I remember when Bill Maher lost his job at ABC. Do you remember what he did that cost him his job? Let me refresh your memory. The president called the 9/11 hijackers ‘cowards’ for killing thousands of innocent people. Mr. Maher thought that ‘coward’ was a curious descriptor for people who had just flown an airplane at full speed into the Twin Towers and Pentagon. Whatever else you might say about the hijackers, they didn’t seem to be lacking in courage. This observation was considered behind the pale of polite conversation and Maher was packed and on his way to HBO.
I mention this because a bunch of right-wing outlets, both here and abroad, have been racing to argue that the Norwegian terrorist might have overreacted but he had a point about how awful it is to have Muslims living in Europe. Now, I’ve read about how Europe spent a half-century debating how to solve the Jewish Question before settling for annihilation. So, it’s not like I haven’t heard about these debates before. I just think it is kind of grotesque to see it advanced in the Jerusalem Post, if you know what I mean.
Now, people should have the right to say what they want. But I note the double standard. Saying anything that could be construed as somewhat complimentary about the 9/11 hijackers would lose you your job, even if it was basically an obvious truth. But no such standard applies to complimenting the writings of Anders Breivik. Someone tell MSNBC.
