48 Comments

1. dr. sanity:

I wonder if she wept when Ken Bigley’s head was severed? I wonder if she wept at Beslan? I wonder if she wept at the last suicide bombing in Israel? Psychologically it tells us much about her personality–information that she is unlikely to be consciously aware of– that she would weep for Arafat the terrorist.

Oct 31, 2004 - 2:55 pm 2. dr. sanity:

This is just more of the continuing insanity that is part of our everyday experience since 9/11.

Oct 31, 2004 - 3:02 pm 3. RogerA:

Some effen idiot actually said that on the record? Those people ought to be hung, drawn and quartered–Yassir Araft is one truly ugly slimeball who delights in sending youths–both male and female to their deaths, while he rakes in the cash. Yassir Arafat not a coward? He should be wrapped in pigskin and buried on a hog farm when he finally dies–along with that simpering BBC twit. (retiring now, for a bit of self medication.)

Oct 31, 2004 - 3:11 pm 4. Robert Schwartz:

Wow! If I were British, I would really be cheesed. My tax payer dollars at work. Most of the Palestinians who came out were just trying to make sure he was gone.

Kind of proves my line about the intellectuals being the cheerleaders and choreographers for the most vile Tyrants of the last two centuries.

Oct 31, 2004 - 3:27 pm 5. Terrye:

The BBC is all over Fox because they are not sufficiently objective but their reporters weep for terrorists and I hear that Michael Moore, Sidney Blumenthal and George Soros are going to be covering our election for them. Soembody tell me that is a bad joke.

And yes I can call Arafat a coward and a murderer. His wife lives in luxury in Paris and nobody will be bulldozing her home.

I wonder if the lady would be half as kind to Sharon? I would not call him a coward.

Oct 31, 2004 - 3:32 pm 6. Hermie:

The media rub elbows with the elitists and their attitudes rub off on them.

They become enthralled with Mrs Arafat since she is just like them. She attends the same fashion shows, shops at the same pricy stores, and attends the same social events that the elite attend.

They lost perspective when they stopped observing events and decided they wanted to be liked by the ones they were covering.

Oct 31, 2004 - 3:48 pm 7. Almiranta:

“…ambivalent toward violence..” ??? You have got to be kidding. Arafat is ‘ambivalent toward violence’ like Clinton is ambivalent toward women, like Hillary is ambivalent toward power, like my sweet Aunt Maude was ambivalent toward gin.

The man thrives on violence, courts it, worships it, rewards it, and is totally DEPENDENT on it. Without violence, he would be nothing. He sends children out with explosives strapped to their bodies to kill other children, for chrissake.

And I suppose that is not cowardice, either? I wonder what, exactly, WOULD offend the weepy Ms. Plett? Ice in her tea? Because she is clearly not put off by bloody body parts scattered all over Israeli streets, or young women offering to kill themselves and as many others as possible so their families can avoid starvation by collecting the bounty paid by the COURAGEOUS Mr. Arafat, safe behind his walls and security guards.

Maybe the BBC should reassign Ms. Plett to something more suited to her unique sensibilities. Sadaam is still looking for a sympathetic biographer, or she could point out that Hitler’s love for his German Shepherd more than balances out the Holocaust.

Oct 31, 2004 - 4:09 pm 8. Michael B:

OT – well, given the topic, perhaps not OT at all.

Via Volokh, NYPost has more info on parts of the OBL tape that didn’t air. M. Moore themes pop up again, excerpts follow:

“Osama bin Laden doesn’t seem nearly so cocky in the unedited version of a videotape aired on al-Jazeera, complaining that the manhunt against him has hampered al Qaeda. …what was not seen was the cave-dwelling terror lord talking about the setbacks al Qaeda has faced in recent months.

“Officials said that in the 18-minute long tape of which only six minutes were aired on the al-Jazeera Arab television network in the Middle East on Friday bin Laden bemoans the recent democratic elections in Afghanistan and the lack of violence involved with it.

“On the tape, bin Laden also says his terror organization has been hurt by the U.S. military’s unrelenting manhunt for him and his cohorts on the Afghan-Pakistani border.

“A portion of the left-out footage includes a tirade aimed at President Bush and his father, former President George H.W. Bush, claiming the war in Iraq is purely over oil.

