I Accept Your Terms, Sir!
I can strongly endorse this position:
However, for me, I’m choosing another rather unique path; a personal boycott, if you will. Starting early this morning, I am going to un-friend every single individual on Facebook who voted for Obama, or I even suspect may have Democrat leanings. I will do the same in person. All family and friends, even close family and friends, who I know to be Democrats are hereby dead to me. I vow never to speak to them again for the rest of my life, or have any communications with them. They are in short, the enemies of liberty. They deserve nothing less than hatred and utter contempt
I strongly urge all other libertarians to do the same. Are you married to someone who voted for Obama, have a girlfriend who voted ‘O’. Divorce them. Break up with them without haste. Vow not to attend family functions, Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas for example, if there will be any family members in attendance who are Democrats.
Lotta great stuff out there for those who enjoy despair-of-the-broken-and-defeated posts. Assrocket and RS McCain are the best I’ve seen; feel free to link to others in comments. With regards to the LGM Electoral Challenge, Florida remains outstanding (“What are you doing Florida? You got the rest of the union to help you along. What’s going wrong?”), and the cut off point for vote counts doesn’t happen until Friday in any case.
And a victory without Drama isn’t really a victory at all:
Warren Terra:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:37 pm
Their tears are delicious and refreshing. If slightly fattening.
DrDick:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:37 pm
That brought a smile to my lips. I heartily encourage everyone I know who feels that way to unfriend me so that I am no longer subjected to their right wing delusional rants.
Erik Loomis:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:38 pm
McCain’s comparison of Obama winning to the Union Army in 1862 is particularly special.
Ken Houghton:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
RSM: “[I]t’s been a long time since any intelligent person believed anything a Democrat said.”
Good to know. Not since the NRO endorsement of Obama have we seen such earnest masturbation with such small equipment.
TT:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:42 pm
Shorter RS McCain: “I’m not beaten yet! I still have armies in the Ukraine!”
Clark:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:43 pm
And then there is Dave Carter at Ricochet:
Matt:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:44 pm
Dear libertarian idiots like the guy cited above: promise? Because if that’s how it works, I’ll work DOUBLE HARD in 2016 to make sure that you spend the rest of the decade sobbing into your copy of Atlas Shrugged. :)
Clark:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:45 pm
You not say Ukraine is weak!
Matt:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:47 pm
Add: got off the boat. OMG what a butthurt little whiner.
BTW, extra lulz to be had pointing out that every country his buddies are contemplating moving to has UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE…
Andrew:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:50 pm
Guess who?
jayackroyd:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Think of it as evolution in action.
Warren Terra:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:56 pm
If only we had tighter gun control, Romney woulda won!
Craigo:
November 7th, 2012 at 9:57 pm
Someone whose idea of labor is scrawling paranoid testaments to the Dunning-Kruger effect and ruminatuons on the comedic value of murdered Jews?
Clark:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
I plan to get a tattoo of Victoria Jackson hula dancing the 10th amendment.
Tnap01:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:05 pm
SEKbait
Clark:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:07 pm
Small world: I have one mutual FB friend with this Dondero guy.
Charles:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:13 pm
Oh no, not the buttons! Is it too late to take back my vote and save us all from the buttons!!?
Uncle Ebeneezer:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:15 pm
Wow, these mangoes really ARE delicious!
And who knew that RS McCain would admit that “legitimate rape” was ill-advised??
RepubAnon:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:15 pm
So we’re free to believe only what the Libertarian Republican believes, or we’re not “free”? Sure is a funny kind of freedom.
Substance McGravitas:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:20 pm
Wrapping up the puppet market was a wise idea.
Sargon:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Wait, he’s against seat belt laws? Damn.
ploeg:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Yeah, thing is, it doesn’t work so well when the ranks of these losers include people in high elected office.
It wouldn’t help for me to note that the electorate does not vote for higher tax rates per se, but if you want bigger government (as they most obviously do), you must raise revenue for it or any claims that you want to reduce the deficit are rendered nonsense? No, I guess it wouldn’t help.
Dr. Omed:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:25 pm
I am in awe of the epic butthurt expressed on that site. Another martini, anyone? The tears are flash frozen as they arrive.
JoyfulA:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
I have never heard of this Dondero person before, and I regret that you introduced me. What a nasty, self-centered, bigoted, rude person. A typical libertarian, I suppose.
At least if we ever meet in person, he’ll run off screaming.
Snarki, child of Loki:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
Hadn’t you heard? Seat belt laws are the beginning of the slippery slope toward Free Silver.
Or maybe away from Free Silver. It’s confusing.
Anyway, the founders didn’t have seatbelts, so SHUT UP SHUT UP
BobS:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:29 pm
That Libertarian Republican is one tough dude. I’m assuming from the contact number on his website he lives in or around the Austin area, but I’d bet that when he wants to post his signs, spit on Democrats, or call food stamp users “communists” he jumps in the car and heads straight to inner-city Dallas. Because he’s obviously one tough dude.
Murc:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:30 pm
Well, I’m also against seat-belt laws. For that matter, I’m against mandatory helmet laws, and against the ridiculous soda-size law in NYC.
However, I don’t think being in favor of them makes you, you know, a Nazi. That’s just crazy.
Icarus Wright:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
I ran into that gem earlier today. Jeff Goldstein in top form.
joe from Lowell:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:31 pm
Is this everyone’s first exposure to DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?
Here’s his review of the Atlas Shrugged movie.
parrot:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:34 pm
good gawd, i’ve seen some implosion in my time, but this pure peach-pit pant shitting implosion … so, this must mean their strategy of keep your friends close and your enemies closer … fail … boon to the libertarian diy divorce sector … can imagine the scrappy affair that’ll be … worth the price of admission … strictly state-free diy in some cave involving blood oath breakage and feats of jousting … LOFL
Xof:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:34 pm
Nate Silver is definitely involved, either way.
parrot:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:36 pm
or perhaps, we’re all libertarians now … hahahahahahaha
Linnaeus:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
Hm. Sorta undermines his argument.
Steven desJardins:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
I support the Free Silver movement. Down with the NYT paywall!
ema:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
“I have one thing left, armies in the Ukraine and manful endurance. Two, two things.” [shakes head in disbelief]
Rarely Posts:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:37 pm
As a gay man, I risked losing my connections to my family when I came out, and we had a rough, shaky 5-10 years before they completely accepted me.
I still have a lot of relatives and some friends who vote for a party that openly reviles me and tries to deny my rights and self-respect. And, yes, it was hard to look at them in 2004, when all the hate-amendments passed and the hate-President won. But, as someone who almost got cut-off from his family, I realize it’s actually a big deal, and it’s not something one does over politics unless it’s for really, truly important issues (probably slavery, genocide, etc.).
