To Put an Antic Disposition On
Some protester set himself on fire, apparently as part of a pathetic counterstrike in the War On And For Christmas. The guy lived to be hauled off, somewhat blasted-looking, by the local police, and there’s video. This prompts AllahPundit, kept Muslim of the anti-Muslim right to wonder
A little sooty, but note the perfect hair. He burned for 30 seconds?
Actually, his hair looks sort of sooty, brittle and stunted in front, but I’ll admit that happens to the best of us anyway. But it’s interesting to see some of AllahPundit’s commenters take their cue and begin to darkly speculate whether the story is something of a putup job, that the guy cleverly arranged the materials to escape without a scratch or (per “William2006″) didn’t actually set himself on fire at all.
This is the same crowd that once forgot the existence of telephoto lenses. Now a few of them are discoursing learnedly on the certain effects of one of earth’s least predictible phenomena: fire. (A couple of the more sensible commenters, like CookeyD, er, throw cold water on some of the more rococo skepticism.) How could that be? leads straight to It couldn’t! without a stop for There might be something I don’t know. Pretty soon we are reading volumes into the distinction between “Jamail” and “Jamil,” and “Ghulaim” and “Gholaiem” in transliteration from a language who’s alphabetical correspondences and naming conventions lack stable conversions to English.
