Reporting on each other: the Covington boys, the Native American, and the smart phone vs. the telescreen
[NOTE: This story brought me out of my usual Sunday blog-hibernation.]
The news story of the Catholic high school students in MAGA hats who were captured on video supposedly harassing a Native American Vietnam vet was a tale I ignored till now. As presented, it seemed relatively trivial to me—a group of teens acting like jerks. What’s more, I tend to follow the 48-hour rule on stories like that, because so many turn out to be fake or exaggerated.
Since then, it’s come out that the story was an excellent example of Fake News Tweaked to Advance the Narrative.
I’m not going to go into all the Byzantine details, but you can read them (and watch videos) here, here, here, here, here, and at plenty of other sites.
There are sites and people who ran the original story and have since issued corrections or retractions, but so far those sites do not include the WaPo, which has made a big big deal of the story. Even as I write these words the comments there are overwhelmingly in condemnation of the teens based on the original propaganda story, despite a few attempts in the comments by others to give the context and links to the corrective videos (those people are being called paid trolls or alt-right members).
Way too many people reporting this sort of thing and making it go viral on Twitter are uninterested in getting the facts right or telling the truth. They know from previous experience that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its boots on. They count on it, and they know that most of the people ranting and raving about this and wanting to punch that Covington kid in the mouth and ruin his life will never, never ever, believe that the first story wasn’t the real story.
No surprise there. A great many of these bigotry stories are not only false, but they are inversions of the truth. Too many times the offense is actually self-inflicted and the so-called victim is actually the one who (for example) wrote the offending word or drew the offending graphic. And although a video would seem far less easy to fake (although with advancing technology it will become more and more easy to do so, and harder and harder to tell fake from real), it can be rather easily done with clever editing and attention to setting up certain expectations and interpretations.
Here are a few of the details (follow any or all of those previous links to find plenty more):
The teen is not smirking in this clip, and Phillips [the Native American who was supposedly harassed] has an entourage with cameras. One of the Native activists argues with a Covington teen, who argues back. This and other clips have shown the Indian activists racially taunting the teens, saying things like ‘go back to Europe.’ Phillips has claimed that the teens were chanting ‘build the wall!,’ but that isn’t in any of the videos that circulated Saturday. Based on what can actually be seen and heard, it’s looks as if Phillips and his crew sought out Catholic teenagers and tried to make them uncomfortable. And of course, they recorded it…
…[S]o far, there’s no evidence to support that scenario [that the teen students were the racists], only the words of Phillips and his associates. That hasn’t stopped blue-checkmark media figures like former CNN blatherskite Reza Aslan from not only branding the teens as racists but in Aslan’s case musing about inflicting violence on them:
Honest question. Have you ever seen a more punchable face than this kid’s? pic.twitter.com/jolQ7BZQPD
— Reza Aslan (@rezaaslan) January 20, 2019
A great deal of hatred has been directed at these kids, and all of this was going on more or less at the same time that the Buzzfeed story about Trump asking Cohen to lie to Congress was being exposed as a whole lot of hooey.
Several things made the Covington story absolutely irresistible to the left. The kids were white (most of them; not all, but the featured ones were). They were male. Some were wearing MAGA hats. They were Catholic. And they were returning from an anti-abortion rally. They were supposedly (according to Phillips, although nowhere in any video has any corroboration surfaced for his claim) chanting that we should build the wall. A perfect storm of terribleness on the part of the teens, right?
These boys weren’t accused of drunken rape, like Brett Kavanaugh and his teen Catholic school buddies. But what we are seeing is exactly the same venomous desire to brand and discredit them as nasty soulless thugs, and from similar motives: anti-white, anti-right, anti-male, anti-Catholic, anti-religion, anti-Trump.
One of the sadder things about this particular incident is that many on the right, as well as the boys’ Catholic school, jumped on the leftist bandwagon—at least to a certain extent. And some jumped on it to a greater extent and have yet (at least, as of this writing) to retract their words.
One of the latter group is Nicholas Frankovitch of National Review. Here is his Twitter feed linking to his terrible article at NR—an article which has very suddenly disappeared. I had read it just a little while ago, but when I checked back just now to link to it, it’s disappeared with no explanation. Maybe by the time I publish this piece, even his Twitter feed will have changed:
The Covington students might as well have just spit on the cross. https://t.co/UdmlH5TPXm
— NicholasFrankovich (@NFrankovich) January 20, 2019
One person who did apologize, and quite profusely, was Scott Adams. I’m embedding his video in case you’re interested in watching. As Adams says, “This is fake news that actually damages the lives of children.” What I find especially interesting—and what I haven’t yet heard Adams explain—is how he, of all people, was originally among those taken in by this story:
When Orwell wrote his masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four, one of his brilliant innovations was the telescreen, a way for the government to spy on its people twenty-four hours a day by placing a sort of reverse-TV in all homes and monitoring inhabitants for any un-PC actions or utterances. In the world of his novel (based on a futuristic view of the Communist regimes of the day with which Orwell was familiar), the telescreen’s ubiquity was combined with the always-existing possibility of being informed on by neighbors and relatives and supposed friends. In a Communist totalitarian dictatorship, you could trust no one. And of course, all media were organs of the state.
But at least everybody knew it. There was no pretense of free speech, and the press wasn’t free either. Now we have a pretense of both. And yet no government has to threaten or torture the liars and propagandists of the press; they do this of their own free will. Unfortunately, there are so many of them—they were always present in the MSM but in recent decades they have pretty much taken it over—that their noise has become deafening, amplified by the social media clamor of Twitter.
Today’s smart phones (not envisioned by Orwell) can record, as well. But what they record, how it is edited and used and described and slanted, is the task of social media and the MSM. If the viewers of such videos don’t have a huge amount of skepticism, they are easily taken in by people using videos to mislead. Even people with a great deal of skepticism, such as Scott Adams, can apparently be taken in by the right video presented in a very clever way.
This is obviously a grave danger, because videos (like photos before them) can easily give the appearance of being the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and can whip the crowd up into enormous hatred. And yet the actual truth can be something very, very different.
[ADDENDUM: I now see a too-mild apology from Rick Lowry at NR, and an acknowledgement that he took down Frankovitch’s article that had “relied on the incomplete video.” Kyle Smith has published this piece, also at NR, that discusses the fact that Phillips repeatedly lied.]
