“From the “You Can’t Make It Up Collection”: Derek Scally writing for The Irish Times on the Cologne Attacks”

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Seth Barrett Tillman on the Cologne attacks:

If Scally knows the difference between groping and raping, then his usage here publicly victimized the victim a second time, and he also misinformed all his Irish Times readers. On the other hand, if Scally’s command of standard English usage is so poor to the extent that he really does not know the difference, then he should open his eyes, mind, and heart, and speak to his mother, sister, or daughter—someone—anyone—or, he could just buy a standard college-level English dictionary. But either way, whether Scally knows the difference or not, The Irish Times has lost my trust.

6 thoughts on ““From the “You Can’t Make It Up Collection”: Derek Scally writing for The Irish Times on the Cologne Attacks””

  1. Islam is not a religion. It is a political system that legalizes tyranny. It is an excuse to beat and rape women for walking on the street. It teaches that the strong rule and the weak are slaves.

    The proper Christian response to Muslim men who grope women is to cut off their hands and let them live like pigs sleeping in the mud eating garbage.

  2. I think the first graf of Tillman’s letter is also very important:

    “Here, instead, we have (if Scally’s sources are to be believed) 30 adult men who organized a premeditated attack on a child””not a “young woman” as Scally mischaracterizes her””a child””a person under 18. … This child was not “groped”””I had fingers at every orifice””she was the victim of sexual assault, rape, and attempted rape by multiple perpetrators. Again, groping generally refers to wanted or unwanted touching or fondling. The victim here did not describe “groping;” she described something far more serious: sexual assault and rape.”

  3. The best, scariest, and most important thing about this problem has been written by Richard Fernandez (but, isn’t that always true?):

    Stand by for Collision By Richard Fernandez January 11, 2016

    In the same way the present calm in Europe can be deceiving. Even if its leaders were somehow to reconstitute its borders, a gigantic flood from that vacuum upstream of the old continent is already rushing with irresistible force upon it. The UNHCR says refugee numbers are expected to increase in 2016. Some estimates say as many as 10 million more are on the way. From the beaches of North Africa to the overcrowded camps in Jordan and Lebanon; from every nook and cranny in MENA — they are on the way. One way or the other a terrible smash is now in train.

    There remains the belief that Western leaders can still fix this problem with a little tweaking. But the time for easy action has passed. The Golden Hour in which to prevent irreversible damage has lapsed, neglected by a Washington too sure of its own fantasies to act decisively. Now the storm has broken and Merkel is downstream of a dam opened by the policy of “leading from behind”. The valve with which Obama had hoped to shut down the Islamic civil war has been turned the wrong way to full open. Worse, the wheel has broken off in his hand and he is staring at the snapped spindle. …

    That human tide of misery will combine with the denial which this generation of Western leaders are capable of to produce a separate catastrophe, still in the future, itself foreseeable, which can still be avoided. If only … if only… those who missed the chance the first time now wake up to act this second time.

    But, go read the whole thing.

  5. I’d say that what happened were outrages rather than atrocities. And I’d say that what happened to the girls was neither rape nor groping – it was sexual assault of, presumably, a particularly frightening sort.

    Even those of us who feel that Mrs Merkel has done more damage to Germany than anyone since Hitler should try to avoid hysterical language.

    We can settle the matter of the use of “rape” by consulting distinguished US lawyers. Mr & Mrs Clinton, say.

  6. An experienced CBS reporter has described what these were like.

    Logan: Our camera battery went down. And we had to stop for a moment. And suddenly Bahaa looks at me and says, “We’ve gotta get out of here.”

    Pelley: He’s Egyptian. He speaks Arabic. And he can hear what the crowd is saying?

    Logan: Yes.

    Pelley: He understands what no one else in the crew understands?

    Logan: That’s right. I was told later that they were saying “Let’s take her pants off.” And it’s like suddenly, before I even know what’s happening, I feel hands grabbing my breasts, grabbing my crotch, grabbing me from behind. I mean – and it’s not one person and then it stops – it’s like one person and another person and another person. And I know Ray is right there, and he’s grabbing at me and screaming, “Lara hold onto me, hold onto me.”

    As she was pulled into the frenzy, the camera recorded Lara’s shout: “Stop!”

    And then:

    Logan: I have one arm on Ray. I’ve lost the fixer, I’ve lost the drivers. I’ve lost everybody except him. And I feel them tearing at my clothing. I think my shirt, my sweater was torn off completely. My shirt was around my neck. I felt the moment that my bra tore. They tore the metal clips of my bra. They tore those open. And I felt that because the air, I felt the air on my chest, on my skin. And I felt them tear out, they literally just tore my pants to shreds. And then I felt my underwear go. And I remember looking up, when my clothes gave way, I remember looking up and seeing them taking pictures with their cell phones, the flashes of their cell phone cameras.

    And then:

    I didn’t even know that they were beating me with flagpoles and sticks and things, because I couldn’t even feel that. Because I think of the sexual assault, was all I could feel, was their hands raping me over and over and over again.

    Pelley: Raping you with their hands?

    Logan: Yeah.

    Pelley: Nonstop. During this whole time?

    Logan: From the front, from the back. And I didn’t know if I could hold onto Ray. I’m holding on to him. I didn’t wanna let go of him. I thought I was gonna die if I lost hold of him.

    But in that moment Ray, a former special forces soldier, was torn away.

    Logan: When I lost Ray, I thought that was the end. It was like all the adrenaline left my body. ‘Cause I knew in his face when he lost me, he thought I was gonna die. They were tearing my body in every direction at this point, tearing my muscles. And they were trying to tear off chunks of my scalp, they had my head in different directions.

    Yes, not an atrocity. A Clinton style sexual assault but without the cigar,.

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