And this guy loses an election and is allegedly willing to throw all his relationships away over it. What a pathetic, man-child whiner. He has absolutely no perspective on how rough real-life can actually be.
Classic Libertarian.
joe from Lowell:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:38 pm
From McCain:
Tough words, Mr. Republican, but didn’t you phonies just nominate Mitt freaking Romney?
Who is this guy kidding? In 2016, if Christie gives the Republicans even the slightest shred of hope for winning the White House, they’ll be throwing their panties at him.
Njorl:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:39 pm
Yeah, but they had mandatory powdered wig laws. Those are what got Aaron Burr so upset.
parrot:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:39 pm
what … no the fountainhead? … useless lists … lists are for putting commies on …
Jon:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:39 pm
What kind of man badgers the Wal-Mart cashier with loud snotty comments about EBT cards? Not a thin and effeminate man with a soft-sounding voice, that’s for sure.
Tnap01:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:40 pm
Dude’s flabby, where’s Red Dawn?
Wolverines!
Decrease Mather:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Dondero is quite angry.
Gus:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
I’m bookmarking that post and reading it whenever I feel low. That is the funniest thing I’ve ever read. It’s got to make the Guinness book for butthurt. And he’s not calming down. His comments in the comment thread are even better. Apparently he speaks something like a dozen languages, so he plans to move to some libertarian European paradise in Lichtenstein or something.
LosGatosCA:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:43 pm
I don’t believe in mandatory seat belt laws or mandatory helmet laws for motorcyclists either. And I balance that freedom against mandatory public bailout of severely injured motorists and bikers by allowing first responders to carry guns that can be used – in that event – to keep the parasites-in-progress from becoming a burden to the producer tax
payers by exercising 2nd Amendment remedies by terminating the injured with extreme fiscal prejudice. That way every libertarian gets the freedoms they deserve in a timely manner.
synykyl:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:43 pm
I bet that is going to make a lot of his “friends” very, very, happy.
Gus:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:43 pm
But you don’t understand, America died last night. Cheez, what a loon.
Substance McGravitas:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:45 pm
I imagine the pallbearers at Dondero’s funeral will drop the casket in a fight over who’s lifting more.
DrDick:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
I strongly recommend that he refuse to wear one, especially when driving at high speeds in heavy traffic. I also recommend he ride motorcycles in heavy traffic under adverse weather conditions without a helmet.
StevenAttewell:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:51 pm
The Killing Fields? That’s a pretty lefty movie.
Keaaukane:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:52 pm
Or Red Dawn II, Electric Bugaloo? The yankee Koreans from the North are a grave threat to The Homeland.
Njorl:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:53 pm
It’s eerily reminiscent of the YouTube videos of kids being told by their parents that they had eaten all of the kid’s Halloween candy.
Big Bad Bald Bastard:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:55 pm
Wingnut tears taste like butterscotch schnapps… perhaps the best GOPer rant out there.
BobS:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
Is there any chance of adding Eric Dondero to the front page here? Maybe he could be persuaded if you told him you wanted him to write about guns and money.
Observer:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
It’s really good to know that we elected someone who can really unite the people of the United States.
It’s the respect he commands from all parts that truly amazes…
Icarus Wright:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:57 pm
Agreed, he really shines in the comments; every third word is Communist, socialism, or Nazi.
The prophet Nostradumbass:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:00 pm
When people pull that, I always like to ask them: What makes you think that country would accept you as an immigrant?
The prophet Nostradumbass:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:02 pm
I would suggest a discreet set of SS lightning bolts.
Keaaukane:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:03 pm
How so? I recall it as being about Commies killing off capitalists, and the passport to freedom being American currency. I admit I think I saw it 25 years ago, and may have lost a few synapses in the meantime.
arguingwithsignposts:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:04 pm
I wish I could friend this guy on Facebook just to experience the unfriendining first hand.
arguingwithsignposts:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Is there an actual argument to be made against seatbelt laws?
The prophet Nostradumbass:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
It would probably make his head explode to find out that it was the Communist Vietnamese who finally had had enough and threw the Khmer Rouge out of Cambodia.
Gary K:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:10 pm
I wish someone had warned me not to have a mouthful of liquid when I got to “You could take a crap on their lawn.” Seriously, are we being Poed?
Substance McGravitas:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:11 pm
I phoned the number; I had to hear. Just an answering machine saying who he was.
arguingwithsignposts:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
“Lo”? He went with “Lo”?! Forsooth!
Jonas:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:12 pm
I guess unfriending people on facebook is sort of like Going Galt, for those who are too lazy to get up off the couch.
Stacy:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:13 pm
I can guarantee that this loser’s “friends” (if he truly has any real ones – not talking “virtuaL ones) and family are sighing with relief that they have been unfriended on Facebook. Now they can actually open their Facebook page in peace and not be subjected to his drooling idiocy.
I would tell him what I tell every libertarian: Move to Somalia. No pesky rules, regulations, etc. Come on now, get moving – I’ll even buy your ticket.
KWillow:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:17 pm
I remember how shocked and depressed I was after BushII was “re-elected” in ’04. But it can’t compare with the anguish and terror these guys are experiencing. I guess they really thought RMoney would win and the whole World’s economy would turn into one gigantic Black Market.
Murc:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:28 pm
Basically? Not wearing a seatbelt only impacts me, not anyone else. It’s not like, say, smoking bans, where the justification is that people shouldn’t have to inhale carcinogens when at work or in public places. I expect the government to keep other people from hurting me, and to ensure that I can buy products that don’t hurt me by mandating a legal safety floor that companies can’t drop below in order to obtain a competitive advantage.
The argument for seatbelt laws, of course, is that if I go through the windshield the general public is on the hook for my medical care, so there’s a real public interest in forcing me to see to my safety. That’s a legitimate point, I suppose, but I will note that that justification isn’t too terribly far from the conservative fantasy of a government that mandates we all eat healthy under penalty of law.
Murc:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
I think Christie doesn’t plan on running.
Christie likes attention, sure, but he also strikes me as a guy who likes having a life and living high on the hog, and you can’t really do that as President, or even a presumptive President. Plus, he’d have to pander to tons of people who hate him in order to even get the nomination.
So I see him as going ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ Frankly, after Romney’s implosion… there’s no earthly way the Republicans don’t nominate a firebreather.
Rick Santorum's Leaky Faucet:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Fine by me. I posted a series of Obama memes just to bait my republican friends.
N__B:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:33 pm
I look forward to shooting Zombie America in the head.
