Just remarking that Eugene Genovese, ex-communist turned conservative, once remarked that he found right wingers to be so much more polite than left wingers. He’s a stand up guy actually, part of that sidelined conservative intellectualism. I wonder if he’s revised his opinion over the past year.
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March 26, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Scott LaMorte
When conservatives don’t like the political environment, they throw bricks through a few windows.
When progressive don’t like the political environment, they manage to get martial law imposed on Seattle.
=D
March 26, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Eric Kirk
True Scott. But taking a for instance, I doubt the numbers of death threats coming from the pro-choice movement even amount to a fraction of the pro-life. And maybe it’s just me, but while I think the window smashing demonstrations are stupid, destructive on a number of levels, and senseless, there is a different quality of the act to be doing it out front as a general expression of “rage” as opposed to late night and aimed at intimidating individuals. Perhaps it’s the cultural divide.
March 26, 2010 at 4:46 pm
the reasonable anonymous
And messing with someone’s propane tank is way beyond vandalism.
March 26, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Steak 'n Eggs
The sheep love it, but not as much as the cable tv networks. The liberals appear to be enjoying the opportunity to whine about it on CNBC.
I hope it backfires at the repubs at the polls.
March 26, 2010 at 6:49 pm
Scott LaMorte
What time frame are we looking at? Post-civil rights? In that case I would guess the right-wing wins in murders, and the left wing wins in property damage and riot control costs.
Going back further… we had a lot of right-wing murders of civil rights activists and blacks and gays and the activist women. Then there was the Oklahoma City Bombers, I’d count that as right wing. And there’s been some really high profile assassinations like MLK, Milk, Lincoln, possibly Garfield, and the attempt on Reagan.
On the left… who has the left killed in the USA? I’m feeling stumped here. The left holds huge protests and smash Starbucks and stuff. They’ve cost money in the form of extra costs for police, and the occasional project slowdown like in the Timber Wars. Maybe the Weathermen killed someone? And President McKinley was killed by an anarchist.
March 26, 2010 at 6:51 pm
Scott LaMorte
http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/usa-riot.htm
March 26, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Eric Kirk
Well, President McKinley was killed by an anarchist.
Betty Van Patter was killed by members of the Black Panthers. She was a bookkeeper for them and got into an argument about some financial irregularities, I don’t remember the details. Should it count if the motive wasn’t itself political? It was in a political nexus I suppose.
There was a police officer in SF killed in the early seventies by a bomb which some had believed to be planted by the Weathermen, but nobody is sure who planted it. The Weathermen never actually killed anyone except three of them accidentally killed themselves.
However, a couple of ex-weathermen and Black Liberation Army members did kill a Brinks guard in a robbery gone horrible in the early 80s.
Of course, there’s Oswald. But his leftism is a matter of dispute.
Sacco and Vanzetti were convicted of murder in the course of a robbery, but their guilt is also a matter of dispute. Joe Hill was also convicted of murder, but that’s also in dispute. Likewise with Mumia Abu Jamal.
Do we consider Manson a leftist?
March 26, 2010 at 8:45 pm
mresquan
What about Jim Jones?A lot of people would say that he was a leftist.
March 26, 2010 at 9:19 pm
moviedad
Hmm, rule from the top, special privileges for those connected to the leadership, strict enforcement of arbitrary rules by violence? Sounds like the (so-called) Right-Wingers to me.
March 26, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Eric Kirk
Mark – Good point. That ups the body count a bit. Does it count if left wingers are killing left wingers?
March 26, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Eric Kirk
Hmmm. I like them, except Hart to Hart sounds pretty much like the Charlie’s Angels theme. Or the Six Million Dollar Man.
March 26, 2010 at 11:13 pm
Unk John
The thing about Jim Jones is that it doesn’t matter on which side of the political spectrum he resided. His actions at “Jonestown” were not political, nor were they religious. They were simply the actions of a demented man. I cannot explain it in any other way.
I’ve heard the argument that it was religious in nature, but no one does that without some amount of mental imbalance. I really have a hard time with other explanations.
So, if we concentrate on the Weathermen and Jim Jones for a moment, it is clear that one of the differences between the two incidents are that one was not intentional and the other one was. The similarities include the fact that in both cases they killed their own people.
March 26, 2010 at 11:29 pm
Anonymous
Alan Grayson calling for Cantor’s resignation on the Alan Colmes show.
Florida Congressman Alan Grayson appeared on radio with me Thursday night and called for the resignation of House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) because of Cantor’s finger-pointing at Democrats for “fanning the flames of threats.”
