Wednesday, August 20, 2014

IT ONLY TAKES A MOMENT.

This week has pretty much clarified what "the libertarian moment" really is: While that Times article  portrayed it as a historical moment, events show that it has become an actual moment -- something lasting only briefly, but calculated to have a long-term effect.

Take, for example,  "Why the ‘War on Journalists’ in Ferguson?" by Rick Moran. Readers of his impeccably rightwing venue, the PJ Tatler, may from the headline expect one of those columns featuring, in the words Timothy P. Carney, "wisdom shared by libertarians and conservatives" -- that is, conservatives of both kinds united to fight the power of Big Police.

However, Moran is actually with the cops:
It is unrealistic for reporters to think that police approach anyone not wearing blue during a riot with anything but suspicion. This is especially true when they are under gun fire, and Molotov Cocktails and rocks are being thrown at them. It appears that many of the detentions have occurred when reporters either got in the way or were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
And on and on like that. But! Then Moran drops this:
On the other hand, there have been some questionable actions by police directed at reporters, like the incident mentioned above at the McDonald’s last week where two reporters were roughed up and dragged off to jail.
That done, it's back to stuff like
Do reporters think they should have free rein to run around a riot ignorantly, putting themselves and the police who try to assist them in danger?... That ignorance is going to get one of them killed unless they’re more careful.
That "on the other hand" section may seem to normal readers like a weird hiccup -- only there because of a nervous editor, perhaps, or a debilitating stroke.

But that was the actually the column's "libertarian moment" -- that is, the short part of it where the conservative writer pays homage to this libertarian thing they're all supposed to get with.

You can see something similar in Jonah Goldberg's latest. Mostly it's a fist-shaking fart-cloud about stupid liberals and black people who are always rioting for reasons he can't understand. It might have been written after an Abner Louima demonstration, that's how old-school this joint is -- Goldberg even namechecks the Nation of Islam, and the column is illustrated with a photo of Al Sharpton! But you don't get to be a top Professor of Liberal Fasciology by ignoring what the new breed is up to, and in his summation Goldberg makes room for the trope du jour:
Nearly everything about this story is ugly: the gleeful ideological and bureaucratic point-scoring, the spectacle of a militarized police force and bunkered police leadership, the self-congratulatory advocacy journalism, the Molotov cocktails and despondent victims of looting, the feeding frenzy of Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and countless lesser activist remoras, and — perhaps most of all — the constant soul-corrupting rationalizations of lawlessness that come with seeing the right “context.” (Context! Is there nothing it can’t do?)
See? He got the militarized police in there, nestled among the usual bullshit, so you New Age types can enjoy your racism and authoritarianism with a clear conscience.

You'll be seeing many such libertarian moments sitting on many conservative columns, like cherries on shit sundaes, until this whole thing blows over.

UPDATE. In comments, Bizarro Mike: "Maybe they could sell Libertarian Moments™ collectible figurines. You know, like Precious Moments™, but standing on their own, facing off the tax man come to make them pay grazing fees."

101 comments:

  1. Bizarro Mike9:49 AM

    This is a brilliant observation. I hope you do the next Veev column on this topic. I can't imagine that it would be hard to find a bucket full of these moments.

    Also, maybe they could sell Libertarian Moments (TM) collectible figurines. You know, like Precious Moments (TM), but standing on their own, facing off the tax man come to make them pay grazing fees.

    The extra scorn for the voter registration drives that we've been seeing now is very special. So many spit-flecked columns seem horrified that the people of Ferguson would resort to democracy because of a small police matter. It's underhanded, apparently, to connect politicians with policy.

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  2. OtherJimDonahue9:55 AM

    Get a brain, (Rick) Moran.