J.W. Hamner:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Freedom to engage in self destructive behavior is very important to some people.
Jesse Levine:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:45 pm
GOP will never get past the first two stages of grief, denial and anger.
arguingwithsignposts:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:56 pm
what about your children (if you have them)?
(and not trying to be snotty, thanks for answering the question)
herr doktor bimler:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:56 pm
Call me a stickler for the canon, but shirley this post is supposed to be titled “Your proposal is acceptable”.
Aaron B.:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:58 pm
I think he means “with all haste.”
Heh. Like he has a girlfriend.
herr doktor bimler:
November 7th, 2012 at 11:58 pm
so he plans to move to some libertarian European paradise in Lichtenstein or something.
Oh yes, the citizenship requirements for Lichtenstein are so lenient.
Fighting Words:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:01 am
Wait, is this the same “Atlas Shrugged” guy who has been e-mailing James Fallows?
joel hanes:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:04 am
In 1963, when I was eleven, I carried an evening newspaper route. One fall evening, out collecting, I heard an automobile accident, a big one, and pedalled hard and succeeded in being the first on the scene.
A young woman in her 20s had been driving her Mustang eastbound on the highway at the edge of town, probably too fast in a 35 mph zone, when an absolutely sozzled drunk in a huge old Dodge pulled out from a stop-signed cross street, directly in front of her.
She never braked; her car hit his left front quarter-panel, and the engine behind it. She was not wearing a seatbelt: she went face-first into the windshield, smashing the wheel and steering colum with her chest. Amazingly, she was still conscious, and I sat with her while she screamed in agony,trying to reassure her until the ambulance came.
I will not describe the damage to her face and torso, except to say that it was terrible and extensive.
Murc, if I could free myself of having seen that, and give the nightmares to you, I would.
McAllen:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:05 am
I love how his idea of open revolt is acting sort of obnoxious. Even in their most frothy rages, conservatives are still cowards.
NickT:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:06 am
The Boston Herald has some lovely examples of wingnut derangement on its front page. Holly Robichaud is frenziedly denouncing the Bay State for having “disgraced” itself. Howie Carr is foaming at the mouth with the rage of a petulant child denied its share of high fructose corn syrup by strict parents. “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive…”
herr doktor bimler:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:06 am
One other thing, and I’m serious about this: consider some sort of identification, a kind of marker, that lets others of your kind know who you are and where you stand implicitly.
Tattooing yourself with a permanent, conspicuous marker of your membership of the reviled persecuted minority will save you from the zombie hordes by stopping them from recognising your enemy status.
What?
Perhaps someone could explain this to me, slowly and carefully.
herr doktor bimler:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:07 am
Blood group, in Fraktur type, under the left arm or on the shoulder.
/pedant
Jay in Oregon:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:08 am
It sounds like he’s ditching everyone in his life who might be inclined to be at his funeral, honestly.
herr doktor bimler:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:09 am
I’m choosing another rather unique path; a personal boycott, if you will.
Evidently the lad is convinced that “severing friendships” is a TOTALLY NEW CONCEPT that has never occurred to anyone ever before.
Lo:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:10 am
Sorry, I wasn’t listening.
Ken:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:12 am
I’m reminded of a routine by comedian Alan King on arguing with your wife. (Or maybe it was what not to do when arguing with your wife.) When she says “I’m never speaking to you again,” look her right in the eye and say, “Promises, promises.”
Colin Day:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:13 am
No. the book was better than the movie. Even We the Living was better. No, the Atlas Shrugged movie sucked. The second one wasn’t as bad, but still wasn’t that good.
joel hanes:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:14 am
I find that it could not have been a Mustang; they were introduced in 1964.
Maybe a Falcon, then; it was something that passed for a compact car in those days.
herr doktor bimler:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:24 am
Someone who is conflating the Blutgruppentätowierung of Waffen-SS membership with the yellow stars of the 1941/42 decrees, as if the two groups blur together in his mind.
Steve:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:28 am
Dear Republicans,
As a matter of principle, I would expect all of your Real Americans who believe this “makers and takers” meme not to accept government money from “takers”. Please post this in your place of business so that takers will not bother you as you do your “making”. I will be happy to support business owners who know some economics and realize that their businesses are being kept alive through indirect government aid.
Murc:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:29 am
That’s different. Children are children and can’t legitimately make that sort of decision. It’s the reason we have a driving age to begin with. You SHOULD be obligated by law to protect your children better than you (might) choose to protect yourself.
-Mona-:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:31 am
Nah. Cool dude and libertarian Julian Sanchez just retweeted:
SatanicPanic:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:31 am
He actually links to his FB page. I wonder if he’s getting a lot of requests.
Murc:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:33 am
That’s an awful thing to say, dude. It implies that I’m affirmatively in favor of shit like that happening.
Was that lady in a car that didn’t have safety belts? I’m unsure if they were mandated by law by the 1960s or not. If she was, and chose not to wear them… well, few people really deserve to have that happen to them, and of course the blame for the whole affair goes to the drunk guy, but I’m not sure how this is a public policy argument.
(Also, you don’t know me. You don’t know what shit I might or might not have already seen in my life.)
-Mona-:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:34 am
Hi Joe. Yeah, we who know Eric for years now are not that surprised. But in all seriousness, I hope a friend or family member gets him some medical attention. That much uncontrolled anger and hatred is dangerous.
-Mona-:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:41 am
NO, Eric Dondero is real. In the 90s he was an aide to Ron Paul, but has since come to revile Paul for Paul’s foreign policy and anti-national-security-state views. Dondero is actually a neocon, at least when it comes to foreign policy and Muslims.
Full Metal Wingnut:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:44 am
If we ever move to a Canadian-style health care system, there’s a very strong public policy argument.
Hell, there’s a strong public policy argument now-if you’re sent to the emergency room like the woman in joel hanes’ story, and you didn’t have health insurance, who’d be footing the bill? The public policy rationale for mandating people take an effort-free preventive measure like buckling a fucking seatbelt become pretty strong.
Craigo:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:59 am
Better yet, using money to buy guns to shoot lawyers.
Craigo:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:03 am
I will bet anything that his small business with many high-paying positions that the country simply can’t do without it is a truck, some lawnmowers, and a few undocumented immigrants.
Chet Murthy:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:11 am
It is a well-defined and easily-defensible (also easily-attackable) moral position that an act of omission is morally equivalent to the opposite act of commission.
But I find your response weak. You -could- have asked him why he eats well enough to be a normal American, when there are starving children in Ethiopia.
OK. That was flippant.
