On this day four years ago, Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people (mostly children) in two separate attacks in Norway. Needless to say, these were not terrorism. Need proof? Look at the photo on the left. Do you see a beard? Does he look like he might be from the Middle East? What about eastern looking clothes? No. You don’t see any of that at all. For God’s sake, he’s blond. He is clearly not a terrorist and his acts were clearly not terrorism.

Slightly before the attacks, he sent out a thousand copies of his 1,518-page compendium, 2083: A European Declaration of Independence. In it, he explained — largely using the words of other far right ideologues — his positions on various matters, especially his hatred of Muslims and liberals writ large, his support of nationalism and patriarchy, and above all, his support for a Christian Europe. But it wasn’t the political document of a terrorist Christian. It was just some stuff he had found on the internet. It’s just the kind of thing that happens to men with light hair and blue eyes.

At 3:25 pm local time, Breivik detonated a car bomb in central Oslo. It killed 8 people. But it wasn’t a terrorist act. It was just a crazy guy. That’s just what happens to men with blond hair and blue eyes. It was the same thing with another man with light hair and blue eyes: Timothy McVeigh. They both used the same kinds of bombs. But it wasn’t terrorism in either case. They were just lone wolves — bad guys doing bad things — not indicative of any larger narrative.

After detonating his bomb, Anders Behring Breivik — dressed as a police officer — made his way to a summer camp organized by the Labour Party on the island of Utøya. There were approximate 600 teenagers there. And it is terrible that he killed 69 people there — mostly teens. But despite the fact that he had compiled a 1,518-page document talking about his political motivations, these murders were not terrorism. You see, he isn’t a Muslim. So it was not terrorism.

It’s clear that Breivik is mentally ill. And that’s another reason why we know his crimes were not terrorism. Because we know that the Muslim murderers in the US and Canada have all been in a blind rage because of Islam. They weren’t mentally ill. And even if they were, they had the telltale signs of being a terrorist. Note the complete lack of light hair and eyes. And in the case of Anders Behring Breivik, he had blond hair and blue eye and he was a Christian. His murders don’t mean anything outside of the narrative of a crazy guy doing bad things. Let’s just forget the whole thing.

We mark this day four years go and all the senseless deaths at the hand of this entirely typical terrorist.

[There is no historical event that calls out to be today. Thus, I’m going to rerun this article I wrote about Lizzie Borden. It’s fun. -FM]

On this day in 1860, Lizzie Borden was born. She is famous not so much for killing her father and step-mother, but for getting away with it. And, of course, the rhyme:

Lizzie Borden took an ax
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one.

The history of this rhyme is not known, but I’m rather fond of the belief that it was made up by a newspaper seller. You know, like those people you see in the old movies selling papers yelling, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” For the record, she gave her step-mother 19 whacks and her father only 11. Whatever else you can say about about Lizzie, she wasn’t excessive!

When I was younger, I really loved the television show Columbo. In those cases, the murderers take such great pains to provide themselves alibis. But in the case of Lizzie Borden, she didn’t much take any pains whatsoever. It was a frightfully planned murder plot. For example, two days after the murders, she was caught burning one of her dresses. Even still, as with the O J Simpson trial, the prosecution and police work was very bad. There are really only two reasons I feel certain she did it: she had a huge and multifaceted motive and she was pretty much the only person who could have done it.

There is one interesting aspect of the trial. They cut off the heads of the victims for use in the trial. Since the trial took place about a year later, the bodies had already been buried. So after the trial, the heads were buried at the foot of each grave. It just seems strange to me that they didn’t dig up the coffins and put the heads back in. I mean, these were extremely rich people.

They were also, not surprisingly, all a pretty vile bunch. Daddy, for example, killed all the pigeons in the barn with an ax, because they were attracting kids to hunt them. Lizzy apparently had built a roost for them and was very upset about him killing the birds. That may have been the ultimate cause (but there was lots of money as a sweetener). As Columbo would tell you, it is always the little things.

Regardless, I think people should stop fretting about whether she really did it. I like this line from Verbal in The Usual Suspects, “To a cop the explanation is never that complicated. It’s always simple. There’s no mystery to the street, no arch criminal behind it all. If you got a dead body and you think his brother did it, you’re gonna find out you’re right.” Regardless, the only other person it could possibly have been would have been the maid and the best motive that anyone has had for her is that she was angry about being told to clean the windows on such a hot day. I’m sure that the maid was used to doing whatever the vile Borden family told her to.

Happy birthday Lizzie Borden — you got away with it!

On this day in 1945 — exactly 70 years ago — the Nuclear Age started with Trinity, the first nuclear detonation. It was an implosion-design plutonium device — the same kind that we would drop on Nagasaki less than a month later. It’s good to be reminded of this. The typical American believes that we must stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon because they can’t be trusted. I don’t want them to get a nuclear weapon either — but not because of concerns that they can’t be trusted. But that is what Americans think: the Iranians are “crazy” and would give nuclear weapons away to terrorists.