[ADDENDUM II: (Hat tip: commenter “Kate.”) The teen-aged Covington student featured in the video has issued a statement which you can find here.]
[ADDENDUM III: And then there are the tweets of this Buzzfeed editor (yes, Buzzfeed). She also appears to be, or to have been in the past, some sort of teacher.]
“One of the sadder things about this particular incident is that many on the right, as well as the boys’ Catholic school, jumped on the leftist bandwagon . . . .” [Neo]
“Unexpectedly” as they say. Remember when Notre Dame was asked by the White House to cover its religious symbols prior to Obama’s address on campus? Remember that they complied rather than stand firm? What does that say about the choice between appearance over principles? I mention only this one instance, but as one who was born and raised Catholic and went through 12 years of Catholic schooling I am profoundly saddened and fundamentally disgusted that the Catholic hierarchy’s loss of principles is no recent thing.
As to National Review it’s interesting that in this case and with the Mark Steyn issue a few years ago it is higher up editors involved not their rank and file writers.
Really tells you something about their management’s thinking on these things.
But that kid was SMIRKING!!!!!!!! Surely that’s evil. Normal teenage boys don’t smirk.
Seriously though, between this and Buzzfeed, it’s proof that most of the media are the enemy of the American people, just as has been suggested. They are one of the few unchecked powers/authority figures around. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. All one can do is assume they are lying until proven differently and convincingly. It is disgraceful and I am glad to see some lawyer has offered his services in any lawsuit the boys wish to pursue against the reporter and others. In the meantime, the boy seen “smirking,” needs 24 hour protection. Maybe the media generally could set up a GofundMe account.
Griffin:
One thing that occurs to me about NR and other media outlets is that while I have the luxury of waiting 48 hours, or never commenting on it at all, they are in a tougher spot. If a story is big and they ignore it, they’re criticized for that. This was originally a big story. If they said at the outset that it was of no import, or especially if they said maybe it was likely false or misleading and they turned out to be wrong about that, they would never hear the end of what terrible racists they are.
They chose to go with the narrative and not wait. They chose wrong. But I can understand their dilemma and their fear. It doesn’t make me respect them, however. The best thing for them to do would be to have a 48-hour rule stated and in place on all these social-media-type stories. But that would probably lose them traffic, and traffic is another big deal.
I posted the NR story on Facebook. It was an example of why I quit them after 35 years.
The “Vietnam Vet” agitator is 64 so he was 18 when the last US troops had left Vietnam. I used to see this all the time in County Hospital patients and, I’m sure, the same thing is true of the “homeless.” They claim to be Vietnam vets but were children when the war ended.
I think these kids have a pretty good libel suit. They are not “public figures” and the Duke Lacrosse guys gave them the work sheet to follow. The Jeff Bozo Bulletin has deep pockets.
As long as you have losers Ann and Manju who would eat up fake news like this as candy they will keep coming. Don’t Ann and Manju feel ashamed of keep being treated like mentally handicapped by the Fake news repeatedly, they will keep willfully open their mouths swallowing up whatever feces the Fake News feed them as long as the feces are spiced up with some anti-Trump Condiment.
Mike K:
I am often skeptical of claims that a person was a Vietnam vet unless it is documented. I am suspicious of this man’s claims, just as I am suspicious of such claims in general from people with a political bone to pick. He might indeed be a Vietnam vet, of course. I just don’t know—that’s why I didn’t write about it earlier. I had done a bit of Googling on it but come up with nothing about him. I hadn’t thought to do the math on his age, as you did, which makes it even more suspect (but definitely still possible) that he’s a Vietnam vet.
“They chose to go with the narrative and not wait. . . .” [Neo @
6:49 pm]
but the media always chooses to go with the narrative and not wait, that is unless its positive news or favors Trump in any way. Dilemma and fear? IMO only if they approached all stories that way. How about preconceived intent? When they mostly ignore or actively bury favorable Trump and conservative stories their only fear is that their false narrative will be exposed.
Remember when Mao was lying about how oppressive the landlords were encouraging the peasants to murder off the landlords and seize their lands for the socialist government with the promise from Mao that the lands would be redistribute back to them. 70 years later people still buy this b***sh**, funny the people who love the socialism the most are the people knew the least about it and don’t bother the educate themselves about it. They read a biased piece of propaganda or two written by progressives and declare themselves to be experts on the subject. Propaganda means they will focus on the one good thing Socialism might bring and ignore the billions of evil committed in the name of socialism.
T:
I wasn’t speaking of the media in general, I was speaking of National Review and others on the right who went with this story prematurely. NR is much more of a mixed bag, generally. Some are Beltway-type PC-type RINOs and some are not.
And Adams is not on the left and is generally not one to jump on PC bandwagons.
I am explaining why those sorts of people jumped on the bandwagon, and explaining their dilemma. The regular MSM had no dilemma and I wasn’t referring to them.
I want to use this occasion, and BuzzFeed’s lie about Cohen and Trump, to reiterate my oft-repeated observation:
The only genuine parallel between 1930s Germany and 2010s America of which I am aware is this: one-party mass media. We know which party that was in 1930s German, and we also know which party that is in 2010s America.
Neo,
Yep and like that Steyn thing this was on The Corner their group blog or whatever they call it which leads to this type of stuff happening as you said. But I also think it shines a light on what some of their editors reflexively turn to.
Then throw in that we are talking about kids and an issue that was not some emergency that had to be commented on immediately and this is what you get.
Griffin:
Yes, and the kid aspect (as Scott Adams mentions in the video) is especially pernicious. There was no need to jump on this bandwagon at all, and certainly not so quickly. But too many people want to show that they are full of anti-racist virtue, and this is the way they do it.
Another topic tangentially related to this is the seeming rise of a new Know Nothing Party from the left. They hate Jewish people and now Catholics are suspect pretty soon all that will be left are Socialists and Muslims.
The “Vietnam Vet” agitator is 64 so he was 18 when the last US troops had left Vietnam.
Second that. Noodling around on WhitePages, I think I’ve identified this man as a quondam resident of Ypsilanti, Michigan. The WhitePages result lists him as 63 years of age; not necessarily accurate, but a data point.
