The War of the Words
At least it’s been words so far. Those who have been following the exploits of left wing activist Brett Kimberlin should read Robert Stacy McCain’s account of the in-court arrest of his victim — yes his victim — at a Maryland court.
Aaron Walker, whose complaint against convicted terrorist Brett Kimberlin became a conservative cause célèbre this past week, was reportedly taken into custody today after a court hearing in Rockville, Maryland.
Basically Kimberlin is an ex-convict and bomber who has turned left-wing activist. While in jail he studied the law and has used that knowledge to file over a 100 lawsuits against whoever gets in his way. Walker is one. Somehow he got the judge to arrest Walker at the hearing itself apparently alleging that Walker had threatened Kimberlin with death in “countless numbers of blogs”.
Misfortune apparently befalls anyone and everyone on the hitlist of Kimberlin and his Democratic Party associates. The blogger Patterico, himself a lawyer, found himself staring at armed police after they received a call, purportedly from him, asking them to come to his address because he had shot and killed his wife. The police arrived not knowing what they would find and ready for anything.
They ordered me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. They handcuffed me. They shouted questions at me: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE IN THE HOUSE? and WHERE ARE THEY? and ARE THEY ALIVE? …
Meanwhile, police rushed into my home. They woke up my wife, led her downstairs and to the front porch, frisked her, and asked her where the children were. Then police ordered her to stand on the front porch with her hands against the wall while they entered my children’s bedrooms to make sure they were alive.
The call that sent deputies to my home was a hoax. Someone had pretended to be me. They called the police to say I had shot my wife. The sheriff’s deputies who arrived at my front door believed they were about to confront an armed man who had just shot his wife. I don’t blame the police for any of their actions. But I blame the person who made the call.
Because I could have been killed.
Naturally Patterico took a dim view of the proceedings. With the help of voice identification analysts, the voice calling to the police was determined to sound very similar to someone closely associated with Kimberlin. Some days later, another of Kimberlin’s critics, Erick Erickson found himself the victim of a similar hoax. Fortunately Erickson, suspecting that he might next be given the Patterico “swatting” treatment, took the precaution of warning the sheriff to expect a hoax call. Sure enough the sheriff got such a call but forewarned, sent a team to check out the bogus report when it came without arriving like gangbusters.
To make matters even more interesting, a voice very similar to that of hoaxer called a radio program, boasting he pulled the swatting stunt. Moreover the voice “mocked Michelle Malkin [who had devoted posts to the Kimberlin affair] for the situation where her cousin is missing.” Malkin’s female cousin has been missing for some time and may be a victim of foul play. While the caller’s taunt is probably unrelated to her disappearance, it underscores the classy behavior one has come to expect of these mysterious individuals.
Kimberlin has a lot of juice or perceived juice. Where he gets it, who can say? Glenn Reynolds notes that Kimbelin’s Wikipedia page reappeared after disappearing, as if reflecting a tug of war among unseen forces. My own guess is that Kimberlin’s tactics have shown how easy it is to create a whole of lot of trouble for opposition voices once one is prepared to do act “by any means necessary”. Intimidating people is fun and easy. Perhaps some people are torn between secretly supporting him or putting a decent distance between.
Alas greed and ambition are often stronger than decency, if ever it was in the running.
The fact that Kimberlin is essentially disposable means his associates have the perfect vehicle for this kind of harassment. If it goes wrong Kimberlin’s secret admirers can always throw him to the dogs. Kimberlin apparently doesn’t give a damn and is not afraid of the hoosegow, unlike most individuals who, let us face it, are not eager to make its acquaintance.
That means this dust-up is either going to get bigger until Kimberlin and his cohorts are stopped, or people decide it is not worth the trouble and shut up. It’s become zero sum. Stacy McCain is already living at an undisclosed location so for him things are definitely win or lose. Things are very probably going to get worse before they get any better because this is one fight nobody can afford to lose.
So how much worse will it get? Well how does one bound actions like this? Things take on a life of their own at some point, a factor their initiators so often forget. The real significance of the Kimberlin saga is that it suggests that in some quarters at least, the gloves are off. Anything goes. Anything.
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As the presidential election approaches, consider which candidate will create the environment where a hater like Kimberlin can thrive.
Aaron Walker – another victim of “hope & change”.
Obama in 2012? Seriously? – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4nvhAZ0vr0
Jim Geraghty has a post that echoes Wretchard’s wife’s insight about the Internet as a culture medium for all sorts of emerging mental bacteria:
“When we see people behaving in a way that seems so inexplicable to us — political activists who seem consumed with vindictiveness towards those who disagree, and hell-bent on inflicting whatever misery they can upon those whose only sin is to express a contrary opinion — it probably reflects a worldview shaped by words on a screen, and interaction with a very small and unrepresentative group, focusing on topics that are obscure and odd to most of the general public. (Yes, I realize about half of that description applies to all of us.) They wear the obscurity of their cause as a badge of honor; they are the few enlightened ones, while the rest of the “sheeple” sleepwalk through their lives. Those who express contrary opinions aren’t just exercising their First Amendment rights; they’re perpetuating the system of injustice. They cannot be permitted to continue doing such seemingly innocuous acts; only the harshest and most brutal retaliation will intimidate them into silence. After all, the end justifies the means. Everyone they talk to agrees. Well, everyone they type to, at least.” [italics in original]
http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/301207/what-fuels-irrationality-our-public-life#
As for dealing with Kimberlin, I’m thinking the LEOs who post at Belmont Club might have some good ideas.
