America's Priorities

Apparently the US government's "make America look like the world" policy is continuing to enjoy a great deal of success.

A Dulles shuttle driver left a trail of destruction in his wake on Monday morning after deliberately crashing into several other vehicles:

The driver of a speeding SuperShuttle van left a trail of damaged vehicles as he fled at least six hit-and-run crashes along Interstate 66 and the Dulles Access Road on Monday morning, police said.

Virginia State Police, Arlington County police and Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority police were trying to determine what led to the series of crashes from Arlington to Dulles International Airport about 9:30 a.m.

The driver, whom police identified as Muhammad Teshale, 25, of Alexandria, was arrested outside the airport's main terminal after authorities found the damaged blue van. Teshale was charged with one count of hit and run in Fairfax County. Additional charges were pending.

Law enforcement officials close to the investigation said that the driver told police that he "did it to be famous." The man drove the shuttle at 90 to 95 mph at times on roads that have speed limits of 55 mph, officials said.

Hmm. A Muslim who goes on a potentially deadly spree of violence in order to be "famous" - clearly just an ordinary, run of the mill traffic incident.

The incident was far from trivial - the report suggests someone could easily have been killed:

Corinne Geller, a state police spokeswoman, said that a blue SuperShuttle vehicle was heading west when it twice sideswiped the passenger side of a Dodge Charger. The shuttle then rear-ended a Chrysler Pacifica and a taxi, sending both vehicles off the highway.

The driver of the Pacifica, a 33-year-old Centreville woman, and her year-old daughter were taken to Arlington Hospital with minor injuries.

Four minutes later, state police learned of a fourth crash in the westbound lanes of I-66 at the Dulles Connector Road. The SuperShuttle rear-ended a 2006 Mercedes C240, authorities said.

The trail continued toward Dulles, police said. Courtney Mickalonis, a spokeswoman for the airports authority, said two drivers on the way to the airport reported that their vehicles had been struck.

"He was going at a high rate of speed," Geller said. "But there is no indication of motive."

Nope, I can't possibly think of a motive either. I'm sure the recent call by al-Qaeda to use lorries and vehicles as weapons is just a huge coincidence.

So far, so good - but the Buffalo News offers a further fascinating insight into America's continued cultural enrichment:

A refugee from Somalia was accused of trying to sell her 16-year-old daughter into marriage against her will.

Social Services took another Somali couple's six children because the father belt-whipped his 8-year-old son and tied him up for misbehaving in school.

A Yemeni husband beat his wife and threw her down the stairs for talking back to him in front of the family.

"How else can I teach her how to behave?" the bewildered man asked in court.

These and other cases like them are raising the concerns of judges, lawyers and human services providers in Buffalo.

They're raising my concerns too, not to mention my blood pressure. But what could the solution be?

With more than 800 new refugees resettling in the Buffalo area each year, and nearly 1,500 expected next year, the question of how to work with non-native residents struggling with family violence has become a growing challenge for those in the court system.

The problem is serious enough that a special community and courts collaborative was formed 10 months ago to improve services to this newer population. The group recently hosted a daylong workshop in Buffalo for Family Court judges, lawyers and social service workers.

Of course. I was going to choose "stop importing unassimilable people from the most primitive, backward hellholes on the planet," but clearly the answer is to continue importing them - just use taxpayers' cash to train civil servants and court officials in their special cultural nuances.

The article notes, without any apparent irony:

In the immigrants' native countries, these incidents would be considered common social and cultural practices. But in their new home, they are classified as abuse and felony assault.

Quite. But don't forget - all people and cultures are absolutely equal and interchangeable!

Whilst America continues down this long path to national suicide, many have far more pessing matters than immigrant crime sprees and domestic abuse; the Society for Professional Journalists' ominously named "Diversity Committee" has launched a campaign against certain terminology which might offend illegal immigrants:

The Society for Professional Journalists (SPJ)’s Diversity Committee has announced that it will be launching a year-long campaign to educate journalists about the hurtfulness of phrases like “illegal immigrant,” which is the term currently preferred by the influential AP Stylebook.

The label “remains offensive to Latinos, and especially Mexicans, and to the fundamentals of American jurisprudence,” Leo E. Laurence, a member of the SPJ Diversity Committee and the editor the San Diego News Service.

Satire is dead in the West - you simply couldn't make it up.