See here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37503939/between-earth-and-sky
This is a sad story, but with some anomalies. The film makers describe his late wife as a ‘Native American healer’. Noodling around, I believe the late Mrs. Phillips was born Shoshana Beth Konstant. Konstant is a name I’d never seen in print before. I’ve seen ‘Constant’ in print, but ‘K’ is used so little in French that I couldn’t imagine it was an alternate spelling of that name. Checking around, the origin of the name appears to be from miscellaneous points in Eastern Europe. The bulk of those in the Social Security Death Index with the name ended their lives in the BosWash corridor or in Miami. All consistent with what is suggested by a name like “Shoshana Beth”. I don’t think she grew up on the Rez in Nebraska.
Griffin:
The war against Catholics and other Christians has been heating up lately. The thing with Pence’s wife, the Knights of Columbus, and the Kavanaugh accusations have been part of it. Amy Barrett is waiting in the wings, too, and they fear that.
After the events of the last week, why does *anyone* take any media piece at face value? Question everything, people. Seriously.
But I also think it shines a light on what some of their editors reflexively turn to.
It was remarked that John Derbyshire in 2006 published a vitriolic book review in the New English Review attacking the work of one of NR‘s staff editors. Quite personal, really, calling the right-to-life movement a ‘cult’. He remained on the masthead. He published an article in Taki‘s six years later that was mildly disrespectful of blacks (there was a mess of blather in the news about ‘The Talk’ black parents supposedly give their children about how to avoid being killed by police officers, so Derbyshire thought he’d delineate ‘The Talk’ he might offer his own children about navigating urban life which includes blacks). He was immediately cut from the masthead by Lowry. Those of us of the SoCon persuasion learned in 2006 that taking a flamethrower to us was regarded by Lowry as legitimate debate in those pages; we learned six years later that irritating neuralgic characters who work for the media or the dean of students is a firing offense. A couple of years later, we learned that Lowry had given his deputy Jason Lee Steorts license to remove from the masthead any contributor who quotes mildly playful (non-pejorative) jokes which touch on homosexuality. Shortly thereafter, we learned that Kevin Williamson had a franchise to libel the small-town working class in dishonest and vicious terms.
It’s been over 15 years since Lowry was able to recruit anyone who offered arresting commentary (except the odious Williamson). Meanwhile, the most engaging of their contributors disappear due to attrition. The publication just isn’t worth a whole lot any more.
The kids are the victims here. If I were a rich Catholic lawyer, I would file a defamation lawsuit against the WaPo and the other news organizations (WTF – name Bezos too). Those bastards deserve it.
That being said – where were the chaperones? Kids that age aren’t sent to these events on their own. Somewhere there is a parent or teacher who needs to have their own liability insurance up to date. And that school and diocese that threw them under the bus so quickly? I see bad financial times in your future – what Catholic parent wants you to protect their kids?
And as for Mr. Frankovich – I believe your Millstone fitting is coming soon…..
The Frankovitch post on NR was the very first thing I read about the incident. He should be ashamed of himself and really should have posted an apology himself, rather than Lowry’s feeble retraction. Rod Dreher also bought Into the original narrative, but he issued a much more thoughtful retraction:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/the-covington-catholic-bonfire-at-the-stake/
Cases like this one really make me despise social media, along with the MSM.
That being said – where were the chaperones? Kids that age aren’t sent to these events on their own. Somewhere there is a parent or teacher who needs to have their own liability insurance up to date.
They were waiting for a bus to take them back to Kentucky.
“Shoshana” is generally a Hebrew name. Of course, that doesn’t mean that any particular Shoshana is Jewish or of Jewish lineage; but still.
.
In any case, this whole fracas is disgusting, disgraceful, and frightening.
“What is to be done?” Damned if I know.
The lawsuit is almost mandatory for these kids to get their reputation back. Melania Trump got a few million from a London tabloid and that was the last you heard about any “escort” work she might have done.
The Twitter trolls are immune because they have nothing. Lowry probably feared a lawsuit as NR is already entangled with Mann and the global warming cult.
I would think the Duke Lacrosse lawyers are looking up their numbers right now.
Apropos of the “kid” with the “punchable face,” I wonder whether what looks like a smirk to some viewers is actually what my dad (a WWII veteran) called a “shit-eating grin,” namely a facial twitch that results from embarrassment or humiliation (a common experience during basic training in any branch of the military). The unfortunate recruit who reacted to a dressing-down with this type of expression usually just got another order to “Wipe that grin off your face, soldier!” Which only made matters worse. Given that the young men (well, they are, aren’t they?) from Covington are still teenagers, they were probably embarrassed and uncomfortable during the confrontation, were unsure how best to respond, and their facial expressions were predictably misunderstood by the fake news crowd.
The most interesting aspect is why people fell for this. What is the habit of thinking that led supposedly educated, sophisticated people to assume this story was true? These “mistakes” happen repeatedly, and it’s no accident. I think one reason is the weight of left culture in this society, and the genuflection people make, if they are not based outside of it. They don’t really see the progressives as the enemy (and make no mistake, they absolutely are), they see themselves as members in good standing of the intellectual class, and will never admit their fear of being cast out.
I didn’t see the kid’s expression as a smirk, but as an uncomfortable smile, the sort that you have when you are trying to be on good behavior even though a total stranger has invaded your personal space, beating a drum.
I couldn’t offhand think of any reason for Kentucky high school kids at a pro-life rally to mock and harass an older Indian man. It didn’t make much sense. Besides waiting for confirmation, people need to think about things before believing them.
Their school should be ashamed, as should others who condemned them without good evidence.
The Dems have been “winning” for a long time, in lawfare.
The parents of these abused minors, who were then falsely defamed and libeled, should be suing the Native American for abusive harassment, suing each and every “news” outlet for libel, and suing their own Covington Catholic school.
Reps need to sue for libel and harassment more often. That’s the reality when Dems have thrown civility under the bus.
@PA Cat yes exactly. It’s a stress smile. The kid is unsure what’s happening or what to do. So he doesn’t say anything but has that fixed stress smile. As to why he doesn’t move out of the way – well when a person is unsure of how to read the situation as he clearly is, then it makes sense he doesn’t even think to step back. How many times have you watched footage of someone being questioned about a criminal matter and their stress smile incriminates them as guilty to the casual viewer.
I have a 15 yr old grandson and I agree with the commenters who thought that what was described as a smirk was more like an uncomfortable grin, a “what am I supposed to do or say” face!
A real, live smirk is the one David Hogg always has on his face. Now THAT’S a smirk.
@T
Regarding your comment about Notre Dame covering up religious symbols for a visit from Obama, you should know that it was actually Georgetown that did that. Notre Dame did give Obama, an unrepentant supporter of abortion on demand, an honorary degree, however.