Kimberlin is funded by Soros and Kerry and Streisand and even the federal government. He’s gotten help structuring his 501c(3) organizations to protect that money from the settlement he owes. He’s supported. He’s connected. Someone sees him as useful.
The SA was made up of people like Kimberlin — just a bit less clever and more direct.
We can either realize this now, or pay for it later. Which route do we take?
Glad to see your clear comments on the escalation. Your loyal guests and visitors are becoming all too aware of the real life consequences playing out around us in this global underground-ish battle. I consider those directly caught up in this web my team – at least cyberly – and I would love to help support my friends in need.
Is the Worthing Legal Defense Fund set up yet?
Conservatives have the quaint belief that we live under the “rule of law” with “due process” and “the government represents the people” all of which are obviously false. Anybody on the right that tried this would be ventilated by the SWAT team, and their house burned down on top of them. The law is what it is and the legal system does what it does to ensure the right outcome for leftists.
I’m just hoping his true goal isn’t publicity, because if so, all these blog posts and articles are just playing to his hand.
It seems to me that in confronting this sort of tactic, the blogosphere can actually make a stand in favor of civil society. Some politicians can tacitly encourage people like Kimberlin because his actions do not fit the media narrative and so are unreported, and wish to do so because their desire for power outweighs their commitment to civic responsibility.
This behavior is hardly new, although perhaps it is new to the internet. If the denizens of the blogosphere (hopefully not just on the right) learn how to confront and publicize this behavior, then perhaps the end result can be a more healthy blogosphere in general.
#4 Island Dave
Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has a link to a PayPal site set up by the National Bloggers Club to help defend Aaron (scroll down toward the bottom of the post):
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/05/whats-going-on-in-maryland/#comments
I have to ask.
If he isn’t afraid of prison, what can we use against him?
The only thing I can think of? Does his Mother/Grandmother know what he’s doing?
The other options are nastier, and tend to involve going past our own moral lines.
Do we do what he has done to him? To his friends/family? Turn up on his doorway with a gun? I WANT a Rule of Law, and so should you. That’s why fake calls have to be both followed up on, and stepped on when proven false.
What is being done to stop this type of terrorist activity?
There are two things that can be done. The first is defensive. Be very careful in your choice of words, especially since these individuals are very familiar with case law and are looking for the gotchas.
But do not imagine that simply staying within the letter of the law will provide safety. Therefore the second thing is to take the offense. That it seems to me is best done by supporting the legal fund and letting the good guy lawyers duke it out with the bad guy lawyers. Lawyers know how to play this game.
Above all adopt the right attitude. If times ahead require that you risk your convenience, your job or even your personal well being to continue thinking in a certain way, make up your mind about whether your are up to it. It’s always been a hassle to do the right thing. This is how it has always been, and perhaps the way it will always be.
We knew this was coming. It’s all happened before.
To reiterate Wretchard at #10: stand up for the good, the true, and the beautiful, help those who need it as much as you can, and don’t be surprised if you’re martyred. A real conservative would feel blessed.
This is the sort of thing that happens when you make dueling illegal.
Thanks PA Cat – I’m sure I could have found that myself since Legal Ins is a regular read, but sometimes it’s easier to ask. I think we’ve entered uncharted territory. I wish you all well and hope we all come out smiling on the other end! This will be brutal.
What we need is Romney, on this issue no substitute will do, to make explicit the connections between Obama and Soros and this thuggery. Unless it is publicly nailed to the wall so that they have to cut ties and defund him we lose. It should be the sole focus of a major public speech in Prime Time. The model should be the uncompromising outrage that lead to the repudiation of Acorn over voting fraud. Note that after a few months Acorn crawled out from under the rocks and is back in business with Holder saying “What fraud?” We must be relentless in confronting the terrorism of Soros agents like Kimberlin. The judge who signed the arrest should face relentless lawful public challenges until they are driven from office.
If you could somehow call their bluff and show that a tiger is paper, a gun shoots only blanks, or that Photoshop was involved… What of it? Nobody will notice, the cons aren’t going to acknowledge anything, and there is an infinitesimally small chance you were wrong and pay dearly. Truth may be an absolute defense in this country, but processes often go wrong despite our bizarre faith in them. Having no incentive to challenge a beast like “Brett” – and no clear reason for his existence – all one can do is laugh at him. Standing up to him in a kind of “bloggers spring” is ridiculous.
