen. After that it was all downhill.

From one year to the next, though, the tournament rules had changed, disqualifying legal permanent residents — not only Mr. Tsarnaev, who was Soviet-born, but several other New England contenders, too. His aspirations frustrated, he dropped out of boxing competition entirely, and his life took a completely different direction.

Mr. Tsarnaev portrayed his quitting as a reflection of the sport’s incompatibility with his growing devotion to Islam. But as dozens of interviews with friends, acquaintances and relatives from Cambridge to Dagestan showed, that devotion, and the suspected radicalization that accompanied it, was a path he followed most avidly only after his more secular dreams were dashed in 2010 and he was left adrift.

Gee, and I thought it was because they cut off his food stamps. One hopes comprehensive immigration reform will deal with discriminatory boxing rules. Boxers Without Borders! I like that.

New Benghazi Hearings Coming "Quickly"

New Benghazi hearings are coming and coming quickly and they will be explosive. Hmm. I have followed Rep Trey Gowdy since he first arrived in Congress following the 2010 blowout and I have never been disappointed. My only complaint is he has not announced that he would oppose Lindsey Graham in next year's Republican primary. Congressman Gowdy's interview seems to confirm a Sharyl Attkisson tweet of April 17 :
"CBS News has learned that previously unknown whistleblowers on #Benghazi are now speaking to Congressional investigators."

Bitchin' About the Husky

Would someone please give this woman a Rorschach test? Carolyn Luby who describes herself as a feminist has written an open letter to UConn President Susan Herbst on The Feminist Wire expressing her abhorrence of the schools new logo. The letter is not angry but rather more of a suck up letter wherein she recalls President Herbst's achievements as a great feminist who once earned a standing ovation from-hold your breath-Gloria Steinem. She closes with " In solidarity Carolyn Luby". Oh yes, the sisterhood. She and the pres will march shoulder to shoulder and stamp out injustices both real and imaginary where ever they may hide.
The trouble is the new school logo which Ms Luby contends "empowers rape". Yeah, you can see it in the eyes. My trouble with Ms. Luby's perception, aside from the fact that the rest of us don't live in a world of cartoons is that she presupposes that the offending Husky is a male.
Well of course it's a male. It looks menacing ergo it's a male.
One supposes that Ms.Luby's background in gender studies enabled her to make that quick identification or maybe she just smelled the testosterone.
Anyway this event has turned the poor woman's life upside down. The school newspaper, The Daily Campus documents her tribulations.
Now, although Luby says she would not change anything about the letter, she says she has never felt less safe on campus.
For writing the letter, Luby has been the subject of online ridicule and has been threatened numerous times with rape since yesterday from frequenters of Barstool Sports, a blogging website targeting sports fans and anti-feminists that uses sophomoric humor and ample profanity.
Online ridicule. Really? Threatened with rape numerous times? Maybe if the school paper could provide a link to the online threats I would be convinced but crying rape when all else fails is pretty damn common these days. Then there was the on-campus harassment.

Luby said she was identified on campus and yelled at by “bro types.” She brought the issue up in a class, and the professor recommended she report the incident to the police department, and that she travel with a large group to the UConn police station so she would not be walking alone.

When she arrived to file a report, she said the officer took down her name, address and “The Feminist Wire,” but asked her no other questions. She is unsure if she actually filed a report, and felt it was not taken seriously. Luby left believing the police merely documented that she had sought help.
She brought it up in class? I presume that was her organic chemistry class and while I'm not exactly sure what she meant by "bro types I'm guessing they looked remotely like Macklemore or Ryan Lewis which would be pretty annoying especially for one used to thinking in stereotypes. Still there is something missing. It's called a crime and is a necessary prerequisite for a criminal complaint. Perhaps her professor should consider a career in law enforcement since he/she saw something the campus cops missed. Then came the most unkindest cut of all.
“My ex-boyfriend, who I literally have not heard from in years, who used to abuse me and rape me on campus, texted me and said, ‘I see you made it big on Barstool,’” she said.
Victimhood achieved. Mission accomplished!