Here’s a write-up at Reason on this, which includes the student’s statement. This is outrageous, and media people who jumped on this should be sued.
https://reason.com/blog/2019/01/20/covington-catholic-nathan-phillips-video
I looked at that “kid with the punchable face,” and I thought to myself, “this is a teenager, probably on his first trip to D.C., probably faced for the first time with a Native American beating on a drum,” and I thought “yeah, I would have looked like that too — interested in something that was totally new to me, not scornful.” Go back and look at that face again, and try to imagine you’re 15, you’ve just walked in a parade that you find exhilarating, and you’re looking at the first Native American you’ve ever seen beating a drum. What would be the look on your face? Would it — could it — have been like his?
Clearly, the MSM did not ask themselves that question. Had they done so, I think they would have held their fire on their coverage.
This tweet on the teenager written by a screenwriter and producer named Michael Green that Rod Dreher’s posted is truly despicable:
Editing function not working. Here’s the link to Green’s vile tweet: https://twitter.com/andmichaelgreen/status/1086698655225020416/photo/1
It was a CNN guy that made the punchable face comment. About a kid. Can you imagine if some conservative commentator said that about some of the lefts favorites. That person would be fired within hours.
Neo:
There also something else going on here, which also helps explain why Adams jumped on the bandwagon so quick. Trump supporters have been waiting for a moment like this to happen for the past two years. Everybody knows that, at some point, some knucklehead is going to do something “stupid” (insert the adjective of your choice there) while wearing a M.A.G.A. hat; with a country as diverse as ours, it’s not a matter of if, but when. When the video hit the internet, they were all so sure that the other shoe had finally dropped. So they had to get in front of it quickly before the incident tainted the whole Trump movement.
KRB
That same punchable face guy is retweeting personal facts about that kid on his twitter feed. What a disgusting human being.
Griffin:
Ex-CNN. Aslan was fired from CNN a while back for a profane tweet about Trump.
Neo,
Yep thanks for the clarification. Wonder if he still would be fired? Seems like the consequences for these people are getting weaker and weaker.
This incident should serve as a cautionary tale to all conservatives even when you response in grace and take the high road when liberals act obnoxiously around you they are going vilify you anyway.
Griffin said:
It was a CNN guy that made the punchable face comment….That person would be fired within hours.
Times up.
Ed Bonderenka:
Please see this.
Every white person has a punchable face, except those who have repented their sins by voting democrat.
-liberals
Neo; Thanks. I try to read all comments before commenting but missed that.
I’ll bet those comments were made while I was composing.
That crazy grin on a face when a person is being verbally assaulted is a successful effort to control emotions and not lash back. I have been in that situation a few times in my life, stuffing fight or flight and staying in place, it’s hard to take a lot of verbal flack and stand your ground, the young man should be proud of himself. As for the Vietnam Vet, there was very little chance a 17 or 18 year old would have been sent to Nam in 1975 and if he was in the military he would have volunteered since the draft was over in 1973 the US had signed the peace accord and in 1974 there were only 50 US troops in Nam. I was in the US Regular Army, not in Nam from 1966 to 1970, interesting times those were, and I can detect most B.S. stories rather easily.
I think it’s worth remembering re: NRO, that that pub was a founding member of the Never Trumpers. I doubt they looked beyond the MAGA hats before deciding to run with the story.
There’s a new piece up now at the Washington Post that has statements from each of those involved presenting their sides of what happened.
I think the libel suit lawyers have a slam-dunk case.
The kids and Bezos’ ex-wife will split his fortune.
This story should never have been reported on period. Really nothing happened if you think about it. This is another example of activists and their media pals sowing division.
And yet again twitter is a big part of this. The twitterazation of news reporting is a major part of all this.
“NR is much more of a mixed bag, generally. Some are Beltway-type PC-type RINOs and some are not.” [Neo @ 7:13 pm]
I respect your opinion but I will have to agree to disagree on this.
See this:
https://www.glennbeck.com/2016/01/22/national-review-donald-trump-is-a-menace-to-american-conservatism/
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2016/02/15/conservatives-against-trump/
and this:
https://www.vox.com/2016/1/21/10812402/national-review-cover-trump
Yes this was their collective opinion before the 2016 election, and note the term “menace”. This is dipping into the emotional ad hominemn attacks of the left. Exactly how does one argue that this makes them distinct from the national anti-Trump media with the possible exception of frequency? You, by contrast, were quite vocal and clear in your misgivings about candidate Trump but never descended into such emotional demagoguery. If NR offered arguments and concerns such a you did (and continue to do) I would be inclined to agree with you. IMO, you give NR too much credit.
I heard that a conservative lawyer is indeed on the case. These kids are not “Public Figures” so liability is different….
I hope they insist on a page 1 retraction!
Re neo’s 6:49 comment:
You’re basically right that any serious media had to tackle this story and have to tackle stories in general. However, they can address the EXISTENCE of the developing story without “going with the narrative”. They can report what people say about it.
“The narrative” is the odious development in journalism of NOT seeking both sides of a story, or the five sides of one, or 25 sides. Choosing to go with the narrative is not the only choice available to honest or skeptical or cynical journalists, who recall that the operative word and their primary duty to readers/listeners/viewers is to REPORT the story that is unfolding and far from complete.
I’ve been cornered and loudly addressed personally like this by a protester, it’s just an awful situation to find yourself in. This boy did a good job of trying to maintain a neutral and pleasant expression. I’ve also encountered the same cult of Black Hebrew protesters innumerable times as they set up protests regularly in downtown Philadelphia and their hateful bigotry is unbelievably vile.
Michael Silva (@ 9:04),
Thank you I stand corrected. Different schools, same lack of principle.
T:
I have a great deal of respect for Andrew McCarthy, who has a regular gig there. He’s not perfect—who is?—but he’s brilliant, honest, clear.
Victor Davis Hanson is another who writes there and who I admire. There are probably others as well, but those are the big two who come to mind.
Joe Kicker:
But if they remained neutral in their coverage they’d be condemned as racists. I’m not defending them—they should be strong and courageous enough to write in a neutral way and to fight such labeling. But I understand why they would be afraid. They live in the media world.
PA Cat @ 7:55
Thank you for your post. I do not think the boy had a smirk on his face. It was embarrassment and confusion as to how to react. As a teacher, I have seen expressions such as that many times.