In a similar way, we demand foreign people take such risk and action by overthrowing select tyrants, rooting out corruption (that we constantly enable), and by shielding the rights of people we’d be happy to drone-bomb if they lived anyplace west of Tibet. Of course this changes the moment they sign any sort of a trade treaty or security arrangement effectively making slaves out of them. Ask any of the Native American tribes still remaining, and I think they’d agree western efforts to civilize others have not been a fair deal.
‘They aren’t ready’ our leaders will say of the East… while the gods say the same about us…
One of our weaknesses is lack of access to the public. We narrowcast on the Internet, which is great for organizing and contacting those who are already interested, but which does not reach out to the average person. For contacting the general public we need Mass Media and that is controlled by the Left. We need billboards but they are almost all owned by Viacom. We need to put in the public face the message that company X is doing business with Kimberlin and that he has record A and is accused of complicity in crimes B and C. Perhaps people will get the message out Greenpeace style by unrolling big banners across offending corporate headquarters.
Here we must be careful to only advocate lawful acts and share useful information regarding legal assistance to those we believe to be falsely accused. For Wretchard, in a country with no First Amendment protection, the risk may be greater.
This is a case where a Smith and Wesson beats a full house.
I would urge restraint in the comments, not out a delicacy of feeling, but from an unwillingness to play the other man’s game. They have chosen the wrong field to contest. Kimberlin is a ready-made poster boy for fascism. What were they thinking?
Still Kimberlin has certain advantages, chief of which is that he does not think like a civilian. The principal ace of people habituated to intimidation is mental. They are not physically stronger but are much more aggressive and uninhibited in their malice. This mental edge makes them much more dangerous than civilians.
Now there are others who have likewise lost this civilizational veneer, like cops or trained soldiers. They too have aggression, but aggression under discipline. Collectively the lowlifers, the cops and other operators live in a universe I’ve called The Life elsewhere. Kimberlin is from The Life and his victims have not yet learned its ways.
This lack of inhibition gives his onset a short term advantage over people who might otherwise be more intelligent but who still labor under the handicap of civilization. But the advantage is passing. If you rile up anyone enough, even a mild mannered legal professor or a grocery store clerk you will discover soon enough that the attitudes of The Life, are open to anyone who cares to pick them up.
Historically, the SS and similar gang-type outfits, intoxicated perhaps by the success of their belligerence, just kept upping the savagery, never expecting that Joe Average would ever learn to beat him at his own game. I think Kimberlin will find that persons can learn pretty quickly once you pull stunts like “swatting” on them.
But it’s important to keep cool and never to be provoked into ill-advised words or actions. Anger sometimes gets in the way of rational calculation. It’s rational calculation persistently applied that beats the barbarians every time. So spread the word and give to the fund. He will be beaten. And in the process Kimberlin will have recruited many sympathizers to the cause of his enemies. What is more, he will have raised the level of his opponents to another plane.
Blast, are you serious? Romney stand up for something other than himself or his ambition? Good joke, there. You need to take it on the road. Obama and the Left have provide a wealth of issues that a street fighter of a politician could latch onto like a pitbull and never let go. Romney is not that sort of man. He is all about playing the angle, maximizing return, minimizing risk. One can only hope that he’ll pick a scrapper for his VP, but again his all about maximizing return, minimizing risk, so that is unlikely. Sorry, but Romney hasn’t earned the nickname Mittoast for no reason.
Wretchard makes a very important point
Kimberlin and his gang have declared Total Law-fare
In the US we have some protection–but not so much as many may believe
Those in the UK, Canada, Australia do not have free speech protection and lawyers will go after deep pockets or just for harassment–there are a great many underemployed and unemployed lawyers.
I do not understand how Walker allowed himself to get entrapped–he is a lawyer-
-now unfortunately unemployed as he lost his job over this hit job by Kimberlin –why?
Wretchard #18
But it’s important to keep cool and never to be provoked into ill-advised words or actions. Anger sometimes gets in the way of rational calculation.
Professor Jacobson’s update/analysis cites Dave Hogberg on what happened at the hearing:
http://legalinsurrection.com/2012/05/kimberlin-walker-court-hearing-what-happened/#comments
As the good professor notes: “Folks, this is how agitators do it. They agitate you, and then when you react, you are in trouble. I hope Aaron gets an attorney to overturn this travesty, and to reposition the case so that the true victim gets a court assistant.”
Tarnsman, Blast has the right idea. The question who among the cowardly Pubs will stand up?
Me thinks a massive campaign of emails questioning where Willard is on the subject might do the trick. Start at Redstate. Me also thinks McConnell, Boehner and Cantor are hiding under a desk somewheres.
Agree with Wretchard on the fascist template. This is Ernst Roehm stuff; groups of thugs and criminals playing violent gutter politics for a bigger agenda. It’s scary as hell when you consider how thin the veneer of our democracy is. Kimberlin is a disposable loser who can conveniently get shanked in the pen if he goes down. Soros and the other big players are the real threat.