But supposedly one country that can be trusted is the United States of America. Yet we are the only country that has used a nuclear weapon — and we’ve done it twice. I’ve discussed this before, Stalin, Not the Bomb, Defeated Japan. What we did was kill well over 100,000 Japanese civilians. And we did not do it to protect ourselves or to defeat Japan. We did it to send the Soviet Union a message.

As evil as terrorism is, those who engage in it at least think that they are righting some wrong. When we dropped the nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we were not doing that. Our leaders very calmly decided that it was fine to kill so many fellow human beings in the name of “flipping the bird” to the Russians. And as it was, it only took four years for the Soviets to get their own bomb. If the US hadn’t dropped those bombs, Stalin likely wouldn’t have felt it so pressing to get the bomb for himself.

I understand why we decided to get the bomb. It was thought that the Nazis would get it and win the war. It’s hard not to sympathize with that thinking. So I don’t have such a problem with the Manhattan Project or even with Trinity. But we didn’t have to use the bomb on fellow humans. Sadly, the leadership of the United States thought exactly the opposite. And for the worst possible reasons.

Welcome to the Nuclear Age, 70 years ago today.

[I wrote this two years ago, but it seems worth reposting. The only thing that has changed is that I think even less of François Hollande. -FM]

So It’s Bastille Day. Although it isn’t technically a celebration of the storming of the Bastille, I still think of it that way. And thus it is the perfect holiday from my standpoint. First, it involves the people attacking the aristocracy. And regardless of what Edmund Burke thought, that’s generally a good thing. Second, it isn’t an American holiday so I don’t have to deal with a disruption to my mail and library access.

The official purpose of Bastille Day is to celebrate Fête de la Fédération. I know what you’re thinking, “The what’s it?” This was a feast held exactly one year after the storming of the Bastille to celebrate the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. But it didn’t last long. France had, what you might call, growing pains. But once constitutional democracy was finally established in France, it held on, unlike in other countries like, I don’t know, America?

François Hollande has been a bit of a disappointment as the president of France. But most of his problems stem from being stuck with the shared European currency. Here in America, we elected Barack Obama and a Democratic majority in the House and a super-majority in the Senate. Combine this with the fact that Obama really was a very conservative guy and you have a prescription for the federal government really getting some stuff done — not just with his own caucus but with the Republicans as well. But instead, getting anything done was very difficult. Add to that, what did get done was excessively watered down. If that kind of thing happened in France, the people would storm the Bastille.

Over the years, I’ve come to think that the idea of the rugged American is just a myth. The true American is a guy who kills himself just to get by, but still loves the inheriting wealthy because he’s too stupid to realize that his father is not George Romney. I’ve long dreamed that the middle class in this country would eventually push back against a government by, for, and of the rich. But now I think as long as the government isn’t actively doing drone attacks on the suburbs, the rich will be just fine. Not that it matters; by that point the entire middle class will consist of one family in Queens.

So let us celebrate a country were the government really has to be concerned that the people will rise up if conditions get bad enough. I’m feeling kind of depressed that Americans only ever revolted in defense of chattel slavery. And many still think they ought to revolt over that — even if they don’t put it that way.

Vive la France!

On this day in 1863, the New York City draft riots started. Basically, it was Irish immigrants who were rioting. There is a just side to this and an unjust side to it. Let’s start with the just side.

During the Civil War, young men in the north could avoid the draft by hiring someone to go in their place. That wasn’t generally possible because most of the men around were also being drafted. Or they could just pay a $300 commutation fee. Well, plenty of young working men were angry that rich men could just buy their way out of the war. They were understandably upset. So that’s the just side. The unjust side is that things turned ugly.

Very soon, the draft riots turned into the race riots. The rioters started attacking African Americans. A total of 116 people ended up dead when the riots were put down by the US military three days later. But the whole thing is entirely typical. The working class whites had an actual grievance against the rich elite. But it quickly turned into an attack on African Americans, and even more oppressed group than the working class whites. And we see this same narrative replay itself over and over today in the US.

So we mark the start of the New York City draft and race riots.

On this day in 1967, the Newark riots started. It was something that we are very familiar with today. The police arrested an African American cab driver for a driving violation. In the process, they beat him so badly that he ended up in the hospital. But there was a rumor that the police had killed him. This sparked the riot. But the police, ever the professionals short two rioters dead right away. The whole thing would continue on for six days and 26 people would end up dead.

The riots are often used to explain “white flight.” But let’s face it, our entire society was set up to incentivize whites to run to the suburbs. Public schools are now as as segregated as they were before the mid-1960s. People who blame whites running to the suburbs on things like the Newark riots have things exactly backwards. Anyway, Newark is no more black now than it was then. It is a lot more brown, however. It’s all about social class and how closely that is linked to race in this country.

This all reminds me of the Gil Scott-Heron poem, “Whitey on the Moon.” It’s as true now as it was then. Actually, it might be more true. The white elites don’t give a damn. And all whites are pretty smug about that.

Forty-Eight years later, and nothing has changed.