You have to wonder if it wouldn’t be something just stupid like this…a complete fake as a $3 bill stupid media beat up…to get someone shot & then it’s on like Donkey Kong.
Liberal Media thinks a shooting match is going to end in their favour…They don’t know what’ll come down.
Kudos to the kid for not roostering up & punching that windbag & shoving his drum somewhere down around his esophagus.
I have a great deal of respect for
The two people you’ve named have written for NR for > 15 years. Ca. 2002, NR had a stable of engaging contributors: the young Goldberg, Cathy Seipp, Meghan Cox Gurdon, VDH, Mackubin Thomas Owens, Stanley Kurtz, Thomas Sowell, Florence King. IIRC, Mark Steyn came on board around that time. Buckley hadn’t yet relinquished the publication to the trusteeship which is it’s nominal governor. It was in 2004 that the trusteeship was put in place and around that time that Steorts was hired as managing editor.
Art Deco:
I never suggested that the current leadership hired those two people, so I think your point is irrelevant.
My point is that they’re writing at National Review, and they’re good. Very very good. They haven’t been fired—yet, anyway.
There are other random articles there and writers there who are pretty good, too; I don’t know their names offhand, but I’ve read some good stuff there even recently. There are also plenty of people whose work I don’t like.
Scott Adam’s should give that brave, respectful, young man from CovCath a full scholarship to college.
Re: the conservative media’s need to report on a story, they should have put up something along the lines of “We’re aware of this story, but given the MSM’s history regarding stories of this nature we’re doing what any sane and intelligent person would do and withholding judgment until more facts are in.”
Maybe it’s an accumulation of many things but it’s interesting that this story has really got to people.
And I agree with John Guilfoyle above that it’s going to be some incident like this that is going to spin out of control and lead to a lot of violence.
Reza Aslan is a go-to Muslim guy when the media needs some Religion of Peace sound bites. I’ve had my eye on him for a while.
He had the audacity to write a book on Christ: “Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”
People on Twitter are STILL attacking the kids & their families: posting phone numbers, emails, profiles, work locations, etc. Saw one posted just an hour ago. Even with others posting the truth, they blatantly type that they refuse to look at or believe it.
I have lately been despairing of the massive number of people that believe complete lies – that are so hateful of those that don’t. So many in my generation right now, and I’m really quite terrified. Remember, at the end of the 90’s Miracle on 34th Street, when the competitors flash each other their “I believe” pins? I just want all those that don’t follow the lies to give me a sign that I’m surrounded by them as well.
I heard that a conservative lawyer is indeed on the case. These kids are not “Public Figures” so liability is different….
I hope the lawyer is not just “conservative” but talented like the lawyers representing the Duke Lacrosse team. Now is the time for a real man eater of a trial lawyer to take the other half of Jeff Bezos’ fortune. They have a terrific case and should all be rich kids when this is over.
There is nothing like a multimillion dollar judgement to even the score. Melania Trump proved that.
They have a terrific case and should all be rich kids when this is over.
Mike K: From your lips to God’s ears.
I would like to think they have a terrific case but time and time again I find myself confounded by what emerges from courts, judges, laws and lawyers.
To me it looks nothing like a smirk. I hadn’t thought of the possibility that Mr. Sandmann’s smile arose from nervous tension, but I do find that plausible. Many of us have been known to smile when we’ve just heard really bad news, for instance.
The first video I saw might have been the UK’s /Spectator/ one. Anyhow, it seemed to me that the young man was smiling in a friendly way, and that the other boys were also ready to welcome Mr. Phillips. So where’s the beef? sez I.
I’ve been watching various clips (and skimmed through the whole long one) all evening. I don’t see anything at all out of line from the boys. And really the problems seemed to come from that Black Israelites ranter and his crew. I did see one where an Indian (I think) seemed to be with Mr. Phillips and got a bit mouthy and confrontational.
I’m not sure the B.I. bunch have much to do with actual Christianity. They look to me more like believers in a Christian heresy — at best.
I don’t entirely agree that the boys should have been told not to wear the MAGA hats. For one thing, the assembly in the videos was long after the pro-life march; they were on their own time, simply waiting for the bus.
But more importantly, “Don’t wear your MAGA caps — it will invite negative publicity and possibly harrassment or even violence” seems to me like training the kids never to risk being confrontational, to act according to their own choices of whom to support; in other words to adopt a somewhat cowardly, appeasing stance. Of such training are RINOS made. Acceptance by the crowd at all cost; to go against it is too dangerous.
I do think the school and the Diocese should be ashamed of themselves for throwing their own under the bus at the slightest suggestion of a frown from the MSM and the libruls.
But those are all just my own thoughts.
.
Ann — thanks for the WaPo link. Bezos actually let me read the piece for a change! :>)
Oh, the irony. A fake accusation of (religious) bigotry on a post about fake accusation of bigotry.
https://www.factcheck.org/2009/04/obama-at-georgetown/
Some one is awake and standing the watch. It was my honor to do so for 20 years.
I can stand aside and say the same for countless others.
manju proves once again he is a troll, only weighs in to slam but has no problem with the original smear.
“There’s a new piece up now at the Washington Post that has statements from each of those involved presenting their sides of what happened.”
Still slanted propaganda. They call the one group “Hebrew Israelites” and get deep into the piece before acknowledging that the group not only has nothing to do with Jews but in fact is antisemitic. Obviously trying to suggest that the students were having a conflict with Jews (though for the WaPo that could be a feature not a bug since the WaPo hates the real Israel).
You will say “oh they explain it later” but it should have been made explicitly clear as soon as they used the phrase “Hebrew Israelites” because they had to *know* some people would get confused. A perfect example of the dishonest tactics used by the MFM.
The Covington Catholic Diocese has a webpage with a “Contact Us” page. I have written to them — in the calmest, most prudent terms I could muster, in hopes that someone will actually read the message if it’s not too angry — begging them to reconsider their public condemnation of these boys BEFORE conducting their so-called investigation (I know, I know, calm and prudent. I didn’t call it “so-called” in my message.) I’ll write to the Mayor of Covington, too. I keep thinking of how it must feel to these boys to have the whole world turn against them so viciously and unfairly — and then come “home” and find that your church and your home town have done the same thing — no refuge anywhere. I hope to goodness they come from strong families who are standing by them.
