Decapitation Daily (updated)

In those lazy, hazy days  before the planes hit the towers,  I used to enjoy an article-and-essay aggregation site, Aldaily.   It’s still around, and would still be interesting in another, parallel, and better world;   but reality is too much with us, and for years now -- and at present especially  -- I have been obliged to concentrate on unfolding events, more closely related to my day-job.

Anyhow -- Simply glancing at a few of the stories that have surfaced -- or rather, broken beneath the surface, since most people won’t have heard of them -- it strikes me that one could actually run a “Decapitation Aggregation Site”, with something fresh almost every day.

This we shall certainly not do;  but the subject deserves a one-time alert from this site, that there is a pattern here -- there are dots that connect-up -- which won’t be apparent to most consumers of the minimizing, gaze-averting media.

(1) One story that did get some airplay  was the Oklahoma City atrocity in September;  we examine some aspects of it towards the end of the essay here.   At the time, some observers objected to the played-down, one-off way the story was being reported, maintaining that the incident was more properly seen in the perspective of terrorism.   The irony is reflected in this typical reader’s comment:

Nothing to see here people, just your regular, run-of-the-mill workplace beheading.

http://legalinsurrection.com/2014/09/from-going-postal-to-going-isis/#comments

The story has pretty much died down.  The latest is, um, this:

http://kfor.com/2014/10/04/oklahoma-muslims-receive-special-praise-from-white-house-officials/

What you probably have not heard is that there was, in the same month, a similar attack in London.   For a link, there is little beyond this right-wing site,

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/dgreenfield/allah-made-me-do-it-2/

since the MSM tiptoes around it.   Thus, the original story in the Telegraph (UK) made no mention of the perpetrator’s name, or race, or national origin, and mentioned the suggestion that he was “Muslim” only to immediately cast doubt upon the idea (“could not be verified”; meaning, they would not look into it).  However, the bienpensant newspaper reassured us, any connection to terrorism had been “ruled out” (i.e., in advance, as a matter of principle, since the incident had not yet been investigated).

(2)  You perhaps have heard of the assassination and decapitation of the seven Trappist monks in Tibhirine (variant spelling Tibéhirine), Algeria, in 1996.  

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinat_des_moines_de_Tibhirine

The incident was never cleared up, owing to stonewalling by the Algerian government.  Now at last, a forensic team from France has been allowed into the country, to examine the severed heads,  this being all that is left of the monks.  (In French this operation is called, oddly, “une expertise de têtes”.)

(3)  Again in Algeria, the newspaper El Watan has announced the identity of the beheader of the French hiking guide Hervé Gourdel:  Kerza Bashir (French spelling Bachir).

(4)  In Nigeria, Boko Haram continues its depredations.  When these involve schoolgirls, and a suggestion of sex, the media gives these very great play indeed.   That Boko also relish beheadings  is less widely publicised.   Most recently, they decapitated a pilot, and made an exultant video of the event.

This kind of meme cannot be tracked by the traditional methods of counter-terrorism.  It is more like the ebola virus, that can travel thousands of miles unseen.   No appeals, no reason can oppose it, for it lies far beneath the slender outcroppings of the conscious mind.   It is like a green and glittering serpent, coiled deep within the unconscious:  across the vast abyss,  Id calls out to Id...

[Update 20 October 2014]  I probably ought to really not probably do this, lest this site start attracting the … wrong sort of traffic;  but could not resist this bit for connoisseurs.

A couple of months ago, we commented on the Sunni-on-Sunni violence of ISIL against a Syrian tribe, the Chaïtat.  Today, the Washington Post finally got around to mentioning it too:

The cost of turning against the Islamic State was made brutally apparent in the streets of a dusty backwater town in eastern Syria in early August. Over a three-day period, vengeful fighters shelled, beheaded, crucified and shot hundreds of members of the Shaitat tribe after they dared to rise up against the extremists.

By the time the killing stopped, 700 people were dead.

