Michelle Obama brings out the monsters on the margins

No good deed, it is said, goes unpunished.

We are all aware, or should be aware, that close to three hundred teenaged girls were kidnapped in Nigeria and the kidnappers have threatened to sell them into sex slavery. Reasonable people can certainly agree that this is a horrific event and that every effort should be made to rescue the girls and return them to their families.

You'll notice that  I said 'reasonable' people.

It goes without saying that western media did a piss poor job of reporting on the incident -- possibly because they were preoccupied with finding that missing airplane or covering the 2016 Presidential horse race -- and the story only took off after it became a hashtag trend on Twitter. Michelle Obama threw her not inconsiderable support behind the #BringBackOurGirls campaign and, I'm sure chatted up her husband about it when he came home from work that evening.

This was, obviously, a huge mistake by the First Lady --who also happens to be the mother to teenaged girls -- because it raised the ire of the reflexive whatever-she'ss-for-I'm-a'gin-it kneejerkers whom we allow to walk our streets without shame.

Yesterday I pointed out Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft gloating that the girls were probably already sex slaves -- Tea Party high five! -- but that sort of thing is to be expected of Hoft because he is what is known in the DSM as a 'fucking idiot.'

Their words, not mine. You can look it up.

The oozing pustule called Rush Limbaugh secreted some outrage to his ever-diminishing audience:

Anyway, there’s Mrs. Obama looking sad and grim, and the sad thing here is that the low-information crowd that’s puddling around out there on Twitter is gonna think we’re actually doing something about it. (interruption)  Exactly. Yeah, they’ll say, “At least she is trying, Mr. Limbaugh. What are you doing?  At least Mrs. Obama cares! At least they’re trying to get them back.”

Here it is again, closer.  See it?  Is that not pathetic?  What the hell message does that send? Imagine if bin Laden were still alive. Imagine Ayman al-Zawahiri. Can you imagine? They’re laughing at this over in the huts and so forth wherever they are.  It is just unbelievable.  #BringBackOurGirls. They’re Nigerian, unless there’s something that we don’t know.

In case you missed that last part, Barack Obama - secret Muslim Kenyan Muslim - has three hundred Nigerian love-children. Someone needs to check on Joseph Farah at World Net Daily and see if his three-day boner has gone down yet.

Butched-up poofty word-hobbit Mark Steyn is attempting to launch #BringBackOurBalls:

There are only a half-dozen special forces around the planet capable of doing that without getting most or all of the hostages killed: the British, the French, the Americans, Israelis, Germans, Aussies, maybe a couple of others. So, unless something of that nature is being lined up, those schoolgirls are headed into slavery, and the wretched pleading passivity of Mrs Obama's hashtag is just a form of moral preening.

As noted yesterday, Nigeria previously refused help, but the "moral preening" seems to have gotten everyone's attention now.

Lest you think the sneering dickishness of taking a tragedy and turning it into your favorite grievance hobbyhorse  is limited to the seething bigot wing of 'Murica, the putative left has it's own All-Star team of assholes limbering up on the sidelines. Rebecca at Wonkette - with an assist from Bob Cesca - risked the wrath of  the flying Greenwaldain bro-monkeys to explain that  Glenn Greenwald was  horrifyingly horrible on the subject.  After Greenwald turned to Twitter - because, Jeebus forbid he clutter up the The Intercept with words - to explain that words mean exactly what he says they mean, Chez Pazienza responded:

A good journalist is open to getting as good as he or she gives. A good journalist is willing to admit when he or she is wrong. A good journalist isn’t an ideologue. A good journalist is a bit of an asshole but one also imbued with empathy and humanity, with a belief that the world can be a better place (otherwise why would that person bother seeking the truth?). Glenn Greenwald has proven over and over again that he has no humanity. He’s all asshole. Most people, when having their intentions and motivations misconstrued because of something they’ve said, would work to make it clear what those intentions and motivations were. They’d do something as simple as saying, “Look, this is what I meant.” But not Greenwald. Of course not Greenwald.

Backing up Greenwald is Margaret Kimberley at the Black Agenda Report. If you're not familiar with BAR, try to imagine an African-American Infowars without the chemtrails and inadvertent blustery buffoonishness of Alex Jones.  Kimberly starts out okay:

Bring back our girls. The message is a simple one that resonates with millions of people around the world. Those four words were first seen in a now famous twitter hashtag in the aftermath of the kidnapping of 280 teenagers from a school in Chibok, Nigeria on April 14, 2014. The Boko Haram group which is fighting that country’s government admits to holding the girls captive.

Only people who closely follow international news were aware of this situation until last week. It is right that so many people are concerned for the girls’ safety.

Fair enough. However I feel a 'but' about to be dropped.

Unfortunately, the effort to draw attention to this horror is of little use without a deeper understanding of Africa’s political situation.

Well, no.  The important thing to do now is to rescue the girls. You can have your 'rage against the obvious' seminar/panel discussion on Western imperialism later. Feel free to book a hall.

But what about the girls? Remember them?

Sometimes the answer to the question, “What can we do?” is “Nothing.” There is nothing that the average American citizen can do to get these girls released and those with the power to do something aren’t very interested in internecine warfare in Nigeria. Their machinations created this and so many other tragedies around the world.

It is difficult not to have a strong emotional reaction to such a terrible story but that is the precise moment to dig deeper and search for complexities. That is the least that can be done to help bring back our girls.

Shorter Margaret Kimberly: Fuck'em. Shit is fucked up and bullshit, so why do anything except talk about how shit is fucked up and bullshit.

It is both the least, and the most, these people can do.

Lesson here: Once you go too far around the bend, don't be surprised to find yourself sharing common ground with the people you supposedly despise.

[Michelle Obama image via Twitter]