Selwyn Duke
Crock Boy: When the media get owned by a 14-year-old
By Selwyn Duke
Take the money and run. With the huge windfall enjoyed by the Mohamed family – of clock-bomb-arrest fame – in "Islamophobic" America, one might think that little clock-maker extraordinaire Ahmed Mohamed would head to Switzerland for an internship with Rolex. Instead, news is his whole family is moving to Qatar after the boy accepted a scholarship from the Qatar Foundation for Education. Because, you know, if you're interested in pushing back scientific frontiers, the Islamic world is where you go.
Now, Qatar is an interesting choice. Its official state religion is Wahhabi Islam – this is also the dominant faith in Saudi Arabia. And like Saudi Arabia, the nation's main source of legislation is Sharia law (I'm sure Ahmed's sisters will love it [and maybe they will]). It's quite telling, however, that the Mohamed clan would choose such a place, although not surprising, really. With Ahmed's father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed (talk about wearing out a name), being a Muslim activist who twice ran for the Sudan's presidency, it wouldn't be surprising if these people were "true believers."
But what I really want to discuss are those other destructive true believers, in all things politically correct, who averred Crock Boy was Clock Boy and dubbed him an inventor. This brings us to the main point, something never quite articulated sufficiently.
Where's the clock?
Experts in electronics have maintained that Ahmed's "clock" is just the guts of an '80s commercial clock ripped out and placed in another housing. On the other hand, there are still liberals who believe Ahmed's story, of being a creative scientific genius unjustly persecuted by a bigoted America.
Okay, show me. Barack Obama had originally tweeted, "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House?" But when boy genius made an appearance on the South Lawn for Monday's Astronomy Night, his clock was conspicuously absent. Hmm....
Nor has the media treated us to expositions on the nature, construction and brilliance of Ahmed's "invention." They haven't made it Exhibit A in the persecution of a budding Muslim scientist and rubbed it in the faces of those stupid enough to mistake tomorrow's technology for today's terrorism. My, remarkably charitable of them.
Of course, that's what would have happened had Ahmed's creation been more clock than crock. Instead, the device has been "disappeared." Like a magician using misdirection to distract his audience from his sleight-of-hand, the media and Mohamed clan have made Ahmed the story. "If I was a Caucasian male, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten arrested," said the beleaguered boy. Chimed in his father, Mr. Mohamed2, "Because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated."
Let me clue you in, fellas: if Ahmed were of European descent and named Alex or Justin, few would have even heard his story.
He wouldn't have been on talk shows and done a world tour visiting leaders and the U.N.
He wouldn't have been invited to the White House.
The media wouldn't have made a federal case out of his tale.
And he wouldn't have gotten money, scholarships and offers of opportunities from Facebook, Google, Twitter and others.
You know, like white kid Alex Stone, arrested for writing a fictional story in which he slew a dinosaur with a gun.
Or white Texas teen Justin Carter, who sat in prison for months – to the point of becoming suicidal – for making an obvious joke in social media.
Or the kids punished for chewing a Pop-Tart, cutting paper or forming fingers into the shape of a gun. Their races? White, white and white.
Of course, Ahmed had excitedly told a former teacher after his terrible, unjust persecution, "I told you one day I'm going to be – and you told me yourself – I'm going to be really big on the Internet one day." Even more recently he said about his experience, "I'm glad this happened to me." I'll bet. It's a neat con.
I know, I'm a terrible man to thus criticize a kid. You see, though, unlike most adults – who behave as if they don't even remember being young – I do. And I know that while many 14-year-olds can be wonderful, some are manipulative, crafty and even downright rotten. And if Ahmed is so clever, why is it inconceivable that Clock Boy could be Crock Boy, a clever little con man?
It's also ironic that the liberals who now say criticizing a 14-year-old is off limits are often the same people who provide sex education to pre-teens and want to give 14-year-olds voting rights.
I'm not saying Ahmed knew precisely how his story would play out. But it seems that the most charitable explanation is that he tried to impress teachers with a faux creation; it's also not inconceivable that a boy juvenile could find bringing to school something resembling a bomb amusing. After that, the Mohamed clan, activist Mohamed2 and all, took the ball and ran with it.
Also note that Ahmed has a history of misbehavior, having been suspended from junior-high school for three weeks and spending time the next year in a "reassignment center." Of course, privacy rules mean we can't get details on Master Ahmed's junior-high hell-raising, but you don't get suspended for three weeks for "blowing bubbles" in school, as his family related when brushing the matter off. Consider as well that his oldest sister, Eyman, was also suspended – for allegedly wanting to blow up her school. As National Review's Ian Tuttle observed, "Two siblings from the same family being falsely accused of "bomb"-related offenses is, well, quite a coincidence." Yes, quite.
But then there was the fact that the wind beneath the Mohameds' wings, the juvenile media, would rather play useful idiot than expose Crock Boy. Part of this, no doubt, is that his tale advances the leftist victim group/victimizer group narrative. And as a Students for a Democratic Society radical once put it, "The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution."
Yet there's another factor: the media are generally ignorant and deluded.
And sometimes downright stupid.
There's also a psychological phenomenon whereby people would rather participate in a fraud than admit they'd been duped. It's "'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' – lest I fully realize I'm a dope."
If those of us saying Clock Boy is Crock Boy are wrong, there was always a simple way to prove it. Exhibit A, the smoking gun – the clock. Where's the clock?
Oh, yeah, it's in the corn field with Hillary's emails.
