# Margret Hassan Dead. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 16, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081 "2004-11-16T17:33:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/81 "2004-11-17T02:50:49Z")
Don’t worry **The Long Road** , you are not alone in this. I see the same double standard working here. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/82 "2004-11-17T03:13:38Z")
> [@](#): > > - by El Cid Viscoso\* > > Actually, based on DOD troop figures, it’s probably close to 99.95% America’s fault. > > > [@](#): > > > > _By SteveG1_ > > > > Horse shit. See the above statement. Out of context and since retracted. When come back, bring time machine. ---
**Author:** ![Ryan\_Liam](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ryan_liam/32/3965_2.png) [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/83 "2004-11-17T06:34:53Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > Hey look on the bright side, you can quote his follow up post, its pretty much the same as what you said. > 😛 Haha, you hillarious you mutherfucker. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 9:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/84 "2004-11-17T09:18:18Z")
> [@Who\_me?](#): > > > [@gobear](#): > > > > That’ll teach her. > > Dude, you’re better than that. I thought the line was laugh-out-loud funny, so I guess me ‘n’ gobear is of equal goodness or no-goodness. ---
**Author:** ![Who\_me\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/958977/32.png) [@Who\_me\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Who_me_1)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/85 "2004-11-17T13:34:07Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > I thought the line was laugh-out-loud funny, so I guess me ‘n’ gobear is of equal goodness or no-goodness. I can’t say that I thought it was funny, but I wasn’t offended by it and understood why he did it. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/86 "2004-11-17T14:01:07Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > I thought the line was laugh-out-loud funny, so I guess me ‘n’ gobear is of equal goodness or no-goodness. > [@Who\_me?](#): > > I can’t say that I thought it was funny, but I wasn’t offended by it and understood why he did it. I’m glad I have my “What Would Lenny Bruce Do?” bracelet on. The OP was an invitation to drama queen histrionics and not-so-subtle Arab-bashing. Although I can bash foreigners as well as the next xenophobe, using this woman’s tragic death for opportunistic soapboxing rubs me raw (and not in the good way.) Sometimes gallows humor can spike the guns of the Pompously Serious–mind you, watching **Ryan\_Liam** pose as insightful and mature can be as entertaining as watching an orangutan dance the lead in _Swan Lake_. A good woman who gave 30 years of her life got shot in the head by terrorists–I think she’d be the first to say, “Lay off the people of Iraq, they didn’t do this.” The assholes who killed her didn’t do it because their race, their religion, or their culture “made” them do it; they did it because they are the spiritual cousins of the Baader-Meinhof gang, the Red Brigade, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and the Aryan Nation; to wit, professional assholes. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/87 "2004-11-17T14:09:50Z")
> [@Tuckerfan](#): > > I can understand them going after Haliburton employees, members of the military, and the media, but kidnapping and executing someone who has spent the past 30 years _working for a universally praised **humanitarian** organization_ just boggles my mind. I wonder how many Iraqis owe their life to that woman? Just curious, was there any indication they knew “who she was”? Or did they think she was some random western chick? Not that it makes a difference. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/88 "2004-11-17T14:15:19Z")
This is my favorite part, boldizzle mizzle. > [@Roseworm](#): > > This is the BBQ Pit at its worst - **Ad hominem attacks** and name-calling without any attempt to separate the message from the messenger. It is immature and literally adolescent. \*\*This board strongly resembles a particularly brutal junior high school in which local bullies like **Gawd** , **World Eater** , \*\*Diogenes the Cynic \*\* and the rest of the \*corps de douches \* maintain their rank in the caste system by teaming up against those who are not so popular. \*\* I love the smell of irony in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/89 "2004-11-17T14:16:49Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > mind you, watching **Ryan\_Liam** pose as insightful and mature can be as entertaining as watching an orangutan dance the lead in _Swan Lake_. Yet another example of why I ALWAYS look for **gobear’s** posts. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/90 "2004-11-17T14:23:52Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > You’ll note that I refer to the Americans as Amercians and the homicidal maniacs who killed Mrs. Hassan as homicidal maniacs. > > If referring to her muderers as homicidal maniacs isn’t condeming terroists, then I shall use the 😕 smiley for the second time this thread. Except that they’re not really homicidal maniacs. They aren’t suffering from any mental diseases, they coldly and logically picked Mrs. Hassan for political reasons, tortured her for political reasons and then killed her for political reasons. A homicidal maniac I wouldn’t hate, because they are literally sick. The can’t help being what they are, and though I’d be totally OK with forcing homicidal maniacs to spend their lives in cages pending a cure, I wouldn’t hate them in the same way I hate the terrorists who killed Mrs. Hassan. The terrorists were sane: they knew what they were doing, and they didn’t care. Her suffering, her death were just grist for the Cause, which is true generally of political/religious fanatics no matter what the Cause is. They’ve taken their humanity and discarded it for a set of cheap, shoddy ideals, like all fanatics. They’re the worst sort of garbage. ---