Just as powerful a message for those living under the militants’ iron fist was the almost complete international silence on the bloodbath.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syria-tribal-revolt-against-islamic-state-ignored-fueling-resentment/2014/10/20/25401beb-8de8-49f2-8e64-c1cfbee45232_story.html

But the Post adds a chilling yet (in line with ISIL generally) flamboyant and theatrical detail:

A photo essay on an Islamic State blog boasted of the different ways tribesmen were killed, including beheadings, mass shootings and a crucifixion. A video shows how the militants lined up scores of captives on a road, their hands bound, then set about clumsily decapitating them, one by one. The executioners, speaking in Tunisian, Egyptian and Saudi accents, taunted those not yet dead by swinging severed heads in front of their faces and telling them, “It’s your turn next.”

[Update June 2015]  Cover-term:

During a recorded phone conversation around May 26, Mr. Rahim called David Wright, whom acquaintances identified as his nephew, and told him he had bought a knife that was “good for carving.” Later in the conversation, Mr. Wright referred to “thinking with your head on your chest,” a phrase the F.B.I. said was “a reference to the practice of some foreign terrorist organizations to behead targets and place their heads on their chests in propaganda videos.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/04/us/usaama-rahim-boston-terrorism-suspect-planned-beheading-authorities-say.html

 

 

Encore «la racaille»

A well-informed review of an important new book has just appeared here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/29/books/review/the-french-intifada-by-andrew-hussey.html?ref=review

More anecdotally:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/28/opinion/sylvie-kauffmann-frances-homegrown-jihadists.html

And meanwhile in Paris:

Lundi prochain, l'Algérie affrontera donc l'Allemagne quelques heures après le match France-Nigeria. La seconde des deux rencontres sera l'affrontement de tous les dangers. Depuis les incidents qui ont émaillé les précédents matchs de l'équipe algérienne en Coupe du monde, l'Intérieur est sur les dents. Les échauffourées sont de plus en plus violentes: policiers blessés, saccages en règles de bâtiments, destructions de mobilier urbain, jets de projectiles, incendies de véhicules par dizaines Des incidents qualifiés vendredi «d'insupportables» par le premier ministre Manuel Valls.

Lundi donc, des milliers de policiers et de gendarmes, dont une quinzaine d'unités des forces mobiles, mais aussi des moyens lourds de maintien de l'ordre (canons à eau, hélicoptères pour l'identification de nuit des éventuels fauteurs de troubles), seront mobilisés. Pratiquement comme les soirs d'émeute ou lors des mouvements sociaux de grande ampleur. «Et tout cela pour un soir de fête», se désole-t-on à l'état-major de la Sécurité publique à Paris.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2014/06/27/01016-20140627ARTFIG00350-la-police-en-alerte-pour-le-match-algerie-allemagne.php

So, stay tuned for Monday’s big match …

[Update 28 June 2014]  In Los Angeles, a miniature version of the same thing.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-huntington-park-world-cup-crowds-mexico-20140627-story.html#navtype=outfit 

[Update] London, too, is trembling:
http://www.medi1.com/player/player.php?i=5953995

[Update 1 March 2016]  Knock-on effects of dealing with all this:

FREILASSING, Germany — Traffic along one of Europe’s busiest highways, which used to flow unimpeded, now often backs up for miles at a newly installed checkpoint, where a phalanx of German police officers screens trucks and cars for hidden migrants.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/02/business/international/europes-new-border-controls-exact-a-cost.html?_r=0

 

Merkel has much to answer for.


For the roster of posts concerning "la racaille", click here.

La plaisanterie du Président

You are by now (unfortunately) probably familiar with the spine-tingling, blood-curdling tale of

“THE TWEET HEARD ROUND THE WORLD”

(upon which we are formally forbidden to comment, for reasons explained here).

You are far less likely to hear (unless you hear it from me;  so far [Sunday morning] the anglophone press has been silent on the matter) about another incident that happened at the same time, likewise involving a joking public reference to the hazards of visiting Africa, which is, however, of considerably greater moment, since in this case, the perpetrator was not some self-caressing P.R. ditzhead, but the Président de la République française, M. François Hollande:

L'Algérie vexée par la boutade de Hollande sur la securité

Le président Hollande avait déclaré sur le ton de la plaisanterie le 16 décembre dernier que le ministre de l'Intérieur, Manuel Valls, était rentré «sain et sauf» d'Algérie. «C'est déjà beaucoup», avait-il ajouté.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2013/12/21/01003-20131221ARTFIG00269-l-algerie-vexee-par-la-boutade-de-hollande-sur-la-securite.php

[Here the Président expresses joshing satisfaction that his Interior Minister has returned “safe and sound” from Algeria, “which is saying something!”]

