The Closing of the Liberal Mind

Some recent events should have come as no surprise to me, having spent decades observing the illogical workings of the liberal mind. 

First has been the strange reaction to Climategate, from an administration that boldly proclaimed its intention to demand critical thinking in our science and to base policies on the best scientific thought available. Their reaction to the news that political correctness has infected the science of man-made global warming has been to spin the facts and then to deny the implications of the false data and the burying of any study that did not support the global warming thesis. Senator Boxer actually thinks that the hacking of these e-mails is more significant than what they revealed about the corruption in global warming activist scientists.

Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over 'Climategate'

By Michael O'Brien - 12/02/09 The Hill

Leaked e-mails allegedly undermining climate change science should be treated as a criminal matter, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said Wednesday afternoon.
Boxer, the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said that the recently released e-mails, showing scientists allegedly overstating the case for climate change, should be treated as a crime.

"You call it 'Climategate'; I call it 'E-mail-theft-gate,'" she said during a committee meeting. "Whatever it is, the main issue is, Are we facing global warming or are we not? I'm looking at these e-mails, that, even though they were stolen, are now out in the public."

Second has been the weird disconnect of the new Afghanistan strategy. After taking almost four months (how could this possibly take four months?) to consider a request by Obama’s hand-picked commander in the field, General McChrystal, for 40,000 more troops right away, Obama commits to 30,000 troops who will only be there for 18 months, after which we will begin withdrawing all our soldiers. The tone, content and substance of the announcement speech gave the impression that we are about as committed to defeating the Al Qaida as we are to sticking to a troublesome diet. With this announced time table and this Churchillian commitment to victory (not), the Al Qaida will really be frightened and our allies emboldened.

Third has been the strange reaction to the Fort Hood massacre by a self-described Muslim terrorist shouting jihadist cries (Allahu Akbar) while gunning down scores of American soldiers.

Medicalizing mass murder

By Charles Krauthammer

Friday, November 13, 2009 Washington Post (Excerpts)

"What a surprise -- that someone who shouts "Allahu Akbar" (the "God is great" jihadist battle cry) as he is shooting up a room of American soldiers might have Islamist motives. It certainly was a surprise to the mainstream media, which spent the weekend after the Fort Hood massacre playing down Nidal Hasan's religious beliefs.

"I cringe that he's a Muslim. . . . I think he's probably just a nut case," said Newsweek's Evan Thomas. Some were more adamant. Time's Joe Klein decried "odious attempts by Jewish extremists . . . to argue that the massacre perpetrated by Nidal Hasan was somehow a direct consequence of his Islamic beliefs." While none could match Klein's peculiar cherchez-le-juif motif, the popular story line was of an Army psychiatrist driven over the edge by terrible stories he had heard from soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

They suffered. He listened. He snapped.

Really? What about the doctors and nurses, the counselors and physical therapists at Walter Reed Army Medical Center who every day hear and live with the pain and the suffering of returning soldiers? How many of them then picked up a gun and shot 51 innocents?....

And the perfect moral finesse. Medicalizing mass murder not only exonerates. It turns the murderer into a victim, indeed a sympathetic one. After all, secondary PTSD, for those who believe in it (you won't find it in DSM-IV-TR, psychiatry's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual), is known as "compassion fatigue." The poor man -- pushed over the edge by an excess of sensitivity.

Have we totally lost our moral bearings? Nidal Hasan (allegedly) cold-bloodedly killed 13 innocent people. His business card had his name, his profession, his medical degrees and his occupational identity. U.S. Army? No. "SoA" -- Soldier of Allah. In such cases, political correctness is not just an abomination. It's a danger, clear and present." Washington Post

Then there is the bigoted reaction to the Gates – Crowley confrontation, by a president whose main claim to the office was that he would heal wounds and bring people together. Enough said. You get my point.

By the way, I am well aware that my title is a takeoff on The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom. I intended it to be.