This is one more example of the modern mob, howling for blood and tearing its victims to pieces in a fury of righteousness. It’s happening more and more often and becoming more and more frightening — and this time it happened to a bunch of kids.
I stopped reading NRO after they kicked out John Derbyshire for his thought crime of writing “The Talk” – in my view, perfectly innocent publication, accusing him in racism, of course. This accusation of a man married to Chinese woman and having two biracial children was a bit more hypocrisy than I can stomack.
Snitches get snitches. I hold very small part of the convict code. It’s just wrong that the Coast Guard is working without getting paid.
Coast Guard Mutual Relief Society..
http://www.cgmahq.org/
I went to thje dark side. I went Navy. But here it is, lads. No Coastie goes without groceries on my watch. I will not fly in the that kind of weather.
Diversity (i.e. color judgments), bigotry (i.e. sanctimonious hypocrisy), and political congruence (i.e. opportunistic, profit-orientated). The first-order forcings of catastrophic anthropogenic dysfunctional convergence in a monotonically divergent (i.e. progressive liberal) culture. #HateLovesAbortion
I will not sail in that kind of weather. It was funny. The hookers in Pohang knew before we did when we where leaving port. “You’re not leaving port tomorrow A storm is coming..”
Who the h3ll else am I going to hang out with,? I’m hanging with a hooker because it’s a Navy town and I’m a Navy guy. I’m not sleeping with her. I know that’s a shock. But I can actually socialize with women of ill repute and not. Because mostly I had no choice And reallyf they were kind of nice.
No, not kind of nice. Really nice.One more story. I am the luckiest guy in the world. Sort of. I’m a Reservist going off to Cobra Goll.
My Japanese wife who is still Japanese just not my wife at the time insists on putting (can I say this) condoms in my bag. Because it’s unthinkable for a man to to go to Thailand and not, shall we say, engage commercially.
I’m like, “Honey,, I’m not going to sleel around on you.” She didn’t believe me. Which ma explain why we are no longer married.
So I get to Thaiiland. Hat Yai, summer in the city,. And the hotels have gone to great expense to bring in hookers from as far afield as Cambodia
,,,
Julie near Chicago, from the Reason article linked earlier on the thread: “The BHI [Black Hebrew Israelites] has existed since the late 19th century, and is best describes [sic] as a black nationalist cult movement; its members believe they are descendants of the ancient Israelites, and often express condemnation of white people, Christians, and gays.” Nothing to do with either Judaism or Christianity.
So this really nice girl is freaking stunned. I had not been sleeping with her. I had just been singing karaoke with her. She had be own close enough that she was showing me pics of her kid.
My bad.
So in walks a female petty officer who I was intimate with. The hooker thought she was my wife.
We had a good laugh and we all sang karaoke together.
I do think the school and the Diocese should be ashamed of themselves for throwing their own under the bus at the slightest suggestion of a frown from the MSM and the libruls.
News flash. School administrators and clergymen are not typically people of sterling character. This goes double for the brass. See Fr. Paul Mankowski’s article, “Tames in Clerical Culture”. Or Msgr. George Kelley’s articles on ‘Lions’ and ‘Foxes’ in the episcopate.
find that your church and your home town have done the same thing — no refuge anywhere. I hope to goodness they come from strong families who are standing by them.
Libel suits with attack dog trial lawyers may help. These boys have a multimillion dollar case. Stronger than the Duke LaCrosse team because WaPo is owned by the richest man in the world.
I never suggested that the current leadership hired those two people, so I think your point is irrelevant.
I never suggested you suggested that. What I’m pointing out to you is that the publication’s editor has been unable or unwilling to recruit quality contributors and that his deputy is a poisonous influence. McCarthy and Hanson are a residue from an earlier era.
To some extent, it may be because you just can’t earn much of a living as an opinion journalist anymore, so the quality of output has declined. The thing is, their most engaging contributors over the years, bar Buckley himself, generally had other work and contributed to NR as a sideline. Sowell and Kurtz had think tank fellowships, Owens and Hanson had faculty positions. There are still think tank fellows and professors in this world. It’s just that Lowry hasn’t persuaded any of them to write for NR on a regular basis. Or he persuades them to write for NR and then stands back when Steorts kicks them off the masthead.
Stronger than the Duke LaCrosse team because WaPo is owned by the richest man in the world.
Doesn’t make your case stronger, just makes the punitive damage award higher.
Given that George Zimmerman, an insurance office employee living in a suburb of Orlando, was deemed to not have a case when it could not have been more clear that an NBC affiliate was doctoring an audiotape in order to injure his reputation (and trying to poison a jury pool in the process), I would not have any confidence that these youths would get bupkis.
I stopped reading NRO after they kicked out John Derbyshire for his thought crime of writing “The Talk” – in my view, perfectly innocent publication, accusing him in racism, of course.
The article was disrespectful to blacks. This thing is, flip the script and it would have been regarded as tolerable. That’s the problem with NR under Lowry and Steorts. They accept and implement the intellectual and moral frauds of the left. The magazine is just a waste of donor dollars. The optimal solution would be for it’s better contributors to find berths elsewhere – at the Claremont Institute, at The American Spectator, at the Manhattan Institute, &c. and shutting it down. Distribute its endowment to these other agencies. Better publications have disappeared in the last twenty years – The Public Interest and Policy Review to name two.
“The Twitter trolls are immune because they have nothing. ”
Not quite. They have their anonymity. Discovery can and should strip that away. Let’s see who these clowns are.
Art, what we found out as the Weakley Standard went down is that it was being funded by a Left wing billionaire presumably for the “bipartisan” cover it gave the Left’s Trump hatred. An excellent reason for NRO to get sued over this is to find out who’s propping them up, for the same reason.
https://pjmedia.com/trending/report-never-trumper-bill-kristol-gets-funding-from-left-wing-billionaire/
An excellent reason for NRO to get sued over this is to find out who’s propping them up, for the same reason.
A lot of big money these days is NeverTrumper money because of globalism. The same is true of BREXIT. The big money is all on the Remain side. I expect the presidency to cost Trump more than a billion dollars. The Democrats all seem to think he is going to make money somehow from this.
“Libel suits with attack dog trial lawyers may help.”
I have had to explain this. It remarkably unsound to most normal humans.I had to explain this to a man who had his child’s face torn off. You don’t want a mean dog. But he really liked his Rottiee. I sh**t you not, my friend.
There us a place for a protective dog. Not an out of control dog.