COLMES: I want to talk about what happened with Eric Cantor’s office, and what Eric Cantor said today. It sounds like he’s accusing Democrats of inciting violence.
GRAYSON: Ah yes, I recall that happening, well, what is it now, 80 years ago – the burning of the Reichstag.
….
COLMES: I was really surprised that Eric Cantor, who is the Minority Whip, says his office was shot at, OK, and then he literally points fingers at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic National Committee, saying that they are basically, you know – I want to get his exact words here – fanning the flames, “dangerously fanning the flames.”
GRAYSON: I think he should resign.
COLMES: So you are calling for the resignation of Eric Cantor based on that comment.
GRAYSON: Yes.
COLMES: Resign his leadership post, or resign from the Congress entirely?
GRAYSON (sighing): My goodness. I’m not even sure where he should stop.
Grayson also relayed how he received a call at home last week and when his five-year-old answered the phone a woman said she was gong to kill Grayson.
GRAYSON: We had a woman call the house when I was in Washington DC. She called my house in Orlando last week. And my five year old – I have twins actually – one of the five-year-olds hit the speaker button when the phone was ringing. And she said if you vote for this bill, I’m gonna kill you.
COLMES: A woman said that to one of your…
GRAYSON: Yes. And my – my five-year-old went to my wife and said there’s a lady on the phone who says she’s going to kill me.
March 27, 2010 at 5:59 am
Fred Mangels
I’m more in line with J.D. Tuccille’s take on the supposed threats and violence of late:
http://www.tuccille.com/blog/2010/03/whats-good-for-goose.html
March 27, 2010 at 7:15 am
Mitch
When I first moved here, around 1993, the North Coast Journal published an essay by Jerry Partain in which he basically said timber fallers were not to blame when forest protesters were killed by falling timber, even if the timber faller knew the protesters were around and would be endangered by operations.
I found the point of view loathsome then and find it no less despicable now.
For me, it summarizes the attitude of the right wing towards the “sacredness of life.” Life is extremely sacred if it’s sitting in someone else’s womb, but not if it’s inconvenient to the onward march of mammon.
March 27, 2010 at 7:36 am
mresquan
Jonestown was arguably political as well as religiously fanatic.And the murder of Tim Stoen’s son was most definitely political.
March 27, 2010 at 7:43 am
Anonymous
Fred, that post is as lame as they get. The government uses force so the people have the right to threaten Congressmen?
The right wing is becoming manic!
March 27, 2010 at 8:07 am
mresquan
The right wing has been manic for some time now,and most definitely since they got word that Al Qaeda was in the stages of planning 9/11,so instead of thwarting the attacks,they made their plans to exploit it.
March 27, 2010 at 8:57 am
Fred Mangels
Fred, that post is as lame as they get.
I would think a Lefty would feel exactly that way. You keep on thinking you can take away more and more of people’s liberties and we’re just supposed to shrug our shoulders and move on. Then you can’t understand when people finally start fighting back.
March 27, 2010 at 9:54 am
the reasonable anonymous
Fred has advocated “civil war” as a response to the health care bill. So the violence we’ve seen so far would be too little, not too much, based on that point of view.
March 27, 2010 at 9:56 am
mresquan
“I would think a Lefty would feel exactly that way.”
As if right wingers are any different?
The Patriot Act did far more to restrict gun owning rights than anything pt forth by the Brady Bill.
And go back to one of your libertarian role models in Ayn Rand,who believed that anyone suspected of associating with a commie should be watched and investigated intensively and even jailed by the government.
Right wingers want far more government intervention and action taken on anything related to immigration(well they do tend to leave out businesses of their liking which hire them,and they are certainly not opposed to its byproduct),especially small government right wingers.
March 27, 2010 at 10:46 am
dave
Fred, are you really aligning yourself with someone who feels it’s okay (what’s good for the Goose is good for the gander?) to use violent means to get your way?
Can you tell me what rights you’ve lost since Obama took office? Name a few. Don’t bother with the NRA line either because Obama hasn’t done a single thing to take your right to bear a weapon away. See the recent legislation that allows the state of Uah and Florida to issue concealed gun permits to people in other states were it’s illegal! Does that sound like gun contol to you?
The new health care bill is no more “Communist” than Medicare. Just because the right says it so, doesn’t make it truth. Rhetoric rules among Tea Party activists, Conservatives, Republicans, and Democrats.
It’s when people start believing that they should “target” Dem lawmakers, and “Re-load” and put crosshairs of a rifle sight on those that dare to disagree with them, that violence becomes the result.