© Selwyn Duke
October 24, 2015
Take the money and run. With the huge windfall enjoyed by the Mohamed family – of clock-bomb-arrest fame – in "Islamophobic" America, one might think that little clock-maker extraordinaire Ahmed Mohamed would head to Switzerland for an internship with Rolex. Instead, news is his whole family is moving to Qatar after the boy accepted a scholarship from the Qatar Foundation for Education. Because, you know, if you're interested in pushing back scientific frontiers, the Islamic world is where you go.
Now, Qatar is an interesting choice. Its official state religion is Wahhabi Islam – this is also the dominant faith in Saudi Arabia. And like Saudi Arabia, the nation's main source of legislation is Sharia law (I'm sure Ahmed's sisters will love it [and maybe they will]). It's quite telling, however, that the Mohamed clan would choose such a place, although not surprising, really. With Ahmed's father, Mohamed Elhassan Mohamed (talk about wearing out a name), being a Muslim activist who twice ran for the Sudan's presidency, it wouldn't be surprising if these people were "true believers."
But what I really want to discuss are those other destructive true believers, in all things politically correct, who averred Crock Boy was Clock Boy and dubbed him an inventor. This brings us to the main point, something never quite articulated sufficiently.
Where's the clock?
Experts in electronics have maintained that Ahmed's "clock" is just the guts of an '80s commercial clock ripped out and placed in another housing. On the other hand, there are still liberals who believe Ahmed's story, of being a creative scientific genius unjustly persecuted by a bigoted America.
Okay, show me. Barack Obama had originally tweeted, "Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House?" But when boy genius made an appearance on the South Lawn for Monday's Astronomy Night, his clock was conspicuously absent. Hmm....
Nor has the media treated us to expositions on the nature, construction and brilliance of Ahmed's "invention." They haven't made it Exhibit A in the persecution of a budding Muslim scientist and rubbed it in the faces of those stupid enough to mistake tomorrow's technology for today's terrorism. My, remarkably charitable of them.
Of course, that's what would have happened had Ahmed's creation been more clock than crock. Instead, the device has been "disappeared." Like a magician using misdirection to distract his audience from his sleight-of-hand, the media and Mohamed clan have made Ahmed the story. "If I was a Caucasian male, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten arrested," said the beleaguered boy. Chimed in his father, Mr. Mohamed2, "Because his name is Mohamed and because of Sept. 11, I think my son got mistreated."
Let me clue you in, fellas: if Ahmed were of European descent and named Alex or Justin, few would have even heard his story.
He wouldn't have been on talk shows and done a world tour visiting leaders and the U.N.
He wouldn't have been invited to the White House.
The media wouldn't have made a federal case out of his tale.
And he wouldn't have gotten money, scholarships and offers of opportunities from Facebook, Google, Twitter and others.
You know, like white kid Alex Stone, arrested for writing a fictional story in which he slew a dinosaur with a gun.
Or white Texas teen Justin Carter, who sat in prison for months – to the point of becoming suicidal – for making an obvious joke in social media.
Or the kids punished for chewing a Pop-Tart, cutting paper or forming fingers into the shape of a gun. Their races? White, white and white.
Of course, Ahmed had excitedly told a former teacher after his terrible, unjust persecution, "I told you one day I'm going to be – and you told me yourself – I'm going to be really big on the Internet one day." Even more recently he said about his experience, "I'm glad this happened to me." I'll bet. It's a neat con.
I know, I'm a terrible man to thus criticize a kid. You see, though, unlike most adults – who behave as if they don't even remember being young – I do. And I know that while many 14-year-olds can be wonderful, some are manipulative, crafty and even downright rotten. And if Ahmed is so clever, why is it inconceivable that Clock Boy could be Crock Boy, a clever little con man?
It's also ironic that the liberals who now say criticizing a 14-year-old is off limits are often the same people who provide sex education to pre-teens and want to give 14-year-olds voting rights.
I'm not saying Ahmed knew precisely how his story would play out. But it seems that the most charitable explanation is that he tried to impress teachers with a faux creation; it's also not inconceivable that a boy juvenile could find bringing to school something resembling a bomb amusing. After that, the Mohamed clan, activist Mohamed2 and all, took the ball and ran with it.
Also note that Ahmed has a history of misbehavior, having been suspended from junior-high school for three weeks and spending time the next year in a "reassignment center." Of course, privacy rules mean we can't get details on Master Ahmed's junior-high hell-raising, but you don't get suspended for three weeks for "blowing bubbles" in school, as his family related when brushing the matter off. Consider as well that his oldest sister, Eyman, was also suspended – for allegedly wanting to blow up her school. As National Review's Ian Tuttle observed, "Two siblings from the same family being falsely accused of "bomb"-related offenses is, well, quite a coincidence." Yes, quite.
But then there was the fact that the wind beneath the Mohameds' wings, the juvenile media, would rather play useful idiot than expose Crock Boy. Part of this, no doubt, is that his tale advances the leftist victim group/victimizer group narrative. And as a Students for a Democratic Society radical once put it, "The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution."
Yet there's another factor: the media are generally ignorant and deluded.
And sometimes downright stupid.
There's also a psychological phenomenon whereby people would rather participate in a fraud than admit they'd been duped. It's "'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' – lest I fully realize I'm a dope."
If those of us saying Clock Boy is Crock Boy are wrong, there was always a simple way to prove it. Exhibit A, the smoking gun – the clock. Where's the clock?
Oh, yeah, it's in the corn field with Hillary's emails.
© Selwyn Duke
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