I like to read thrillers. A few years ago their often paranoid conspiracy plots seemed implausable. Now not so much.
The Blaze just couldn’t resist blaming SWATting on (drum roll)… computers hackers!
I also noticed the “over 100 lawsuits” link is a google document search that returns 62 hits, about half of which might be court filings. The rest are other “Bretts” or mentions of his name in publication. Most of the filings seem to be DoJ-related or involving the speedway story.
Soooo, yeah. This needs to stop, alright.
Swatting is one hell of a weapon for intimidation. If the swat team bursts into your home, guns drawn, bright lights … one wrong move on your startled, terrified part and it gets ugly, fast.
From these stories about hackers and phreaks, the FBI takes swatting pretty seriously. If the evidence is there, it’s been prosecuted before.
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2008/02/blind_hacker?currentPage=all
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/blind_hacker/
Unsk, great. We have to shame our candidate to do the right thing. Ringing endorsement there of the guy that carries our “banner” into November. Way I look at it, I don’t expect anything from Mr. Romney so if he somehow grows a pair I will be pleasantly surprised. But then if he stays true to form I won’t be disappointed having not expected anything bold from him to begin with.
8. PA Cat
Echoing Island Dave’s thanks for the donation link. Been there, done that. This reincarnation of dismal pasts should not be happening.
The question is how big a percentage of the populace ends up embracing The Life. If it’s small, then society continues along in a civilized manner. But if it’s enough people, then it get’s a little, ah, interesting. In a bad way.
The whole point of a formal Justice System is to keep the vast majority of people out of The Life. Unfortunately, for a whole bunch of reasons, our Justice System is pretty dysfunctional these days. This entire case just makes the dysfunction that much more evident. The courts let too many people force others into a heads-I-win-tails-we-flip-again game. All the moderation, good will, and good sense in the world will be useless – worse than useless – if the justice system isn’t fixed.
For my part, I know what I am willing, and not willing, to do, and each according to what provocation. I’ll keep that to myself though, since it’s ammo to TWANLOC.
Brandon, did you see SPEED ?
Any bus could be rigged that way. I sell looped video feeds for protection…
You know what I love about BC? That the ideas floated here are important enough that we merit our own revolving foreign minders to pooh-pooh them on a regular basis.
This is just a more obvious intimidation. The MSM practices a lighter version by the ridicule they heap on anyone who questions the O’s new clothes.
The old truth that all evil needs is for good men to do nothing applies.
Remember we fight an evil hydra. Evil because they only worship power, and will do anything to keep it. A hydra because so much of this is coordinated.
Their problem is that they can only win if the truth is not known. This is potentially a very useful lose end. 911 calls are recorded. People make them. People make donations. The House has the right to investigate. Hold hearings, show the evil side. They are selling 0 as the likable one. Find a way to pull on this loose string to see where it leads.
Evil tends to get caught in the end by the very lies they use to gain power. They no longer know what is real, and reality hits them like a ton of bricks.
Want to report a minor miracle. 6 days after 3 hour intestinal surgery, i feel no pain, take no meds. I return from the hospital to enjoy this blessed blog. Thank you Richard for the courage to post on this evil.
I am reading a book about Reagan’s collection of cards he used in his speeches. Pages of ideas and ways to say things clearly. Perhaps a lesson for us in this; speak simply, clearly and truthfully.
As the originator of the acronym TWANLOC, this is not unexpected. As I have said before, politics is how a society and culture sorts out the allocation of power and resources short of sheer brute force and “Nature, red in tooth and claw” being the sole determinant. Every society works out its own method of doing this. The point being that if whatever means of politics that is accepted as the norm, fails; the default is to Nature, until a new equilibrium arises.
TWANLOC do not accept or respect our political norms. They are operating outside them, and deliberately bringing them down to replace them with their older version of politics; which Darius would recognize.
Kimberlin, #Occupy, OFA, ACORN, et. al. are not anomalies. They are not abberrant individuals; but rather paid and directed agents of the Political Security Organs of the Regime. Look to those who pay for them, direct them, and protect them to see the faces of those who are behind this. Kimberlin may end up stepping on his own private parts. But his return to incarceration, or other life event that changes his activities will have no more effect on those who direct the actions on the other side, any more than the loss of a single driver of a Black Maria impinged on the activities of “Iron Felix”.
If the political institutions and mores that we are accustomed to are subverted, perverted, and debased; then we are approaching “Mandate of Heaven” time. It is something to consider, how and when to respond to that.
This is something that our gracious host knows from life experience. When he bespeaks caution, it is not timidity but practicality that is the source. Moving more slowly and with less impetuousness does not always mean fear or lack of commitment to the cause of liberty.
A wise man judges that time and tide, and does not move ahead of it, before the time is ready. Waiting is…. Part of the art of political action, is not to get ahead of what people are ready for.