In what sense are you -not- in favor of that sort of stuff happening, though? I mean, do you pray every night, that stuff like that doesn’t happen? B/c there’s a widely-understood and effective way of preventing bad shit from happening: effective governments that outlaw that bad shit. So, uh, when you say that you don’t want the government to outlaw that bad shit, in what sense are you -actively- encouraging that such bad shit happens (which, let’s be clear, it -will-)?
I’m not trying to argue that you’re an evil person. Just trying to understand your moral reasoning.
I’m also pretty troubled by your equating “wear seat belts” with “ëat
your broccoli”. Let’s see …. I’d guess you’re OK with slavery,
right? As long as the slave signed him/herself away, and was an adult
when s/he did it? Let’s see …. what else? You’re good with organ
donations for $$, including hearts, yes?
I’m not saying you’re an evil person. I can see that you just want to
ride your bike without a helmet. But there’s a difference between
wanting that, and deciding that the govt can’t get in the way of
people doing awful things to themselves because …. .
STH:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:15 am
This guy is a good piece of evidence for the “being Republican means just being an asshole” theory.
I kind of feel for the sister who won’t tell him how she voted. Dude, your sister is trying to keep you from doing something stupid (or more stupid than your usual) and alienating the people who love you. Maybe you might consider not being a dick to her?
GeoX:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:16 am
Yeah, we really need to elect people who command more respect from insane, authoritarian racists. It’s our greatest weakness!
NonyNony:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:17 am
When Bush the Lesser was re-elected, I was expecting it. I held out hope that Kerry would take it, but I knew by election day it was a long shot (Bush led in the polls, his job approval was above 50%, the economy was decent if not great, there was a war on, etc.). I’d steeled myself to the idea that he was going to win it, and had prepared myself for the loss.
These guys weren’t allowed to do that. They were so sure that the polls were skewed and that “everyone” secretly thinks like they do, they just don’t want to say it out loud. So they’re reeling in shock over the fact that Obama – a man they think is uniquely unqualified to be President and who is “obviously” the worst President in American History – won re-election. They can’t understand that a majority of the country thinks he’s doing okay with the shit sandwich he was elected to deal with, even if they aren’t 100% happy that he hasn’t yet turned that shit sandwich into a seven course steak dinner with an open bar.
owlbear1:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:21 am
Six weeks from now a poll will discover that Gary Johnson apparently got more votes than Romney.
GeoX:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:26 am
I’m in favor of laws preventing people from dying gruesomely for no goddamn reason, and if that makes me an enemy of FREEDUMB, so be it.
Bob Loblaw:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:34 am
Hilarious. Why is it that whenever I read these glibertarians, especially now, the voice I hear in my mind is Stewie from Family Guy?
Jordan:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:40 am
Not even that. His idea of rebellion is basically to become a crazy street preacher
Bill Murray:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:46 am
I think he might have been asking about the effect of your seat belt-less car accident more seriously messing you up on your children and other family members.
Also, too many people doing this increases insurance rates, I think
Bill Murray:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:51 am
Rosie Palm is always at hand
Murc:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:56 am
Hold on; when we say “seat belt laws” do we mean “laws that say all cars must have seat belts” (which I support strongly, along with laws mandating airbags, safety glass, and other such things) or laws saying “you have to wear those seatbelts or we’ll fine your ass” which I… well, don’t.
Murc:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:08 am
By this rationale, it should also be illegal to drink, smoke, or do other drugs. Those actions can lead to incredibly adverse health outcomes that the general public is on the hook for, and NOT doing them is basically as effort-free as buckling a safety belt.
In the same way that I’m not in favor of people drinking themselves to death, but also don’t want the government to mandate I can’t drink at all, or to monitor people and decide who is, and is not, allowed to drink.
To be clear; such laws would not be illegitimate exercises of power. I just disagree with them.
How so? “We will fine you for not wearing a seatbelt because you’re increasing the probability the public purse will be on the hook if you go through the windshield” isn’t functionally different from “you’re not allowed to eat at McDonalds every day because you’re increasing the probability the public purse will be on the hook for your heart disease.”
Whoa whoa whoa.
I never said the government CAN’T get in the way of people doing awful things to themselves. Clearly, this power exists and is entirely legitimate.
Only that there are times when it SHOULDN’T.
As you say, I just want to ride my bike without a helmet on. Maybe that makes me a giant idiot, I don’t know.
Kristin_d_l:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:15 am
Everyone should read the comments. They’re even better than the original post. The guy literally knows nothing about what libertarians actually believe. (He seems to be really concerned with topless beaches, though.) The whole thing is COMEDY GOLD.
GeoX:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:20 am
People LIKE to smoke/drink/do drugs. No one “likes” not wearing a seatbelt unless they’re making some idiotic point about how the gubmint isn’t the boss of me, maaaan.
jenn:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:34 am
Murc, re seatbelt laws, another thing in their favor besides those factors already mentioned, is that if you’re in a vehicle with someone else, and you’re not belted in, the force of the crash can make you into a projectile, injuring or even killing others in the vehicle. If they’re belted in, that prevents them from being ejected from the car, it doesn’t protect them from items in the car flying into them. Just another thing to think about. It’s not just an ‘only hurts me if I refuse’ scenario.
Jeremy:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:43 am
Did anyone else notice the Hindrocket post’s photo? Maybe SEK can tell us how the weeping angels will devour us all now that Obama’s won.
James E. Powell:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:54 am
That audio was painful to listen to. I had to give up on it after three minutes or so.
James E. Powell:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:57 am
He also seems to believe that this is a good way to effect political change.
NickT:
November 8th, 2012 at 3:24 am
Look, when you decline to be as safe as possible on your bike or in a car, you are risking injury to yourself – for which the other person involved is going to feel responsible. Do you really want to put that burden on them in the name of foolish irresponsibility? Will you feel good about yourself knowing that you’ve risked not only yourself but someone else’s happiness or peace of mind?
The prophet Nostradumbass:
November 8th, 2012 at 3:24 am
I have heard that Mr. McGoering has found a place where he can hire bombers by the hour. Is this true?
Emma in Sydney:
November 8th, 2012 at 3:27 am
Quote from my 22-yr-old son’s Facebook page (an Australian, living in London):
just saw a pro-Romney status on my timeline, along the lines of “America you now deserve everything you get” Never deleted anyone so quickly in all my life…
The quicker we get this sort over, the better.
joel hanes:
November 8th, 2012 at 3:28 am
> that’s an awful thing to say
It is, I freely admit.
However, in my moral universe, it’s a lot less awful than saying
“I oppose laws that mandate wearing seatbelts”
because those laws you oppose, today effectively prevent almost all of the horrible manglings that were common before seatbelts were mandatory.