So it’s come to this: a teenaged male’s grin is a NATIONAL NEWS STORY!
I imagine none of those who are inflamed ever raised a son. Especially during his teenage years.
What can help stop these Dem libels and lawsuits.
MORE lawsuits.
No, really. Every single news org which defamed and libeled him should be sued. And twitter should be sued.
Probably facebook should be sued.
“Apologies” are not real if less than $1 million — and when the libelers, including the Covington Catholic Church admin, say they “sincerely apologize”, the broken record refrain should be “so you admit you committed libel? When will receive the out of court settlement for $1 million?”
I am so outraged, and yet fearful for Free Speech.
The juvenile, young man, was standing up for his own principles. The USA needs more heroes like him. The fastest way to get better news coverage is huge penalties for libel.
Posted by Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit @ 8:11 am regarding the conservative attacks on the Covington teenagers:
I couldn’t believe how many people were convinced to see/hear something that wasn’t really there. That’s what was most striking about this incident to me. It’s a classic case of the media and peer pressure telling people what to think.
A commenter over at Althouse has linked to a Twitter thread with lots of offers of legal representation and other support for the kids. I hope the parents contact the Duke LaCrosse team parents for advice on who to retain in Kentucky to pursue the libel suits.
The Chicago Tribune is still running with the story today. I don’t know anymore who owns the Tribune but they should have libel insurance.
Time to watch “Absence of Malice” again.
The feeding frenzy unleashed on these kids was absolutely frightening. Not just insults, but threats of violence and murder. Crowdsourced doxing for the identities of the kids and all people/institutions related to them. This was like the Duke Lacrosse incident x100, and at lightening speed.
Also, anyone notice how typically the press will not name or picture minors that are alleged to have committed a crime, and yet in this incident the press was gleefully broadcasting the names and other details of the kids? Shameful.
An excellent reason for NRO to get sued over this is to find out who’s propping them up, for the same reason.
That might be interesting. I discovered some time back that Religion News Service was so dependent on the Arcus Foundation that they might have well been a subsidiary. The Arcus Foundation was run by a man named Jennings who had been a subcabinet officer in the BO Administration. This fellow Jennings is a homosexual with a history (in previous positions as a school dean) of looking the other way when he knew of cases of pederasty in which his charges were participating. If you wondered why Kevin Eckstrom was publishing so many articles on homosexuality in Religion News Service, you have a large part of your answer.
There are other vectors at work here. A selection of starboard pundits who work for the liberal media have maintained a distinct personal voice – Megan McArdle, Ross Douthat, and S.E. Cupp come to mind; not sure how, but they do. George Will and David Frum are independently wealthy, with an 8-digit net worth without a doubt (Will has been handsomely compensated over the years and Frum is the scion of a Canadian centimillionaire); they cannot be bought. Patrick Frey has a workaday law job and likely never earned a brass farthing from blogging. Mona Charen is indubitably one of the most expendable people employed by the Ethics and Public Policy Center, but it’s a reasonable inference her employment is not contingent on her stance, because the Center’s director is most certainly not NeverTrump. David Brooks and Jennifer Rubin are shills, of course, and Matt K. Lewis and Conor Friedersdorf junior grade shills, but they’re in the positions they’re in because the media want to give a megaphone to what is an inconsequential constituency (see “Obamacon”) and to avoid hiring anyone who is actually in opposition to the media narrative; providing emotional validation for liberals is what these four do quite naturally. (If there is someone who is really for sale, it’s Joe Scarborough).
The Weekly Standard was once a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation. They were sold to some other outfit who couldn’t be bothered to finance their deficits anymore. That bothers John Podhoretz, who seems to think people in his business are entitled to the patronage of the wealthy in pursuing their hobbies. Not only is there nothing in the way of a popular NeverTrump constituency, the NeverTrump contingent among the odd subset of the general public who make up the market for magazine journalism devoted to public affairs is too small to provide a revenue stream which will contain the flow of red ink. NeverTrump is pretty much a supply-side phenomenon, and one which demonstrates the canyon which separates starboard opinion journalists from their supposed constituency.
Unless I misunderstood, the financing American Greatness was referring to was for Kristol’s miscellaneous projects, not for The Weekly Standard. Whether his leftoid patrons were providing funds for the Standard or not, the publication’s parent company couldn’t be bothered to operate it anymore. I have a suspicion in re NR that they have had more variegated income sources than the Weekly Standard and some endowment income as well. There might be some useful information in the IRS 990 forms NR has had to file (though I often have found these a dry hole).
After he took office, the contributors to NR displayed a variety of stances to the President. David French has played the fanatic and Jonah Goldberg the stubborn ass. Mostly, the NeverTrump discourse there is a particular manifestation of problems at NR which have been manifest for a dozen years or more.
Also, anyone notice how typically the press will not name or picture minors that are alleged to have committed a crime, and yet in this incident the press was gleefully broadcasting the names and other details of the kids?
They’ll obscure the visages of youngsters who are family members of adults who’ve committed crimes as well. This is a common if not standard practice in true crime programming.
I suspect the reason the press is broadcasting their names is that they have a perverse conception of what counts as a crime, and a vector in their conception would be the ascribed traits of the party in question. A juvenile slum dweller knocks over convenience stores and he’s a ‘victim’ of ‘society’. A bourgeois (white) kid who stands up for himself while being baited by a minority race-hustler is, in the ‘mind’ of liberal journalists, the real criminal.
I consider it the height of rudeness to walk up to a total stranger and start banging a drum right in their face.
I didn’t see the kid Phillips was harassing mock him (Phillips) at all, but I did see another kid wearing a MAGA hat briefly doing the “tomahawk chop” in the video that Ace of Spades posted. I guess you could consider that mockery, but the rudeness quotient of drumming in someone’s face way exceeds a few tomahawk chops.
“Unless I misunderstood, the financing American Greatness was referring to was for Kristol’s miscellaneous projects, not for The Weekly Standard.” That’s how I understood it as well.
Wow, Neo, on the Buzzfeed editor’s tweets. The high school junior typifies the white patriarchy, oh, and he looks like Kavanaugh. Never mind facts, she’s got a narrative to promote.
Identity politics sucks. It fosters intolerance and racism. It divides the country into warring tribes. It is doing great damage to our culture and nation.
