NY Times readers are exposed to a moment of cultural angst and self-doubt in their Saturday Times - one story tells us that not even the beautiful art, music and architecture of Dresden can hold back the tides of hate and intolerance, while another lionizes an old codger in Harlem (Not that one!) who foiled four robbers, one armed, by relying on a cool demeanor and a pump shotgun.
The Dresden story could scarcely be dumber. First, the deplorable background:
By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN
DRESDEN, Germany — In early July thousands of mourners took to the streets in Egypt, chanting “Down with Germany.” Thousands more Arabs and Muslims joined them in protests in Berlin. In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad added to the outcry by denouncing German “brutality.”
The provocation was the murder on July 1 of Marwa al-Sherbini, a pregnant Egyptian pharmacist here. She was stabbed 18 times in a Dresden courtroom, in front of her 3-year-old son, judges and other witnesses, reportedly by the man appealing a fine for having insulted Ms. Sherbini in a park. Identified by German authorities only as a 28-year-old Russian-born German named Alex W., he had called Ms. Sherbini an Islamist, a terrorist and a slut when she asked him to make room for her son on the playground swings. Ms. Sherbini wore a head scarf.
That is great security work by the German police - stand around checking the union rulebook while the wife is stabbed 18 times, then shoot the husband, almost surely for an illegal skin tone. Well, I wouldn't give a nickel for the German courts ever since they decided that the Steffi Graf fan who came out of the stands to stab Monica Seles was not a menace to the public at large, only highly ranked females tennis players.
However, the Times is striving for a "deep-think" piece, and delivers this:
...
High-tech industries and research institutes like the one where Ms. Sherbini’s husband works, which recruit foreign experts, have lifted Dresden economically above much of the rest of the former East, and last year nearly 10 million tourists fattened the city’s coffers. With half a million residents, some 20,000 of them foreigners, the capital looks prosperous and charming, like its old self.
All of which gets back to the problem of reconciliation: What are the humanizing effects of culture?
Evidently, there are none.
"None"? Because one nutter is not civilized this whole project we self-mockingly call "culture" belongs on the ash-heap? Buck up, man!
The Big Finish:
To walk through Dresden’s museums, and past the young buskers fiddling Mozart on street corners, is to wonder whether this age-old question may have things backward. It presumes that we’re passive receivers acted on by the arts, which vouchsafe our salvation, moral and otherwise, so long as we remain in their presence. Arts promoters nowadays like to trumpet how culture helps business and tourism; how teaching painting and music in schools boosts test scores. They try to assign practical ends, dollar values and other hard numbers, never mind how dubious, to quantify what’s ultimately unquantifiable.
The lesson of Dresden, which this great city unfortunately seems doomed to repeat, is that culture is, to the contrary, impractical and fragile, helpless even. Residents of Dresden who believed, when the war was all but over, that their home had somehow been spared annihilation by its beauty were all the more traumatized when, in a matter of hours, bombs killed tens of thousands and obliterated centuries of humane and glorious architecture.
The truth is, we can stare as long as we want at that Raphael Madonna; or at Antonello da Messina’s “St. Sebastian,” now beside a Congo fetish sculpture in another room in the Gemäldegalerie; or at the shiny coffee sets, clocks and cups made of coral and mother-of-pearl and coconuts and diamonds culled from the four corners of the earth in the city’s New Green Vault, which contains the spoils of the most cultivated Saxon kings. But it won’t make sense of a senseless murder or help change the mind of a violent bigot.
What we can also do, though, is accept that while the arts won’t save us, we should save them anyway. Because the enemies of civilized society are always just outside the door.
OMG - reading that, I thought I had consumed the intellectual equivalent of a can of Crisco. But let us give the story this praise - the rising tide of intolerance in Germany and throughout Europe was not attributed to Obama.
Elsewhere, the Times takes a more practical bent, with a story that advises us to work hard, talk softly, and pack heat:
Charles Augusto Jr. was more than busy when he started working at Kaplan Brothers Blue Flame in 1960 for $75 a week, shuttling between the kitchens of hotels like the Plaza and the sprawling apartments of Astors and Rockefellers to repair their stoves.
