The velocity of instant fame overtakes a pair of different men this weekend.
Barack Obama eulogizes an American who “laid down his life for his friends, Libyan and American--and for us all” after the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, killed in Benghazi during an attack on the U.S. consulate over snippets of an anti-Muslim film online.
Chris Stevens, the President says, “was everything America could want in an ambassador, as the whole country has come to see--how he first went to the region as a young man in the Peace Corps...how he believed in Libya and its people and how they loved him back.”
“The world needs more Chris Stevenses,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton adds.
In a murkier world, renown is trying to catch up with the maker of the movie that killed Stevens and three colleagues.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a 55-year-old Coptic Christian activist, is being questioned in California after false reports that it was produced “with the help of more than 100 Jewish donors.” It turns out that film permits were issued to a group called “Media for Christ,” headed by a Christian from Egypt.
It will take time to untangle the truth about the apparent violator of parole for bank fraud and convicted drug manufacturer, but Nakoula or whoever he really is will eventually be unmasked and given his hard-earned 15 minutes of insane fame.
Then we can all rest easy that journalism is doing its job to help us make sense of a messy world.
Update: A civil-rights uproar over Nakoula’s “arrest” escalates into a call for the President’s resignation—-a peculiar, to say the least, reaction to the attempt to discover who set off an ideological time bomb that killed those four Americans in Benghazi.
There are times when a simple citizen can’t help marveling at the purity of lawyers.
[quote]the maker of the movie that killed Stevens and three colleagues.
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The movie killed him? Really? The movie, I suppose, also raped him and dragged him through the streets screaming Allahu Akbar. Then the movie hoisted the flag of Islam over the American embassy. The movie, I suppose, also rioted, burned flags, burned Obama in effigy, and raised the black flag of Islam over numerous American embassies throughout the Middle East and Africa?
Wow. Just wow.
And to think, all Van Gogh's film did was murder him. In the street. Clearly Van Gogh's film hadn't fully developed its ability to slaughter. Maybe his film was just not as capable as the film that is currently rampaging all on its own.
Films sure are dangerous. They should probably be heavily regulated and perhaps even outlawed. They have minds, wills, bodies, and weapons of their own and are clearly disposed to murderous violent intent.
Down with movies!