But perhaps it is time to reach out to those who agree with you more than they disagree with you. It may be time to put the points where there are differences aside for the nonce in the face of the greater threat. To come back to them when circumstances are less forced. And maybe find that circumstances have themselves made those differences less urgent.
Maybe it is time for a shared activity. Such as planting a tree. Like the one that stood from 1646 to August 31, 1775 at what was Boston Common and now is 630 Washington Street in Boston.
http://www.celebrateboston.com/sites/liberty-tree.htm
Subotai Bahadur
There is a reason why I was never very enthusiastic about the internet, a reason why I remain aloof from most of the social media. Even back in the early ninties, when the internet barely registered on the radar screen and people were just starting to get into desktop computers in a big way, I still wanted nothing to do with it all. It is not because I fear for my privacy, or because I want to remain invisible to the secret cabal of [insert the names of your favorite conspirators here] who are planning a One World Government. It is because I know that most men are silly, intemeperate, vicious creatures and I don’t want to get caught up in their orgies of foolishness.
Now here is the dismal situation. We have a massive population of fourth-estate dregs who know neither responsibility nor honor, but who have been trained by agitprop and social engineering to respond violently to certain catchwords (like “racism”). We have given them access to social media which can spread the word quickly and facilitate the formation of flash mobs—instantly assembled riots that can be used to destroy people, places, and things. Many of those in the government, the news media, and the police are people who either inwardly belong to the same urban mob or are sympathetic to its existence; in no wise do they fundamentally oppose it. And the public morality of the day permits the murdering of infants, the practice of sodomy, the theft of property, and the silencing of truth–all in the name of “individual rights,” by which the common man understands nothing but the unfettered privilege to indulge whatever sick passion he happens to feel at the time. This is a recipe for chaos. We’ve seen what it did to George Zimmerman. Now no individual and no piece of property is safe from the mob/media astroturf bomb. Occupy Wall Street might show up in your living room any day.
And it’s not as if only a few sick individuals are doing this. The majority of men are sick and perverted. We are living in the days of Sodom; we are living in an Hieronymus Bosch painting. This sort of mob rule and disrespect for all orderliness and truth presages the utter collapse of society. The internet has only served to accelerate a broader disintegration already much underway.
W/18: great advice. Speaking of “The Life,” I am reading a very useful book called “Force Decisions” by LEO Rory Miller, describing how cops decide how much force to use to control a situation. He repeatedly says that what matters is the size of the fight in the dog, I.e. the will to win, which I would expect is essential if those living The Life expect to keep living. They need to intimidate and dominate as a way to build and protect their reputation. And reputation (in any life) is the key to success. Once your strong presence is walking and talking in the minds of all your fellow men and women, they will do what you ask, sometimes even before you ask.
I suspect that what we see with those tormenting poor Aaron W is marketing; reputation-building. It is only incidentally about them or him. He could be any schlub with a blog, saying things. What matters is that he be tormented, publicly and with apparent impunity. Pour encourager les autres.
On the one hand, I have very little sympathy for the Pattericos, Instapundits and Althouses of the world.
Not only do their chosen professions leech off America’s productive class, but they have always been “fair-weather” conservatives, eager to test the waters of leftism out of craven, opportunistic impulse: environmental sanctity, black racial primacy, the unassailable righteousness of a judge’s legal edicts – even the false idol of “The First Amendment” (how’s that working for you now Aaron?).
Thrasymachus33308 calls this system “extra-legality”, “the existence of unenforced statutes [giving] the government plausible deniability” so it can arbitrate despotic rule.
People like Patterico’s John Patrick Frey and Glenn Reynolds are – like the traitor Cypher in “The Matrix” – prisoners to the system as surely as they are willing enforcers of its “beauty”. At some level, these people are agonizingly aware that what they profess to uphold is not only an illusory lie, it is undeniably evil. Cypher was so disturbed by his own hypocrisy that he begged the System to erase his memory of it. For Aaron and Patrick, memory erasure is impossible, so Denial will have to do. “Denial”, after all, is always accompanied by “delusion” as all evils are.
My community was never a slave to this idyllic illusion that bureaucracies borne of Men were intrinsically “fair”. Nor did we trust the siren calls from the likes of Frey, Althouse and Reynolds to give ourselves to their “laws” so that our “betters” could pass judgment, and mete their brand of “justice”.
We knew the truth: laws are only “fair” so long as the lawyers worked in fear.
In Patterico’s world, they have absolutely no fear.
They’ve cowed Frey by sending armed thugs to his house with impunity…and he has no response, save impotence. They can kidnap Worthing effortlessly because he is conditioned to meekly submit like a whipped dog. They can send him to the doghouse on a whim called “statutory interpretation”. They can even muzzle him like one too because a dog always obeys its master. In this case, every American dog’s master is called “Judge” or “Your Honor”.
All of this is funded openly by taxes or private donations, with no shame, let alone censure. And all of this is plausibly denied.
Welcome to a world where the “law” is what the lawyers say it is.
Welcome to the world of Aaron Worthing and Patrick Frey.