But lately, restaurants have been closing more than opening. On Thursday, Mr. Augusto sold only one item, a deep fryer, and by 3 p.m. he and his two workers were settling into a sluggish afternoon in Harlem.
Four men broke the silence by pushing their way past the scrawled sign that states “Abandon all hope ye who enter here.” Ignoring Mr. Augusto’s pleas that there was no money around — the one customer had paid by check — the men, one armed with a gun, began to struggle with one of his workers and apparently wrote off Mr. Augusto as an old man not worth their trouble.
Left alone, he grabbed a Winchester pump-action shotgun he had kept around since the store was robbed 20 years ago. He was not sure it would even work. It worked, three times.
The Times even admits that guns might deter crime:
Adrienne Knox, a 55-year-old school lunch helper, echoed the feeling of many residents — not to mention hundreds of comments on local blogs and newspaper Web sites — when she said that Mr. Augusto’s actions might give some criminals pause.
A tough news day for the art set. More coverage of the attempted robbery here.
Tom, I love this article -- re your take on the pretentious NY Times and its writer's wailing re art and civilization, plus the shotgun toting store owner. Your crowning glory is the phrase 'intellectual equivalent of a can of Crisco.' :) May I borrow that line?
Posted by: Joan | August 15, 2009 at 11:14 AM
rising tide of intolerance in Germany and throughout Europe was not attributed to Obama.
Didnt you mean Bush? And the fact that the NYT has lost that crutch to fall back upon upon which to blame all that fails their steely scrutiny, is progress.
After all, as with the Soviets, if its not full success, they will be soon enough another 5 year plan to declare the full progress just around the corner.
Posted by: Gmax | August 15, 2009 at 11:45 AM
"rising tide of intolerance in Germany and throughout Europe was not attributed to Obama."
Posted by: pagar | August 15, 2009 at 11:55 AM
There's something I'd like to add to the pump shotgun angle. To those of you unaccustomed to using a shotgun, the sound of the heavy schwook/schwook of the pump action at close range would have instantly turned the perp's bowels to exploding mush the moment they heard it. It is a very distinctive, very deadly sound.
Moreover, a shotgun blast at close range can cut a man in half.
At least those criminal bastards experienced, if even for the last moment of their worthless lives, the fear their victims felt because of that sound, something which gives me a sense of satisfaction.
Ok. I'll denounce myself so the rest of you won't have to.
Posted by: Lesley | August 15, 2009 at 01:08 PM
Oh, nevermind my pre-emptive denunciation. I can see by TM's header I may now monger evil 24-7. Kewl. I expect I shall now comment more often.
Posted by: Lesley | August 15, 2009 at 01:21 PM
It would be very interesting to know some details about the firearm and ammunition involved. Birdshot or buckshot ? How old was the ammo ? How often was the shotgun cleaned ? Was it stored with a shell already chambered ?
Posted by: Sam W | August 15, 2009 at 01:40 PM
That was a fine job, Mr. Augusto.
Posted by: PaulL | August 15, 2009 at 02:07 PM
Parche was charged following the incident but was not jailed because he was found to be psychologically abnormal and was instead sentenced to two years’ probation and psychological treatment. The German version of "tough love." Monica never really got back to top form and fell into a depression and an eating disorder. The Deutsche Volke just love those pendulum swings between arrogant militarism and arrogant leftist mammary pap. [I am half German by ancestry and speak and read German.]
I recently watched Spike Channel's series on the DEA in Detroit and time after time when a big bust would take place in a semi-suburban area, people of color in the neighborhood would clap and applaud when the bust was finished and the perps paraded off their narcotics-dealing premises. Also, a black DEA officer was extremely incensed when he captured a perp who was living next to a Catholic School because in the words of the DEA cop, "These people are REALLY TRYING TO STOP drugs in this neighborhood." The strong implication in his intonation was, the public schools not so much......
Blacks in Milwaukee fight and claw to get their kids into Catholic grade and high schools, where my brother works as a virtually unpaid employee......
