Those Mangled Bikes
The skeleton of the bike I used to ride all over Manhattan, including up and down the path along the river, just blocks from my old apartment in Tribeca, is now here in my backyard in Venice.
I pretty much forgot about it, but I thought about it today when I saw those absolutely heartbreaking pictures of the mangled bikes on the path.
So sorry for all of partners, families, friends, & colleagues of those 6 who won't make it home tonight - & prob many more terribly injured.
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) October 31, 2017
Another:
I rode that bike path at least several times a wk (lived at Greenwich & Canal). Beautiful sunny day - this would have been unimaginable.
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) October 31, 2017
My reply to our ridiculous LAPD chief, Charlie Beck, who urged "all Angelenos to remain vigilant."
Reality: There's no amount of "vigilance" that can keep you from getting mowed down in a jihadist attack while on West Side Highway bikepath https://t.co/5AQutkNqbB
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) October 31, 2017
Christina Hoff Sommers to some ass of a professor who criticized people for "obsessing on 'Allahu Akbar.'"
Correction: 8 murdered, several seriously injured. On a bike path my son uses nearly every day.
— Christina Sommers (@CHSommers) November 1, 2017
You should be able to ride your bike home from work or to a date -- without being mowed down by somebody who has been told he'll get the fast-track to salvation (as is the case in Islam) if he slaughters people for Allah.
However, until we are honest about Islam -- until we stop pretending it is "a religion of peace," which is it the antithesis of -- we will not be able to do anything about it.
The things we deny are things we can't begin to manage -- or at least try.
I suspect that Islam may not be reformable. Here's why:
Is it possible to reform Islam? Maybe not. But pretending it calls for peace & tolerance is as unhelpful as it gets. https://t.co/oh5QedPp9C pic.twitter.com/9sKQrouIJG
— Amy Alkon (@amyalkon) November 1, 2017
Of course, individual Muslims have to be taken as individuals. Many Muslims are good people who may not even understand the extent of what their religion calls for -- and certainly wouldn't engage in the horrible violence that terrorist Muslims do.
I've been reading extensively in Islam since 9/11. For someone who'd like to get an overview, this site is excellent -- it gives support from the Quran and other references.
Bill Warner is another terrific source. His Simple Koran is very good -- arranged in historical order (rather than ordered by length as some Turkish dude screwed it up way back when). He also took out a lot of the repetition.
I went to visit that "ass of a professor['s]" Twitter feed, and called him out for his lack of concern for the actual victims. Apparently, the only victims he sees are the Muslims who may face discrimination and suspicion because of this man's actions (and the actions of dozens of other Muslim terrorists before him).
I'll probably get a Twitter ban for calling him a "sick fuck," because on Twitter, those people with blue checkmarks next to their names are special and entitled to more protections than we members of the hoi-polloi.
Patrick at October 31, 2017 10:29 PM
Many Muslims are good people who may not even understand the extent of what their religion calls for
This is true of most religious adherents, I've had Calvinists are they have free will and Mormons swear up and down that hell is real and there is only one tier in heaven.
Most people have no clue what the faith they claim to believe actually espouses
lujlp at November 1, 2017 12:48 AM
"The things we deny are things we can't begin to manage -- or at least try."
Isn't that the truth with a lot of problems today. You can't begin to relieve someone's suffering when it's politically incorrect to identify the cause of it.
Ken R at November 1, 2017 3:30 AM
If a flatbed 4X4 mowed down 30 people outside of Disneyland, and then a middle-age white man with a mullet ran from the vehicle shouting, "GLO-ree ta JEEzus!", would those words and features be a clue worth considering, or would I be a racist or some kind of phobic bigot for taking note of them?
If most of the acts of terrorism over the past few decades had been committed by middle-age white men with mullets, and most of them shouted, "GLO-ree ta JEEzus!" while killing innocent men, women and children...
...then if I'm out enjoying a sunny afternoon at some popular locale, and I see middle-age white men with mullets in the area, call me a racist or a phobic bigot or whatever, but I'm going to be a little more alert than usual...
...and if one of them stands up and shouts, "GLO-ree ta JEEzus!", that would probably trigger me; and I'd probably take that as a big heads up that something violent and cowardly might be about to go down.