A prison of their own making.
OT- the CPA claims another scalp. Texas Congressman Silvestre Reyes, seven term incumbent, beaten by former El Paso mayor Beto O’Rourke. CPA gave $150K to O’Rourke.
Keep up the good work L3.
“Historically, the SS and similar gang-type outfits, intoxicated perhaps by the success of their belligerence, just kept upping the savagery, never expecting that Joe Average would ever learn to beat him at his own game.”
After Malmedy –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malmedy_massacre
They did -
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/dachauscrapbook/dachauliberation/soldierskilled.html
My father was an Infantry platoon leader in the ETO (104th ID). He had a runner who was Jewish, spoke Yiddish, and was expected to be a great help once they got to Holland and Germany.
However, the division–my father thinks it may have been the Army–pulled Jews from the line units after discovering what happened to them if captured. And that was the Wehrmacht.
The experience of the Army going across Europe against the Wehrmacht was bad enough, but it was eclipsed by the experience with the Waffen SS beginning shortly after D-Day.
My father said he could pretty much keep his guys from shooting German medics, but the Germans shot at American medics consistently. What happened with the Dachau situation was probably not a matter of the previous couple of days, or even weeks. It had to do with the experience, actual and vicarious, since at least D-Day.
The SS guys did that stuff because they liked it, which is to say they may have decided not to do it here or there because they were tired or bored or something. The good guys, however, are motivated by outrage, which overcomes boredom, fatigue and fear. IOW, don’t piss off the good guys.
32. Subotai Bahadur
Well put, the time for cautious words but bold acts approaches fast.
All of this lawyering up seems like an overly complex solution to a simple problem. They’re being herded into an arena custom built by their antagonists. How can you win from within the game where you’ve been designed as the losing player?
Subotai and Anton have it. Respiration is the key, the weakest link in their chain, not the concentric rings of defense at their legal Kursk bastion.
It seems to me that the purpose of all this is to try and consume the very limited time, energy and resources of conservative bloggers in defending themselves and their families to keep them too busy and bogged down to take the fight to Barack Obama and the Democrats.
So how to respond? Destroying Kimberlin will be Pyrrhic victory if Obama wins a second term because the opposition was too busy battling Kimberlin and his like to oppose him.
presby @ 31 – I am reading a book about Reagan’s collection of cards he used in his speeches. Pages of ideas and ways to say things clearly.
Please tell us more about this. What is this book?
We are all Chicagoans now.
JMH @ 28 – The whole point of a formal Justice System is to keep the vast majority of people out of The Life.
Yes, indeed. There should be justice in the land. It must come from those in authority. There must be a competent ‘judge’.
We see evidence, in this case, of incompetence of the system to prevent abuse of authority for the purpose of delivering harm to opponents. Likewise, in a previous post, we see failure of the system to protect private property from malicious damage by protestors.
Having subscribed to false idealogies, our leaders have delivered ineffective institutions, incapable of implementing justice. Having abdicated effective protection of the people, in favor of administering ‘social’ justice, our government continues to wander of the reservation.
Matt @ 33 – And it’s not as if only a few sick individuals are doing this. The majority of men are sick and perverted. We are living in the days of Sodom.
Of course, from the scriptural perspective ‘The heart of man is deceitful, above all else, and desparately wicked. Who can know it?’ So all men require redeemption, if they would seek the propitiation of God.
But the rules allow us to function well, as a mixed society of believers and unbelievers, as long as we adhere to certain ‘moral’ codes, the Decalogue being the first installment.
We should not despair of the ‘goodness’, in the moral perspective, locked in the heart of this nation. Though they may not hold the reins of power, they continue to be a bulwark against the great evil.
You, with your eloquent expositions, form a necessary component of the struggle. Leadership with courage is what they require. Don’t be controlled by your darker thoughts, else you will abandon those in need of your encouragement.
PA cat wrote:
When we see people behaving in a way that seems so inexplicable to us — political activists who seem consumed with vindictiveness towards those who disagree, and hell-bent on inflicting whatever misery they can upon those whose only sin is to express a contrary opinion.
This act of considering a difference of opinion to be a sin or crime is not limited to the activists on the left. It’s almost universal amongst them. The quiet janitor you see at the coffee shop who cleans the town hall and is an AFSCME member, the mousy librarian in the municipal library that checks in books, the bespectacled public school teacher whose home radio is always tuned in to NPR, the associate prof at your local community college who lives next door and pats your dog, the retired postman who is always bitching about how “they” want to diminish his precious pension, the seemingly goofy but harmless art teacher at your local community center, all actively believe that if you are into limited government or free enterprise, or a robust foreign policy or nationalism or are at all devoutly religious, you are a Nazi.