Posted by: daveinboca | August 15, 2009 at 02:42 PM
Sweetness and Light points out that in the USA:
The key word is ALL! The leftist press just copies what he sends out.
Posted by: pagar | August 15, 2009 at 02:54 PM
Just for the record can we note in the meme that punishment does not deter violence, that at least for 3 losers, they are considered unlikely to offend again.
Posted by: Gmax | August 15, 2009 at 03:02 PM
I find it funny the Times is reporting about Ahmadinejad decrying the brutality of the Germans given what he and his thugs have done to their own people in the past couple of weeks.
Posted by: tega | August 15, 2009 at 03:04 PM
GMax:
that at least for 3 losers, they are considered unlikely to offend again.
Yeah, but I bet they end up voting for Obama in 2012
Posted by: hit and run | August 15, 2009 at 03:18 PM
"What we can also do, though, is accept that while the arts won’t save us, we should save them anyway. Because the enemies of civilized society are always just outside the door."
Apparently, nobody has ever told Mr. Kimmelman that the essay you write is supposed to lead logically to your conclusion. Nobody seems to have told him that xenophobia in Germany has always put even France to shame either. The Interior Minister was shocked, just shocked, to discover how many German teenagers are carrying on that tradition.
Posted by: JM Hanes | August 15, 2009 at 03:21 PM
I find it funny the Times is reporting about Ahmadinejad decrying the brutality of the Germans given what he and his thugs have done to their own people in the past couple of weeks.
What's funny is that anybody pays attention to anything the Times and their cluelessly snotty reporters have to say about anything. Based on what a few of my friends say who ACTUALLY LIVE IN GERMANY, the immigrant rock worshippers and the locals get along quite well since most of the outsiders are from Turkey, a very western oriented culture. That's not to say that random nutjobs can't exist in the mix but their actions shouldn't be extrapolated to the society as a whole, as the Times continually does as it's dimwitted concept of adding value to just reporting the facts.
Posted by: Captain Hate | August 15, 2009 at 03:45 PM
Having lived and worked in Germany and spent inordinate amounts of time studying and combating the East Bloc, it bemuses me that the so called experts are surprised at the xenophobia and hatred of the former East Germany. Much of it is very uncomfortable for foreigners still unless one blends in.
In 1945, they simply changed the signs from the Swastika to the Hammer & Sickle. Not a damned thing changed in their mentality nor much actually in their underlying philosophy. anyone who had any experience there knew this long ago.
Same holds true for the Soviet Union, where African students at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow used to be beaten, threatened, degraded and even murdered on a regular basis.
The hypocrisy of communism/leftism is only matched by that of the Nazis.
Posted by: matt | August 15, 2009 at 03:59 PM
I'll bear this post title in mind the next time I replace rock-paper-scissors with pen-sword-pump shotgun-fine architecture.
Though it's not as rich a system as rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock. (Scissors cut paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors,
scissors decapitate lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporizes rock, and of course, rock crushes scissors.)
Posted by: bgates | August 15, 2009 at 05:48 PM
lol bgates
Posted by: bad to the bone | August 15, 2009 at 05:59 PM
Rock worshippers?
Posted by: Charlie (Colorado) | August 15, 2009 at 07:15 PM
How do you say "man bites dog" in German?
Posted by: Biz Markie | August 15, 2009 at 07:31 PM
Our shotgun toting hero isn't facing capital murder charges in NYC???
Isn't this cowboy Bush art writ real?
Posted by: torabora | August 15, 2009 at 07:32 PM
Rock worshippers?
...Muslim worships rock, rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper, (cartoon on) paper enrages Muslim, Muslim wages jihad on Spock...
Posted by: bgates | August 15, 2009 at 07:57 PM
Carrying of Firearms are necessary for Personal Protection for the following reasons:
1. SCOTUS has held that the Police are not responsible for Personal Protection of individuals.
2. Police can be there in minutes when seconds count. Average 911 Response Time is 9 minutes nationwide and is 3 hours, 3 days, or never in Southwest Detroit.