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  3. It appears that many of the detentions have occurred when reporters either got in the way or were in the wrong place at the wrong time.Heavens! [Fires up pearl-clutching app] Reporters in the wrong place at the wrong time! The nerve. What's next, investigating government malfeasance?
    Do reporters think they should have free rein to run around a riot ignorantly[Scrapes numerous layers of conservative shit off Constitution; squints at First Amendment]

    Yes.
    That ignorance is going to get one of them killed unless they’re more careful.
    Thank you for your thoughtful contribution on the role of the press in a putatively free society, Mr. Corleone.

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  4. Have some compassion for the job these hacks are doing! Maintaining the basic narrative of rioting thugs trashing the city built by upstanding decent folks without breaking the cover of racial codewords is tough enough without throwing in token nods to distrust of power. More than a pinch, the whole thing collapses & the "riots" are Milton the Monster.

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  5. It's underhanded to let black people vote. ACORN!!1!

    (Make sure to add a heaping helping of "Democrats are the real racists.)
    ~

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  6. coozledad10:03 AM

    the feeding frenzy of Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and countless lesser activist remoras

    Like voter registration drives. Vulgar.

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  7. "It is unrealistic for reporters to think that police approach anyone not wearing blue during a riot with anything but suspicion."

    Video analysis will show that Ryan Reilly brought that police action on himself when he cried menacingly:

    "Back off, ya lousy coppers... I got me a loaded laptop, and I AIN'T AFRAID TA USE IT!!11!

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  8. Helmut Monotreme10:06 AM

    If the story of every mass protest from the anti-WTO riots in Seattle in 1999 has taught us anything, violence perpetrated by anyone who isn't the police will be used to discredit the protesters. This is especially true if the violent people are agents provocateur, opportunistic criminals or wannabe weathermen who drove across the country for the chance to mix it up with the cops. Somehow violence perpetrated by the police or by dupes of undercover FBI agents never discredits the police or the government.

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  9. "That ignorance is going to get one of them killed unless they’re more careful."


    *wink wink, nod nod...*

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  10. Militarized police are bad, but these cops aren't militarized enough. After all, the only people they fucked over are grubby blahs and members of the liberal lamestream Obamafied media who are asking for it by being in the vicinity of the police.

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  11. Fats Durston10:09 AM

    "self-congratulatory advocacy journalism"


    As opposed to self-congratulatory do-nothing "journalism."

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  12. DocAmazing10:09 AM

    That ignorance is going to get one of them killed unless they're more careful.

    For that reason, pedestrians will no longer be allowed to cross streets without a police escort. After all, their ignorance of the intent of drivers is going to get one of them killed otherwise.

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  13. DocAmazing10:11 AM

    I hope Libertarians are content to be the Republicans' flea collars, as they don't seem to be aiming any higher.

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  14. Hey! It's not easy for Jonah to sit there, gently venting gases in his office. Sometimes he has to take a second off from staring out the window and wondering what "nepotism" means to glance at the latest article an intern has written for him!

    Really, he'd love to be out in Ferguson, showing those show-offs how real reporting is done and putting civil rights sharks in their place but ... the dog needs walking and he has to be there to make sure the intern returns the key when he's done. Faaaaaaaaart.

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  15. without breaking the cover of racial codewords

    I was thinking about that a couple of days ago. The new standard seems to be "Provided we don't use words like coon, spade, etc., we're good."

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  16. First of all, I didn't see "Jonah" asking any of his readers [sic] if they had any info/research on Ferguson that they'd care to share with him, so I question whether it really was Pantload himself who scrawled that brain-vomit.

    Second, it's good to see he did all the checkoffs, e.g., Sharpton, New Black Panthers, so all the (lower-case) morans get their needs met vis-a-vis scary niggers. (But no white wimmins being chased/raped? What's up with that, Pantload?)

    Third: the comments at Pantload's brain-vomit are, as usual, disgusting, and doing a full-bore blame-the-victim routine. [He smoked marijuana! (But grass mellows you out) He did PCP! (Which is chemically different) He did a "strong arm" robbery! (Which the cop didn't know about.) He was BLACKITY-BLACK!! (Well ... ya got me on that one.)]