These worthies are always complaining they “Want their country back.” Just what do they really want? What is their view on “getting the country back” mean? So far it’s just been an inciting rhetorical phrase that people who believe in sound bytes use. Try asking a few people in these rallies what they mean by taking the country back.
Don’t be surprised if one of their biggest gripes is that we have an African American for president.
March 27, 2010 at 11:27 am
freedomshumboldt
http://freedomshumboldt.wordpress.com/
Nick Bravo’s back at it again!….
March 27, 2010 at 11:27 am
Fred Mangels
Fred, are you really aligning yourself with someone who feels it’s okay (what’s good for the Goose is good for the gander?) to use violent means to get your way?.
Aligning myself? Yes, I like that. I couldn’t say I’m advocating violence since I don’t have the guts for it myself and I wouldn’t ask someone to do something I don’t have the courage to do myself.
I have said before, and still feel, that we’ve gone past the point where civil war is justified. When people- via the government- can tell other people they have to subscribe to garbage service, or have to buy health insurance, or can’t smoke a cigarette even outside, we’ve gone far enough.
And more and more restrictions are being added, if not considered, everyday: Taxes on foods some don’t like. You have to buy eggs from certain sources…it goes on and on.
Keep in mind that these people supposedly using violence are, for the most part, doing so just to be left alone. They’re not telling you to do anything.
March 27, 2010 at 12:47 pm
ecoshift
Here’s the bait, as if to say: “Try to take it back, I double dare ya…”
http://goo.gl/X7VE
March 27, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Andrew Bird
Fred:
Did I read on your blog that you are on Medi-Cal?
By the way, people who smoke and don’t buy health insurance are the most irresponsible among us, wouldn’t you agree? When – not if – they get sick they become a huge taxpayer boondoggle. Unless your in your Libertarian point of view you think we should just let them die if they can’t afford to pay.
Medi-Cal is one of California’s most expensive social safety net programs. The Republicans and tea-baggers want to eliminate it. Thankfully, you have a compassionate and influential Democrat like Wesley Chesbro fighting for you in Sacramento.
March 27, 2010 at 2:45 pm
Cristina
Ever lived somewhere where you DON’T “have to subscribe to garbage services”? I have. In many places – cities especially – it’s not pretty. Take a good look at Lagos, Nigeria, or Mumbai, India, and THEN come back and tell us what’s wrong with those regulations.
I like mandatory garbage services, thank you very much. I like not having trash rotting in the streets. I live having clean municipal water supplies. I like not living with the risk of cholera. I’ve lived in the Third World, and I’ve seen what under-regulation looks like. Can you say the same?
March 27, 2010 at 6:01 pm
Fred Mangels
I like mandatory garbage services, thank you very much. I like not having trash rotting in the streets. I live having clean municipal water supplies. I like not living with the risk of cholera. I’ve lived in the Third World, and I’ve seen what under-regulation looks like. Can you say the same?
Yes, I can. Your argument against trash is BS, imo.
March 27, 2010 at 6:53 pm
huufc
Yawn
March 27, 2010 at 8:36 pm
the reasonable anonymous
“The thuggish demagoguery of the Limbaughs and Becks is a trait we once derided in the old socialist Left. Well boys, take a look in the mirror. It is us now.”
– Danielle Crittenden, conservative and the wife of David Frum, the conservative commentator recently purged from American Enterprise Institute.
March 27, 2010 at 10:13 pm
Eric Kirk
If we’re going to have a civil war over mandatory garbage pick-up then there isn’t much hope for the species.
March 28, 2010 at 8:05 am
blacklisted2
The Community Park also shows there isn’t much hope for the species.
March 28, 2010 at 9:40 am
moviedad
Speak for yourself Reasonable.
March 28, 2010 at 9:43 am
Eric Kirk
That people can be so worked up about a loud concert years after it happened – yes, it does bring our potential survival into question.
March 28, 2010 at 6:18 pm
Anonymous
FBI raids of right wing militias in Michigan.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100328/ap_on_re_us/us_fbi_raids
March 28, 2010 at 7:27 pm
blast from the past
So this is what Komrade Kirk is up to these days? Still pushing the commie line I see.
I bet you don’t know who I am.
March 28, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Eric Kirk
I bet you don’t know who I am.
Uhhhh… safe bet.
March 30, 2010 at 5:55 am
anon
“rising risk of far-right violence”
http://goo.gl/9J3Y
April 1, 2010 at 11:18 am
Anonymous
One more part of the Republican stimulus plan. Now they are promoting phone sex services.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0410/RNC_Census_mailer_offers_phone_sex_number.html