Erick Erickson writes:

On Monday, two young men planted bombs in Boston and last night killed a policeman before one of them was, himself, killed. The other remains on the run.

Politicians have thrown around the word “cowards” to describe these guys.

Do they not know what the word means?

The basic definition is “a person who lacks the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things.”

Actually that may be the simplified definition, but the real definition -- the definition used throughout history -- isn't that.

The use of violent force has throughout history attracted a certain code for restraining its use. The code of chivalry, Bushido, the code of the US fighting forces... those who are trained to use violence professionally create a moral code which specifies its permissible use and forbids its impermissible uses.

It is this code that separates a soldier from a brigand, a knight from a knave.

"Cowardly" has been employed to describe all deviations from a martial code. The most obvious deviation -- the one Erick is thinking of -- is the departure from the code of courage, that a soldier should be willing to risk his life in honorable (permissible, sanctioned) combat and should not shy away from the hazards of combat.

But the in the long history of the term, it is also applied to many other departures from the code of the soldier -- such as the use of violence against the weak, defenseless, weaponless.

Murderous knights of the Middle Ages were not called "cowardly" because they were fearful of combat. Most often, they weren't more afraid of combat than any other knight.

They were called "cowardly" because they employed tactics contrary to the code of martial honor -- taking unfair advantage of an opponent (such as using a crossbow to kill an opponent in range, when that opponent invited an honorable hand-to-hand contest) or using the power of violence against non-combatants.

Many Wild West criminals weren't "cowardly" in the sense of shying from physical violence. They were instead called "cowardly" for shooting men in the back, raping women, killing old unarmed men.

They were cowardly not for fearing death -- most people who become murderers don't fear death all that much because they give little value to life, including their own.

They were cursed as cowards not from running away from a fair fight (though most cowards would do that, as they don't like fair fights; that's what makes them cowards) but for not adhering to the moral code of the Soldier, the moral code of the Strong, the moral code of the Brave, which limits the uses of violence to certain tactics and ends judged morally acceptable (and of course even morally laudatory).

That code, note, puts the Soldier's own life at risk. The soldier, by using violence in a highly regulated way and being careful to not attack non-combatants, actually puts his own life in greater danger than it would otherwise be. By restricting his own Rules of Engagement and choice of tactics and targets, he increases the likelihood he himself will be killed.

Delay equals death in battled, after all.

And that makes adhering to the code all the more laudatory -- not only is violence being held to certain purposes, but the soldier who adheres to such a code is increasing the chances of his own death in order to reduce the danger to non-soldiers.

Did these cowards seek a fair fight? Did they choose for their opponents other armed men? Did they adhere to the basic rules of combat -- such as announcing there will in fact be a combat at all?

Of course not.

A poisoner might take certain risks -- such as being arrested or even killed by police -- but no one calls the poisoner a brave man for having slipped a deadly dose into his wife's coffee. His use of violence is not only towards an impermissible end, but deployed via impermissible tactics.

I agree that words should have meanings. But we should also be mindful that words have long histories and long memories.

Hey! Lay off Erick! He's not trying to defend the terrorists. He just doesn't know what "cowardly" actually means, and how it's been used throughout history.

This is an etymological failing, not a moral one.

The Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor was called "cowardly" not because the sailors and pilots of the Japanese fleet were afraid to fight, but because they violated the basic rule of combat (declaring a war before you begin it) in order to disadvantage their opponents and advantage themselves.

Honor has a cost. Honorable men pay that cost in their own blood.

Murderers are not willing to pay that cost. They are willing to kill but not willing to expose themselves to the full danger that honor sometimes requires. That's why there aren't many statues honoring murderers.

Although Robert Redford and other Hollywood types who hate the "extremism of the right wing" do make lots of sympathetic films about them.

Posted by: Ace at 12:59 PM | Comments (604)
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Via @comradearthur. Time for some genuine immigration reform.

One of the Chechen terrorists who carried out the Boston Marathon bombings could have been deported years ago after a criminal conviction and the other was granted American citizenship on the 11th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old killed in a wild shootout with police, was a legal U.S. resident who nevertheless could have been removed from the country after a 2009 domestic violence conviction, according to a Judicial Watch source. That means the Obama administration missed an opportunity to deport Tsarnaev but evidently didnÂ’t feel he represented a big enough threat.