    I wish all those racist, idiotic mofos would either move to Somalia already, or just kill themselves (because things are apparently so terrible for them.

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  17. And then there's Sean Hannity, interviewing the Ferguson Chief of Police, the mayor, the governor, and various experts like Drs. Ben Carson and Keith Ablow, and then helpfully telling us What It All Means from the comfort of the Fox News broadcast center.

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  18. Fats Durston10:26 AM

    Libertarian Moments (TM) collectible figurines.



    Libertarian missionary handing Rand Bible to benighted native.


    Lone Libertarian voter at machine. (Comes with real ballot punched for Libertarian candidate--limited edition!)


    Libertarian man (Ha! kidding, they're all men) with gun collection, far too many to fit in figurine's hands.


    Libertarian convert (white male with bong being arrested by police).


    And they're all about 3 inches tall.


    Safety Warning: Not suitable for children under 12 or adults over 25. May contain lead-based paint. May contain contaminated plastic. May be swallowed whole by males (girls and women seem to be immune to this).
    (Ha! Kidding, there are no safety warnings, no oversight on their manufacture at all.)

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  19. zencomix10:28 AM

    We should see the turning point for the Libertarian Moment in the next six months.

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  20. StringOnAStick10:28 AM

    This Libertarian Moment crap is bubbling up because there was a survey recently that purported to show that the sub-35 set may be socially liberal but they are all in for "limited government"; it set Libertarian hearts aflutter. Whether it is actually true and not just statistics abuse is another matter, but they've seen the Paulista bumper stickers and they figure it is now or never.

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  21. montag210:28 AM

    If Der Pantload keeps this up, he's going to give obtuseness an even worse reputation than it already has.

    In all of that long list of "ugly" events, not once does he speak the obvious--that a prima facie murder was perpetrated by the police and a large bloc of the citizenry came out to not only protest the act but the apparent indifference of the police to determining the truth of the matter, as well, which then precipitated a violent attack on the protesters by a powerful, over-armed state.

    This is not difficult stuff to understand, but Doughy insists on taking a circuitous path around the obvious, mostly because it's in his nature to do so. I'm beginning to think that, despite the obvious nepotism involved, he's ideally suited for his job. Conservatism is almost always wrong because it adamantly refuses to see its own errors, and Mr. Pantload is driving the conservative tour bus around the truth at every opportunity, even if means going from DuPont Circle to the Capitol by way of the Al-Can Highway.

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  22. mortimer200010:32 AM

    Jeezuz, for Jonah Goldberg to complain about the race to be wrong first is kind of awesome. But this is all too typical:
    That hardly means Wilson was justified in shooting Brown even once. Nor does it necessarily mean Wilson is a murderer. The simple fact is we don’t know.

    *Sigh* yes we just don't know, heckarooney, we don't even have an idea. Sure, there are at least four eyewitnesses to the shooting who all agree on the facts, but they're not credible to people like me. I mean, just look at their names:
    Dorian Johnson
    Piaget Crenshaw
    Tiffany Mitchell
    Emmanuel Freeman

    Yes, *sigh*, we'll just never know what really happened. That is, until the Ferguson police department decides which version of their story will be final.

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  23. +1 cold dead fingers

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  24. montag210:39 AM

    Oh, we know what they mean when they explain what it means: "Ooga-booga!"

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  25. montag210:43 AM

    Yup, there's not a Goldberg, a Kristol, a Hannity or an O'Reilly in the lot. Probably agents provocateur.

