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Culture War Roundup for the week of December 30, 2024

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New Year, Same Old Culture War

At least 10 killed in New Orleans after driver ‘intentionally’ rams into crowd on Bourbon Street (CNN)

Apparently, "FBI Special Agent Aletha Duncan said the Bourbon Street attack is 'not a terrorist attack' in comments delivered after the mayor spoke." But then, later:

New Orleans mayor declares 'terrorist attack' on Bourbon Street, FBI confirms investigation (Fox)

Coulter's Law appears to be in force. As a reminder:

The longer we go without being told the race of the shooters, the less likely it is to be white men.

And indeed, this was a shooter, who died in a gunfight with cops... but so far it appears the ten deaths and dozens of injuries were vehicular, not firearm-related. Over on 8chankun (warning: images of death) it's claimed that "FBI Director Kash Patel states killer was 'Middle Eastern Descent'" but I don't see a link to direct evidence of that. I will be interested to learn whether it is a disinformation thing, or whether 8chankun is just better at reporting news than multiple multi-million dollar corporate news media outlets. Can a failed shooting preceded by successful vehicular homicide be used as ammunition (hah) in Second Amendment debates? Probably! Apparently at least one "explosive device" was also found?

There is something to be said for "wait and see," and indeed I expect to hear much more about this attack in the near future (unless, of course, we simply don't). Though clearly Special Agent Aletha Duncan did not seem to think there was any reason to "wait and see" when declaring, contra the mayor, that this was not a terrorist attack.

In unrelated news, Stocks just did something they haven’t done in nearly three decades--and in case you are unimpressed with CNN's clickbait headline,

back-to-back gains of over 20% is the best performance for the benchmark index since 1997 and 1998

Everything old is new again.

It's not just me, both of these attacks instantly vanished from the news, right?

It's not just you.

I heard a right-coded radio host mention the New Orleans attack somewhat recently, but it was only a passing reference in connection with a Biden gaffe.