Fire Up the New Year
More respectable news and commentary venues tend to refer to Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as the “Underpants Bomber.” Gawker and other blogs went with “Testicle Bomber,” with alternates of “Crotch Bomber” and “Panty Bomber.” I like my friend Alan’s suggestion “Scrotabomber.” Frozen Justice went alliterative with “Bollox Bomber.”
Someone might argue that it matters what we call things, because taxonomy is an instrument of control. What I think this suggests is that Abdulmutallab’s potentially fatal, yet fortunately failing attempt to murder his fellow passengers was fundamentally ridiculous. Taxonomy gives way to another instrument of control, humor. We will need plenty of that quality when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) begins implementing full body scanners in U.S. airports.
Happy new year!
December 31st, 2009 at 9:46 am
As Avram Grumer pointed out, The Terrorists are obviously taking their cues from traditional clown memes, and thus the TSA “clearly needs to switch the focus of its efforts away from air travel, concentrating instead upon small, densely-packed automobiles.”