Evidently UConn is a serial offender when it comes to team logos. From February of 1999:

A former University of Connecticut fine arts instructor says the school's new logo bears a striking resemblance to an insignia used by a Nazi military unit in World War II.

UConn's new symbol, unveiled in February 1998, depicts three stylized oak leaves with two acorns at the base.

Michael Michalczyk of Glastonbury, who taught graphic arts at UConn's Waterbury branch in 1972 and is a self- described history buff, said he is outraged by the logo's similarity to the divisional shield used by the 16th Reichsfuhrer- S.S. of the Panzergrenadiers.Hey Mike, Have I got a girl for you!

Redo and Redux: This Vid Was Supposed To Accompany My Last Post

Sorry about the editing problem. This is a follow up of the Duck Dynasty/Morrissey controversy (for lack of a better term.)

Despite the cold shoulder from Morrissey, somehow, somehow, somehow they go on.

DUCK DUDES DISSED

Could You Live in a World Without Balloons?

Generally I look askance at Congressmen who moan about inconveniences or suffering that has been brought about by the sequester. It's usually about some silly expenditure we would all be better off without but I never imagined a world without helium. Congressman Hank Johnson, the Congressman who asks the hard questions, such as, will over population cause Guam to capsize? has trained his keen intellect and his Obamaesque oratory skills to bear on on the problem of a possibile helium shortage.

The National Helium Reserve is one of those agencies that exits solely for the benefit of its employees. It was established in 1925 because helium was necessary for airships and it was considered a strategic material. The "Helium Privatization Act of 1996" directed the United States Department of the Interior to start liquidating the reserve by 2005 and it is still liquidating. Rome wasn't built in a day! If it take a sequester to drive a steak through the heart of an agency that does nothing so be it but don't blame Congressman Johnson when your kids don't have balloons at their birthday parties.

R.I.P. Possum

I guess the drinking finally did kill him but it took probably 65 years. George Jones has been around as long as I can remember and while I never thought of him as being a star I certainly enjoyed his work. In a sense George Jones was more than a star. He was a permanent fixture in the lives of countless members of my generation. Anytime one turned the radio on George Jones was singing or would do so shortly. We need not  exaggerate his talent nor to condemn his behavior but rather simply say that we will miss him.

Culture Wars Department: Yes, Duck Dynasty Does Irritate Sensitive Souls

I am usually neutral or indifferent on culture wars. I have only seen part of one "Duck Dynasty." Morrissey is a more familiar figure to me, going back to the Smiths in the 1980's. He was a promising artist who became known more for his diva personality than for his songs. Should Midol 4 Men ever need a pitchman, I can nominate a worthy candidate.

Meanwhile, the duck dudes are the picture of contentment. A lot of viewers would switch places with the happy hunters. Would anyone on planet Earth swap lives with Morrissey? I can't think of any.

Happy Happy! Duck Dynasty Guns Down American Idol

I'm not a regular viewer but this show has its moments. Moments that must drive liberals crazy. Not only do the Robertsons like to shoot and hunt, they like blowing things up, such a pick up truck that had outlived it usefulness. Worse yet the family is unabashedly Christian with each episode ending with the entire extended family gathered around a huge table while Phil, the family patriarch, thanks God "for another day on this earth." The season finale drew a record 9.6 million viewers during its one-hour episode and 5.5 million adults 18-49 besting American Idol. I'm sure they are happy happy and these are the people that Senator Mary Landrieu must keep happy if she wants to keep her grip.
Something you may not have known. From Phil Robertson's Wikipedia entry:
" He played college football at Louisiana Tech University, starting ahead of Hall-of-Famer Terry Bradshaw, and was drafted by the NFL after his junior year. He turned it down and quit football because it interfered with duck season, and he was not interested in having "large, violent… men chasing me trying to stomp me in the dirt".

More Commentary On The High On The Hog Living Jihadists

I was rudely interrupted during my last post and news was changing before my very eyes. Anyway, in this era of spin and fraud, people know they are being deceived. They just expect to be lied to. Conspiracy theories form even before an event transpires.

