Sunday, September 16, 2012

Free speech 2012

Because it's absolutely normal for five deputies to arrest a man in the middle of the night on a probation violation.  Glenn Reynolds: "Why Barack Obama should resign."

Or as somebody on the Internet noted: "Death to the filmmaker!"  White House: "Hold on, we'll get him for you."

The "Defend the Constitution" memes are coming up.  Here's my contribution:


Extra - From Hit and Run: "Filmmaker Nakoula voluntarily accepts ride from police."

More - Powerline: "In order to spare themselves the sort of critical scrutiny to which they are unaccustomed, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have fallen in with the absurd claim that violence has broken out in eleven Muslim countries, and terrorists armed with RPGs and (reportedly) mortars carried out a military operation to assassinate a U.S. ambassador, as a result of a 14-minute YouTube video. As always, Obama’s first priority is to point the finger of responsibility elsewhere."

11 comments:

The Sanity Inspector said...

Here's mine, but it contains profanity--a rarity for me. http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3qxhek/

Nigel Tufnel said...

The cameras were there because they've been parked outside his house ever since his identity became known, which was days before the local sheriff's deputies showed up.

The media has been parked outside his house because his film has been used as a pretext by numerous extremist groups to commit major acts of violence in order to destabilize their societies so they can gain influence. Like they always have, regardless of who is president of the United States. This violence is one of the biggest news stories right now.

The 'literally brown-shirted' deputies (that was the language used in one of your links, Vike. Think about that.) went to his house because he violated the terms of his probation for a previous conviction on a check-kiting scheme, which said he could not do any business on the internet, which he had used to commit acts of bank fraud.

Said convicted felon spent a bunch of money to make a movie that he marketed on the internet, which sure looks like a violation of his probation.

The police went there at night to minimize the security risk to the guy.

Is this guy going to be the next hero of the right?

The harder the right tries to fire up fear and anger to bring out the ever-diminishing angry white male vote the more you will alienate the normals, including rational white males.

What happened to the party of William F. Buckley, Jr. and George Bush the Elder?

Eric said...

Hero of the right? No. But he represents the extent by which the Obama White House will perpetuate the mythology that this was *not* a failure of foreign policy but caused by some nutcase with a video camera. The president of Libya calls this "preposterous". I'm sure the media will be johnny-on-the-spot to tell us that "spontaneous" protesters always carry RPGs.

If I were more conspiracy-minded, I would say that the midnight perp walk was designed to provide the right narrative to the berserkers: "Look, we got em!" Somebody else on the same link you sited correctly noted that this will only encourage more violence:

"Behavior that gets rewarded, gets repeated. (Relatedly, “once you have paid him the Dane-geld, you never get rid of the Dane.”) Say that the murders in Libya lead us to pass a law banning some kinds of speech that Muslims find offensive or blasphemous, or reinterpreting our First Amendment rules to make it possible to punish such speech under some existing law.

What then will extremist Muslims see? They killed several Americans (maybe itself a plus from their view). In exchange, they’ve gotten America to submit to their will. And on top of that, they’ve gotten back at blasphemers, and deter future blasphemy. A triple victory.

Would this (a) satisfy them that now America is trying to prevent blasphemy, so there’s no reason to kill over the next offensive incident, or (b) make them want more such victories? My money would be on (b)."

Now let's go to Vegas, baby!

Nigel Tufnel said...

He only represents this in the imaginations of people pre-disposed to believe such an irrational line of reasoning.

Evidently you are living in fear of things that only exist in your imagination:

"Behavior that gets rewarded, gets repeated. (Relatedly, “once you have paid him the Dane-geld, you never get rid of the Dane.”) Say that the murders in Libya lead us to pass a law banning some kinds of speech that Muslims find offensive or blasphemous, or reinterpreting our First Amendment rules to make it possible to punish such speech under some existing law.

What then will extremist Muslims see? They killed several Americans (maybe itself a plus from their view). In exchange, they’ve gotten America to submit to their will. And on top of that, they’ve gotten back at blasphemers, and deter future blasphemy. A triple victory.

Would this (a) satisfy them that now America is trying to prevent blasphemy, so there’s no reason to kill over the next offensive incident, or (b) make them want more such victories? My money would be on (b)."


Take deep centering breaths. Remain calm. The things you are worried about didn't actually happen. There is no reason to believe they are going to happen. Obama isn't really a secret muslim.

By "Dane-geld" do you mean warships and attack drones?

That's what Obama sent them.

Really.

Wake up angry said...

This non-arrest arrest may be entirely the result of this dunce calling attention to his own mundane parole violation. But let's be fair, the optics are also craven.

Free suggestion for maximizing public agreement when a legitimate issue like this arises: don’t always have just been shouting about something phony.

From the outrage of Obama being unfit for office because he was fundraising with Jay-Z instead of - who knows? - holding a candle vigil or biting his lip or strafing Libya or something. Bonus outrage points for the word "Vegas";

--to the outrage of Obama not suspending his campaign in the wake of the embassy attacks, the same way that previous presidents have responded to unexpected crises in election years, except for all of them ever;

--to the outrage of Obama not getting “proper blame” for gas prices. Yet there was no offsetting rush by the right to begrudgingly award Obama proper credit for falling gas prices earlier this year... how odd.

Two years ago, the right fingered a specific speech by Obama for making the stock market fall “as he spoke.” Somehow Blabbermouth has kept right on talking, and now the Dow has risen to its highest levels in five years. Still, that one speech!

--to the outrage of Obama stealing $716 billion from Medicare, a theft that is all the more brazen for its lack of existence.

And that's just from the first page of your blog. (I've even heard vicious rumors that Obama has taken vacations!)

It's all part of the ongoing fairy tale titled "The Boy Who Cried Incompetent Apologizing Socialist Messiah Fundraising Wolf." Valid complaints about Obama have been buried in a sea of stupid hyperbole, lies, and paranoid fanfic.

So when this first amendment story DOESN’T blow up the way it probably should, go ahead and blame the media. Blame this failed president. Blame it on the bossa nova. But maybe save just a small slice of blame for a party much closer to home.

Anonymous said...

Hero of the right? No. But he represents the extent by which the Obama White House will perpetuate the mythology that this was *not* a failure of foreign policy but caused by some nutcase with a video camera.

Please spell out this failure of foreign policy.

To prevent these attacks, President Barack Obama should have ____________.

Eric said...

"sent Marines to Bengazi?"

Survey says!

G.I. Joke said...

"sent Marines to Bengazi?"

Survey says!


Is this like "Family Circus," when they let 6-year-old Billy draw a guest cartoon?

On which date should Obama have "sent Marines" to eleven Muslim countries in advance of the violence, and how many Marines should have gone to each country, and for how long do they need to stay before the trouble is over?

Got anything that's not inane?

Eric said...

You're aware, I assume, that most American embassies have a Marine Embassy Guard detachment? And that there were no Marines in Bengazi, or Tripoli, or the whole of Libya even though there were advanced warnings that something was brewing in Bengazi, according to Libyan security forces?

Valerie Jarrett has more security when she vacations in Martha's Vineyard. Inane, no?

Anonymous said...

And now it looks like those 'brown shirts' were actually helping the guy go into hiding. He never returned to his house.

They did the same for the rest of his family a day or two later.

Jack booted thugs.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Does Anonymous not see what is wrong with this picture? Someone living in California has to go into hiding, because of foaming mobs in other countries? Google Molly Norris.