I remember how it was before those laws, and tried to communicate an emotional truth about that memory.
For me, the public cost argument is secondary. I guess I just hate to see thoughtless or reckless or unlucky people get chewed up by heavy machinery, even if they somehow brought it on themselves, even if using the safety equipment needed to prevent mangling is something of a pain (which, IMHO, seatbelts are not).
herr doktor bimler:
November 8th, 2012 at 3:31 am
H.D.Bimler reacts badly to another reference to the ‘Mr Hilter’ skit.
[/Downfall bunker-scene remix]
guthrie:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:08 am
He probably means that when the hodes rise you’ll be able to find a local libertarian hideout where the only way to get in and not get machine gunned is by showing your tattoo. “See I’m one of you” “Pass friend”.
guthrie:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:13 am
War is not a rational thing? Well, kind of yes and kind of no. Anyone who went to war without engaging the rational part of their brain in the last few centuries got themselves killed. So maybe that’s what will happen to him…
Mark Dobrowolski:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:23 am
Are you refering to the early episode when someone asked Stewie what he wanted for his birthday? The next scene was Stewie (in place of Adolf) at Nuremberg.
Ramon A. Clef:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:36 am
You are free to believe lies if you want but THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES, SIR!
piratedan:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:40 am
2nd amendment remedies for the win!
Aaron B.:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:58 am
I know many Republicans, none are as emotionally unstable as this guy. They do seem to have an awfully disproportionate share of complete dickasses, though.
Bijan Parsia:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:06 am
I was about to respond with the beginning of your second paragraph, then I saw your second paragraph :)
Eh. It seems pretty far to me. It’s pretty non-onerous a primary activity, the penalties (afaict) are similarly lightweight, the benefits are large, and it’s in an activity which is generally recognized as a privilege. The cost of care isn’t the only problem of course…more severe injuries cause issues for first responders.
Personal note: I flipped a car going around 50mph and ended up hanging from my seat belt. They’re good things :)
Manta:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:09 am
Some people:
“Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes”.
Mahatma Gandhi
News Wire | Boot Stamping On Neck:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:20 am
[...] are certainly libertarian-rooted cases to be made against Obama, though mostly if you’re a libertarian who cares about the national [...]
ajay:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:30 am
if you’re in a vehicle with someone else, and you’re not belted in, the force of the crash can make you into a projectile, injuring or even killing others in the vehicle.
This is very true. That’s why you never carry anything heavier than a coat on the rear package shelf: when you stop, it keeps going forward. And an unbelted rear-seat passenger is a lot heavier than that.
J. Otto Pohl:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:34 am
I never let politics stand in the way of friendship. I find it disturbing that people define their personal relationships on this basis. Especially since the spectrum of mainstream American politics is quite narrow.
Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Open Thread: Galt — It’s Where All the Freethinking Individualists are Going!:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:41 am
[...] a thought that was less than third-hand. But the epical, category-defining Squid-Cloud of Butthurt frontpaged by LGM’s Robert Farley is one very special snowflake [...]
herr doktor bimler:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:44 am
“Badgers”? Wrong mustelid. WOLVERINES.
Jameson Quinn:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:55 am
But use henna if you have to. Only white guys know the secret of henna.
Lurker:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:59 am
In fact, not wearing seatbelt not only endangers you but also everyone else in the vehicle and nearby. In an accident, an unbelted passanger or driver becomes a massive object hurling at a random direction at great velocity.
Jameson Quinn:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:04 am
Hmmm…. who could that be?
More to the point, why the new nym?
AB:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:08 am
UGH, DAD, YOU RUINED MY LIFE *slams door*
Jameson Quinn:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:09 am
JMH23:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:19 am
Eric Dondero is like so many other right-wingers. Honestly, do they really think everyone using food stamps right now actually want to? I’d love to have full time work myself and not need them, thank you very much. Supporting myself over gov’t assistance but I’m open to ask for help when I obviously need it.
Jacob T. Levy:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:32 am
At last Eric is thinking *big*. He’s spent the last 10+ years schisming and splitting and denouncing and comment-thread-trolling and excommunicating among libertarians, very few of whom hated Muslims or liked war enough for his tastes. Why he thought this was the route to a majority coalition is unclear to me.
But my guess is that he was down to about seven people he spoke to anyways. Now he’s hit the reset button, allowing himself to excommunicate by the tens of millions.
Sadly, I doubt that he sticks to the “no contact” thing. He really likes to continue to shout at people he’s ostensibly not speaking to.
bradP:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:36 am
I am somewhat surprised this is the first time I’ve seen him mentioned on this blog.
He is easily as entertaining a target as teh Donalde. I’m not sure he has a “Sasquatch Isreal” level triumph, but he certainly has the pedigree.
Sgaile-beairt:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:37 am
You said it wld only affedt YOU if you got in an acdident. Which is a shitty stupid thing to say & he just pointed out explicitly how you were wrong. So what if youve seen accidents too? it would affect EVERY first responder plus all your relatives, thats where the children come in.
witless chum:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:37 am
This is an important point. The penalty for not wearing a seat belt is a traffic ticket and a fine. It’s not some huge, onerous penalty. It’s treated like speeding.
Also, more public resources are needed tend to your accident if you aren’t wearing a seat belt than if you are, all things being equal.
bradP:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:37 am
You’ve seen both of them? Were you required to for your profession or medical reasons?
Sgaile-beairt:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:38 am
plus it raises everyone else’s insurance bills!! and costs the county in taxpayer money to pay for scraping them & hteir car off the pavement/trees/etc….
Sgaile-beairt:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:39 am
that might just make him a long term hospital case at public expense (i know of a couple like that) Only the good die young as they say..
Uncle Kvetch:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:40 am
Is this everyone’s first exposure to DONDEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?
I’d seen references to him at Unqualified Offerings for years, without ever actually encountering The Man Himself. He’s everything I hoped he would be, and more!
witless chum:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:41 am
I remember him fighting a one-man war against Ron Paul in the Hit and Run comment sections a few years ago. Before you say, we’ll he can’t be such a bad guy, note he was attacking Paul from the right.
nixnutz:
November 8th, 2012 at 6:45 am
Is the moral of your story that you’ve spent the rest of your life campaigning to ban alcohol? Because focusing on the victim’s culpability seems monstrous. Drunks have killed hundreds of thousands of people on America’s roads since that incident and your reaction is to shame people who think the limits of regulation should be open to debate?
That’s some bottom-percentile-of human-decency bullshit.