Alex Jones is reflexively advancing the "false flag" meme. Another inside job just like 9/11. I'll pass on that one for now.

Glenn Beck is promoting the idea that a high level cover-up involving a Saudi national with terrorist pedigree might have been a co-conspirator in the bombings. I have not investigated that angle. Wait and see.

I can tell you there is a conspiracy in plain view on the part of the beloved fourth estate. The media want to minimize the Tsarnaevs' involvement with other conspirators and they want to shield the welfare state from any collateral damage.

So you might have missed the lone wolves, lone nut squared, disillusioned, disaffected, radicalized by the Internet tidal wave. Nothing to see here folks. Just another loony loner who dragged his lil brother along for the ride. Nothing to see here.

The Tsarnaevs lived well. According to the Boston Herald:

Records show Tamerlan Tsarnaev had a gray 1999 Honda CRV registered in Massachusetts. He previously registered a black 1998 Mercedes C230, but the registration document for that car is inactive, meaning the vehicle had been taken off the road. His brother did not register any cars in the state, but a green 1999 Honda Civic is registered in his father’s name.

The older brother NEVER worked and took long vacations to far away lands. We have been told that his wife worked eighty hours/week as a personal care attendant. We are also told that they lived in the crappy part of Cambridge. But Cambridge is still a high rent district. Even if both husband and wife worked eighty hours/week as care attendants, they would have had a hard time living in Cambridge without assistance from a benefactor.

BTW The Boston Herald has had its difficulties determining how many government bennies the Tsarnaevs have received. http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/04/holdup_on_disclosing_handouts

The jihad-friendly news media are treading a fine line. They don't want to implicate co-conspirators but they also don't want to remind us that the Marathon Bombs might just be taxpayer-funded. It's not easy but these are trained professionals. They will get the job done.

Another Warrantless Watertown Search

This blog has already posted one video on the warrantless searches of Watertown homes. Is this to be the new normal under the Obama administration? I find it hard to believe that all Watertown residents were as sanguine about this gross violation of their fourth amendment rights as those in this video.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.^[

But remember it's a living constitution.

Pentagon Blocks Access to Southern Baptist Convention Web Site

President Obama opened a new front in his war on religion. The new victim is the Southern Baptist Convention. Pentagon leaders have blocked access to the Baptist's web site blocked on some military installations. “An Air Force officer told Fox News that when he tried to log on to the website he received a message that his Internet usage was being logged and monitored for trying to access a blocked site.” An Army officer was likewise denied access, with the message, “The site you have requested has been blocked... due to hostile content.”
Hostile content? Not many Baptists grow up to be jihadists. Increasingly, not many Baptists grow up to be Democrats either which may be the reason the Pentagon feels it can push this denomination around. As a matter of faith Southern Baptists do not condone homosexuality and may use the biblical term sodomy to describe it. What ever happened "to you go to your church and I'll go to mine"?
The SBC issued a lengthy statement which says in part:
"The Southern Baptist Convention became aware on Wednesday afternoon that some military bases have blocked the SBC.net web site for containing possible 'hostile' content. Living in the digital age with internet filters, spam blockers, and virus protection software, we alerted the Army of the problem and sought to obtain their assurance that the word "hostile" did not refer to any religious content on our site."
I suggest you follow the above link and read the statement in its entirety. BTW do Muslim sites get caught in internet filters too?

I Don't Want To Commit Terrorism, I Just Want To Live The Lavish Lifestyle

In the wake of the Boston Bombings, the conversation has turned to the perks of jihad. The networks and local newspapers are tripping over themselves to declare the terrorists self-radicalized. I walked into the grocery store yesterday and there were probably a half dozen or so newspapers on display. I did not pick up any of them but I did scan the front page headlines. Almost every newspaper had a story pronouncing the Tsarnaevs victims of the Internet.

The dreaded Internet provided ideology, bomb-making expertise and everything else the self-starting terrorist might need. Really? I did not pick up the papers so I can not definitively say that these assertions were promoted in a fair and authoritative manner. But I suspect it was more mainstream media bs.

