Defeat

We have lost the war on terrorism. The terrorists are now in control.

A few days ago, four young women were visiting Wall Street to protest deregulation. They were standing in an area that police had designated for protesters, behind a police fence. They were protesting. A senior New York Police Department officer, perhaps angered by something they said, calmly walked over, discharged pepper spray into their eyes, turned his back, and walked away.

A New York Police Department spokesman told the New York Times that this policeman used his pepper spray “appropriately”.

The episode did not merit a mention in this morning’s Boston Globe.

Republican crowds cheer candidates to call for hundreds of additional executions. Republican crowds cheer candidates who call for society to turn its back on sick and dying people who lack sufficient health insurances. Republican crowds jeer a soldier who happens to be gay. Republican candidates routinely scoff at science. And a Republican policeman – you and I both know this fellow is no liberal – casually maims a bunch of women who, at worst, said something that hurt his feelings. That will teach them a lesson, but that wasn’t the point.

The point is to teach us a lesson.

Terror.