J. Otto Pohl:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:01 am
I notice they did not list Ghana even though under Nkrumah it took in a number of notable American refugees. Among those that found asylum here were W.E.B. Dubois, James Baldwin, and Richard Wright. It also has state provided health care. So I am wondering why Ghana was left off the list? ;-)
rea:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:05 am
Like with other forms of suicide, you ought to take some care not to leave a nasty mess for others to clean up.
J. Otto Pohl:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:14 am
Why? The conflict between Soviet orientated communists like Le Duan became by 1978 and Maoists had been around at least since the early 1960s. The fact that the more extreme Maoists like Pol Pot were in conflict with the more moderate Soviet line Vietnamese in the late 1970s does not make the Khmer Rouge less communist. The Killing Fields was one of the few serious movies dealing with communist atrocities produced in Hollywood. There have been a few others. But, far, far fewer than those produced regarding the evils of Naziism.
rea:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:14 am
Just as a practical matter–how is he going to get groceries if he boycots everywhere that accepts food stamps? Is he going to buy all his groceries at the liquor store?
bradP:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:18 am
Most of the time he opens his mouth about Ron Paul, he makes Paul sound better.
Wido Incognitus:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:19 am
1. Well, at least it is un-facebook-friending instead of terrorism. The polemical nature of the internet (I am especially thinking of my comments on this site, which are easy to misinterpret [I admire the triumphs of the Warren Court, but I think they could have been written better. I would not vote for a White Person's Party because I know the value of ethnic diversity and have no use for the far-right, but I still think that would be the Republican's best chance to win in the short-term]) would have suggested darker possibilities, but they are not to be taken too seriously.
2. A little terrorism or other kinds of political violence could still happen. This is not Pakistan (both in terms of drone attacks and in terms of local poltiical violence), but it is not Paradise either.
Wido Incognitus:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:19 am
Maybe he’ll just eat out all the time, but that could get pretty expensive.
J. Otto Pohl:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:21 am
He could grow his own food or only go to farmer’s markets where they only accept cash. He is going to have trouble finding a grocery store that does not accept EBT. Even the small store in Arivaca, the Mercantile, was set up to accept EBT cards. So my guess is he will end up buying all of his food from the organic hippy or migrant truck farmers. None of those people would have voted for Obama, they are all capitalists. ;-)
Bijan Parsia:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:23 am
If I were a friend or relative this would be an added benefit of the election.
That being said, I don’t believe he’ll carry it out in the full way he describes.
Bijan Parsia:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:30 am
“Never” seems too strong. I’d have trouble remaining friends with someone who was unequivocally pro-torture or genocide, for example.
I also have trouble with people who are racist or sexist or homophobic. At the very least, they pretty much need to let me not see that bit. If you’re shoving crap I abhor into my face, we’re not going to get along.
I’ve some family who’s inertially republican. I try to avoid political discussion with them.
rea:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:33 am
Most farmers markets around here accept food stamps–there’s actually a program where you get double vegetables . . .
Bijan Parsia:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:35 am
I don’t think he’s boycotting them.
He’s not going to stop shopping there, he’s just going to amp his douchiness to the next degree at his own expense.
J. Otto Pohl:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:37 am
The little one in Arivaca did not when I was last there. So I think it is possible to find some that do not.
Ramon A. Clef:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:38 am
That was intended as sarcasm. Apparently, I aimed too close to the mark.
rea:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:39 am
Or at least, you used to.
wtfwjd?:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:39 am
That’s funny. I think all of those places have socialized medicine and most if not all are more socialist than the US.
And Hong Kong? It’s part of China, right? Or am I missing something here?
J. Otto Pohl:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:41 am
He is going to try and persuade other people not to shop at stores accepting EBT while patronizing them himself? Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black. He isn’t going to drive cash paying customers away so much as intimidate EBT users. There is already enough of a moral stigma on poverty in the US without trying to make the lives of poor people even more miserable.
rea:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:42 am
Let me suggest in all seriousness to you that you ought to wear seatbelts if for no other reason than avoiding traumatizing 11-year olds who chance to see your accidents.
Bijan Parsia:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:51 am
Yes, but that’s consistent with his earlier behavior of shouting “Food stamps are for parasites” everytime he paid for something.
Poor people’s lives just aren’t miserable enough for him.
J. Otto Pohl:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:53 am
China has dismantled much of the social welfare net it had built under Mao. So maybe it counts as capitalist now? The appeal of Hong Kong would be the low flat taxes. But, it does have public health care and housing. I think you can get away with not paying any taxes through the use of corruption in Italy and Argentina if you have the right connections. Israel hates Arabs and Blacks who are not Jewish so it gets a pass on its remaining socialist programs. Switzerland must qualify on its banking laws and Costa Rica has long been a place of retirement for rich Americans for some reason. But, for political refugees I don’t think any of them are particularly accepting of people not of the core ethnicity. So if you are not Chinese then Hong Kong is difficult. If you are not Jewish Israel is also very difficult. Ghana took quite a few famous American refugees a few decades ago such as Dubois, Baldwin, and Wright. There is even a WEB Dubois street on campus. But, I do not think we have to worry about receiving any American boat people right now.
NonyNony:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:01 am
I believe that this is, as the kids say, “central to his point”.
R. Porrofatto:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:05 am
The other commenters are peachy, too. Here’s my favorite in its entirety, just a teeny bit of insight into why these zealots will forever lose elections:
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:10 am
He’s just like that 4-year-old girl: He’s just tired of Bronco Bama.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:15 am
Don’t go away mad, y’all–JUST GO AWAY!!!!
Major Kong:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:20 am
I strongly support Libertarians refusing to wear seat belts and smoking heavily.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:24 am
I love this quote I found at S,N:
Game over. The stupid and indiolent have outvoted
Walt:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:24 am
Wido, your comments are genuinely hard to understand, which is why they get misinterpreted. Half the time, I can’t figure out what point you’re trying to make.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:27 am
Sorry for messing up the blockquote. Um, the Hoverounded-American means to call us stupid and indolent.
I would never call you guys stupid.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:32 am
I kinda think it was reborn.
Leeds man:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:38 am
Bingo! Not sure why this did not occur to Murc.
Joshua Buhs:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:39 am
As I read him, he’s saying that eventually the macho, libertarian producers will violently rise against us effete, liberal takers–and in that conflagration, having a mark showing your commitment to the producers will cause them to recognize you as one of their own, and spare your life.
I feel creepy just writing a summary of the idea.