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  26. socially liberal but they are all in for "limited government"Well, I want government to butt out of private healthcare decisions between a woman and her doctor. I want government to stop forbidding two consenting adults from marrying one another because of horseshit religious reasons. I want government out of my telephone metadata and e-mail inbox. I want government to reduce the amount of taxpayer money it transfers to the military-industrial complex. So yes, I suppose I want "limited government." Oddly, that doesn't mean that I want all taxes, government regulations, and safety net programs eliminated in the name of liberty. Nor do I see much improvement in replacing being shot by a federal agent with being shot by an Academi mercenary employed by ADM. (I'm sure my estate would appreciate the weregild, though.)

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  27. M. Krebs10:49 AM

    Hey, I'm all for unlimited government and paying as much tax as possible. Aren't we all?

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  28. whetstone10:49 AM

    Context! Is there nothing it can’t do?


    Not as much as bullshit, granted.

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  29. mortimer200010:50 AM

    YES!
    Hallmark could come out with a special line of Libertarian Moment™ cards for every occasion:

    Everyone should know it,
    I really don't even mind,
    If the NSA hears me say it,
    Won't you be my valentine?


    or

    Would it be to glib of me,
    to make a bold prediction?
    Soon you'll have lots of liberty,
    When they overturn your drug conviction.


    or

    and some "fun" ones:

    You've got all you need,
    Plenty of money in the bank,
    Hey, the police car that just went by,
    Was that a fucking tank?

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  30. That is, until the Ferguson police department decides which version of their story will be final.Hey, before the protests, they were apparently just going to let the whole matter drop entirely. Progress!

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  31. StringOnAStick10:56 AM

    Like I said, "statistics abuse". Most of the younger set wants what you describe, but to Libertoonians that translates to their free market utopian wet dream as interpreted through the Kochs.

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  32. Ellis_Weiner10:58 AM

    "Nearly everything about this story is ugly: the gleeful ideological and bureaucratic point-scoring..."


    Psst. Jonah. Ix-nay on the ideological oint-scoring pay. That's all conservative columnists, pundits, bloggers, and opinionizers *do.*

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  33. drspittle11:07 AM

    "Libertarian man (Ha! kidding, they're all men) with gun collection, far too many to fit in figurine's hands"


    Voiceover Announcer: "Guns Sold Separately".

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  34. Ohh! You could have an entire Galt's Gulch set up, complete with hungry moochers clawing to get in.

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  35. drspittle11:12 AM

    You mean, um, the end from which the tail wags?

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  36. If I weren't so self-absorbed
    I'd think this comment was so grand.
    I'd ask it to go out with me.
    And stomp a beggar's outstretched hand.

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  37. DN Nation11:13 AM

    I know how wingnuts have to always have their kneejerk rageouts about Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton whenever some innocent black kid gets mowed down by the cops, but here is, in full, what the two of them have argued:

    1) It is a shame what happened.
    2) It is not surprising what happened.
    3) Something should be done about what happened.
    4) Protests should be peaceful.
    5) Looting is bad.
    6) Voting is good.

    So tell me, dearest wingnuts- What in there bothers you the most? Is it the horrible, horrible assumption that maybe a black kid not carrying a weapon shouldn't be shot six times? Is it the one where black people might actually register and might actually vote? What troubles you so, you poor, poor dears?

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  38. Sean Cooper11:18 AM

    They are good at railing.

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  39. Mr. Goldberg decries "the race to be wrong" simply because, as he has proven time and time and tick-tock tick-tock time again, if one wishes to be consistently wrong one need only sloth about, languorous, dilatory, and self-musked in a flatulent torpidity.

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  40. BigHank5311:45 AM

    I had to go look and see if he actually used the word "remora". Tell me, Jonah, exactly who has attached themselves to the lower jaw of an enormous predator and subsists on the scraps that fall off its dinner?

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  41. I'd put my money on being scolded by the wrong kinda' folks.


    Just a guess, mind.

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  42. DocAmazing11:48 AM

    Mr. Goldberg is probably beaming with pride that he managed to squeeze a one-and-a-half entendre out of the word "race".

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  43. gocart mozart12:10 PM

    What does Hannity's cohort in the rebellion against government tyranny, Cliven Bundy, think of all this?