**Author:** ![sinical\_brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sinical\_brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinical_brit)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/91 "2004-11-17T14:25:02Z")
Here, here, Gobear. The juxtaposition of the OP with your response made me laugh out loud too. Roseworm - your thread turned to catshit because it was as stoopid as this one. Sin ---
**Author:** ![Capt\_B.Phart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc29f/32.png) [@Capt\_B.Phart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt_B.Phart)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/92 "2004-11-17T19:01:57Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > A decent woman is dead. Her last days on Earth were filled with terror and she died in a most horrible fashion. I can’t believe what this thread quickly degraded to. For her sake, might we be able to keep her the subject and mourn her passing? I seem to have been seeing her face everywhere today on the front of newspapers – very sad The senseless cruelty of this act is stark, IMO it has no context that needs to be understood, or can be used provide excuses. The people who committed it are probably the kind who are drawn to trouble all over the world (for instance many of the war-criminals in former Yugoslavia had previous careers as armed robbers etc), not people driven by circumstances to extremes against their nature. This act deserves to be condemned for what it is, jumping on\*\* Ryan\_Liam\*\* because of something you _think_ he _might_ be going to post is just crap - can we stop lining up into two opposing teams and shouting "Yar Boo Sucks! at each other at _every_ sodding opportunity. (Fuck it - I’ve seen people get partisan about SF films round these parts, it’s pathetic) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/93 "2004-11-17T19:19:32Z")
> [@Capt B. Phart](#): > > The senseless cruelty of this act is stark, IMO it has no context that needs to be understood, or can be used provide excuses. Maybe the kidnappers had had a bad day, gotten shot, had one of their buddies shot, or simply had other _important_ things to do. Ms. Hassan was after all, a prisoner. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/94 "2004-11-17T19:31:32Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Maybe the kidnappers had had a bad day, gotten shot, had one of their buddies shot, or simply had other _important_ things to do. Ms. Hassan was after all, a prisoner. Perhaps she was playing dead? ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/95 "2004-11-17T19:31:56Z")
Don’t say anything that fucking stupid. Voicing the notion she was a threat, even if said in jest to make a point, is just insulting as hell to her memory and our intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/96 "2004-11-17T19:38:26Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > Maybe the kidnappers had had a bad day, gotten shot, had one of their buddies shot, or simply had other _important_ things to do. Ms. Hassan was after all, a prisoner. Not _just_ a prisoner, but a _ **Western** _ prisoner!! ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/97 "2004-11-17T19:38:28Z")
> [@lieu](#): > > Don’t say anything that fucking stupid. Voicing the notion she was a threat, even if said in jest to make a point, is just insulting as hell to her memory and our intelligence. The point is people are dying for some stupid fucking reasons on both sides. Sorry that higlhlighting that is such a touchy point for you. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/98 "2004-11-17T20:12:21Z")
We’ve heard of two acts of evil this past week. In the one case there’s plenty of excuses being aired, in the other none. Isn’t evil evil, regardless of who does it? ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/99 "2004-11-17T20:58:09Z")
This word, **evil** , like the word **terrorist** has been so watered down over the course of the last 3 years that it means just about jack and shit today. Muslims are **evil** , Saddam is **evil** , Bush is **evil** , US troops are **evil**. The word **evil** is truly a word of biblical proportions, and instead of using it properly, we instead attach it to people, acts, and events that we disagree with or have moral issues with. All sides bandy it about when it suits their needs, phishing for an emotional response from their audience, never truly understanding that they might not in fact, be **evil** -like Satan is **evil**. Something tells me I’ll never be a politician. Sam ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081/100 "2004-11-17T21:46:17Z")
> [@GaWd](#): > > This word, **evil** , like the word **terrorist** has been so watered down over the course of the last 3 years that it means just about jack and shit today. > > Muslims are **evil** , Saddam is **evil** , Bush is **evil** , US troops are **evil**. The word **evil** is truly a word of biblical proportions, and instead of using it properly, we instead attach it to people, acts, and events that we disagree with or have moral issues with. > > All sides bandy it about when it suits their needs, phishing for an emotional response from their audience, never truly understanding that they might not in fact, be **evil** -like Satan is **evil**. > > Something tells me I’ll never be a politician. > > Sam Usually people with common sense dont’t get elected anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/margret-hassan-dead/275081.md?page=6)