“The tape also sparked some concern that an attack aimed at disrupting Tuesday’s election may be planned. But those who have seen the tape have said there was no specific information regarding an attack.”

Oct 31, 2004 - 4:11 pm 9. PeterUK:

Please don’t get me going on the BBC,it is the reason I won’t have a television in the house.

Pett belongs to that stratum of the middle classes that desparately needs someone to patronise and little brown people are ideal.

All the romantic identification with the underdog,with the weak and dispossessed can be bestowed on the Palestinians and a vicarious thrill of insurection can surge through the Pettoids being.It is like being at university but with real people,gosh isn’t that exciting.

There is another side to this,Pettoids just love a tyrant, in the same way some like gangsters or rappers or the vicars daughter runs off with the drug dealer.

I’ll tell you what they don’t like,they don’t like the British.

Oct 31, 2004 - 4:20 pm 10. Skookumchuk:

Yet when the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound, I started to cry… without warning.

In quieter moments since I have asked myself, why the sudden surge of emotion?

Hey, there is always Paxil.

Oct 31, 2004 - 5:11 pm 11. Bryan C:

I hear that Mr. Hitler was very nice to his dog. And that fellow Mussolini was beloved by commuters everywhere for his improvements to the mass transit system. It’s so sad that a kind, gentle souls like those were so ruthlessly hounded and killed. I may cry.

Oct 31, 2004 - 5:12 pm 12. Buddy Larsen:

Wonder what effect OBL seeks to produce, applauding the success of the war against him?

Shoot, back on-thread, I wonder the same thing about this reporter. And all like her. What do they want us to do? Can it be that the left/right split is one of IQ, and these people feel angrily inferior? But, so many of them are so bright–if infuriatingly narrowly so. I swear, they are pushing me back into thinking about the Biblical warnings, day by day by day. Nah, let me be more honest, they are pushing me back to the Bible. After a lifetime hiatus? So, more honest yet, ‘to the Bible’. I haven’t actually opened it yet. But I’m thinking about it. Gotta make sense of all this, somehow. Otherwise anger will consume me.

Oct 31, 2004 - 5:22 pm 13. Good Ole Charlie:

Larsen:

IQ does not equal creativity does not equal intelligence. IQ basically means that you’re proficient when taking certain tests. And not even equally proficient in all subject areas…

The type that this young woman typifies is the idiot savant: good at certain things, not all of which are important. She goes with the crowd she finds herself with and gets their approval by parroting their opinions back to them. And maybe gets a job that way…

And parrots live a long time and have a large vocabulary…one bird lives down the street. We meet when I walk my dog and the lady owner airs her parrot.

Back to the thread, I’ve found that the fact that Hitler was much more popular among German women than men very suggestive. Are there women who are looking for an authoritative Daddy figure? Might help to explain the soccer mom phenomenon now that I think about it.

Oct 31, 2004 - 5:52 pm 14. Buddy Larsen:

Good ole Charlie, Arafat as a daddy figure, he of the child-bombs blowing up children, is a pure vision of pure Hell. But that has no bearing on whether or not you’re right.

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:03 pm 15. Clio:

Did anyone ever see a small gem of an Australian movie from the late 90s called “Children of the Revolution”? Judy Davis plays an Australian communist enamored of “Uncle Joe” Stalin, who ends of having his love child, conceived just before his death. For some reason this story brings that one to mind.

Oh, for the manly man! The man with the guns blazing, the man with the righteous (or not so righteous–did I mention he should have a gun?) cause for which he is (almost) willing to die. Now THAT is sexy.

Perhaps Plett should give herself to that bag of shite, in hopes that she may take home her own living memento of “the cause”. At least it would just be between the two of them and the entire world wouldn’t be made nauseous at this inapt loveletter of a “newstory.”

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:10 pm 16. Katherine:

This nice Mr. Hitler was also vegetarian and did not smoke. And he did not approve of guns in the hands of citizenry.

He had so much going for him that one wonders why those nasty Allies got an issue with him.

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:14 pm 17. geezer:

Thank God it’s still easy for me to resist the temptation to get mad at a group for the stupidity of the individual.