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  44. gocart mozart12:13 PM

    Where did you get the idea that the military industrial complex and the local police are part of Big Government?

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  45. Those are the weirdest clitoris piercings I've ever seen. Randroids are very, very strange.

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  46. Illogical One12:21 PM

    Are you saying there will be progress in the next six months? Ah, the return of the F.U.!!

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  47. Those people would be better off if they were slaves, naturelment!

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  48. glennisw12:27 PM

    the police who try to assist them
    Um, Seriously?

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  49. LookWhosInTheFreezer12:28 PM

    The bling will have to wait until the Great Galtian Council resolves the Mandatory Burquas for Womminz motion that is still currently under discussion. Bling makes the ladies sexy which compels Libertarian Man to indulge in their Howard Roark rape fantasies. Leading to potential incarceration. Can't have that. But at least the burquas will be offered in red, white and blue and marketed as "Freedom Wraps."

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  50. glennisw12:28 PM

    I admit to not being a TV junkie, but I think I saw Sharpton on TV once in the days after the shooting, and Jackson maybe once in a still photo somewhere. This is a feeding frenzy?

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  51. DN Nation12:31 PM

    Wingnuts were bitching about Sharpton and Jackson before they ever said anything. It's pathological with these yahoos.

    Jesse Jackson is 100 years old. Al Sharpton has a milquetoast, little-watched show on MSNBC. And yet, every single time: "JESSE AND AL ARE GONNA PLAY THE RACE CARD HERE IT COMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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  52. FrenchFriar12:40 PM

    Made in China, no doubt.

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  53. mgmonklewis12:48 PM

    Goldshart: " the gleeful ideological and bureaucratic point-scoring"

    I literally have no idea what he's talking about. Does he think people being tear-gassed and shot are having a moment like Pat Buchanan and Michael Kinsley, archly playing "Gotcha!" on Crossfire? That's as close as I can come even with a guess. But hey, Both Sides Do It™, I guess.

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  54. mgmonklewis12:55 PM

    Libertarian SURGE!
    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/58/Surge_Soda_Cans.png

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  55. Bizarro Mike12:56 PM

    If you're a true libertarian, your well-practiced Kung Fu grip will be too strong.

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  56. Whoops, sorry. I forgot. Replace them with SNAP and the Clean Air Act.

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  57. going from DuPont Circle to the Capitol by way of the Al-Can Highway

    Not a problem. Even at the remotest arctic outposts along the way, the gang always found an ample supply of beef jerky and Ranch Doritos.

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  58. Is it the one where black people might actually register and might actually vote?Based on their current grousing about exactly that, and their disenfranchisement efforts elsewhere, I'm gonna guess that this one is in fact a large part of it.

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  59. TGuerrant1:28 PM

    There's, there's, th-th-there's a link on that page marked VIDEOS OF ALL PROCEDURES. Don't. Just don't.

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  60. Jaime Oria1:29 PM

    It's clear to me Libertarians are in fact a weird combo of flea collar and cock-ring for the Repubs.

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  61. Surely you can understand that Jonah is disturbed by the idea of people who actually do their job and are willing to risk personal injury to do so.

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  62. Thank you. I now must go drink all of my brain cells into submission so I don't accidentally wonder what piercing salons would be like in a Libertarian Derptopia.

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  63. ohsopolite1:51 PM

    Libertarian standing athwart history, yelling STOP (when string is pulled.

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  64. bekabot2:07 PM

    Imagine the irony connected with paying sales tax for one of those...

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  65. It's that lofty above-it-all attitude, that "look at these savages and poseurs and fame-whores, no wonder the cops are forced against their will to crack some skulls" that really sticks in my craw. And this from the bunch that not only advocates or at least wave away "armed resistance against a tyrannical government" when some rich asshole doesn't get his way one-hundred percent, but also stroke themselves constantly about being "citizen journalists" and serious political thinkers, all without an ounce of the real ugliness in the world. That's white privilege in a nutshell, the ability to only give a shit only when there's no real danger or oppression, plus the ability to deny that anger in others.

