You Gotta Be Nuts

CNN today entitled one of its top stories “Female Bomber Blows Up Baghdad Store.” Perhaps this was done in a quest to draw our attention (once again) to the ongoing violence in Iraq.

Just like in other regions where reports of ongoing violence have reduced our ability to engage our thoughts and emotions for more than a fleeting moment, the waves of suicide bombings in Iraq have numbed our empathy.

After all, it’s always the same, isn’t it? Moslem male gets promised sexual liberation in the after-life in exchange for a violent jihadist exit out of this life. So he goes and blows up a market.

It is disturbing as much as it is insane. And yet, the bomber’s gender is so consistent that we don’t even mention that the killer is male.

But not this time. Here we have a female bomber. That changes everything. At least for a second or two...just enough to make us linger on the page a little longer, maybe even click on the article.

I clicked, because I wanted to see whether the article went into the gender issue. It didn’t.

However, it did lead on to another article that revealed that the woman was an inpatient with a psychiatric disorder and that, once again Al Qaeda (a male dominated organization), was behind this most recent suicide attack.

And yes, you gotta be nuts to do what they tell you to do.

I would think that’s a worthwhile conclusion. One no one will print, of course.