It should not have to be said there are numerous Brits, French, Spanish, Russians, etc, who agree with current US policy; though they may be in the minority, they’re still there in their respective countries, plugging away daily. I just wish there was an easy way to let them know we appreciate their support, and that the day may not be that far off wherein they become the majority.

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:16 pm 18. Kevin P:

Roger;

Maybe Ms. Plett’s report on Sept 12 went something like this-

Despite the fact that the hijackers espouse a barbaric 6th century outlook on life, despite the fact that they think a women like myself should never be allowed to be educated and should wear a veil head to toe. Despite the fact that they murdered 3000 innocent men and women, I had a unexpected tear in my eye when I thought of these men. Despite all their failings, no one could accuse them of cowardice. I felt such sympathy for them, imagine, they knew what was going to happen, they knew they were going to a violent death, yet they had the cuts to get on that plane, murder the pilots and crash the planes into those buildings. I am reaching for my tissues even as I write this.

Too bad that we have to suffer with the idiots at Fox when we could have the superior European journalism of the BBC.

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:21 pm 19. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):

Hey, Old Charlie…

IQ is a good measure of general intelligence, which is what it was designed for. I has been shown to be highly predictive of success in certain areas, and is correlated with brain physiology (evoked response potential latency).

What it doesn’t say is whether the person is going to act like an idiot, learn any facts, be successful, or be creative.

It is like a measurement of PC CPU speed. You still need the right software, and you need to use it.

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:21 pm 20. Lem:

Psalm 73: What happens when bad people seem to be blessed while good people seem to be cursed?

This is not a recent phenomenon apparently.

My father has told me stories of when el Jeneralisimo Rafael Leonidas Trujillo was assassinated in the early 60’s (unlike the Cubans, Dominicans did something) Trujillistas wept inconsolably old testament stile.

Some Dominicans to this day talk about the ‘good’ old Trujillo days, how the cost of living was almost nonexistent. Crime (not counting the ones ordered/approved by Trujillo) was also nonexistent.

Those of you in the west coast may remember the Menendez brothers getting marriage proposals in the mail. I remember developing a kind of perverse crush on Leslie Abramson, with her take no prisoner’s courtship.

One thing is secretly wishing the villain gets the girl in some film, (eh book) but to fall for the real live Jack the ripper, the doing that takes I will never understand.

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:24 pm 21. Buddy Larsen:

Ah, Katherine, you’re right! A fine fellow, a perfect Greenie, led his party to dedicate vast public parks, and encouraged a healthy life in the neat-as-a-pin countryside. Believed in the old-fashioned traditional family, too! So what if he was a little ambiguous about violence?

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:27 pm 22. Buddy Larsen:

John Moore, et al, so, basically, she just needs a good horse-deprogramming?

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:36 pm 23. Buddy Larsen:

The Beeb reporter, not you, Katherine.

Oct 31, 2004 - 6:38 pm 24. PeterUK:

Clio

A love child of Plett and Arafat? It would turn out to be a cross between Garp and Damien.

I note that I have been calling the reporter Pett when in fact it should be Plett,my apologies to all the Pett lovers out there,still I prefer Plettoid.

Oct 31, 2004 - 7:19 pm 25. Hylas:

Buddy Larsen,

If you’re trying to understand this kind of thing, you should dig up a copy of Political Pilgrims by Paul Hollander.

You’ll realize that this kind of thing is not new. Some people just have a psychological need to romanticize political violence. It seems to be a vicarious form of what Lee Harris called “Fantasy Ideology.”

Oct 31, 2004 - 7:28 pm 26. Buddy Larsen:

Thanks, Hylas; I made a note. Hollander I’ve heard of, but never read. The ‘False Consciousness’ (Trotsky, was it?) from what I deciphered, was the word-people inside the gang basically delegitimized all counter-evidence to theory, on the grounds that it was to be expected of those who disagreed with the theory, THAT was the center OF the theory! Beautiful self-licking ice-cream cone. So, under a torrent of boilerplate, an opponent was offered a sweet ‘out’, he was a mere ‘victim’. Not to mention a carrier of ‘infected ideas’who might need ‘the cure’. Man, I smell so much of that mildew growing again these days…two more days…two more days to High Noon.