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  66. Derelict2:27 PM

    "And now with special animatronic jerk-off action! (Batteries sold separately.)"

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  67. Derelict2:28 PM

    Or postage!

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  68. Derelict2:32 PM

    [Scrapes numerous layers of conservative shit off Constitution; squints at First Amendment]

    BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! Sorry! There is only ONE amendment to the Constitution, and that is the Second Amendment. (Although it's worth noting that the Second Amendment--like the other scribbles that people think are amendments--only apply to whole persons. Anyone who could be considered 3/5 of a person has no rights.)

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  69. Derelict2:37 PM

    What kind of flea collar attracts fleas? Or do you mean that a collar that would fit around the head of a flea would serve just as well as a cock ring for a Republican?

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  70. Derelict2:41 PM

    Basically, if you had a mob of KKK members in full regalia lynching an entire Black family on live TV, you'd have all the usual rightwing mouthpieces screeching about how "the left" is going to play the race card in response.

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  71. Nuh-uh! The 1st Amendment says that America is a Christian nation and telling conservatives to STFU is a gross violations of their rights!

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  72. Derelict2:48 PM

    Flatulent torpedoes, you say? That's a bit more vigorous that a shart, I think.

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  73. In much the same way rightwads help sheep over the fence. IYKWIM&ITYD.

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  74. Derelict2:52 PM

    I think this falls into the same category as thinking veterans with Purple Heart medals are "lucky" because they have demonstrated their valor and now qualify for all those sweet VA benefits. (I've actually heard a chickenhawk say exactly this. All I could think was, "Yeah, I'm sure any one of these guys would be happy to have NOT been a shrapnel catcher.")

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  75. Derelict2:53 PM

    GAH! How could I forget that!?!?!

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  76. ColBatGuano2:54 PM

    This is what I loved about the Draper article. It was obvious that the "libertarian" leanings of folks under 35 was in the area of personal liberty such as your examples. Things that Republicans despise. Of course the editors of Reason took it to mean they all loved corporations and low tax rates.

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  77. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person3:09 PM

    The We Don't Care Bears™...

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  78. j_handey3:14 PM

    As always, Rod Dreher is an awesome example of how to be a loathsome human being - Ferguson being a great excuse to scream to the world what a gigantic tool he is (but don't dare call him on it, or you'll be bullying poor Rod! If anyone's allowed to do any bullying, it's him, and only him!).

    Rod's MO on these things is sneaky. First he'll write a post or two to express his independence from all those other unsophisticated conservatives. Then he'll say something like "here are some troubling questions", introducing some standard mouthbreather nonsense. Then, after an appropriate amount of hand-wringing and anguished anguishing, he'll go full-on orthodox (no pun intended) truthy-in-his-gut conservative Republican, all the while maintaining his independence and trying to find some way to knit gay marriage into whatever he's talking about.

    So, Ferguson. Rod first posted shock over the military response to the protests. Then, today, he posts some questions - just innocent questions - about the "facts" about whether Mike Brown deserved to get shot. Just questions. How can anyone disagree with that - what, do you want to shut down reasoned debate? For shame, liberals, for shame.

    So far, so good.

    Next, he'll post something about Al Sharpton or the mythical New Black Panthers, maybe working in some pure geek-racism courtesy of the Human Biological Diversity/Steve Sailor crowd (it's not that he *wants* blacks to be inferior, mind you. It's just the facts). He'll move towards "those coloreds deserve what they get". He'll end by finding some LGBT group's comments and tying this into his "pink police state" theory, in which he will eventually be forced (I'm *sure* it would take a lot of force, just like it would take for Marcus Bachmann, heterosexual manly man that he is) to do twisted things by gay and transgender perverts, the kind of things you'd see in a Tom of Finland painting.