Adding insult to injury, the other bomber, little brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was rewarded with American Citizenship on September 11, 2012 in Boston, according to JWÂ’s source. The 19-year-old, who is still on the run, was granted asylum in Arlington Virginia on September 27, 2002, JWÂ’s source reveals.

Posted by: Ace at 12:01 PM | Comments (451)
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And pens a new article. Not a pshop.

Posted by: Ace at 11:22 AM | Comments (449)
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Jus' tryin' to fit in, that's all.

via @jtlol.

I enjoy how quick the left is to assert that no judgments can be made, about virtually anything at all, when just yesterday they were quite prepared to make some Big Judgments about the rightwing bombers who were probably celebrating Hitler's birthday, as most people on the right do (per NPR "news").

Scott Beauchamp's Wife: Why These Rightwingers Are Taking Evidence These Guys Were Radicalized Muslims As Some Kind of Evidence This Is Islamic Terrorism and Not Rightwing Terrorism Like We on the Left Asserted. Brilliant.

Posted by: Ace at 10:17 AM | Comments (674)
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Nothing new to report in relation to the search. Continue your commenting here.

It appears the Bruins/Penguins game in Boston has been cancelled. Also a basketball game has been cancelled in Boston but I don't know the name of their team.Sorry, I was thinking of the Red Sox. Apparently that game has yet to be cancelled.

Twitter is reporting that the BPD is looking for a 1999 GREEN HONDA CIVIC MA PLATE #116 GC7.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 10:03 AM | Comments (252)
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As far as I know there is nothing new to report.

Live feed here, here, or here.

Good interview with the uncle of the two suspects.

The father of the two suspects seems a bit crazy himself.

FBI shows photo of suspect walking by the eight year old who was killed.

From the terrorist's (alleged) twitter feed.

There was a fake twitter account out there earlier, but this one looks like it could be legit.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 08:31 AM | Comments (997)
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The old thread was reaching maximum capaicity in the comment section.

Live feed here, here, or here.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 07:07 AM | Comments (918)
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Thank God this week is over and they got the bastards. Of course, the President does his victory lap. Say, whatever happened with finding those that murdered 4 Americans in Benghazi? Bueller? Anyone? I guess the Overseas Contingency Operations are no longer overseas. Is that winning?

Interesting point on self defense.

Pete Zaitcev makes an interesting observation in this comment Â…

“And historically in my previous country martial arts were heavily regulated, their teaching prohibited to anyone but security and police officers.”

Why do I find that interesting? Because the deadliest open hand fighting techniques were originally developed by the common folk when emperors and kings banned owning and carrying regular weapons!

But it wasnÂ’t just open hand martial arts that were invented to provide self defense. Common everyday tools were also taken up to provide a means of protection.

Posted by: CDR M at 06:32 PM | Comments (894)
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You can watch the live feed here. (autoplay)

Reuter's live coverage can be found here.

It appears the cops have a building surrounded.

It appears early reports were wrong(surprise!). They didn't arrive in America in the past year. It looks like they've lived here for 10 years or so.

From the side bar, the EMS/Police/Fire scanner.

A useful interactive map on how the chase has unfolded thus far.

I'm not watching CNN, but apparently everyone on twitter agrees they are doing an awful job right now.

Some reports coming in about one of the two suspects from people who knew them growing up.

From Jon Henke. An aerial view of the shooting scene last night.

From Lachlan Markay, a photograph of the police officer this morning.

Boston Globe has some good pictures of the situation unfolding.

Boston Scanner Link That Appears To Work

People are reporting on a twitter account supposedly belong to one of the terrorists. It isn't his account.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:48 AM | Comments (1382)
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Glad to know immigration is working as it should. Given that it's handling its current tasks so swimmingly, I think we should throw another 20 million cases in their laps. I believe they will rise to the challenge.

This new information is via AP and Pete Williams.

The Sunil Tripathi information appears irrecoverably wrong at this point, and I apologize for that. And to his family.

I don't know why the cops would have said his name over the scanner -- one guess is that the cops themselves did not know the names of the terrorists, but had read speculation about "Sunil Tripathi," and so when they saw White Hat they identified him as such.

Same might go for the other name-- they might have had sketchy intelligence, and called the other guy "Mike Muguti" (I'm too tired to remember) based on some tidbit they had from somewhere, even though they weren't actually sure it was him.

Dead Brother ID'd: Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19.

Posted by: Ace at 02:50 AM | Comments (244)
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