3. Because of the Economy, the Cop that was assigned to protect me was laid off.
4. Because carrying a Cop is too heavy.
I would imagine the Mr Augusto would have loaded heavy being in the city and that would most likely mean 2 3/4 Inch 00 Buck Shot shells. This has 9 .36 caliber pellets per shell, the equivalent of a sub-machinegun blast, 27 pellets for 3 shotgun blasts. The shotty is still the best Home Protection option available.
From the NYT Article: We are treating Mr. Augusto as a witness.
The problem is that he is most likely going to be a witness against himself as talking with the Police gains you nothing. I just hope he has a GREAT Attorney that knows NY City/State Gun Laws and Use of Deadly Force. It would appear that NY has the same Deadly Force rules that MI used to have and got rid of. If you can reasonably retreat, then Deadly Force cannot be authorized/used. The worst part is probably the Civil Lawsuits that are sure to come, unless NY put in the Castle Doctrine.
Posted by: PDinDetroit | August 15, 2009 at 09:35 PM
Rock worshippers?
That rock/meteor/fossilized dinosaur turd at Mecca that Mo the Pedophile (Piss all over him) wiped his ass with? That one.
Posted by: Captain Hate | August 15, 2009 at 10:02 PM
I guess I kind of have my bgates/Captain Hate blog here on this thread.
Posted by: Ignatz | August 15, 2009 at 11:47 PM
This article is an outlier - actually, we've pretty much come down to a binary "blame or credit" system for any event in the world today, according to the MSM, to whit:
Any bad result is due to *global warmism
Any good result is due to Barack Hussein Obama.
*replacing #1 pick GW Bush since 01.09.09
Posted by: docweasel | August 16, 2009 at 03:48 AM
Do you have any idea how much energy there is in a can of Crisco? There are 9 cal/gm of fat and only 5 cal/gm of carbohydrate or protein. Alcohol, incidentally, has 7 cal/gm which explains why some people can live on booze alone. There isn't much nutrition in those alcoholic grams other than energy, though.
A can of alcohol, though has more intellectual equivalents in it, by weight or by volume, than a pint of crisco. Just try the experiment yourself if you doubt me.
Posted by: I once tried to drink a gallon of milk. The sixteenth little carton wouldn't go down. . | August 16, 2009 at 06:08 AM
Imagine how low the crime stats would be if only we could get Obama to institute a national police force.
Posted by: tinkerdad | August 16, 2009 at 11:04 AM
If you hear me cock my shotgun that is because I missed with the first round.
I always keep on chambered, safety off, and all one might hear, were one listening carefully, would be the click of the trigger. But you wouldn't hear that over the barking of the dogs, so there you have it.
Victim or victor - we know what liberals want to be.
Posted by: Flame War | August 16, 2009 at 11:24 AM
Actually, the conclusion of the Times article is quite conservative, even though you didn't seem to see it and the writer would doubtless be appalled by the charge. For the "civilization is fragile (and therefore requires protection)" meme, see multiple works from the Oresteia cycle of Aescylus to Goldings Lord of the Flies. Anthony Burgess examined the idea that high culture does NOT necessarily bring morality in A Clockwork Orange and Tremor of Intent. The latter, by the way, is a crackerjack spy thriller
Posted by: RRC | August 16, 2009 at 11:33 AM
Right, if the perp hears the swaock, swaock... you're doing it wrong!
Posted by: Bullshark | August 16, 2009 at 11:34 AM
@tinkerdad - Better still, couldn't Obama just ask the criminals to stop committing crimes?
Posted by: Conservadick | August 16, 2009 at 11:39 AM
"It would be very interesting to know some details about the firearm and ammunition involved. Birdshot or buckshot ? How old was the ammo ? How often was the shotgun cleaned ? Was it stored with a shell already chambered ?"
What's the difference, it did the job as did Mr. Augusto.
Posted by: Jim | August 16, 2009 at 12:11 PM
Weren't there any baliffs in the courtroom? Don't they check for weapons at the courthouse?
On the rest of the article, "Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns."
Posted by: Mikey NTH | August 16, 2009 at 12:35 PM
NYT 60 years late to the story of German Kultur and violence. Way to go guys!