    Rod spends a lot of time thinking about this, apparently. A lot.

    Absent the intense obsession with gay sex and the religion-hopping (anyone got any bets on which religion he'll settle on next? My money is on hyper-Calvinism), Rod is a template for a lot of Republicans. Rand Paul and many of the rest will follow suit soon enough. And then the moment that a *real* discussion of police militarization could have taken place will disappear under a barrage of the same old, same old.

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  79. j_handey3:18 PM

    I was there - there were no "riots". There were some masked "anarchists" (wearing strangely expensive footwear - hmmmm) about 4-5 days into it who smashed downtown store windows, but that's it. The police were the ones who went into full-on riot mode.

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  80. The horror. The horror.

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  81. BigHank534:15 PM

    Thank the gods and godlets that canvas isn't any taller.

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  82. Yeah, their great white hope introduced a bill that would have completely outlawed abortion.

    Ooops.

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  83. drspittle4:28 PM

    Had to click the link, at which point I could not bring myself to go any further. I wonder if Dr Paul is certified to perform those procedures as well. In which case gift certificates for dog loving Libertarians make a perfect grift, er, gift.

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  84. tigrismus4:37 PM

    Indeed: how, in a list of purportedly ugly things having to do with Ferguson, can he miss the ugliest thing of all, the lifeless body of a young man?

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  85. mgmonklewis5:18 PM

    Oh, it's his St. Crispin's day speech!

    "We few, we happy few..." FAAAAARRRT

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  86. mgmonklewis5:19 PM

    Tattoo art by Mad Magazine. Great. Just what the world needed.

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  87. Derelict5:36 PM

    Can't quite tell who's giving head to whom here.

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  88. Tbone6:19 PM

    All of em, Katie.

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  89. Smarter than Your Average Bear6:40 PM

    Ah yes the Great Moments Bucket Challenge in support of American Libertarian Stupidity :)

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  90. Smarter than Your Average Bear6:48 PM

    Yup same thing (footwear) at the NA Leaders meeting in Montibello QC in 2007 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1nHvvkzvA

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  91. brucej8:09 PM

    Oh GREAT now I have this image in my head of mama Lucianne swimming through the ocean spilling cheetos for him to scavenge.

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  92. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person8:40 PM

    Blogging From the Bunker™ Blonkers? Blungers? Bunglers? Ah, nevermind...

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  93. Meanie-meanie, tickle a person8:52 PM

    the self-congratulatory advocacy journalism

    What the freeze-dried fuck it this supposed to mean?

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  94. "I'm only doing this because no one expects me to any actual work, much less expose myself to anything that might require actual journalism - which unfortunately is more than just sitting at a computer writing gibberish between solitaire tournaments - and in a fair society I couldn't get a job writing community news for a rural Southern county weekly without getting run out of town by the collective rage of the local English teachers, and most of my peers are much the same shape. Therefor, everyone else - especially everyone who's idea of 'journalism' means actually talking to people connected to the news source or that rubbish of comforting the afflicted while afflicting the comfortable - is only in it for the same shallow, vapid reasons that I and my co-workers are in it for."


    Or something like that.

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  95. AGoodQuestion12:31 AM

    Upvoted for introducing me to the word "derptopia".

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  96. Gabriel Ratchet12:34 AM

    If he isn't certified, I'm sure he could always make up his own fake certification board instead.

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  97. redoubtagain8:01 AM

    (As well as singleassedly contributing to rising sea temperatures)

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  98. redoubtagain8:13 AM

    "Nearly everything about this story is ugly: the gleeful ideological and bureaucratic point-scoring..."
    Um, no. Shooting an unarmed man in the middle of the street and leaving his body there for four hours while flies gathered? That's ugly.

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  99. Burma Shave.


    (Does anyone think libertarian poetry wouldn't include product placement?)

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