Oct 31, 2004 - 7:54 pm 27. Les Nessman:

“I guess you could say the same thing of Stalin, Hitler and Attila the Hun.”

And don’t forget Jengis Khan. For some reason, I’ve been thinking about him these last few months.

Oct 31, 2004 - 7:59 pm 28. Buddy Larsen:

Les, do you mean, “…in the manner of Jengis Khan”?

Oct 31, 2004 - 8:02 pm 29. yadid:

Guys,

my suggestion is to contact Ms. Plett and ask her what did she mean by “ambivalence”.

Could be in the form of: “Dear Ms. Plett, what did you mean when you wrote ‘his ambivalence towards violence’?” (say it’s part of your academic research of ‘ambivalence’….)

It is and was the BBC’s premise and other ‘distinguished’ progressives that if only we explore, research and understand those who terrorize our life, we will reach a peaceful consensus and live peacefully untill the next suicide bomber (errr…freedom fighter, sorry) will explode in our trains, buses, restaurants, clubs and other public spaces…if only we’d ask them why, we might understand their truthful, unambivalent answers…(sent on tape to Al Jazeera..)

I report, you disbelieve…

Oct 31, 2004 - 8:12 pm 30. playrink:

A Garp/Damien figure rising to bewitch future militants is too painful to contemplate.

Oct 31, 2004 - 8:50 pm 31. Kevin P:

Roger:

The beebs love affair with Arafat it similar to much of the American Press’s infatuation with Castro. Even after most human rights groups have catalouged the police state nature of the Castro regime he can still get slobbering treatment by the US press. Remember Barbara Walters embarrasing puff piece on Fidel. I thought it was first date, not an interview. And of course the Hollywood community with Oliver Stone as Castro’s press agent to the States believes the only reason Castro doesn’t grant even basic human rights to his people is only because of the US embargo, not because it is the nature of any communist regime.

Arafat will be mourned by most of the European press because they see him as a fighter against American hegomony. They ignore or dismiss his long history of blood because they see him as the underdog fighting the ugly behemoth. Since we support Israel, she is tarred with guilt by association so they can ignore Arafats ordering of hospitals and cafe’s destroyed by human bombs because those innocent victims who live in a Democratic government have the wrong government supporting them. They will come out with a”of course we don’t like the sight of brainwashed teenagers being strapped with explosives exploding them selves and killing women and children,BUT, we understand that they have been driven to such acts by their desperate straights”. They never make the connection that that little sunglass wearing thug is one of the prime reasons the Palestinian people live in such squalid conditions.

Oct 31, 2004 - 8:54 pm 32. Lem:

Oh, if we could only return to the old soviet days when we were the bad guys; and that was perhaps the nicest thing Howard Zinn could say about us.

There was the old joke of a Jewish member of the Soviet delegation abroad who makes a number of speeches entirely following the official party line on all matters.

At one meeting a fellow Jew member of the audience asked him his opinions about Israel, and he give the orthodox answers about Zionist imperialism, etc.

Afterwards the questioner takes him aside and says,

‘Surely you, you?re a Jew, surely you have your own opinions about these matters?’

‘Of course I do,’ says the soviet Jew, ‘but I don’t agree with them’

Surely pity Plepla at CNN has an opinion of her own, but she will perilously contort to accommodate orthodoxy to the point where nobody recognizes a person there.

(Plepla is un-official Spanish for bullsh*t.)

Oct 31, 2004 - 9:01 pm 33. Buddy Larsen:

I’m with you, Kevin P. Of course, the line is always gonna be ‘large historical forces are at work’, why would the thieves, robbers, murderers and extortionists, and their Beeb patsies, say anything else? But it boils down to leadership. The only ‘correlation of forces’(to quote Leonid Brezhnev) is that some populations are so beaten down, again and again they accept the kleptocrats, with barely a whimper. But, again, that’s the leadership problem, isn’t it? Of course, the top-down theory may be wrong–but it’s still be the way to bet. Pray it gets a trial run soon.

Oct 31, 2004 - 9:18 pm 34. kcom:

“You’ll realize that this kind of thing is not new. Some people just have a psychological need to romanticize political violence. It seems to be a vicarious form of what Lee Harris called ‘Fantasy Ideology.’”

But do they have to be reporters? Can’t they just be content writing mash notes to the Menendez brothers?

