Blog Reactions
The New Republic blogs: Does Ft. Hood Have a Meaning?
| me too. RT @m_leblanc increasingly, i agree with this sentiment about mass tragedies like #fthood http://tinyurl.com/ydlwb6w 18 days ago |
| Journotwits: Please pass on this James Fallows' post.http://bit.ly/1L34ny Shootings don't mean anything. They never mean anything. 22 days ago |
| The real meaning of the shootings in Ft. Hood & Orlando: nothing. http://bit.ly/1SpfEv 22 days ago |
Does Ft. Hood Have a Meaning?
The New Republic blogs —
James Fallows writes : One consequence of having been alive through a lot of modern American history is remembering a lot of mass shootings. I was working at a high school summer job when news came over the radio that Charles Whitman had gunned down more than 40 people, killing 14, from the main tower at the University of Texas at Austin. I was editing a news magazine during the schoolyard killings in Paducah, Kentucky in 1997 and sent reporters to try to figure out what it all meant. I can remember where I was when the live-news coverage switched to the shootings at Columbine ...
Fort Hood Reax
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan —
Robert Mackey is live-blogging Ft. Hood. .Fallows:
In the saturation coverage right after the events, the "expert" talking
heads are compelled to offer theories about the causes and
consequences. In the following days and weeks, newspapers and magazine
will have their theories too. Looking back, we can see that all such
efforts are futile. The shootings never mean anything. Forty years
later, what did the Charles Whitman massacre "mean"? A decade later, do
we "know" anything about Columbine? There is chaos and evil in life. ...
11/6: Rocking The House
Blogometer —
... the House bill. THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The Meaninglessness Of Shootings The Atlantic 's James Fallows : "One consequence of having been alive through a lot of modern American history is remembering a lot of mass shootings. I was working at a high school summer job when news came over the radio that Charles Whitman had gunned down more than 40 people, killing 14, from the main tower at the University of Texas at Austin. I was editing a news magazine during the schoolyard killings in Paducah, Kentucky in 1997 and sent reporters to try to figure out what it all meant. I can ...
Tab dump
Ezra Klein —
1) Entitlement reform is health-care reform.
2) The meaninglessness of shootings.
3) Health-care strategery.
4) Bruce Bartlett on deficit commissions.
Recipe of the day: A tomato soup that includes blue cheese and sriracha.
The House might pass health-care reform this weekend. Exciting!
Midday open thread
Daily Kos —
... The White House this morning released a statement announcing that the President and First Lady will be traveling to Fort Hood for a memorial service this coming Tuesday. Will you read this post? Face it, says Bill Scher, we are a center-left nation. Lori at Feminsting has a thoughtful essay on what it means when presidencies are viewed as partnerships between two gifted spouses, one of them unpaid and unofficial. James Fallows on the meaningless of the Fort Hood shootings: In the saturation ...
What to do About Hasan’s Religion?
PoliBlog: A Rough Draft of my Thoughts —
... Really, after these events we want there to be a broader pattern so that we can protect ourselves in the future. However, this is rarely (if ever) the case. As James Fallows (one of the “elite makers of opinion” that inspired Goldberg’s post) correctly notes: ...
Quote of the Day: Andrew Sullivan on religious extremism and the Fort Hood massacre
The Reaction —
... did, to call the Fort Hood massacre a "terrorist attack." On the flip side, it is ridiculous to claim, as some have (such as James Fallows), that the attack was essentially meaningless. ...
The Lessons of Fort Hood
Megan McArdle —
... writes that "there is absolutely no political lesson to be learned from this." James Fallows says:
"The shootings never mean anything. Forty years later, what did the
Charles Whitman massacre 'mean'? A decade later, do we 'know' anything
about Columbine?" And the ...
The Meaning of Fort Hood
Opinionator —
... relevant as we tried to understand the motivation and meaning of the attack? Of course. Elite opinion makers do not, as a rule, try to protect Christians and Christian belief from investigation and criticism. Quite the opposite. It would be useful to apply the same standards of inquiry and criticism to all religions. Goldberg was responding in part to his colleague James Fallows, who was early with the meaningless P.O.V. Just hours after the shootings on Thursday he wrote, “ As the Vietnam-era saying went, ‘Don’t mean nothing.’ ” One consequence of having been alive through ...
Michael J.W. Stickings: Terrorism, Religious Extremism, and the Fort Hood Massacre
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com —
... seems to have been an act of violence, not terror, as the point was not to terrorize, or necessarily to act to effect political change, which suggests the creation of abject fear beyond the act itself. Still, it's clear we don't really know yet what it was. At the very least, it is premature, and somewhat irresponsible, given how freely the word is thrown around post-9/11, to call it terrorism.) On the flip side, it is ridiculous to claim, as some have (such as James Fallows), that the attack was essentially meaningless.
Without rushing to ...