Not like a Nazi, but actually a Nazi. As BFTP #16 so accurately describes, there is a symbiotic relationship between the left and their hothouse flower information stream outlets. The information stream outlets carefully excise any data which would reflect negatively on figures and policies of the left so that the consumers can have an anxiety-free life where their narrative is never challenged, and in return they receive completely loyal readership/viewership/listenership. As such, the assertions of the evil that exist on the center and right are never challenged, and the adulations heaped upon Obama and others like him are never challenged, leaving millions to have no doubt in their authenticity in each instance The center and right have the Internet and talk radio but vast numbers of people will never avail themselves of those streams either due to laziness, stupidity, or a desire to avoid the anxiety of having their narrative challenged. So, if NPR or MSNBC or the NYT say that a guy like me is a Nazi, it must be so. If leftist propaganda, or bigotry, or blood libel is delivered by a Colbert or a Stewart, it’s not really blood libel because they’ve put on a clown nose.
Kimberlin is different from the rest of the left only in that he has already acted. His thought patterns are otherwise exactly like the folks I described above that we pass and rub shoulders with each day and appear outwardly harmless and devoid of truly vicious thoughts but are constantly telling themselves that people like the regular posters here at BC are actual Nazis or KKK members. He (Kimberlin) has simply gotten off his duff and acted. Do not think for a minute that the librarian or schoolteacher or schoolteacher could not be induced to act or at minimum to support these tactics. They could go Kimberlin with even the slightest of pushes or with the appropriate incentive of funding; they could.
JMH #28 is onto something with his assertions about those who inhabit “The Life”. Over a certain critical mass, and things degrade in hurry.
We should not be surprised by this. For nearly 100 years the totalitarian Left has jailed or otherwise harrassed and silenced its critics and opponents whenever it has gotten the chance.
The pace seems to have picked up recently, what with blasphemy trials in Europe, enforcement of ‘hate speech codes’ and the emergence of a two-tiered justice system which enables special pleading by politically-fashionable grievance groups.
42
This book explains how the Reagan library opened one of their many boxes they have stored and found it contained what had been in his desk. In addition to rubber bands etc., they found many of his 4×6 cards. The ones he used for his speeches. The book is called “The Notes”. It was edited by Douglas Brinkley. Published by Harper Collins.
Perhaps this can be our version of Mao’s little red book. One quote from de Tocqueville seems current. “Democracy will last until the people in power learn they can perpetuate themselves in power through taxation.” Another from an unknown source. “We must pay a price for freedom but whatever the price it’s only half the cost of doing without it.”
It also is full of his humor. “Some people are so addicted to exaggeration they can’t tell the truth without lying.” Some good perspective for our current fight.
Is it illegal to hit someone with a cream pie?
What is the penalty for doing so?
Often, with this type of people, it is important to mark the fact they are not untouchables. And they hate to be disrespected. So they lose it or stop it.
OT, but consistent with title of the post: The smartest man in the universe stepped on it yesterday at the Medal of Freedom Award ceremony, using the phrase “Polish Death Camps.” 38 million Poles are livid and this administration and its leader are too arrogant to issue a formal apology-just admitting “regret about mis-speaking.” How many Poles live in Wisconsin? A lot.
Changing litigation law to the British system where the plaintiff has to pay if he loses might be a useful deterrent in many cases.
I left a comment over at Patterico’s with ideas on how to fight back, things which were legal yet very Alinsky like. For my effort, I was called a Moby and beaten soundly about the head and shoulders by his regulars. Fine, so be it. Leaving aside the tactics I presented, I will submit that unless this battle is fought offensively it will be lost. In fact near as I can tell it is already being lost. I keep hearing this “not stoop to their level” bla bla bla and “shine the light into dark corners” bla bla bla. I just wonder how many good men have gone to their graves because they refused to “stoop to their enemies level”. I have to admit that my solidarity with those that have been wronged is starting to fade. It seems only The Other McCain is acting aggressively, the rest not so much. If you are not going to fight, you are going to lose, and that seems to be what is happening here.
Gentlemen – and the vast majority of you are, it seems:
By their very actions these people have effectively cried “Havoc!” I’ll let Subotai and Roughcoat explain the origins of that phrase and what it means.
When you have people arrested on trumpt-up charges and file false charges in an attempt to create an “assassination by cop” situation you have offered to give no quarter and should expect none in return. This is not sending unwanted pizzas or taxis to someone’s residence or calling up to ask if they have Prince Albert in the can; this is very serious in multiple ways.
Extra-legal tactics demand extra-legal responses. And one reason is that today we operate very much in a condition of Situational Enforcement. Certain people are expected to adhere to the very letter of the law, but others get a pass because they refuse to do so and because who they are. I am awaiting the arrest of the New Black Panthers who violated Florida laws by offering a reward for George Zimmerman’s kidnapping or death, but I also am not holding my breath. And by the way, Zimmerman’s attorney is now attempting to prevent the names of corroborating witnesses from being released, but certain groups are trying to make sure they are; guess why.
Gee, I must be a “Moby” too, as I’ve been called out even here (but not by any of the regulars) for suggesting aggressive tactics against the likes of Brett Kimberlin.
