The ‘Wait, What?!’ of the Week, December 11, 2015

Since the terrorist attack occurred last week in San Bernardino, the New York Daily News has published a couple of page-one headlines that were simply unhinged. But the newspaper reached a new low last Saturday when a regular columnist, Linda Stasi, wrote that one of the murdered victims was just as bad as the murderers and deserved to be killed.

Wait. What?! Did she really say that?! Well, here is how her column began: “They were two hate-filled, bigoted municipal employees interacting in one department. Now 13 innocent people are dead in unspeakable carnage.”

We know that 14 victims were murdered. But she says only 13 were “innocent.” So who is this other non-innocent municipal employee, besides Syed Farook, the shooter? His name was Nicholas Thalasinos. And his crime, according to Ms. Stasi? He was “an anti-government, anti-Islam, pro-NRA, rabidly anti-Planned Parenthood kinda guy.” In other words, he had opinions and beliefs that differed from Ms. Stasi and the liberal progressive wing of American politics. (His beliefs, by the way, minus the inflammatory adverbs, are held by, oh, about half the country.)

Well, what actual unlawful behaviors did Mr. Thalasinos engage in, behaviors which in Ms. Stasi’s view meant he deserved to be killed? Did he shoot up a Planned Parenthood clinic? Did he fire-bomb a mosque? How many people exactly did he murder? Here is what he did: he posted his opinions on Facebook and talked about his views at work.

Oh horrors! In the Daily News columnist’s twisted little mind, expressing views she does not agree with is so awful she cannot bring herself to consider Mr. Thalasinos an “innocent” victim. And if he’s not innocent, that means she really believes he had it coming.

It would be one thing if Ms. Stasi’s views were simply an anonymous online rant in the comment section of an obscure website. But she writes for a newspaper that is—er, I mean, that used to be—considered important. And she is not alone in her view. If you haven’t noticed, there is now a strong movement in our country to stomp on the First Amendment and silence all politically incorrect dissent. It’s not just on college campuses. And I’m sure when Ms. Stasi attended an Upper West Side cocktail party last Saturday evening, everyone in the room congratulated her for her brilliant moral equivalency: the so-call “bigoted” victim was just as bad as the bigoted shooter. 

Welcome to Fascist America, folks, where Thought Crimes will be punished. I suspect when Ms. Stasi read Orwell’s novel “1984” in school, she considered it to be a feel-good how-to manual.