In both cases, the hazards alluded to are entirely accurate (it is for that very reason that they caused a scandal):  In the case of [name of USPerson redacted]’s indiscreet Tweet about [named darkcontinental ultrameridional nation-state] being the world’s principle hot-bed and breeding-ground of [quadriliteral acronym deleted], that is well-known.  In the case of Hollande’s off-the-cuff about the perils of Algeria, these are extremely well-known in France, which has lost many a citizen to Algerian kidnappers, Algerian terrorists, etc.,  though little-known in the United States. Hence Americans might scratch their heads over this anecdote, which has Algerians in an uproar (and they can be quite dangerous, when thus aroused), and thus might easily themselves have unwittingly perpetrated such a gaffe, if, contrary to our advice here (“No Comment”), they were ever to say anything to anyone  beyond “Pass the salt” to a spouse or other close relation  while dining en famille in a room that has been swept for listening-devices. (And even “Pass the salt” can lead to lethal consequences, as we demonstrated here.)   The Algeria taboo is an example of the subjects alluded to in our earlier essay, which is a stone no-no in one country, but not even within the cultural ken of another.

As usual, the witty Figaro readers  do not disappoint:

Terrible nouvelle. Va-t-on devoir arrêter d'acheter du pétrole et du gaz Algérien que la France paye 1,5 fois plus cher que sur le marché libre ? Va-t-on remettre en question les accords préférentiels qui permettent aux Algériens de venir massivement s'installer en France ?

---

On a plus de chances de rentrer saint et sauf d'Algérie que de Marseille !

---

Connaissant Mhollandréou et son à plat ventrisme j'ai l'impression que cette plaisanterie va nous coûter bonbon .

*

Si cela vous parle,

savourez la série noire

en argot authentique d’Amérique :

http://www.linguasacrapublishing.com/justiceexcerptdivorce.html

*

There is another, subtler layer to the story, namely that the ever-oily, ever-ingratiating Hollande -- who is by no means accustomed to laying bald facts out plain -- was, in this case, actually attempting, in his ham-handed way, to be politically-correct :  only, within a certain sociopolitical microclimate (compare Romney’s notorious remarks about the 47%, which were well received in the closed conclave in which they were delivered, but which leaked out urbi et orbi).  This is hinted at in this slightly different account:

Le 16 décembre, le président François Hollande déclarait sur le ton de la plaisanterie devant le Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France (Crif), qui fêtait ses 70 ans, que le ministre de l'Intérieur, Manuel Valls, était rentré d'Algérie «sain et sauf».

http://www.leparisien.fr/politique/video-algerie-l-opposition-francaise-exige-des-excuses-officielles-de-hollande-22-12-2013-3431827.php

I shall not point out here what will be obvious to any Frenchmen, since here we touch upon a taboo that spans the Atlantic.   But the French know perfectly well what is going on:

Le coprésident du Front de gauche, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a tweeté dimanche que la boutade de François Hollande lui avait donné «la nausée» : «L'ivresse communautariste du dîner a grisé #Hollande. Mais c'est nous qui avons la nausée. #CRIF#Algérie», a-t-il écrit.

This is well-observed, worthy of Proust.   To understand it, you have to be clued in to the meaning of communautarisme -- but I have already said too much.

BTW … Notice the Biblical cadence in Mélenchon’s riposte.  He is echoing Ezekiel 18:2:

'The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

Also note that, once the (quite transparent) veil of allusion has been pulled aside, and the subtext  properly understood, Mélenchon’s considered quip is far more politically incorrect than Hollande’s impromptu brain-fart:  the moreso as it was intended seriously, and not in jest.

[For extra credit:  Compare the nature of the conclaves in the two cases, Romney and Hollande.  Determine the dynamics, and solve using the Hamiltonian equations.]

*

Travaillant au noir,

le détective  se trouve aux prises

avec le Saint-Esprit

C’est quoi, le péché irrémissible???

*

For the benefit of our obligate-anglophone audience, herewith a décryptage of that Reader’s Comment:

Connaissant Mhollandréou et son à plat ventrisme j'ai l'impression que cette plaisanterie va nous coûter bonbon .

