Tardbombs of the Middle East

While collecting my thoughts about Michel Onfray’s Atheist Manifesto, it crossed my mind that, given his undisguised animosity toward religion, he probably wasn’t surprised to hear about the recent al Qaeda bombings that employed mentally retarded or Down Syndrome suicide bombers.

Al Qaeda is built in the first place upon a recruitment drive to attract those stupid or ignorant enough to believe that mass murder will get them into an invisible, unproven Paradise, after all — and will help them defeat a high-tech, materialistic foe.  Countering our “smartbombs” with their “tardbombs” (to coin an ugly term for an ugly tactic) is a natural next step.

Would that more of the world’s civilized people vocally denounced the religious underpinnings of such groups’ philosophies as vocally as we would the blatherings of a drooling idiot man-child running amok in a shopping mall with a machete who thinks that touching people hard with “the shiny thing” is a nice way of helping his invisible friend.

We might then live in a global culture antithetical to the rise of phenomena like tardbombs — and the despicable priest/colonels who dispatch them to disrupt peaceful, secular activities.

P.S. Speaking of the French and mental retardation, here’s Devo on a French TV show performing their song “Mongoloid” back in 1978 — sounding very 80s slightly ahead of schedule and, aside from failure to use the word “booty,” sounding far less p.c. than most mainstream music today.  But then, circa 1980, in times both more innocent and more filthy, we barely blinked when bands did things like sing about falling in love with a stripper (the Tubes) or depict children locked in a cage with a dominatrix (Van Halen in the memorable “Hot for Teacher”).  And would most Americans smile unfazed today if a band made up of children came out with a song about “pahssing the dutchie” (Musical Youth)?  Probably not.  In some ways, we’ve gotten more uptight since then.