I have yet to hear a convincing argument on Why is building a wall in our backyard racist expect saying so by CNN, who were proven to be serial liars lying about everything include innocent men being gang rapists or kid minding their own business being racists harassing elderly minorities. If they were legitimate immigrants why wouldn’t they enter from the front door? can liberals enlighten me how building a wall could possibly prevent any legitimate immigrants from coming in. Only people who would be inconvenienced by the wall were border jumpers and drug traffickers
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The “elder” has done this sort of stunt before.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2000/11/21/a-mourning-wake-up-call/c9fd1ab8-dfdc-42fd-a5b7-c9e8d3b3512e/?utm_term=.ea86f434a9bb
https://www.omaha.com/news/nation/who-is-nathan-phillips-years-ago-omaha-tribe-member-said/article_6cc049c4-d6d8-5e3c-8ee6-939a203682af.html
I think it is important to not lose the thread that this is battle space preparation for the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett, which will produce a riot of Catholic hate.
It has already begun with Diane Feinstein and Mazie “Hirohito” as Ace calls her.
First Feinstein, who attacked Barrett’s religion in hearings for her Circuit Court nomination.
“When you read your speeches, the conclusion one draws is that the dogma lives loudly within you,” Feinstein said. “And that’s of concern when you come to big issues that large numbers of people have fought for for years in this country.” Feinstein is clearly hinting here at the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, a ruling that Feinstein supports so vociferously that she has even called it a “super-precedent.”
Remember no “religious test ?”
Then there is Hirono.
Please tell me why you believe you were being truthful
when you testified that, “we didn’t draw any conclusions about how an appellate judge who is a consciences objector should behave.”
And:
Please tell me why you believe you were being truthful when you testified that the “only conclusion the article reached” was that “if I were being considered for a trial court, I would recuse myself and not actually enter the order of execution.”
It will be a bloodbath and I hope Barrett is willing to soldier through. It will be worse than Kavanaugh. I wonder if anyone asked Ginsberg about abortion since she was Planned Parenthood’s attorney?
Here’s a video made up of segments of three or four other videos, with the uploader’s explanations and comments overlaid as we go along. Some are much clearer than others I’ve seen and are taken from various camera angles and up much closer. We’re told nothing about the provenances of the segments, but I have to say I’m very much in sympathy with the guy’s presentation. 11:45.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8kxeFb84iw
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Mrs Whatsit, good for you. Thanks for engaging my inner Jiminy Cricket — I plan to do likewise.
Kate, thanks for the B.I. info. And yes, I too heard the anti-Jewish diatribes.
Marina, thanks for the links.
SDN, interesting piece at PJM.
the only people that abused indian people at the Lincoln memorial that day were the “young black men preaching the bible.” in the two hour version of the video they can be seen yelling and arguing with the indian people that were there for indigenous people day. as the kids from covington catholic started to arrive the “young black men preaching the bible” started to verbally attack them too. after repeated vile, racist comments by the “young men preaching the bible” the kids from Covington catholic retaliated by chanting school cheers, oh the horror! then the lying racist Nathan phillips appears on the scene and proceeds to confront the Covington catholic kids who showed remarkable restraint in the face of phillips and friends obvious provocation. the story the media presented to the American public was the complete opposite of what actually happened. this was not a mistake, this was done intentionally by the media to advance their political agenda. the media knew damn well that the story they misrepresented to the American public was false. anybody that watched even a few minutes of the video knew that the kids didn’t confront the racist provocateur Nathan phillips. anybody that watched even a few minutes of the video knew that the kids didn’t sourround the racist provocateur Nathan phillips but rather phillips and his racist friends marched right into the middle of the kids. if there was any provocation and hatred in the faces it was on the part of Nathan and his friends. now because of the media’s obsession with advancing their political agenda at any cost these kids have been vilified across the nation, suffering threats of all kind and have been threatened with expulsion by a completely gutless catholic clergy. no retraction by the media is going to undo the damage done to these kids by a media hellbent on advancing their political agenda without regard for the damage it does to anyone else.
by the way do you really think cnn has no idea who the black Israelites are? do you think they really believed they were “four young black men preaching the bible.” these racist bigots have been around for years. they have been in the news for years. cnn knew exactly who these bigots were and what they do. but resorting to any lie to advance the political agenda is alright with a politically biased media. it is exactly the kind of media you have in a communist country.
Like RigelDog, I remember the Black Hebrew Israelites from Philly. They are literally insane. You walked around them as far away as you could, just as you would walk around a schizophrenic screaming at no one on the street. They’re worse, because they actually want to interact with you, not just their imaginary oppressor.
When I worked for a newspaper, back in the Stone Age, we reporters were taught to go out and get the facts of a story ourselves, not write a story about what other papers, radio, and TV news were reporting. That’s gone with the sabre-tooth tigers, I guess.
““Unless I misunderstood, the financing American Greatness was referring to was for Kristol’s miscellaneous projects, not for The Weekly Standard.” That’s how I understood it as well.”
The phrase “money is fungible” should be applied, let us say, liberally. Especially since those other Kristol projects have provided a nice parachute for the most NeverTrump Weekly Standard writers.
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I’ve never heard of the “Tomahawk Chop,” so I thought I’d visit the Cyberstacks to see what it is. I assumed it was some awfuldreadfulmockingculturalappropriation that no Right-thinking (as opposed to mal-piensant Left-Off-Thinking person would ever do.
From the Great Foot:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_chop
Details follow.
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IMO, it’s mighty funny how the Indians seemed to go in just a few years from being generally of the opinion that sports teams like the Blackhawks, the Fighting Illini, the Redskins, so forth were complimenting them and giving them good publicity, and were mostly fine with it — in spite of the Lefty cries about demeaning or patronising or mocking them — to getting on the bandwagon themselves.
You know, all of us who follow Neo’s weblog and participate in its activities do constitute a Group.
I think that therefore we also are entitled to reparations, special favorable treatment, perks, etc. that are given to various groups who can claim to have been victims. I mean, we’ve all had to put up with being put down, smeared, called names, etc. by various members of the public, as if we were part of the VRWC (Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy), no? Personally, my feelings are hurt and I am offended. I did even go so far as to put a bumper-sticker saying “It’s time for Concealed Carry in Illinois” on my car without suffering any negative consequences, but I figure that’s just a lucky fluke.
I think we should all get neon-green baseball caps that say “We Support Neo-neocon!”
And those of us who are sufficiently combat-minded could have special ones made up, half neon-green and half day-glo purple. The day-glo purple half could simply say, “VRWC!”