Blah Blah Military Coup Blah
Above: Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute and an author
Thomas Sowell must be lying on the porch in a pool of Country Time lemonade, because he’s off his damn rocker:
Sometimes it seems as if everybody is trying to rip off his own little piece of America, until we are all torn apart.
Easy there, big fella. Freedom isn’t free.
The last time I saw a Republican express outrage was 1991, when Clarence Thomas told the Senators what he thought of the smear tactics used against him. Before that, it was Ronald Reagan saying, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Before that, it was probably Teddy Roosevelt.
Thomas Sowell, I would like you to meet former President Bill Clinton. Former President — Oh, my mistake. I see you’ve already met. Hark, look yonder: Society is just now making her entrance on the grand staircase.
[Gavin adds: The last time I saw a Republican express outrage was. . .oh, well, it’s hard to say exactly, because after awhile it all began to resemble a singular sustained howl, much like like an infinity of coyotes baying under an eternal full moon. Sometimes there are also screeches and a low, baleful moaning that at times seems nearly human. Pretty spooky. How old was Sowell when Teddy Roosevelt passed away in 1919?]
Too many people in positions of responsibility act as if these are just positions of opportunity — for themselves. The ones who simply steal money probably do less harm than teachers who propagandize their students, media who slant the news or politicians who sell out their country’s interests in order to get re-elected.
Mr. Sowell, I’m sure you know Tom DeLay and Duke Cunningha — Seriously? My apologies, but I thought you might’ve met before. Dear me.
A reader wrote: “Have you ever noticed that opinion polls ask the opinions of people who have no expertise in the subject on which they are being polled and publish these opinions as if they were gospel truth instead of group ignorance?”
This person is described as a reader, but I assure you they couldn’t possibly be. A reader, that is.
A sign of the times: A full-page ad for an Alaska cruise in the left-wing New York Review of Books says, “See Alaska’s Glaciers Before They’re Gone!” Shipmates listed include Ralph Nader and the editor of The Nation magazine.
It’s times like now that I wish I had an invisible hand to smack Thomas Sowell in the side of his fool head and knock his glasses off.
The people who are scariest to me are the people who don’t even know enough to realize how little they know.
Scary, perhaps. But mostly those people are funny. Very, very funny.
A reader sent the following message, quoting his nephew: “Calling an illegal alien an ‘undocumented worker’ is like calling a drug dealer an ‘unlicensed pharmacist.'”
Bzzz. I call foul. I’ve read this same kids-say-the-darnedest-things quip before in a letter to the editor.
Our education system, our media, and our intelligentsia have all been unrelentingly undermining the values, the traditions, and the unity of this country for generations and, at the same time, portraying as “understandable” all kinds of deviance, from prostitution to drugs to riots.
Those forms of deviance are all, at their core, a reaction to market forces. You would think a guy who wrote a book called Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy would recognize this. I suspect, however, that this book is as much a treatise on ways to keep money out of the hands of the sorts of people who then sometimes turn to prostitution, drugs and riots as it is a civil overview of economics.
The home run records that made Babe Ruth famous have been broken but one of his records will probably never be broken — pitching the longest shutout in World Series history, 14 innings. Few pitchers go even 9 innings these days.
Don’t worry, Thomas. Thanks to Tony LaRussa and modern bullpen usage patterns, some of those records shall forever belong to whitey. (Attaboy, Tony.)
“Global warming” seems to be joining “diversity,” “gun control,” “open space” and a growing list of other subjects where rational discussion has become impossible — and where you are considered a bad person even for wanting to discuss it rationally.
No, see, it’s your insistence on irrational discussion that vexes me so. And it’s not that you’re a bad person, per se, but the sort of person I steer clear of at parties, on account of my high, see.
When I see the worsening degeneracy in our politicians, our media, our educators, and our intelligentsia, I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is a military coup.
Remember that Far Side comic where the dog owner is yelling at his dog, and he’s saying all sorts of stuff to her but she only understands her own name?
Above: That Far Side comic
I think of that comic whenever I read through the comments section at Townhall.com. Say what you want about these people, but they come when called:
Marc of CA writes:
This is not new. A revolution would be welcomed, from the military, by me. It would save a lot of civilian lives. However it would have to be an extreme circumstance and take popular support. No way do we have the quantity of troops to maintain order.I would only go along with it because I trust our military above all others.
Baldy writes:
Marc, I’m pleased to say that I agree with you completely! There IS common ground for hicks and sophisticates!
playertw0 writes:
random thoughts, military coups etc
it wouldnt be a coup, it would be a recoup…
Ah well, we’ll probably still have fun goofing on their asshole uniforms, so long as the pistol whippings don’t hurt too much to laugh.
zmed!
These asshats have to keep a hankie in hand at all times to wipe the drool from their chins as they contemplate how lovely America would be if Pinochet could rise from the dead and take over.