Which is to say (leaving details apart): 

Knowing Hollande’s propensity for truckling and sucking up, I have a hunch that this jest is going to cost us a pretty penny.

The oleaginous French President  is indeed quite shameless in his pandering;  we have commented upon a couple of such incidents here:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/11/a-heartfelt-thanks-to-french-nation.html

Above and in related essays with the Label  “rhetorical analysis”, we tweeze apart the intricacies of expression, peeling them back to reveal the writhing maggots in the meat beneath.   Such analysis applies to imagery as well.  Consider this recent photograph;  guess which man is the French President, and which the Foreign Minister of Algeria:

Can I bring you coffee?

It is a general rule in such photo-shoots, that the alpha male looks triumphantly into the camera, and does not so much as glance in the direction of the beta-male or Least Baboon;  the latter fawns on the former, as though pantingly awaiting an order to bend over and spread his cheeks.   But here, the peg-boy is in fact the French President.

I weep for France.

~

¡ Gratis !

Leer la historia completa aquí :

“El detectivo y la niña”

~

~

A good half-century ago, the Situationist International in France popularized the critique of the Société du Spectacle.   What was true then, is even more on-target now, in the age of social media.  Cf. further:

http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/search/label/Soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9%20du%20spectacle

*     *     *

~ Commercial break ~

For a mini-movie of our own, try this:

The Penitent and the Impenitent Thief

We now return you to your regularly scheduled essay.

*     *     *

[Update, evening]  Judging from the substantial page-view response, it seems to have fallen to our lot to aid in the socio-linguisto-political interpretation of France and of America, the one to the other.  Along these lines, word-lovers may enjoy these:

Word of the Day: « Gaulois »

Word of the Day: « ultralaïcard »

Phrase of the Day: « pov'con »

~

Et entretemps … while France is absorbed in such insipid distractions as this latest entry in the palmarès of “The Wit and Wisdom of François Hollande” (which, however, next to the Tweet that Riveted the Morons of America, towers in the annals of diplomacy) -- some genuine events are unfolding in Françafrique, following in the wake of much bloodshed, and heralding more bloodshed to come:

Plusieurs milliers de musulmans, sympathisants de l'ex-rébellion Séléka, ont manifesté dimanche à Bangui contre l'opération militaire française Sangaris, après la mort le matin même de trois combattants Séléka dans un accrochage avec des soldats français lors d'une opération de désarmement.

http://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/2013/12/22/97001-20131222FILWWW00155-manifestation-anti-francaise-a-bangui.php#xtor=EPR-31-[manifestation-a-bangui-de-milliers-de-musulmans-contre-l-armee-francaise]-20131222-[titre]

[For the background on events in Centrafrique, and the curious American perspective on same, click here.]

A reader comments, calmly but ominously:

On y est, guerre de religion et les français sont les Croisés. Le djihad va être déclaré en France. Êtes-vous prêts ?

[For an extension of this commentary, along linguistic lines, try this:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2013/12/reading-french-tea-leaves.html ]

 

~  Art thou weary -- aye, world-weary -- ~

~ of the never-ending roll-call ~

~ of the follies of mankind ? ~

Consider then rather this:

Poetry

Dickens

Topology

A consulter aussi:  Leçons de géometrie hexagonale.

[Update 16 mai 2014]  The latest weird French overreactive Tweetgate:

L’histoire n’en restera donc pas à un simple échange d’amabilités sur Twitter. Furieuse par la non-sélection de Samir Nasri, Anara Atanes, sa compagne, s’était répandue en insultes via des tweets accablants du type : « Fuck France and fuck Deschamps ». Malgré ses excuses le lendemain, Didier Deschamps a porté plainte contre elle, pour injures publiques, devant le Tribunal de grande instance de Paris, avec constitution de partie civile. La Fédération française de football (FFF) a également porté plainte de son côté, pour le même motif.

http://rmcsport.bfmtv.com/info/610387/deschamps-fff-portent-plainte/

شهية طيبة

Bon appetit!  Prosit!  SaHHteen !

