Friday, October 10, 2008

Magical thinking...

Xavier has a post up about the murder of young, free-spirited Kirsten Brydum. Kirsten was on a sort of wanderjahr; couch-surfing, free-storing, and dumpster-diving her way across America. Her trail took her through New Orleans which, while no longer the Mad Max world it was in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, is still far worse than it used to be last time I drove through, and it was bad enough then.

I'd say that there are neighborhoods in every city where one does not go, but that wouldn't be entirely correct. I have lived in some of those neighborhoods in Atlanta; people obviously go there. It would be more accurate to state that there are neighborhoods where one does not want to be lost, an outsider, out of place, uncertain. To do those things in those neighborhoods, especially at oh-dark-thirty in the A.M. marks one, as certainly as if there were a neon sign over one's head, as a resource, a victim, a prey animal for the predators that glide through the city's nighttime reefs.

Kirstin did that, and the result was depressingly predictable.

What is fascinating is the comment thread at Xavier's, where some have stopped in to express their belief that Kirsten was somehow targetted by the CIA or some nefarious member of Blackwater hit squads that populate the imaginations of folks who have forgotten to double-layer their Reynold's Wrap yarmulkes.

Let me get this straight; an unarmed, lost, young out-of-town woman gets killed in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of a dangerous city, and some folks want to say it was Blackwater or the CIA?

Folks, when you hear hoofbeats rounding the last turn at Preakness, do you look for zebras?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Occam's Razor just cuts.

Alan said...

The down side of a first world economy is that there's enough slack in the system for stupid to flourish.

Anonymous said...

It figures that Rove and Halliburton would try to start a disinformation campaign at a site like this to try and discredit those who speak the truth. We all know fire doesn't melt steel.

Racist.

Anonymous said...

Did she happen to be killed near a NO train repair yard that has concrete floors, barbed wire and security cameras? If so, THEN I might start thinking conspiracy.

Anonymous said...

"...when you hear hoofbeats rounding the last turn at Preakness, do you look for zebras?"

Not zebras; more like jackasses.

Rob K said...

Well, we know from your posts that you're on Blackwater's celebrity hit squad, so why should we believe you? Me thinks the lady doth protest too much!

Anonymous said...

Here in the city lately I've noticed a pert young thing in rags done up as if to say "I am a wuvvable waggamuffin, give me some money pweease?" She's usually on one corner or another with a sign and a boyfriend some 15 yards behind to offer help if needed and presumably to get his cut if she hits the jackpot. I never bite, or read her signs, no halfway pretty girl lives off the street unless she wants to. There are always men desperate enough for female attention to take her in. Maybe she's been taking cues from the dearly departed. It would explain a lot.

El Capitan said...

Some folks are so convinced that their feeble attempts at revolution will overthrow the status quo that they'll blame any setback as the work of the eeeeevil Rovian/Halliburton/CIA/NWO hit squads.

Truth be told, if you want to eat out of dumpsters & dump your dross on each other and call it "Freeganism" or "Barterism", more power to you. The rest of us will be earning a living and buying what we want. Because we can.

staghounds said...

The CIA and Blackwater have more sense than to go into those neighbourhoods...

Matt G said...

Paging William Ockham....

Cybrludite said...

Jeff,

Heh. Oddly enough, it happened about a block away from a switch yard. If you know the Bywater, the tracks that cross St. Claude two blocks up from Montegut St. feeds into it.

JAFO said...

Hell, that's not even the best the idjuts can come up with.

If you want REAL stupid, check out this site- a former coworkers:

http://tbonefever.net

dude's smoked WAY too much wacky tobaccy.

Anonymous said...

Lib/green/I'm-to-important-for-anyone-to-hurt- me/Darwinism; still alive and still kicking. This won't happen when the one becomes the elected messiah, not.
emdfl