White privilege

I am amused, in a horrified sort of way, at the reaction I'm seeing towards Anders Breivik in the media. People seem to be bending over backwards to avoid calling him a terrorist. This isn't just Fox News either, I found the worst and most horrible examples on CNN. While there are certainly white Christian terrorist groups (ETA and the IRA come right to mind) the script now is that to be a terrorist one must be Muslim and preferably brown-skinned. There are now Eastern European Muslim terrorists, which created some disturbance when this fact became apparent, but Breivik has set the entire image on its ear.

I haven't checked World Net Daily since this happened but Conservapedia is going NUTS. To have someone who shares their anti-Marxist, anti-Islam, pro-white European opinions be a terrorist has destroyed their worldview completely. They're even clinging to the notion that some "liberal" went to Breivik's Facebook page and put his religion as "Christian" since obviously it's a lie.

Sane people would instead sit down and think, "Do I sound like that?"

I've noticed that jordan179 has been conspicuously silent on this. I can only assume that he's crouching in whatever basement he occupies, saying, "Lalalalala, only Muslims are terrorists! Only Muslims are terrorists! ONLY MUSLIMS ARE TERRORISTS!"

"Why do they keep bringing up that he's Christian?" is a question I'm seeing a lot. I dunno...because the news channels automatically assumed that the terrorist was Muslim?

soldiergrrrl made the astute observation that some are also trying to write off Breivik as a "lone nutcase" while Major Hassan of Ft. Hood infamy is referred to as a terrorist. Breivik killed more people, in two locations, one of which was a government office. But he's white so again, people are giving him a pass on the "T-word".

I have a pagan-oriented spin on this. I can't help but see this as a continuation of the tragic legacy of Olav Tryggvason, who tortured and murdered unknown numbers of his fellow Norwegians for failing to adhere to his Christian worldview. "St" Olav followed in his footsteps. As the anniversary of the battle of Stikklestad comes around on Friday, this is ironic and terrible food for thought.

Dead Until Dark

This is the first of the Sookie Stackhouse "Southern Vampire" series. Steve and I are simultaneously watching the first season of the series; we're up to episode 7. Not a lot to say; this is the proverbial beach book. I hear that the series doesn't go downhill into self-indulgent porn the way Anita Blake does, and that both it and the series can and should be enjoyed separately. A fun read and I'll be continuing with them.