{"id":1511,"date":"2001-12-18T23:52:22","date_gmt":"2001-12-19T04:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=1511"},"modified":"2001-12-18T23:52:22","modified_gmt":"2001-12-19T04:52:22","slug":"perspective_3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/18\/perspective_3.html","title":{"rendered":"Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Walker, the American-turned-Taliban, has become the favorite whipping boy for various conservative pundits who see him as the archetypical leftist loonie from Marin County. Never mind that joining the Taliban is not exactly a leftist thing to do, the point of their critique is that Walker’s parents — and, more importantly, their wishy-washy left-leaning fuzzy-headed liberalism (the brush with which Marin is widely painted) — are to blame for Walker being a mess.<\/p>\n

But, as Steve Chapman points out in the Chicago Tribune<\/i>, that’s not a fair conclusion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The rush to blame Walker’s crimes on his free-thinking parents and his wealthy, liberal hometown is way too facile. Timothy McVeigh came from what conservatives might call a “refreshingly unenlightened” place–Pendleton, N.Y., a blue-collar town of 5,000 people near Buffalo. He was also an Army veteran who saw combat during the Gulf War. But I don’t recall any conservatives saying that something rotten in the culture of Pendleton or Ft. Riley, Kan., brought on the Oklahoma City bombing.
\nLikewise, Theodore Kaczynski grew up in the heavily Catholic, salt-of-the-earth Chicago suburb of Evergreen Park, which is known as “The Village of Churches.” But when the Unabomber was finally caught, no one blamed his murderous attacks on the pervasiveness of Christianity and patriotism in his youthful surroundings.<\/p>\n

(Via Overlawyered<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Walker, the American-turned-Taliban, has become the favorite whipping boy for various conservative pundits who see him as the archetypical leftist loonie from Marin County. Never mind that joining the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1611,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/04\/actions_meet_co.html","url_meta":{"origin":1511,"position":0},"title":"Actions, meet consequences","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 4-Dec-01 9:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"You could almost predict the headline. \"He\u2019s a really good boy.\" That was the reaction by the parents of John Phillip Walker Lindh, 20, who is among the captured Taliban...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128123,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/21\/scott-walker-is-now-just-wisconsins-problem-again.html","url_meta":{"origin":1511,"position":1},"title":"Scott Walker is now just Wisconsin's problem again","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 21-Sep-15 10:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"With all due apologies to Wisconsin, Walker's shady deals, abuses of power, and union-busting are just yours to deal with now. Maybe you can take care of that next time he's up for re-election. Scott Walker suspending presidential campaign A once-promising White House bid collapsed in recent weeks. View on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1598,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/12\/05\/another_one_of.html","url_meta":{"origin":1511,"position":2},"title":"Another one of those annoying “perspective” things","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Dec-01 7:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The Bleat ruminates about John Walker, the American-turned-Taliban, and the media coverage given him. After noting the following, Imagine if he\u2019d popped up in Idaho in a compound with a...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1320,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/01\/25\/double_standard.html","url_meta":{"origin":1511,"position":3},"title":"Double standard?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 25-Jan-02 7:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Some Australians are getting irked that one of their own, David Hicks, captured working alongside the Taliban, is still sitting in Guantanamo Bay with other Taliban prisoners, not in a...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9250,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/01\/feds_appeal_rul.html","url_meta":{"origin":1511,"position":4},"title":"Feds appeal ruling loss in the EFF\/AT&T case","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Aug-06 3:05pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks back, Judge Vaughan Walker ruled that the EFF suit against AT&T for allegedly turning over phone records to the NSA -- an arguably illegal act -- could...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31718,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/11\/sure-it-costs-money-but-its-the-thought-that-counts.html","url_meta":{"origin":1511,"position":5},"title":"Sure, it costs money, but it's the thought that counts","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 11-Dec-12 5:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While Wisconsin's GOP keeps preaching fiscal responsibility and budget cuts, Scott Walker's proposal to end same-day voter registration would actually add millions to state spending because of other federal election laws that would kick in if it went away.\u00a0But as long as it keeps those people from voting, I'm sure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1511\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}