Have you tried it without the corset?
Oh, Frank, you can be such a little bitch, sometimes!
This is, by the way, an extremely valid criticism. I HAVE been hiding behind vague references.
And I will continue to refuse. If you don’t remember any of the type of behavior I was talking about, then it’s really not you I’m talking to.
But the main point I was trying to make had vanished in a puff, since it seems that many people do regard this event as outrageous. I’m… stunned, a bit, at that. I thought it might have been the presence of Bush that cranked up the outrage meter; turns out many people are just naturally ready to get outraged for ridiculous reasons. My bad for not seeing that.
For what it’s worth, I agree with you on that issue. It was a mistake, but appears to be an understandable isolated incident that was resolved adequately. Not a big deal.
On the other hand, you still have not provided a cite (outside of a general reference to a long ago banned poster) for your statements, nor have you addressed any of the comments about the incomparability between this event and others you’ve let people speculate about. When you get around to that, let me know.
Really! Then please tell us: who exactly are the “ultra-alarmist” posters whose current level of abashedness you started this thread to inquire about?
And exactly what event(s) were you referring to when you spoke of those “knee-jerk”,
“ultra-alarmist” posters greeting “similar stories” with “outrage”?
Or are you just too abashed to admit that you started this thread as a vague generic pout-fest, without any clear instances of persons or events that you were specifically complaining about?
Oh, okay then, no problem. Disregard my most recent post (I can’t edit it, sorry).
Don’t go overboard in the other direction, though, and assume that every expression of disapproval counts as “outrage”. As I noted earlier, I think the cop was being too intrusive by confiscating the sign, but I don’t see much difference between that opinion and your acknowledging that the cop made a mistake. Would you say that the opinion that the cop made a mistake qualifies as “outrage”?
They hate us for our freedoms. And our Precious.
It’s outrageous. And while the clear and present danger doctrine would probably allow for a pulling over a “let’s shoot [important person’s name here]” bumpersticker, I’d probably be angered at that too.
Criminal law enforcement is supposed to produce prosecutions of crimes, not people or ideas. The reason the Barry Bonds prosecution is so bogus is that his initial complaint of theft was ignored while they turned on him and wouldn’t help him unless he answered questions about steroid use. I don’t care about Bonds one way or another, but law enforcement that is out to get individual persons instead of prosecuting crimes is a tyranny. If I’m growing marijuana in my backyard and somebody leaves a dead body in my backyard, I still want to be able to call the cops without having my life ruined. Prosecutors who ignore the murder to prosecute the intent to get high are ruining civilization.
You’ve done this before, throwing out nasty accusations against ill-defined targets. It doesn’t do your argument any favours. Don’t start a thread by throwing mud wildly in all directions and then stand around wondering why people aren’t taking your point seriously.
Oh, jeez, Bricker, I’m going to be really disappointed if, after all these years, you turn out to be december in sheep’s clothing.
I don’t get this. You’re a lawyer. You used to ride with the Jedi as a PD before you turned to the Dark Side. (You are a “big law” guy now, right?) Why is it ridiculous to see this incident as a problem?
Did you sell your soul for a Beamer and a shot at making partner? Not knocking you for it…well, not in other than a friendly tongue in cheek way. If I ever got a shot at the big time, I’d probably cut my hair, wear suits even when I’m not in court, and take the money, too…as long as I could stand it.
I may have missed something, but is Obama in Oklahoma? Last I heard he was in Canada. So my understanding (and I said I may have missed something!) is that this happened thousands of miles away from the President, and therefore it’s a little confusing as to how it can be directly traced to Obama, his instructions, his policies… the man has not quite completed his first month in office, attributing the actions of an Oklahoma City police officer to Obama and then comparing it to Bush’s dissent-muzzling is quite the stretch.
As for the Secret Service showing up, I’m sure that was after the police officer pulled the guy over, after which they were no doubt contacted, at whcih point I feel comfortable assuming that it is their job to follow up on any incident reported to them by a law enforcement agency that might be a threat to the president.
On the flip side, Bush rallies were rigidly controlled situations where any obvious disagreement with Bush (forget THREATS, please!) in the form of signs, shirts, words, anything, was blocked, removed or otherwise oppressed.
Not only are the two scenarios not equivalent, I think the Bush era muzzling of dissent was far more disturbing, as it was consistent and very much at the behest of Bush himself and his administration, vs. one over-eager cop in Oklahoma.
Well, just to guard against the possible recurrence of excessive vague generalization, let’s review the opinions that have actually been expressed here about this event. From the top (and I apologize if I missed an expression of opinion about this incident in any of the posts that I passed over because they seemed to be confined to other topics):
So Rick, where are these “many people” who “regard this event as outrageous”? Looks like they boil down to a couple repetitions of outrage on the part of one poster, namely The Second Stone. (And maybe you can throw in Jack Batty too, if “pissed off” means the same thing as “outraged”.)
All the rest of us, though, seem to have been expressing reactions ranging from near-total indifference to moderate disapproval. I really don’t think there’s all that much for you to be “stunned” about here.
Silly, it’s the same hypothetical vapormen who were referenced in the OP. See the aforementioned “Mad Libs” post.
Translation:
I marched in with no evidence and blithely accused a whole bunch of unnamed people of being hypocrites, but it turns out they just disagree with me about something. Am i an asshole, or what?
I dunno. I would think that if you could show that a poster on this board freaked out when one police officer overreacted to one sign even after the officer’s superiors overrode the officer, returned the sign, and said it was a mistake, all in the matter of a couple of hours, then it might make sense to actually Pit that poster.
Simply throwing vague claims that something happened and you think someone at some time might have expressed bad thoughts seems to be a pretty dumb excuse for a Pit thread.
Or it means something worse: Bricker is turning into Shodan.
I’d also like to see some examples of the “perfectly reasonable” “mistakes” that were “similar” to this and “screamed about”.
Bricker?
Too funny.
I am certainly not outraged. In fact, I believe the strongest wording I used was “not thrilled”. AFAIK this is not widely regarded as an expression reserved for the overwrought. As Kimstu notes, hardly any of the people participating in this thread view this incident as outrageous.
If I may speak for them, I think I could best describe their attitude as “somewhat concerned”.
I am not accusing Obama or anyone else of attempting to stifle dissent, or whatever. I am concerned that a fairly mild bumper sticker can require an SS investigation, even if it was only because the original officer’s action was a bit excesssively paranoid.