All good Muslims, liberals and social justice warriors would understand and sympathize with that, and they'd be creating Jesus-free, no-mullet zones and safe spaces everywhere.
But enough with bigoted, racist hypotheticals. I'll bet you that if the virtue signalling professor is sitting in a crowded college cafeteria, surround by fawning young SJW's, and a swarthy man with a beard suddenly stands up and begins shouting, "Allahu Akbar!", the professor will shit.
Ken R at November 1, 2017 5:03 AM
"those people with blue checkmarks next to their names are special and entitled to more protections than we members of the hoi-polloi."
I have a blue checkmark, and I suspect I was "shadow-banned" on Twitter for years because of my views on Islam (fact-based, by the way, from reading about it for nearly two decades).
Amy Alkon at November 1, 2017 5:44 AM
Lots of people are lying to themselves about these things. Until recently, what has the sequence of official responses been whenever this happens?
1. "There is no connection to terrorism."
When the inevitable video or Facebook post turns up where the perp specifically says they intended to commit terrorism, we get next:
2. "It was a lone wolf attack by someone with no known connections to terrorist groups."
When the evidence turns up that the perp travel to Syria last year, or some such, we get #3:
3. "We will deploy all available forces to guard against retaliatory attacks on Muslims."
And the SPLC puts a few more mainstream conservative groups on its terror watch list.
Cousin Dave at November 1, 2017 7:10 AM
Ken R writes: " if the virtue signalling professor is sitting in a crowded college cafeteria, surround by fawning young SJW's, and a swarthy man with a beard suddenly stands up and begins shouting, "Allahu Akbar!", the professor will shit."
Too funny, and too true
a_random_guy at November 1, 2017 8:51 AM
Uzbekistan is double-landlocked, with all the attendant social lunacy you'd expect from a nation in its neighborhood.
For Amy, all that matters is Islam.
That's goofy,
Crid at November 1, 2017 9:00 AM
"Uzbekistan is double-landlocked"
So is Wichita.
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 1, 2017 10:03 AM
Crid, the region Uzbekistan occupies had some fascinating history and has help shaped the course of world event on several occasions, though in way only serious students of history are aware. The way the Caspian region influenced the development of western Europe may be all but unknown to most of the western world but its impact was vast
Right up until Islam pervaded the culture to the point that nothing else mattered.
Islam is basically the religious murderous iteration of the lefts modern day victimhood Olympics
lujlp at November 1, 2017 10:16 AM
So is Lichtenstein. In fact, those are the world's only double-landlocked countries.
And yet Lichtenstein has the highest gross domestic product per person in the world and one of the lowest unemployment rates. In addition, the principality has one of the world's highest standards of living.
What Lichtenstein does not have is Islam and Third World neighbors, none of the "attendant social lunacy you'd expect."
And, yet, somehow the left would have us believe that Western Civilization (a "good idea" in Gandhi's famous retort) is the primary source of the world's evils.
Conan the Grammarian at November 1, 2017 11:02 AM
I forgot the one which comes after #3, when the media gets called out for spreading false rumors about attacks on Muslims:
#4. "We'll probably never know what motivated the terrorist."
Cousin Dave at November 1, 2017 11:22 AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVckRJvuBQY
Is there correlation b/w the ad and events in NYC...?
Stinky the Clown at November 1, 2017 11:24 AM
The Lovely Goddess writes: I have a blue checkmark, and I suspect I was "shadow-banned" on Twitter for years because of my views on Islam (fact-based, by the way, from reading about it for nearly two decades).
I don't doubt that's true.
I remember I time I used a naughty word to chide someone with a blue checkmark for being an ignorant dumbshit (which, I think, is what I called him), and seconds later, I got a notification saying my account was now placed on restriction.
A friend hypothesized (apparently having had the same experience herself) that saying naughty things to a blue checkmark gets an automated ban-bot after you.
Patrick at November 1, 2017 1:43 PM
@Stinky: get back to me when it's a Latino supremacist running over White people in the Hamptons.
mpetrie98 at November 1, 2017 3:32 PM
Uzbekistan also had the double pleasure of being part of the SU. Kirgizia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were troubled even before Ivan stepped in there.
Stinky the Clown at November 1, 2017 5:36 PM
Leave a comment