Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

Ok  I was reading  on the Declination and ran into this post. In it there are two paragraphs about the death of Ebba Akerlund who was this girl

Who was killed in the terror attack on April 10th 2017 in Stockholm. Here are
those paragraphs

I wasn’t originally going to comment on the attack. After all, there are too many Islamic terror attacks these days for one blogger to ever hope to cover them all (and isn’t that a sad state of affairs?). But one thing compelled me to do so. 

You see, like the picture of the Syrian boy who drowned, there is a horrifying picture floating around the Internet right now of an 11 year old girl who was, quite literally torn to pieces by the terror attack. Pieces of her are scattered all over the road, a leg here, a leg there, guts strewn all over the road.

I missed that second paragraph the first time I read that, I went and read the Daily Mail article. It mentioned nothing of the horrific manner of her demise. However, even without that I could feel (as certain folks put it) the RCOB  (Red Curtain Of Blood) descending across my sight. I remember my daughters at that age and I have a niece that is that age. The thought of losing a child at that age to some worthless gutless creature who would so callously kill innocents was unthinkable. Then I came back and read the post in the Declination again and saw that second paragraph and lost it a bit.

As the Declination points out this is almost unknown in the US news stream. Ho Hum another person driving trucks into people for no discernible reason or  ideology (note: that was sarcasm for the sarcasm impaired).  Our news seems to avoid  "inflaming" our passions choosing NOT to cover various things. Ladies and Gentleman of the press I have news for you, This is why no one listens to you any more. When I was a kid the CBS news with Walter Cronkite (Uncle Walter) we believed these people. Even when they shaded the truth or out and out lied (c.f. Tet Offensive) we believed because there was no other source and we thought they were being fair. But now there are hundreds if not thousands of other sources, not just three TV networks and a handful of newspapers. And we can see they lie and see they selectively cover news choosing sides (invariably the SJW/Tranzi side).

The more pressing issue here is that I do not know if the Islamic peoples throughout the world really understand the danger they're in. Their apparent silence (or complicity through inaction) in these cases is building up an undercurrent in western society. As Tom Kratman opined in the afterword to A Desert Called Peace

If I could speak now to our enemies, I would say: Do you kill innocent civilians for shock value? So will we learn to do, in time. Do you torture and murder prisoners? So will we. Are you composed of religious fanatics? Well, since humanistic secularism seems ill-suited to deal with you, don't be surprised if we turn to our churches and temples to find the strength to defeat and destroy you. Do you randomly kill our loved ones to send us a message? Don't be surprised, then, when we begin to target your families, specifically, to send the message that our loved ones are not stationery. 

This seems lost on the current enemy but, then, he's insane. It's very sad. Yes, it's very sad for us, too.

Its like  a couple little boys with a stick poking a Siberian tiger in an old style cage with iron bars and a door. Except the door is not locked or latched. We know what will happen and it won't be the tiger's fault. He's just a dumb brute animal acting according to his instincts. And what happens to the crowd of children watching and cheering on the brave tiger teasing boys? We have a name for that, collateral damage.  It's just that instead of a half dozen mauled kids we're potentially talking several hundred million  people. Put down the stick, or at least walk away from the crowd.. I fear it is too much to hope that the crowd will take the stick away as they do not fear the apparently tame or cowed tiger. That tiger is not as toothless and indolent as you might think and its patience is running thin.  And as Col. Kratman said it is sad for us too. For the tiger has at least some semblance of a conscience unlike the boys.

Tregonsee (L2) signing out for now

Two Things

Two things
First this piece is astonishing. (thanks to Instapundit www.instapundit.com)
In this I see:

Under Barack Obama, she was allowed to continue to view highly sensitive intel documents for years - well past her announced run for the presidency in April 2015, according to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. Why? Toward what possible end?

In my return post I  talked briefly about my layoff from a Defense Department Contractor. Once notified I was followed from the moment of my notification to the moment I was walked to my vehicle by my supervisor. This was standard practice. Why? Because the moment  I was not working on that project  I no longer had need to know even though (conceptually) my clearance was active until I closed out my employment. Before leaving I signed a document that said (roughly from memory 6 years ago)

• I had kept NO materials that were classified
• All materials I had that were classified were returned to proper authorities
• I would NEVER disclose anything I had learned in my tenure with clearance

This was backed with US Code citations and the threat of prosecution for perjury.

From the moment  H.R. Clinton stopped being Secretary of State her need to know was gone and she should have had no access to anything classified at any level. Anything else is an insult to the rest of us that have had clearances and strived to follow the convoluted and stringent rules attached to possessing a clearance.  And she most certainly had no need for  "Highly Sensitive Intel Documents" which seems to imply Top Secret Compartmented or Top Secret Special Access Program materials to write a  personal hagiography. Apparently rules are for little people (and contractors) not for heads of executive departments or  Heirs Presumptive to the Presidency. President Trump may be a feckless boob but at least he's not a traitorous, incompetent, entitled feckless boob.

The second is this nonsense (Thanks again to www.instapundit.com) Letting engineers think about their  effect on society is a fine idea. Some schools, for example WPI ,have it built  in as part of the graduation requirements . But this is at Perdue is just idiocy

Breaking the Western hegemony. In order to decenter the male hegemony of the Western civilization, Riley discussed examples of thermodynamic inventions done by non-Western and non-male inventors. Also, some of the assignments required students to make interracial and intercultural connections in thermodynamics.

What the Sam Hill does this matter at all? Who cares who discovered thermodynamics? Its an absolute truth ( basic thermodynamics 1) You can't win, 2 You can't break even 3 ) You can't quit the game) and would be/is the same no matter the race, species or sexual identification of the discoverer(s). This "I can't relate to it because its not my ethnicity(etc)"  nonsense is something I'd expect of a 4 year old NOT an educated engineer. I want my engineers focused on making their results work and be safe. All else is irrelevant.  President Leshin should you ever let this infest my Alma Mater I hope you are ridden out of WPI on a rail.

Tregonsee (L2) signing out for now