Blech.
parrot:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:42 am
i got a fever and the only cure is more … sturm und drang + even more, much much more cowbell
Leeds man:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:45 am
spit on Democrats
No no, he doesn’t want to spit on them, just near them, cuz he don’t want no hassles. Back in the day, he would have totally flipped off Nazis when they weren’t watching. A modern day Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
parrot:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:45 am
this dude is so very ripe for turning Amish … the zippers holding his left and right hemispheres have driven him too far now … cognitive dissonance has unzipped him …
rea:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:51 am
It’s hard not to laugh at him up to a point, but it begins to feel like the 18-century sport of going down to the asylum at Bedlam and poking the inmates with sticks. This guy is mentally ill.
Leeds man:
November 8th, 2012 at 8:57 am
Beat me by about two minutes. Poor lass; bought a computer four years ago, and spent the next year learning how to use it.
mark f:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:10 am
Wait, what? A zombie horde of takers will be coming to murder the true friends of liberty, so might as well mark yourself in advance?
Snarki, child of Loki:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:12 am
21st century version uses Tasers. SO much more civilized.
There is a certain sub-species of Libertarian that has veered off through the conservative-GOP weeds, and now finds itself in BircherLand. Dondero is a classic example, but there are others.
Anonymous:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:13 am
Hong Kong gets away with its low taxation rate because the state owns all of the land. All the rent on some of the most valuable real estate in the world goes directly into the state’s coffers. Communist? Yeah.
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:15 am
That was probably the central point. NEED MORE FACEBOOK FRIENDS
Cody:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:21 am
They seem to have a clear structure. Generally he uses list.
1) Main point
2) Marginally related tangent
2) Counter-point
3) Completely unrelated comment
Then he sometimes deletes 3.
Forsooth:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:24 am
Yo, whassap?
Cody:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:26 am
How dare you all me stupid Doctor!
Also, his last sentence seems to imply he wasn’t already living his life in a stupid selfish stupor. I thought he was a Republican?
Doug:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:27 am
Low Lee, ta.
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:27 am
I’d say legal reasons
Cody:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:28 am
I guess it really depends on definition of “friend” right?
Obviously all of my close friends agree with me politically, else we wouldn’t be so close. I would find it tough to be friends with someone who is anti-welfare because I doubt someone like that would be nice enough to hang out with all the time.
Keaaukane:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:29 am
Turning Amish could be the great come back hit the Vapors have been waiting for…
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:31 am
It really is hilarious what electing a black president will do to people
mark f:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:33 am
Scott Johnson, Powerline:
Johnson is a vociferous opponent of legalized marijuana and gay marriage, by the way, and even allowing gay people to be active Republicans (“I doubt that the big tent can be quite this big” so as to accomodate GOProud; “this is a subject with respect to which we have mostly forgotten the arguments, which inevitably lead back to nature and nature’s God.”).
In other words, I have purchased powerful “friendships” through membership in conservative organizations and will get the trooper yelled at.
timb:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:33 am
that’s not the way he sees it.
What stigma if they advertise that you can buy their products. Eric thinks that means the poor moochers are welcome and, thus their lives are easy
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:33 am
Neocon on foreign policy+libertarian on domestic policy=hates a shitload of non-white people
Western Dave:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:36 am
By all accounts, he is an Ed Rendell type with no real interest in the Presidency b/c it would cut into his eating time. Plus, he thinks he’s already got the best job in the world.
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:37 am
BTW don’t Romney voters realize the whole “people voting themselves money” also applies to rich money wanting to vote themselves a massive tax cut?
timb:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:38 am
Maybe not for much longer. When the DSM V eliminates Borderline Personality Disorder (more accurately, redefines it so the poor dears will stop looking themselves up and becoming even more hostile after they read their diagnosis), this guy can just be properly referred to as an asshole and the rest of us can shun him without feeling any need to pity and empathize with him.
Bijan Parsia:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:40 am
Yeah.
I mean, I could see having friends that you happened not to get in much with politics (because you became friends with them under circumstances that didn’t reveal their politics) and then there’s a serious question if the politics come to the fore what to do.
But, I would think that had to do with how they were acting more than the loss of an election itself.
Dr.KennethNoisewater:
November 8th, 2012 at 9:45 am
That was my thought,too. I mean, what changed for this asshole, exactly?
Rhino:
November 8th, 2012 at 10:20 am
Win
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 10:28 am
More importantly it’s about the blahs, per one of his comments in the comments section.
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 10:28 am
Sorry referring to Dondero
Chester Allman:
November 8th, 2012 at 10:54 am
Dondero’s post is actually sort of adorable, the way my 2-year-old daughter is sort of adorable when she gets angry and starts wordlessly flinging small toys to the ground.
Halloween Jack:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:03 am
The first (and only) FB unfriending I’ve done is with a shirt-tail relative who sent friend requests to just about everyone in the extended family tree, and seemed at first to be a friendly guy, but as the campaign season wore on kept amping up the hate, most of which seemed derived from Limbaugh and some of the more militantly reactionary Catholic bishops. I think that the precipitating post was something incredibly derogatory about Sandra Fluke. I almost wished that I’d kept him just long enough to witness something similar to Dondero’s meltdown, just so that I could have the pleasure of commenting, “Let me save you the effort. Hasta la vista, baby!”
Halloween Jack:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:07 am
The Mark of the Beast is OK as long as it’s our Beast.
Graham Shevlin:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:09 am
Sure he does. A friend of mine in AZ just received a post-election rant from an angry over-privileged elderly white guy, who he had asked to not send him anything. The message drips with contempt with anybody who does not agree with him. It is true weapons-grade horseshit.
Halloween Jack:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:09 am
I’m sure he means to wipe his ass with the ticket. That’ll show The Man!
Graham Shevlin:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:16 am
Nope, he is not a typical Libertarian. I am a libertarian, and I know of several libertarians. Anecdotally, they are not the ones fulminating about stupid moochers voting for Obummer and threatening to excommunicate everybody who is not in their echo chamber. That sort of juvenile behavior is the mark of thwarted authoritarian dipshits.
Gepap:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:29 am
You suppose that saving the public from having thousands of dollars worth of limited labor and resources used to try to save your life might be a worthy enough reason for it to pass that law? You don’t HAVE to wear a seatbelt anyways – its a ticketable offense. Just think of the tickets as your downpayment to society.
Gepap:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:32 am
People are free to make the mistake of having to pay tickets for not wearing their seatbelts.
