Atlas Shrugged: The Mocking

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Saturday, August 29, 2009

Gardening

Why look, there's Megan McArdle in her back yard, with a shovel. I wonder what she's going to do with it?


typetype
Guns at political rallies.I guess it's legal. I guess it's not really dangerous, if you buy Megan's argument and I'll grant her her argument. But it's never happened before in my lifetime. So Megan and cohorts, go ahead and be an apologist for it all you want. You can compare it to the opposition to the war in 2003, but those folks did not carry guns. Something is very wrong.
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Megan McArdle (Replying to: typetype)
Yeah, that's not true either:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/ken-shepherd/2009/08/18/media-barely-noticed-legal-gun-brandishing-leftist-black-panthers-2000
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Jim Kakalios (Replying to: Megan McArdle)
The Black Panthers were protesting the war in Iraq in 2000? That's certainly an example of not waiting till the last minute! You were comparing the protesters of Health Insurance Reform to those opposed to a war. I think what typetype wrote is in fact true - or at least your link does not counter the argument.
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Megan McArdle (Replying to: Jim Kakalios)
I meant to point out that it is not true that guns have not been pulled out at a protest in TypeType's lifetime. Or else TypeType is a very precocious child.

I do believe she appears to be digging in the dirt. I think she might be digging a hole.
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TallDave (Replying to: Mike D.)
The real issue is weaponization of discourse by people with an extreme version of her basic perspective.
And those Black Panthers were just hanging out, right? Well, I guess since Obama's AG dropped the case "weaponization of discourse" is a nonissue these days.
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NRB (Replying to: TallDave)
TallDave, you should be defending the Black Panthers if you want to have any sort of consistency. They weren't breaking any laws, right? Or do only crazy white people get to carry guns at political rallies?
I am at least consistent: no guns at political rallies! Not for right wing loonies and not for the Black Panthers.
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Keltin (Replying to: NRB)
The Black Panthers weren't carrying guns. They were carrying clubs. A holstered revolver on the hip of a couple of conservatives going towards them to vote, would've caused said Intimidators to back away from their hate-speech they directed at whites who wanted to vote there.
Of course, Philadelphia police would've probably absolved the Intimidators and arrested the citizens because they were 'obviously racists' /s
Megan McArdle (Replying to: NRB)
I'm absolutely defending the black panthers, provided the weapons were legal. And I note that again, nothing happened. They were still jerks, of course. But harmless jerks.

It is a hole. And she keeps digging it deeper.

Can anyone care to guess how the Bush administration would have reacted to a gun carrying man in an "Out of Iraq NOW" t-shirt at a Bush speech? If I recall correctly Secret Service or hired goons were throwing people out of Bush public appearances just for having the t-shirt.
Perhaps some blacks, Hispanics, and feminists should exercise their 2nd amendment rights at a Sarah Palin public appearance.
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Megan McArdle (Replying to: Stuhlmann)
As you'll see upthread, Black Panthers marched on Bush with AK-47s when he was governor of Texas and running for president. He ignored them.
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DB Cooper (Replying to: Megan McArdle)
As did the current President in Phoenix. Not sure why the last sentence is relevant. The alleged hysteria does not reside in the White House.

And deeper.
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Megan McArdle (Replying to: km)
The Black Panthers carried guns at an anti-Bush rally when he was running for president. I think they had a perfect right to do so, and also, that they were jerks. But harmless jerks, as witnessed by the fact that no one got killed.
Preventing people from carrying guns into buildings is a perfectly legitimate limitation, given the problems of guns in an enclosed space. But how many people does this restriction, or even the metal detectors, protect? How many people were shot in Federal buildings, elementary schools, etc. before we had the ban?

McArdle forgets Ta-Nehisi Coates is the son of a former member of the Black Panthers. Although maybe she didn't forget, and simply assumed Coates would keep quiet.
at

9 comments:

  1. arguingwithsignpostsAugust 29, 2009 at 9:34 PM

    8 years later, she still thinks they were jerks?!?!? I'd say they knew what they were talking about

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  2. clever pseudonymAugust 30, 2009 at 8:22 AM

    "Given the problems with guns in an enclosed place"?!?!? Meaning what? That when you have them in vast expanses they're as harmless as blowing bubbles? When Megan's in a hole, she doesn't just keep digging, she gets a bigger shovel. Even if I didn't find her point of view repulsive, her arguments would still be badly reasoned, ill-informed drivel.

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  3. Substance McGravitasAugust 30, 2009 at 11:15 AM

    Guns: A-OK when I can write a sentence about them. Also not okay when I can write a different sentence about them, but I prefer the former.

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  4. Mr. WonderfulAugust 30, 2009 at 11:37 AM

    Damn it, clever pseud. got there first with MM's "enclosed space" line. I'd sequence that right after her "sight lines" reassurance about the Secret Service in her greatest hits album.

    Album? Oh dear, I'm dating myself. Well, at least I know that later I'll get lucky.

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  5. Julia GreyAugust 30, 2009 at 9:25 PM

    Preventing people from carrying guns into buildings is a perfectly legitimate limitation, given the problems of guns in an enclosed space.

    Yeah, I have to agree that this is the current nadir of her hole. What the HELL is the difference in having guns in enclosed spaces vs. having them in the outdoors?

    I hope someone asks her to explain, but I'm not going over there.

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  6. DillonAugust 30, 2009 at 9:47 PM

    Come on, this one is easy. Megan is concerned about the property damage that would result from indoor gunplay.

    You shoot a few liberals outside, no big deal. You shoot a few liberals inside, you are going to have to replace the carpet at a minimum.

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  7. AnonymousAugust 30, 2009 at 10:33 PM

    Ricochet? She probably heard cartoon sound effects in her head as she imagined someone firing a gun in an enclosed space, and then she decided that killing or injuring someone other than the person the shooter was aiming at was somehow worse. Or something?

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  8. DownpuppyAugust 31, 2009 at 8:10 AM

    That newsbusters idiocy she linked to has so polluted the internets that I couldn't find the real story.

    Any links?

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  9. Susan of TexasAugust 31, 2009 at 11:01 AM

    Oh, yeah. I found a link or two.

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