Quelques centaines d'Algériens ont mangé et bu en public, samedi 3 août, en plein ramadan, dans la ville de Tizi Ouzou,  pour dénoncer "l'islamisation du pays". Désireux d'affirmer leur liberté de conscience, ils étaient entre trois cents et cinq cents à participer à ce rassemblement avec bouteilles d'eau, pains, cigarettes et bières, le premier du genre en Algérie. Le déjeuner n'a été interrompu ni par la population ni par les autorités.

Par cet acte symbolique, ils entendaient dénoncer "le climat de terreur qui règne contre ceux qui ne jeûnent pas" durant le mois sacré du ramadan

http://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2013/08/04/en-algerie-un-dejeuner-provocateur-en-plein-ramadan_3457278_3212.html

Et en France:

Un rapport officiel préconise l'interdiction du voile à l'université

Rédigé par la Mission laïcité du Haut Conseil à l'intégration, il conclut à une montée du communautarisme.

 

[Mise à jour, mars 2014]  D’autres prohibitions relatives à l’islamisme:

   http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2014/04/what-not-to-name-baby.html

Dark Doings on the Diplomacy Front

At work today, a colleague who monitors the media en continu, turned to me and said:  “Hollande is making a pilgrimage to Algeria, to try to get them on board with invading Azawad.   But Algeria is demanding indemnities...”

I replied:  “Be the balance-sheet what it may:  on this issue, Algeria is rather in the position of the House Republicans trying to play Chicken with Obama on the edge of the Fiscal Cliff:  they just ... don’t ... hold ... the cards  on this one.  Azawad is a much bigger threat to Algeria than it is to France.”

And lo, behold, in this morning’s mailbox (which I do not see till evening, being a wage-slave all day),  a link to the visit:

http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2012/12/18/01003-20121218ARTFIG00639-le-pari-algerien-de-francois-hollande.php?m_i=LmMLbbYdB5UACK24oPCivKUE3KLtgbGcN7IQLbQMiyajbNifm

Le Figaro’s summary:

Visas et droit de séjour, essais nucléaires dans le Sahara, enquête sur le drame de Tibéhirine... Les sujets de discussion, voire de discorde, ne manquent pas entre la France et l'Algérie.

Curious about the “drame de Tibéhirine”, I sought wisdom in Wiki, where facts are to be found:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassinat_des_moines_de_Tibhirine

Draw your own conclusions;  all I would point out is, though there are Wiki articles about this subject in several other languages, including Hrvatski ...  :-)  ...  there is none in Arabic ...  :-(

A reader’s comment:

Puisse François Hollande admettre que ce qui est dit de négatif sur la colonisation dans ce pays est faux et archi-faux, on ne saurait porter un jugement de valeur sur cette question en n'en retenant quant au rôle des colons ou de l'armée, que ce qui était le fait d'une infime minorité, dont les actes sont certes lourdement condamnables, mais ne sauraient être imputés aux hommes admirables qui ont conduit ce pays au niveau où il était au moment de son indépendance, et dont on voudrait aujourd'hui salir la mémoire..

Tout a été mis en oeuvre pour assurer l'autosuffisance alimentaire de l'Algérie où en 1830 de multiples groupes ethniques survivaient dans des régions marécageuses, insalubres, sur des hauts plateaux arides, ou dans des zones désertiques.

Il ne reste pratiquement rien de tout cela, sauf des reproches véhéments aux acteurs de cette mise en valeur, et l'Algérie importe la plus grande partie de son alimentation,

Il est pitoyable et lamentable que nous acceptions de nous soumettre à une quelconque repentance pour des actions, qui si elles avaient été poursuivies nous auraient non seulement préservés des inconvénients d'une immigration massive, mais auraient surtout évité que des masses de malheureux déracinés qui ne s'intègreront jamais, ne viennent chercher chez nous la possibilité de vivre dignement qu'ils n'ont jamais trouvée dans leur pays, et que nous avons été incapables de les aider à trouver depuis l'indépendance.

I neither judge nor comment;  but merely sample these themes, the way an overture gives a glimpse of the coming opera ....

(Should be an interesting millennium ahead ...)

*     *     *

~ Commercial break ~

Relief for beleaguered Nook lovers!

http://murphybros.blogspot.com/p/read-murphy-on-your-nook.html

We now return you to your regularly scheduled essay.

*     *     *

~

Vue depuis l’Algérie francophone:

http://www.medi1.com/player/player.php?i=5365319