Any lawbreaking can be seen as a “mistake” – that does not invalidate the law.
cpinva:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:38 am
i expect all of mr. dondero’s relatives are breathing a sigh of relief, no more having to put up with that asshole, at family gatherings. frankly, i’d be surprised if he had a girlfriend, unless she’d been declared legally brain-dead. of course, he also strikes me as the kind of guy who, if married, found his wife on one of those “1,000′s of beautiful russian/romanian/asian girls, just waiting to meet you” sites. some poor thing, desperate enough for a green card, that she lose her last shred of dignity, and be seen in public with him. that is, until they went to a restaurant that had windows that open in the bathrooms.
tragic really.
joel hanes:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:43 am
I was not responding to someone who opposes drunk-driving laws, so I did not address drunk-driving laws in my response.
For the record, I’m strongly in favor.
Area Man:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:46 am
But hey, he walked that back a bit by conceding that it’s technically illegal. As if there is no other reason not to do it.
gocart mozart:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:57 am
apropo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IsGUrHNMSM
mpowell:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:10 pm
He’s also basically publicly declared that he’ll be a terrible person to hire or go into business with. Good luck with that.
joe from Lowell:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:14 pm
False. In an emergency, a seatbelt keeps the driver in front of the steering wheel and in control of his car, instead of sliding around the front seat unable to reach the wheel and brakes, thus reducing the danger to others around him.
joe from Lowell:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Oh, c’mon, that’s what they said about McCain.
joe from Lowell:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:20 pm
It is for the winners.
Ramon A. Clef:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:21 pm
I think I love you.
Ramon A. Clef:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
No. Because for them, rich people *deserve* the money. What they mean is “the poors should go suck it.”
bruce mcglory:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
That’s a good thing. if he wants to destroy his own life with a ridiculous, bigotry and lie filled temper tantrum, he can. this is america!
And I’m loving their meltdown.
JKTHs:
November 8th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Moreover, they act as if the entire welfare state was created by executive order on January 21, 2009 and if we only changed presidents then everything would go back to the way it was
Karate Bearfighter:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
He totally does! She’s in Canada ….
Lyanna:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:16 pm
Libertarian response: the car is private property and the driver/owner is in charge of it. Therefore, if you’re on his property, he has the right to subject you to a projectile if he wants. He has the right to go sans seatbelt and allow his passengers to do the same. If you don’t like it, get off his property. By sitting in his car you’re agreeing to it.
This is why libertarians are more properly called propertarians.
JohnM:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:21 pm
I had to stop reading the comments when I reached Dondero’s assertion
I was laughing too hard. I always like to say that I was a libertarian for a while when I was in high school. Then I grew up.
Malaclypse:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Not wearing a seatbelt only impacts me, not anyone else.
Except, to play devil’s advocate, your medical bills will raise my auto insurance premiums.
Murc:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:40 pm
This, in fact, is an argument against banning motorcycles, which you can’t be strapped into safely, completely, is it not?
Malaclypse:
November 8th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Howie Carr is foaming at the mouth with the rage of a petulant child denied its share of high fructose corn syrup by strict parents.
So, it is a day that ends in y?
mds:
November 8th, 2012 at 2:13 pm
Most of the Religious Right leaders, even as they were frantically kicking a century-and-a-half of “Mormonism is a Satanic cult” under the couch, were also finding time to pen screeds making pretty much the same point: America’s descent into Hell will be assured if voters re-elect a Muslim who is going to put all the Christians into concentration camps. (They said the same thing back in 2008, of course, but that just proves how wily the far-left fundamentalist Muslim is.)
Roger Ailes:
November 8th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
No sin, no fun, no electricity, no wonder it’s dark.
timb:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:06 pm
most poor “moochers” I know are white. Maybe he should start educating them first?
central texas:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:16 pm
I kept reading it, just knowing that sooner or later he was going to threaten to hold his breath until he turned blue or run away from home and-then-you-will-be-sorry. He has the emotional and logical tenor of an infant but has forgotten the words.
In any case, I bet there are associates, many in his workplace (assuming that he is employed) and family members who are overjoyed to see this.
Keaaukane:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:20 pm
They’d have to play it Unplugged.
Hogan:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:37 pm
“I’d like to believe that this time.”
joe from Lowell:
November 8th, 2012 at 4:47 pm
First he takes their guns, then he puts them in concentration camps.
No, wait. First hedoesn’t take their guns, then he does take their guns, and then he puts them in camps. I’m pretty sure that’s the story these days.
It’s all very fiendish and clever. I’m not sure my description conveyed that.
J R in WV:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:30 pm
The tragedy will be if he doesn’t carry out his threats.
I’m sure he means every word! We have nothing to worry about, he’s going to become a hermit with a small garden, saving seeds so he doesn’t have to patronize the local feed & hardware store, as they may take federal benefits for seeds.
Hermits are usually quite harmless, Of course most of his co-hermits will be socialist hippies!
ChrisS:
November 8th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
Rich people earned that money through their hard work. They had no help from anyone. Therefore they will not help anyone else. Tax money is their money being confiscated.
You know, they don’t use roads, infrastructure, an educated work force, or ever have bad fortune. Oh, and they don’t have trillion dollar military protecting their ass(ets).
Substance McGravitas:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:16 pm
Gary Graham, way back when:
Some Guy:
November 8th, 2012 at 7:49 pm
I’m torn between
A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmyJ1RVfnPE
or
B: Oh my god, FINALLY!
for what would be the best reaction from everyone he just vowed to stop talking to.
mds:
November 8th, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Hang on … First he doesn’t take their guns, then he doesn’t padlock their churches, then he doesn’t put them in camps, then he does put them in camps, then he does padlock their churches (which they won’t be needing anymore, because camps), then he remembers that he was supposed to finally take their guns, and hurries over to the camps, but it’s too late. WOLVERINES!
… I’m pretty sure that’s the version without an immediate Rapture in it, but the repeatedly forwarded e-mail has become rather smudged. The important thing is: definitely fiendish.
Mayan campaign mashup 2012: It was sad, so sad « AbsurdBeats:
November 8th, 2012 at 11:33 pm
[...] has a post up on the denialism of such reactions, and many, many others have corralled the increasing number of howls into lists of lamentations and these are all [...]
John:
November 9th, 2012 at 1:00 am
It’s even less onerous than speeding, in that you’re much less likely to get pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt.
Colin Day:
November 9th, 2012 at 1:16 am
No, I was just curious. I’ll probably see the third one, if such there be.
OneWhoKnows:
November 11th, 2012 at 9:01 am
Psst, Eric: Regarding your FB friends list. I have it on excellent authority that Tyler Magill, Anna Little, Matt Kener, John Walsh, Joe Lex, Kenneth P Jacobus and Steve Bell are fucking Obama-voting commies! Joe Lex in fact actually volunteered and worked for the committee to re-elect the bastard. No need to thank me but I do recommend the formation of a Thought Police force in order to truly purify your list.
I’ll be watching…