Did Keith Olbermann Really Just Say That?

While I was just sitting at my desk, updating messages for the boss and not paying too much attention to the TV on in the background as glorified white noise, I heard Keith Olbermann start to go on an anti-Dick Cheney rant.

Fair enough. That's his viewpoint. I'm no bigger a fan of our previous Vice President as I am of the current one, which is to say, not very much of one. What I am a fan of, though, is the First Amendment, so I'm all about Keith Olbermann's right to rant about anything he wants to.

But that same document means I can rant back.

During his diatribe about fear-mongering, Mr. Olbermann completely downplayed the threat once posed by the Fort Dix Six, men who stated a goal of killing as many servicemembers as possible on an Army base in New Jersey (Fort Dix, by the way, is a regional training hub for all deploying reservists from the northeast, so chances are you know someone who could've been affected by this had it been carried out).

Olbermann said something to the effect of "What could a bunch of pizza deliveryman have done by shooting at people on a base where everyone is armed anyway?" I found that pretty crass and offensive. I could say I don't care what people think, or that I never get upset, but: a) neither statement is true (see previous entry), and; b) the fact is that I got pretty upset about what Keith Olbermann seems to think about the Fort Dix Six threat.

I don't want to unfairly speculate about Olbermann's familiarity with military bases, but based on that statement, I would have to surmise that there's not much familiarity to speak of. At least 90% of the people walking around on ANY military base are unarmed at any given time, and that's not to mention that if even they all were, homicidal-suicidal maniacs with grenades and heavy weapons could still probably kill dozens of soldiers (let's say they hit a PT formation) before being *neutralized* themselves.

Also, for the record, just because one of the Newburgh Four apparently suffered from mental problems doesn't mitigate that threat, either. It's like, if someone was trying to rape and kill my family, I wouldn't necessarily feel any safer or reassured after finding out he was a schizophrenic.

Remember George Carlin's bit about that?

Every time someone goes nuts, the local TV news always interviews the neighbors, and everyone says what a "quiet" and "unassuming" guy he was.

Inevitably, someone watching with you will turn to you and say, "It's always the quiet ones."

...And in comes the Great Carlin's rebuttal -- "F--- that! I'm worried about the LOUD ONES!!!"

Call me paranoid, but someone who hatches detailed plots to blow up synagogues, shoot down military aircraft, and ambush people on a base qualifies as a "loud one."

And I reserve the right to be worried.