I think this should be made a campaign issue — not just the Kimberlin thing, but all tactics like them by Democratic Operatives. While it shouldn’t be the core narrative of the Romney/GOP, people working on the GOP’s behalf should tie these ugly tactics to the Democrats, and make the charges stick. Americans need to see and understand the consequences of a second Obama term, and how the thuggishness will increase if he’s re-elected.
Marine 83 @ 52 said:
“For my effort, I was called a Moby and beaten soundly about the head and shoulders by his regulars. Fine, so be it. Leaving aside the tactics I presented, I will submit that unless this battle is fought offensively it will be lost. In fact near as I can tell it is already being lost.”
Defeating Obama should have been a slam dunk. I know the MSM is solidly behind him but Obama’s utter incompetence is apparent. The “stupid party” (GOP) shot itself in the foot when it could not come up with a viable candidate instead of Romney. My guess is all of the viable candidates do not want the “honor” of being captain of the Titanic. The saving grace is that Obama is such a hopeless president that Romney might win anyway.
Completely off-topic:
The stock market is hilarious. Refer to the following chart:
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=^DJI+Interactive#symbol=^dji;range=5d;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;
After a three day weekend, the Fed and the PPT wanted to get the market restarted on a new footing by goosing it. Unfortunately, they goosed it on “bad news” (Spain is imploding). The DJIA went up 100 points as a step function and then immediately dropped a 100 points after the PPT backed off. I wonder how many billions of Fiat USD got transferred from Bernanke’s printing presses to private investors? Fortunately it’s only paper money and not actually worth anything. I suspect the criminals and liars running our centrally planned economy are getting desperate. You can see it in actions like they did yesterday.
The situation seems ideal for a RICO response:
via Wikipedia:
“Under RICO, a person who is a member of an enterprise that has committed any two of 35 crimes—27 federal crimes and 8 state crimes—within a 10-year period can be charged with racketeering. Those found guilty of racketeering can be fined up to $25,000 and sentenced to 20 years in prison per racketeering count. In addition, the racketeer must forfeit all ill-gotten gains and interest in any business gained through a pattern of “racketeering activity.” RICO also permits a private individual harmed by the actions of such an enterprise to file a civil suit; if successful, the individual can collect treble damages.”
This is just one guy employing terror tactics against his masters’ political enemies. Note the employment of the Lie in these actions, the sine qua non of the Left (and of all evil). What happens when the State empowers instruments like the Checka with villains like this? Who are you going to call to give a heads up then? To what court will you appeal? What recourse your outrage? Already we see the groundwork laid when the force of the State which should check these abuses turns a blind eye to empower them. Won’t be long now, I’m thinking.
No Mo: “This act of considering a difference of opinion to be a sin or crime is not limited to the activists on the left. It’s almost universal amongst them. The quiet janitor you see at the coffee shop who cleans the town hall and is an AFSCME member, the mousy librarian ………..all actively believe that if you are into limited government or free enterprise, or a robust foreign policy or nationalism or are at all devoutly religious, you are a Nazi.”
A recent post at Ricochet noted that Health Care and Education, taken together, account for 24% of our GDP – 63% higher than any other developed nation. So our “caring” professions account for probably over 25% of our economy ( when ancillary positions are accounted for) , and 90% of those involved in those ‘caring’ professions, as evidenced by the 63% higher total outlay, are aggressively sucking on the Public Tit. They know it, they vote like it, and they actively condemn anyone who attempts to limit them, as No Mo suggests.
Our Public Sector has become a glutinous, parasitic cancer that has metastasized sufficiently to devour it’s host – the rest of us. The tactics of Kimberlin if picked up by the likes of the SEIU , (and they will soon enough), would be unimaginable horror. Kimberlin must be stopped and slapped down hard very quickly or some really ugly demons will be unleashed and it will a long time before they are corralled again.
Speaking of weaselly characters…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoWjU8OAUaU&feature=relmfu
Some draw their inspiration from “Red Dawn” by John Milius…
My favorite Joe Walsh tune is “Life’s been Good to Me so Far…”
Here’s a Link to a fine Youtube clip from the LIVE 50TH Stratocaster Birthday Party.
What could be done to draw the attention of the the responsible House and Senate oversight committees to this?
Judicial, Homeland Security, perhaps Oversight and Government Reform.
Perhaps sending one dollar checks to the committee members’ government offices with a letter “in support of (refreshments for) the expeditious calling of hearings into the Kimberlin Affair.” It takes some effort to handle a check – which means extraordinary attention and record keeping when they are delivered to a government office (v. their political office). Assuming they don’t just toss them in the trash, but they still have to read the check carefully to make sure it’s not a trivial amount.
Either way a few 10s of thousands of checks with letters will generate some attention. Make the check payable to the U.S. House of Representatives or U.S. Senate care of the member, and in the memo field note “re: Hearings into the Kimberlin Affair.” Best if constituents target their own committee members – staffs do sort by zip code.
Should also have a few of the talk-show hosts talk about the situation and mention this effort.