From the Network that Brought You Brian Williams

Dispatches from the Reality-Based Community: State Department spokeswoman tells MSNBC host, “We cannot kill our way out of this war,” instead, as Allahpundit paraphrases Marie Harf at Hot Air, “we need to go after ISIS’s root causes, like lack of job opportunities:”

Via Newsbusters and Powerline. “We cannot kill our way out of this war,” says Marie Harf, reciting a bit of wisdom so conventional among America’s ruling class since Vietnam that it might as well be etched in granite above the entrance to the State Department. What’s less conventional is that it falls to Chris Matthews(!) to perform the reality check: We’re not going to job-create our way out of this war either. Any honest list of “root causes” of the Islamic State begins with the “Islamic” part, a point stressed repeatedly in Graeme Wood’s superb new essay on ISIS for the Atlantic:

But really, aren’t there more important things we should be going after than supplying ISIS anyhow? Take it away, MSNBC’s Chris Hayes!

According to MSNBC anchor Chris Hayes, global warming apparently trumps terror concerns such as ISIS. While much of the country is covered with snow and facing brutal cold, Hayes appeared on the February 17 edition of Last Call to warn: “The single most important thing we face globally is the fact that we are heating the planet to a level that is never before been tried, while also trying to have human civilization.”

Talking to host Carson Daly on the program that airs at 1:30 in the morning, Hayes predicted, “100 years from now, people will look back and be like, ‘How did they talk about anything else, ever?’ Like, didn’t they understand they were sitting tied to train tracks with a train coming?”

Wow, how does a guy like that sleep at night, after spending the day in a studio filled with electrically-powered hot lights, video camera, and computers, knowing that he’s working for a corporation with such an enormous carbon footprint, that blithely transmits for mere entertainment, such wanton carbon-producing activities as this and this. C’mon Chris — quit your job, shrink your personal carbon footprint, then successfully lobby Comcast to buy into your shtick and go off the air, and then maybe others will listen.

Fortunately, one man stands as the lonely voice of reason at the Peacock Network today:

Holy schnikes: was that really Ed Schultz, or has the soul of Norman Schwarzkopf suddenly assumed control of the MSNBC host’s body?

On his show this afternoon, Schultz—discussing the latest ISIS outrages—stunningly declared that we are in a “religious war” in which we haven’t been “strong enough,” and repeatedly raised the possibility that ground troops might be necessary.

But Ed, remember the Crusades, maaaaan:

Mike Barnicle: proud member of the Barack Obama “terrible deeds in the name of Christ” school of moral blindness . . .Joe Scarborough opened today’s Morning Joe with a protracted and impassioned plea for America—and in particular President Obama—to call out radical Islam by name. Mika Brzezinski was dubious, citing unspecified “difficult times” in the past when presidents used the wrong language. But taking Mika’s misgivings a giant step further, Mike Barnicle flatly declared that we can’t call radical Islam by name because “we’re the Crusaders.”

Finally, question asked and answered:

Hmmm RT @DailySignal: What @StateDept spox @marieharf says about #ISIS: http://t.co/vUvr8YurFn

— Ericka Andersen (@ErickaAndersen) February 17, 2015

Hey, to answer Harf’s question and bring this post full circle, ISIS does take the MSNBC-approved concept of reducing the world’s carbon footprint by reducing population growth one sliced neck at a time pretty darn seriously in their own way. I’m sure, like the president, their views on gay marriage will evolve eventually, right?

Update: “I can’t believe that I have to write this, but here goes: no, people do not burn other people alive, or slit their throats in a mass human sacrifice, or set up slave markets, or crucify other people, or throw them off buildings, or any of the other things that death cultists do, just because those death cultists don’t have access to better jobs. Those death cultists like their jobs. It feeds something in their souls. You’d think that the State Department would know better… well, no, not really: but they used to be better at hiding that.  Six years of this administration’s reverse Midas touch is taking its toll.”

Plus, “General Marie Harf Through History!” “When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna. But first, consider providing the Viennese with employment opportunities so as to lessen their agitation and mitigate the need for taking it at all.”