Everyday Erinyes

More incidents which seem to me to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with. Just as a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

Last week there was a shooting at a Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs.  One activist who serves and has served as a Clinic Escort called it out as domestic terrorism.  Then –

"A stunning number of Twitter cretins accused me—& maybe you?—this weekend of 'making up' the US anti-abortion violence problem.  My next 100 tweets will be the citations they needed—from 4 decades of antichoice violence, near-misses, threats & incitements."

Using the hashtag #is100enough, she continued "My hashtag is also my question: If 100 examples won't convince you that antichoice violence is real, how many do you need?  I included a sampling of arsons & firebombs in my list. They're threats, they're dangerous—& often a middle step in escalation.  So miss me with derailing on how OMG THAT BOMB DIDN'T HURT ANYONE DOESN'T COUNT."

Calling herself just "Clinic Escort," she then proceeded to list 100 anti-abortion terrorist events, from "3/1976: Joseph Stockett commits the 1st reported abortion clinic arson at a Eugene, OR PP—not his last." through "11/24/15: Repeat clinic vandal at Louisville clinic, 1 day after jail release on condition he stay away."  For good measure, she throws in a few examples of how officials simply will not take anti abortion violence seriously.  "Operation Rescue had a saying: 'If you believe abortion is murder, act like it's murder.' Now, what could that possibly mean?"  "In 1984 FBI head William Webster said antichoice violence wasn't terrorism—wasn't a priority. His negligence fueled escalation."  "Last month, FBI's James Comey said criticism of cops could grow crime—where's his denunciation of antichoice 'murder' rhetoric?"  She also pointed out that 100 incidents was a mere scratch of the surface.  "That's all. But that's not all. I left SO MUCH OUT."

It just never quits, does it?  Alecto, if you click through, you will find a goodly number of individual names to start on.  But you will also find groups, and that will lesd to more names, and more.  I would not be surprised if you needed to bring up reinforcements.  It's not obviously her thing, but La Llorona might be available – she was all in favor of wanted children.

When I look at the phrase "vengeful destruction," I tend to think of "getting back" at someone.  You know, "an eye for an eye" (which in time, of course, makes the whole world blind).  But, of course, vengefulness can also be more precautionary.  As an opera lover, I'm familiar with the Italian word "vendetta," which can actually mean revenge, as in Rigoletto.  But then there's MacBeth, where it seems instead to mean getting them (in this case Banquo's descendants) back first. 

And then there's pure meanness.  Which seems to be the case with Johnny Mount of Mississippi.  From Raw Story:

"An enraged Waffle House customer shot and killed a waitress early Friday who asked him not to smoke.

"Police said Johnny Mount was eating about 1 a.m. at the restaurant in Biloxi, Mississippi, when he lit a cigarette, reported WLOX-TV.

"A waitress asked the 45-year-old Mount to put out the cigarette or smoke outside, and he began arguing with her.

"Police said Mount then pulled out a 9 mm handgun he had concealed under his shirt and shot the 52-year-old waitress in the head.

"She was taken to a nearby hospital but died from her wounds.

"Mount was arrested as he tried to leave the restaurant and has been charged with first-degree murder.

"He remains held on $2 million bond."

BTW, smoking in restaurants and other enclosed public spaces is against Mississippi law.  Maybe he was just trying to take out a witness.  Yeah.  Right.

He's all yours, Tisiphone.

Megaera is the Fury associated with "grudging."  I associate that with an attitude of "I've got mine, screw you."  But there's no reason "I can do whatever I want because I'm so special, screw you" can't also be grudguing.

As The Free Thought Project reports, Bill Furay is the head of the DEA's office in Beaumont, Texas. 

"For many years, Furay styled himself the implacable scourge of drug dealers, becoming a familiar presence at triumphant DEA press conferences announcing mass arrests and seizures of contraband and proceeds."  I'll spare you the details of Operation Blood Loss and Operation Agent Orange.  But they did take out the Pineda organization and a whole lot of meth and coke.

Ah well.  "Taking out a drug syndicate is an exercise in futility akin to baling (sic) out the Pacific Ocean with a thimble. When the DEA 'decimated' one narcotics syndicate, all they did was create an opportunity for another one to fill it. While Furay was busy with sting operations, controlled buys, and self-aggrandizing press conferences, he apparently neglected to supervise his young daughter Sarah, who was arrested at her College Station home on November 8 and faces a variety of narcotics-related charges."

Apparently, "(P)olice found '31.5 grams of packaged cocaine, 126 grams of high grade marijuana, 29 "ecstasy" tablets, methamphetamine and 60 doses of a drug similar to LSD' in Sarah Furay’s bedroom. They also reported finding two digital scales, packaging materials, and a handwritten drug price list. Police also found text messages in her phone discussing drug transactions. Miss Furay faces at least three felony charges that could – and, given the renowned severity of the Texas justice system, ordinarily would – result in long prison time: The aggregate maximum sentence would be 215 years behind bars and a $30,000 fine."

That terrifying prospect notwithstanding, the winsome Miss Furay can be seen smiling broadly in her booking photo, which has been called the “happiest mugshot in America.” After spending a day in jail, the 19-year-old, referred to in press accounts as an “adorable drug kingpin,” posted $39,000 bond and was released.

"Having a mom and dad with well-established positions within departments of law enforcement and education certainly doesn’t hurt when it comes to getting your drug-dealing ass out of jail."

Owing to her privileged status, Sarah Furay has a very good chance to escape the ruinous punishment that would be inflicted on most defendants in her situation. There is a strong possibility as well that her less-than-admirable life choices reflect the fact that her father was too busy putting other people’s children in prison to give his own daughter the parental attention she needed.

And her name even looks like "Fury"!  Have fun, Megaera, with her – and her father.