As a podcast on iTunes, listenable/downloadable onscreen at Taki’s Magazine, or as a transcript here.
Along the way I spot a curious coincidence in the case of Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter:
Hasan killed 13 people and wounded 32 others, after first standing up and shouting “Allahu akbar!” He got lawyered up, the army took exquisite care not to offend any religious sensibilites, and here we are three and a half years later, still waiting for the guy to come to trial for his act of “workplace violence.”
This week we learned two things about the case. One, that Hasan has been drawing his salary all this time—now a total of $278,000, according to an investigation by NBC News. The Department of Defense explained that they can't suspend Hasan's salary until he's been proven guilty.
And then, we've got a trial date: May 29th. That's when the court-martial is scheduled to open.
May 29th? Either someone's got a sense of humor, or no-one reads history any more. May 29th— Hel-lo? It's on a Wednesday this year, but back in A.D. 1453 it was a Tuesday: Terrible Tuesday, the day Constantinople fell to the Muslim horde.
Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut there. If Hasan's lawyer gets to hear about the date coincidence, he'll move for another postponement. We wouldn't want to hurt Hasan's feelings, would we?
If it was up to me, I'd go for October 10th as a trial date. October 10th, A.D. 732, Battle of Tours. Look it up. I believe it was a Friday.
(Back in the Lyndon Johnson presidency there was a fuss about “insensitivity” when one of Johnson’s daughters scheduled her wedding for August 6th. She responded with: “OK, we’ll reschedule. How about December 7th?”)