Posted by: Fat Man | August 16, 2009 at 01:00 PM
The basic problem with the art set - with the multiculturalist in general - is that they've never really understood what culture actually is.
"The lesson of Dresden, which this great city unfortunately seems doomed to repeat, is that culture is, to the contrary, impractical and fragile, helpless even."
If by culture you mean things like music, visual arts, architecture, cuisine, mannerisms, language, music, dance, literature and all the rest of the stuff like it, then yes, culture is entirely fragile, helpless, weak, and insubstantial. It is only by believing that all of that stuff is culture that you could possibly believe in 'multiculturalism'. Art is merely the most superficial expression of culture. It's culture's outward trappings, and it no more is culture than your clothing is you.
What culture really is is the collection of those beliefs which a society holds most deeply and strongly. Things like food and music and art are all things which I can partake of, sample, and even enjoy without it really transforming deeply who I am. They are all superficial. They can be shared. I can eat chinese food one day and mexican food the next without being chinese or mexican, without being a part of either culture, and indeed without knowing anything at all about either culture. You don't know what culture I'm from by what I take into me; you can only know my culture by what I express out of me.
The really fundamental problem with multiculturism is that by focusing on how different culture's art and music and food can all be appreciated and can all enrich the person that experiences them, it misses what culture actually is and assumes that culture like food and music is superficial. It's no surprise that the superficial manifestations of culture have no power.
But real culture is probably the most powerful mortal force on the planet. Real cultures aren't easily shared because they are contridictory. I can't really belong to two cultures because they can disagree, and where they disagree I will ultimately have to choose which culture I'm really a part of.
Posted by: celebrim | August 16, 2009 at 01:07 PM
"Better still, couldn't Obama just ask the criminals to stop committing crimes?"
He only asks them to stop after he's offered them a Cabinet position.
Posted by: Laserlight | August 16, 2009 at 01:08 PM
I like that, celebrim.
Posted by: bgates | August 16, 2009 at 01:29 PM
3 shots, 4 down. Wow!
Posted by: ic | August 16, 2009 at 01:47 PM
The Pen May Be Mightier Than The Sword....
...unless you're standing in front of the person holding the sword.
That's the thing about today's internet age, too many people sit on their arses & type things that they'd never - ever - say to someone's face.
The Napolean complex is the likely culprit for so many angry texts seen on the internet, IMO.
Posted by: RW | August 16, 2009 at 01:55 PM
Actually, 00 is not the best choice. #3 or #4 (goose shot) is better for 2 reasons: The slightly smaller pellet means that more weight of pellet fits in the shell, the better to deliver 200 lbs of ground round in the room; and the slightly smaller shot is more likely to be contained by sheet rock, etc. so you don't shoot thru the wall into your neighbor's apartment. (Anyone who uses a high-powered hunting rifle in an urban / suburban environment should have the barrel bent over his skull; the damn bullet will travel for miles, and almost nothing outside of multiple brick walls, substantial trees, girders, or a car engine is going to stop the round.)
Posted by: SDN | August 16, 2009 at 02:49 PM
The most beautiful thing I have (besides my girlfriend) is an Ithaca 37P pump with a 20 inch barrel and an eight round magazine, choate stock with a pistol grip. Behold, a thing of beauty. Parkerized too.
Posted by: Richard Cook | August 16, 2009 at 02:54 PM
I can't believe this hasn't been mentioned: "...The pen is mightier than the sword, but no match for a gun."
Brian Wilson, from the LP: Surf's Up - "There's a Riot Goin' On"
Posted by: Strawman Cometh | August 16, 2009 at 04:28 PM
celebrim - Very nice post. Best thing I read all week.
As for the weakness of culture, these things of fine art are the reflections, or metrics if you will, of civilization. They don't lead to civilization. They are trailers. They are the outward expressions of established civilization.
The dearth of them, the lack of artisans and artists, demonstrates the paucity of civilization in an area. I leave it to you all to reflect upon which societies currently produce art and wonders... and which don't... and which are trending in which way.
Posted by: Marc malone | August 16, 2009 at 05:43 PM