Laughing at the devil
“The devil, the proud spirit, cannot endure to be mocked,” wrote Sir Thomas More.
Isn't it amazing how many terrorists seem to be people of such amazing, breathtaking stupidity, that the most appropriate reaction to these clowns is to fall about laughing.
When terrorists succeed in hurting someone other than themselves, it is tactless and insensitive to laugh at their stupidity. And of course, in encouraging people to laugh at the hapless absurdity pf incompetent terrorists like the six who pleaded guilty yesterday, I am not for one moment suggesting that we should fail to take all reasonable steps to protect ourselves against the threat that less stupid terrorists, or for that matter stupid ones who were luckier, might manage to cause.
The people who run the "Darwin Awards" have an unconfirmed story about an archetypal stupid terrorist called Khay Rahnajet.
This gentleman allegedly removed himself from the human gene pool and thereby increased average intellience through three simple mistakes
1) When he posted a letter bomb, he didn't put enough postage on it.
2) He included a return address on his letter bomb, and
3) When it came back marked "return to sender," he opened it.
Could anyone really be that stupid? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the six extremists who have just pleaded guilty to attempting to attack an English Defence League rally in Yorkshire, and who don't appear to have five working brain cells between them.
Now I want to make clear that I utterly and completely disagree with the opinions of the English Defence League, who are a thoroughly nasty piece of work. But provided they stay within the law and express their views in ways which stop short of advocating criminality or violence, the words usually attributed to Voltaire describe the way civilised people should react to groups like the EDL:
"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
It was pointed out by community groups in Dewsbury that if the would-be-terrorists had succeeded in setting off their explosive device, the mayhem they planned to create might have affected innocent people who were nothing to do with the EDL, killing and injuring Christians, Muslims and atheists alike.
Ironically, they would also have massively increased support for groups like the English Defence League and BNP, because their actions would have been seen by many, however wrongly, as confirming the EDL view of muslims.
So if they had succeeded, it would not have been at all funny.
But they didn't. Having loaded their bomb and weapons into a car, they drove to Dewsbury in Yorkshire where an EDL rally had been taking place, only to find when they got there that it had already finished.
So they turned round and headed home - but their car wasn't properly insured. So it was stopped and impounded by the traffic police - who later discovered the bomb and weapons.
Presumably these guys wouldn't want to organise a you-know-what in a brewery, but neither could they organise an intifada in a cub scout pack.
Another saying of Voltaire was that he had only made one prayer in his life - that God would make his enemies ridiculous - and God granted it.
If we are trying to discourage people from starting down the road which leads to terrorism, we could do worse than point out how ridiculous some terrorists are. And have a good laugh at them, whether they have blown up their own genitals by putting explosives in their underpants, or trying to blow up a far right rally and arriving after it has finished.
God save the Queen - and may He long continue to make her enemies ridiculous.
Isn't it amazing how many terrorists seem to be people of such amazing, breathtaking stupidity, that the most appropriate reaction to these clowns is to fall about laughing.
When terrorists succeed in hurting someone other than themselves, it is tactless and insensitive to laugh at their stupidity. And of course, in encouraging people to laugh at the hapless absurdity pf incompetent terrorists like the six who pleaded guilty yesterday, I am not for one moment suggesting that we should fail to take all reasonable steps to protect ourselves against the threat that less stupid terrorists, or for that matter stupid ones who were luckier, might manage to cause.
The people who run the "Darwin Awards" have an unconfirmed story about an archetypal stupid terrorist called Khay Rahnajet.
This gentleman allegedly removed himself from the human gene pool and thereby increased average intellience through three simple mistakes
1) When he posted a letter bomb, he didn't put enough postage on it.
2) He included a return address on his letter bomb, and
3) When it came back marked "return to sender," he opened it.
Could anyone really be that stupid? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the six extremists who have just pleaded guilty to attempting to attack an English Defence League rally in Yorkshire, and who don't appear to have five working brain cells between them.
Now I want to make clear that I utterly and completely disagree with the opinions of the English Defence League, who are a thoroughly nasty piece of work. But provided they stay within the law and express their views in ways which stop short of advocating criminality or violence, the words usually attributed to Voltaire describe the way civilised people should react to groups like the EDL:
"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
It was pointed out by community groups in Dewsbury that if the would-be-terrorists had succeeded in setting off their explosive device, the mayhem they planned to create might have affected innocent people who were nothing to do with the EDL, killing and injuring Christians, Muslims and atheists alike.
Ironically, they would also have massively increased support for groups like the English Defence League and BNP, because their actions would have been seen by many, however wrongly, as confirming the EDL view of muslims.
So if they had succeeded, it would not have been at all funny.
But they didn't. Having loaded their bomb and weapons into a car, they drove to Dewsbury in Yorkshire where an EDL rally had been taking place, only to find when they got there that it had already finished.
So they turned round and headed home - but their car wasn't properly insured. So it was stopped and impounded by the traffic police - who later discovered the bomb and weapons.
Presumably these guys wouldn't want to organise a you-know-what in a brewery, but neither could they organise an intifada in a cub scout pack.
Another saying of Voltaire was that he had only made one prayer in his life - that God would make his enemies ridiculous - and God granted it.
If we are trying to discourage people from starting down the road which leads to terrorism, we could do worse than point out how ridiculous some terrorists are. And have a good laugh at them, whether they have blown up their own genitals by putting explosives in their underpants, or trying to blow up a far right rally and arriving after it has finished.
God save the Queen - and may He long continue to make her enemies ridiculous.
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