# Political Violence Hit The Nashville Highways. Newslink

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 26, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945 "2010-03-26T21:35:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/41 "2010-03-27T05:18:16Z")

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> [@Magiver](#):
>
> You mean this [Fox report](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/03/26/bullet-struck-cantors-office-appears-randomly-fired/)? All I did was question the likelihood of someone firing in the air multiplied by the likelihood of it hitting the office building of the highest ranking GOP member.

People fire guns into the air every day. This bullet came down randomly and broke a window in a part of the building which was not used by Cantor. The building was not marked on the outside and there was nothing identifying it as having anything to do with Cantor. The only time Cantor has been threatened in the past has been by right wing antisemites. The cops are saying the building was not inetntionally targeted. Cantor was basically full of shit, and his whole bullshit story was little more than a rather transparent attempt to take attention away from the fact the teabaggers are currently in a berserker, racist rage. The GOP was trying to minimize the political damage being done by their base by trying to create phony impression that the violence was happening on both sides. It isn’t.

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**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/42 "2010-03-27T05:20:07Z")

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> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#):
>
> 1. I didn’t post the link, douchebag, I’m not the OP.
> 2. Slowing down or trying to stop is a perfectly normal thing to doin a confusing and dangerous traffic situation.
> 3. Blaming the victim is douchey and irrelevant.
> 4. I’ll question whatever the fuck I want.

Aw, shit. I thought this was in the Pit. My apologies for the language. I’ll report this myself.

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**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/43 "2010-03-27T10:48:40Z")

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Update–

[http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100327/NEWS03/3270355/2066/news03](http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100327/NEWS03/3270355/2066/news03)

> [@](#):
>
> He hasn’t decided yet whether he will replace the sticker. It was the sticker, it seems, that painted a bull’s-eye on his car and subjected him and his 10-year-old daughter to an apparently politically motivated case of road rage.
> 
> Even in the charged partisan atmosphere of modern politics, the past few days have seen new heights of ugly behavior — including death threats sent to members of Congress and their families who supported health-care reform.
> 
> On Thursday afternoon, Duren got caught up in the rage.  
> The Nashville schoolteacher was picking his daughter up from school. At a stop sign near the Belmont campus, a larger vehicle pulled up behind their car, and the driver began honking and gesturing angrily toward the right bumper and its Obama/Biden '08 sticker.
> 
> “I raised my hands palms up and shrugged. He then eased up behind my car so I could only see the grille of his SUV and blew his car horn, nonstop,” Duren said.
> 
> Duren eased through the intersection and continued on his way home. The next thing he knew, the SUV was closing in rapidly in his rear-view mirror, accelerating straight toward him, the driver still flipping him rude gestures and pointing at the bumper sticker.
> 
> The other driver, identified by Metro police as 70-year-old Nashville retiree Harry K. Weisiger, accelerated and bashed into the bumper, directly over the Obama sticker. Duren tried to calm his frightened daughter as he pulled to a stop and prepared to get out of the car and deal with what he thought was a routine fender bender.
> 
> But the other driver wasn’t finished. He rammed the car again and started pushing it off the road, while the little girl inside screamed in terror. After a few more pushes, the SUV accelerated away, leaving a shaken Duren to call 911 and try to reassure his daughter.
> 
> A neighbor followed the fleeing SUV to a nearby grocery store parking lot, where police found Weisiger — eyes watery, speech slurred and reeking of alcohol, they said — trying to pop a breath mint and insisting that he had had “not much” to drink.

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**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/44 "2010-03-27T12:08:05Z")

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> [@Magiver](#):
>
> It never occurred to you that the bullet deflected off of something into the building? Is it common practice for people in Richmond to shoot guns in the air?

If the bullet did ricochet into the building, it must have been aimed at something else. So either way, falling from the air or a deflection, it wasn’t targeted at Cantor’s office. Is that settled now?

Or do you think the shooter was playing a bank shot?

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**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/45 "2010-03-27T12:55:33Z")

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> [@zamboniracer](#):
>
> I can’t say I’m all that impressed with the Monday morning quarterbacking going on here. “Why if I was in that situation I’d have done such and such in order to protect my child blah blah blah.” I’ve been driving for 30 years and have no race car or stunt car training, and know that adrenaline starts to flow when a person thinks he’s being attacked by a car and driver deliberately coming at him like that. Expecting the victim to behave rationally, or knowing if he should speed up or slow down, is expecting a bit much, I’d say.

I’m going to have to agree. I would probably slam on the brakes immediately after being struck by a car, out of pure automatic reflex. It might be stupid, but I’m not that great a driver. I’m relieved there are so many experienced, calm, collected, safety-minded drivers out there on the road, but I’m not it and there are a ton of dumbasses out there just like me. So this conversation seems irrelevant to the event in question.

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**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/46 "2010-03-27T13:48:17Z")

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My Wife and I consider ourselves to be conservative liberals. We are from the only blue county in Colorado.

Some of the stuff that we saw driving back to Pittsburgh in October was just sickening. the absolute hate bumper stickers for our President was stunning.

One pickup we saw had a fake black plastic hand hanging from a chain from the bumper. What is wrong with these folks?

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**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/47 "2010-03-27T13:58:55Z")

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WTF? Why didn’t Duren shoot the guy?

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**Author:** ![C3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/c3/32/3108_2.png) [@C3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C3)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/48 "2010-03-27T14:22:55Z")

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> [@UncleRojelio](#):
>
> WTF? Why didn’t Duren shoot the guy?

Because this didn’t happen in Wyoming circa 1850?

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**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/49 "2010-03-27T14:23:35Z")

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> [@enipla](#):
>
> We are from the only blue county in Colorado.

What??? Boulder, Denver, Pueblo, Broomfield, Larimer, every single one in the Sangre de Cristos…

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/50 "2010-03-27T17:47:29Z")

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> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#):
>
> 1. I didn’t post the link, douchebag, I’m not the OP.
> 2. Slowing down or trying to stop is a perfectly normal thing to doin a confusing and dangerous traffic situation.
> 3. Blaming the victim is douchey and irrelevant.
> 4. I’ll question whatever the fuck I want.

> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#):
>
> Aw, shit. I thought this was in the Pit. My apologies for the language. I’ll report this myself.

No warning issued, but please keep an eye on what forum you’re posting in.

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**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\
**Post date:** [March 27, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/political-violence-hit-the-nashville-highways-newslink/533945/51 "2010-03-27T22:48:37Z")

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> [@C3](#):
>
> Because this didn’t happen in Wyoming circa 1850?

I don’t care where or what year it is, someone threatens yours and your child’s life with a deadly weapon and you don’t respond in kind? Maybe he was having trouble deciding whether full or semi automatic was warranted in this situation.

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