A backlash against the welfare state is underway. There are at least three levels of outrage:

1. Red-blooded Americans who game the system.
2. Illegal immigrants who game the system.
3. Terrorist immigrants who game the system.

The story is unfold faster than I can type. I hope to return to this soon.

Bob Beckel Calls For Moratorium On Muslim Student Visas

Bob Beckel has a stunning idea. Put a two year moratorium on Muslim and Chinese exchange students entering the country. One imagines the left is beside themselves with rage. Even a blind dog finds a bone now and then so I guess it Beckel has found his. I'll wager he is not the only Democrat who feels this way.

Who Would Have Guessed? Tamerlan Tsarnaev Was On The Dole

America was better to the Brothers Tsarnaev than it is to a lot of us. Perhaps the most amazing facet of this story is that Tamerlan (nicknamed "Speed Bump" by a local radio personality) hated a people who treated him like royalty. He was 26 years old, lived in a high rent area, never worked a job and was able to take long and frequent vacations. The taxpayers of Massachusetts were generous to Tamerlan and his family. Generous to a fault!

Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.

Story continues at link below.
http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2013/04/tamerlan_tsarnaev_got_mass_welfare_benefits

Papering Over Kermit Gosnell

The MSM pretty well ignored the Kermit Gosnell trial until they were shamed into it by Kirsten Powers' USA Today editorial. I confess I haven't followed it closely either, as I find it too disturbing but then again it's not my job-it's theirs. The Media Research Center put together this clip to show viewers what the networks thought was more important than the Gosnell trial. Some of this is very graphic and if you are prone to stomach sickness you may want to look away when Smokey Robinson appears on the Today Show.

Obama Amnesty About to Lose in Court

It would certainly make the immigration legislation fight in the Senate a lot more interesting if a court were to strike down Obama's unconstitutional amnesty right in the middle of the whole damn show. That may be about to happen. Readers will remember that 10 U.S. Immigration and Customs agents filed suit after Obama issued his "deferred deportation" executive order. The suit asked for a restraining order and the trial judge, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Dallas indicated the I&M agents will prevail. Let's put it this way. A trial judge will not issue a temporary restraining order unless he thinks the plaintiff will prevail.
“The court finds that DHS does not have discretion to refuse to initiate removal proceedings” when the requirements for deportation under a federal statute are met..

“Accordingly, the court hereby defers ruling on the plaintiffs’ application for preliminary injunction until the parties have submitted additional briefing,”
The briefs are to be submitted no later than May 6.

American Are Ho Hum Over Failure Of Senate Gun Bill

Click to enlarge

How outraged were the 90% of Americans who President Obama assured us favored expansion of federal  background checks to purchase firearms? Well, 39% expressed either joy or relief at the failure of the Senate bill. It's true that a plurality, yes, that's less than a majority, Mr. President, of 47% expressed either anger or disappointment. A 8% plurality in favor of the legislation is scarcely a mandate and not the sort of thing that turns red congressional districts blue. These data are from a Washington Post-Pew poll.

Senator Train Wreck to Retire

I remember this speech. Mrs. Hoosierman kept asking what was wrong with the distinguished senator from Montana. Shall we call him intemperate, spirited or just Kennedyesque? Whatever. Senator Bacchus Baucus was lamenting the fact that no GOP senators would abet him in creating what he now calls a train wreck. He caught most of by surprise today when he announced he would retire from the Senate, bringing to six the total number of left leaning, Obamacare voting senators who have decided they should spend more time with their families. He joins Sens. Tom Harkin, Jay Rockefeller, Tim Johnson, Carl Levin, and Frank Lautenberg in making the Democrats' grip on the Senate even more tenuous. Viewing this video may help readers understand why Obamacare is so incoherent. What would one expect from a intoxicated senator, War and Peace? I wish they still did those Dewar's profiles.

Why Does The Left Love Islam?

I still consider myself a political neophyte. Just five years ago I believed that members of Congress actually read the bills they voted on. I even thought Congressmen wrote legislation. They might delegate the grunt work to the second in command but they were familiar with the essence of this bill or that. I was naive.