Oct 31, 2004 - 9:40 pm 35. Aquatic Cadaver Dog:

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

2Thes. 11-12

All liberals love a dictator–witness the left’s love affair with Castro. And I’m sure they will adopt this piece of debris Arafat into their extended family. Just remember the left takes pleasure in unrighteousness–as long as it is against Christians and Jews.

And what is “the Lie”? It is Liberalism.

Oct 31, 2004 - 11:04 pm 36. Yehudit:

“Did anyone ever see a small gem of an Australian movie from the late 90s called “Children of the Revolution”? Judy Davis plays an Australian communist enamored of “Uncle Joe” Stalin, who ends of having his love child, conceived just before his death. For some reason this story brings that one to mind.”

Yes. That was certainly an odd little movie, but the only one I can think of that shows the political ideological mindset.

Oct 31, 2004 - 11:53 pm 37. WichitaBoy:

I think different people have different motivations.

Not all “liberals” love Arafat. I consider myself a “liberal” and I have no use for him or for Castro. The sooner they depart this earth the better.

I agree with Clio. Women are often sexually attracted to power in various forms. Arafat and Castro and their ilk are powerful men. Very powerful men. Many people have died on their merest say so. I can imagine that for certain women that makes them incredibly sexy. Do we need to look further than that for an explanation of this disgusting behavior?

Oct 31, 2004 - 11:57 pm 38. lindenen:

So sexy. Arafat, you make me hot!

Nov 1, 2004 - 12:03 am 39. Gary Rosen:

And let’s not forget that the gentle, peace-loving Fuhrer was a great champion of the Palestinian cause!

Nov 1, 2004 - 12:51 am 40. JeremyR:

What’s really sad, despite being a murderious thug for most of his life, is that Arafat had a chance to redeem himself, and truly help his people. But he chose to reject peace, and start up in the intifada.

Arafat has no small amount of Jewish, American, and Israeli (among others) blood on his hands, but the people he really has betrayed are the Palestinians. (I would say his own people, but he’s apparently Egyptian).

Nov 1, 2004 - 1:10 am 41. Buddy Larsen:

Looks like this thread has established that there is a Barbara Plett mentality, and that it finds terrorism sexy. Now. How exactly does this mentality get from the ‘ho house to the press room? And, much bigger question, how does it survive in the press room? In a market-forces pressroom?

Nov 1, 2004 - 5:20 am 42. scaramouoche:

“no one could accuse him of cowardice”

Didn’t Bill Maher say the same thing about Mohammed Atta and friends after 9/11? If a lack of cowardice were the main criterion for great leadership, I can think of plenty of despots, tyrants and brutes who might be similarly lauded.

As for his suppposed “ambivalence toward violence”–this woman seems to be ingesting some mighty powerful psychotropics to have such skewed perceptions. Either that or she works for the BBC. (And the CBC, too.)

Nov 1, 2004 - 5:22 am 43. Jamie Irons:

Completely OT, but interesting…

Kerry’s Discharge is Questioned by Ex-JAG Officer.

Jamie Irons

Nov 1, 2004 - 5:43 am 44. Buddy Larsen:

o/t, too, sorry, Jamie, while hiding this from us, he tried to plant similar in the CIC’s records. Massive badness.

Nov 1, 2004 - 6:05 am 45. richard mcenroe:

Just as a matter of general board policy, can we agree that from now on anyone bringing the term “IQ” into a thread be sentenced to listening to an angry MENSAN working in a record shop explain why cold fusion really works?

Nov 1, 2004 - 7:07 am 46. Buddy Larsen:

Mcenroe, since I’m afraid you mean me, could I at least choose the stocks, or maybe the dipping stool, instead?

Nov 1, 2004 - 8:30 am 47. ricpic:

Having read through this thread I’m astonished that the obvious hasn’t been said: The Beeb is anti-semitic and Plett is anti-semitic; whether unconsciously, semi-consciously or fully consciously hardly matters. Anti-semitism fuels their feelings and her feelings. Case closed.

Nov 1, 2004 - 9:49 am 48. Buddy Larsen:

That’s not possible, ricpic, for they are ‘left-wing’.

Nov 1, 2004 - 11:34 am

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