My naivete is still full bloom when it comes to lefties and Islam. Why would a bunch of people who claim to care about women's rights, gay rights and Jewish people ally themselves with homophobic, misogynistic anti-Semites? Who do they rush to the defense of a religion that holds their sanctioned victims in such low regard?

For years I thought it was an enemy of my enemy is my friend situation. The media hated George Bush so much that they were willing to embrace jihadism to further pummel their favorite punching bag. A few lefties, like the late Christopher Hitchens, broke ranks and acknowledged that Al-Qedah was the greater evil. But most of the Dem loyalists parroted the condemnations of that evil Christian George Bush. He was the worst of the worst. Anyone who opposed George Bush could not be all bad.

But times change and one expects loyalties to also change. Last week, leftists openly feared the prospects that the Boston Marathon bombers might turn out to be jihadists. Huh? I understand that the events in Boston might chill the immigration and gun control fervor. But why the need to do PR for a religion that hates you and hates everything you stand for?

I understand OPEC's hidden agenda and their efforts to control the news (largely successful I might add.) But OPEC and jihadism are not the same thing. In fact there is a lot of tension between the Arab ruling class and the jihadists. One can support efforts to kill domestic energy production and still be anti-terrorist. Yet, somehow green activism and pro-jihad sympathies often ride in tandem.

Academia and media both walk over eggshells to avoid offending Islam. These are institutions that usually view religion cynically, often contemptuously. Why the soft spot for the one religion that opposes all that they profess to believe in? Why the love for the one religion that would love to silence them now and forever?

I DON'T KNOW!

The Ugly Side of Governor Patrick's Police State

What ever happened to our free country? If two terrorists can turn Watertown into a police state perhaps it's time to scrap out the armored vehicles, put down the police dogs and fire half the cops. Are warrantless police searches the new normal under Obama? One hopes someone in Watertown is angry enough to haul Governor Patrick and his thugs into court. Bull Connors never played at this level.

OOPS! Tv Announcer Kills Career on First Day

You only get one chance to make a good first impression and since when was West Virginia on the East Coast?

Koch Brothers May Buy Newspaper Chain

We're sorry you feel that way, Mr. Axelrod, but we think Sean Hannity is a perfect fit for editorial page editor at the Chicago Trib. What a great way to start the week! The Koch brothers are reported to be considering buying  the Tribune newspaper company, which owns such well-known papers as The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, The Orlando Sentinel and The Hartford Courant.

Oh No! Tsarnaev Brothers Didn't Get Gun Permits

We know the national press simply revels in banality but did you know the brothers Tsarnaev were not licensed to carry? Who would have guessed? The AP finally broke that story to its stunned readers. Has anyone checked their magazines' capacity?
"A Massachusetts police official say the brothers suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon before having shootouts with authorities didn't have gun permits.
Cambridge Police Commissioner Robert Haas tells The Associated Press in an interview Sunday that neither Tamerlan Tsarnaev (tsahr-NEYE'-ehv) nor his brother Dzhokhar had permission to carry firearms."
Yes, always get a permit before you have a shootout with the cops.

Russia Asked FBI to Investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev 6 Months Ago

The FBI has trouble keeping its story straight. The trouble with all their double talk is the public cannot discern if the motivation is understandable CYA or does someone in the DOJ have a personal agenda. Yes, they interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev two years ago and gave him a clean bill of health. Now we find that just 6 months ago that a Russian security agency reached out to the FBI. NBC has the story which I'm sure they will want to share with us after they've run it past Media Matters to check its veracity but in the meantime one of its affiliates has dropped this bombshell.
"A police official source in Makhachkala, Dagestan, told NBC News on Sunday that the Russian internal security service reached out to the FBI last November with some questions about Tamerlan, and handed over a copy of case file on him.
Tsarnaev had first popped up on the local police radar in Dagestan last summer, the source said. During routine surveillance of an individual known to be involved in the militant Islamic underground movement, the police witnessed Tamerlan meet the latter at a Salafi mosque in Makhachkala, the police official said.
It was one of six times in total that surveillance officials witnessed Tsarnaev meeting this militant at the same mosque, according to the police official.
The militant contact later disappeared, the police official said, but so did Tsarnaev before investigators had a chance to speak with him. The FBI never responded, according to the Dagestani police official."

The Return of Radical Chic

Older readers might remember Tom Wolfe's New York Magazine article Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny’s. Wolfe was a master writer. He was the writer that journalists and opinion writers read. He was urbane, witty, and genteel but he was also subtle. He was subtlety on Prozac. He could gently slip a knife into his victim and it would go unnoticed for days until suddenly the hapless prey bled out all over the opinion pages of the major East Coast newspapers. There was usually little life left in the body by the time Johnny Carson delivered the coup de grace squarely between the eyes.
Wolfe didn't kill radical chic but he took much of the fun out of it. It's hard to look menacing when the whole country is laughing you as was the case of the Bay area, cop killing, Black Panther Party. Radical chic pretty much drowned in Mr. Carter's general malaise and his national crisis of confidence. Radicalism certainly wasn't chic under Reagan and didn't really recover until the ascendancy of Barack Obama. It's back in spades now. Fully metastasized as evidenced by the vanity license plates on the BMW belonging to one of the two young men from Kazakhstan who were retained by the FBI Saturday. Their female companion left in a car with diplomatic plates from an unknown country which is even more vexing than the vanity plates. Accomplices of terrorists get diplomatic immunity? Only under an Obama administration!
You don't own a BMW? You worked hard for 30 years, paid your taxes, raised your kids, and followed the rules and you still can't afford to tool around in a BMW like the kids from Kazakhstan? Maybe you don't have what it takes to be radical chic. How did this riffraff get here. Howie Carr has the answer;
" Obviously, no other country in the world wanted these sharia-crazed Stone Age Muslim terrorists."
I think the country is ready to move on from gun control legislation. If nothing else the brothers Tsarnaev have made the country forget Sandy Hook. The Senate gang of 8 is poised to dump another 12 million leeching future terrorists on the welfare rolls. Ask your senators if they can wait until you get your BMW.

Not To Feed The Conspiracy Theory Frenzy But Where Was Bill Ayers On The Day Of The Marathon?

On the one hand Bill Ayers did say that he had not bombed enough.

On the other hand he is a better wordsmith than bomb maker. Whatever else one might say about those cuddly idealists, they sucked as terrorists. Every mass destructionist from Timothy McVeigh to the Unabomber to Khalid Sheikh Muhammad was more successful than The Weather Underground. Their high water mark was blowing up three of their own members in Greenwich Village in 1970.

Had they studied basic chemistry as fervently as they studied Maoism, the Weather Underground would have sparked a trail of tears from the Pentagon to New York to Fort Dix. And let it be said that the pretty boys and girls did their best. They tried to kill cops and soldiers and judges. No lack of effort on their part. Regarding the device that created three Marxist martyrs: That bomb had been intended for detonation at a dance that was to be attended by hundreds of Army soldiers at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Ayers himself attested that the bomb would have done serious damage, “tearing through windows and walls and, yes, people too.” (Note: When Ayers says people he is probably referring to the wives and girlfriends of soldiers. Soldiers were viewed as less than human by the precursors of Hope and Change.)

Then again, maybe Billy would like to recapture the magic of his youth. Of the day he bombed the Pentagon he wrote, “Everything was absolutely ideal.... The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.” As I recall the birds were singing and the skies were blue on April 15 of this year.

Back to the other hand, the Weather Underground is credited with thirty bombings. That is a career distinguished by longevity if not proficiency. These guys were not one hit wonders. All those years on the road take a toll, man. Better to stay in the cozy confines of academia. How could this sagacious guru possibly return to his first love at this stage of life? Terrorism is a young man's game. Let the kids have their fun.

Oh but Billy still has that sparkle in his eye. "I don't regret setting bombs," said Ayers in 2001, "I feel we didn't do enough." Contemplating whether or not he might again use bombs against the U.S. sometime in the future, he wrote: “I can’t imagine entirely dismissing the possibility.” 

And we too, should not entirely dismiss the possibility.


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