“Say what you will, Mussolini had the trains running on time!” They actually think this way. What is wrong with them? WTF is bloody wrong with them?
For my part, if we’re going to have a coup d’etat, I’d prefer my zombie leader to be Ernesto Guevara de la Serna. I wonder how these guys would like them apples?
Apparently, those glasses are big enough to turn reality itself inside-out.
The best part is they still believe (and can say with a straight face) that anyone who would fight against that is “anti-American”.
But now that their boy Bush will go down in history as the [W]orst, they need to think creatively to maintain their power—unfortunately for them, they’re fascists, so they could only come up with the same retread bullshit they always come up with.
A full-page ad for an Alaska cruise in the left-wing New York Review of Books says, “See Alaska’s Glaciers Before They’re Gone!�
Left-wing advertisers roxxor my Play-Doh and bacon.
Anyone who hasn’t, go read the unabridged “The Stand”. Don’t worry about all the crazy god shit, just read it where all the whatever the hell they are are the bad guys and here’s the point.
If it all goes to hell in a buck like these guys dream about, we’ll all meet in Denver. The challenge will be “Sadly” and the response will be “No”. Anything else gets a round in the forehead…
mikey
Wait.
Babe Ruth pitching a 14 inning WS shutout….. military coup.
…..
what?
Dammit
Someone remind me when I’m using the name of insane midwestern pepperpots and need to log back in.
It’s funny you mention the Stand, mikey. Just the other day I was thinking how there is a certain type of person who reads that book and thinks, “Wow! It would be so cool if a plague wiped out the entire world, because then we could restructure society just the way we want it, and I could walk into stores and take anything I want. And I just KNOW I’d be one of the survivors. I wouldn’t be one of the people rotting in the comfort station”
These are the kind of people who think it’s okay for 99.9 percent of the populace to die of a plague (or a bunch of people to die in a dipshit, pointless war) so that they can grab a bunch of cool stuff for themselves and maybe get women and shit, since the odds will be ever so much better with most of the other dudes dead.
Despicable people.
Military coup from… what? Ads in the New York Book Review? People trying to pitch no-hitters? People who don’t want to have a rational conversation about “open space” (wtf IS that, anyways?), so lets call in some air-strikes and carpet bomb the Great Plains? I’m so confused.
Someone wanna take the pulse of the American Armed Forces and their readiness to invade America, kill Americans, destroy our infrastructure, and drum the Federal government out to the gallows?
Or does he mean out-right rebellion? Not HIM personally, of course, but other people. Wanna ask a certain area of the country how that went for them last time that was tried?
“Marc of CA writes:
This is not new. A revolution would be welcomed, from the military, by me. It would save a lot of civilian lives.”
…Huh? How would… that.. it… how… I need a lay-down. Christ in a fuck duck McGuyver on a cheez-it stripper poll.
The Gingers of the world are a lot smarter than the average wingnut. Cuter, too.
That’s touching. A real Hallmark moment.
Alrighty, American conservatives aren’t afraid to admit their desire to destroy the United States. The “jihadis” have found their conduit. I saw the writing on the wall a long time ago. The conservative movement is a front for “Islamofascists”. Spread the word. The conservatives have aligned themselves with The Enemy.
“Global warming� seems to be joining “diversity,� “gun control,� “open space� and a growing list of other subjects where rational discussion has become impossible — and where you are considered a bad person even for wanting to discuss it rationally.
That’s rich. It’d be different if Sowell didn’t represent a group of people who argue that all the warnings and science on global climate change is just some elaborate scheme put on by environmentalists, scientists and Al Gore to destroy capitalism and discredit Christianity, and the big energy company funded think tanks are the only ones interested in the real truth.
A revolution would be welcomed, from the military, by me
Hey, dude, fuck you. Seriously. G.I. Joe isn’t real and military coups aren’t to be encouraged. Dickweed. I mean, the nerve, advocating a military take-over because the very political figures generated from the system and culture you claim to be superior to all others turned out crooked and incompetent. Hey, here’s a wild idea, if you don’t want venal, greedy assholes in charge, quite acting like the greatest thing a guy can do is make a shit-ton of money, even if he has to be nasty to do it.
And do these people actually know any soldiers or military folk? It’s not that all soldiers and sailors are bad people, but it’s foolish to pretend that going through boot camp somehow makes you an avatar of virtue. I mean, let’s put aside all the Tim McVeighs and Liddy Englands and white power groups and institutionalized racism/sexism/homophobia and the fact that some female soldiers are more scared of their fellow soldiers than the enemy. The military has problems, we can all agree, and I think it’s safe to say that some of the problems with the military are at least indirectly caused by how the whole thing is fundamentally designed. Let’s put that aside, and just consider the general mix of humanity and, boom, a military takeover is a dumbass idea.
Might as well have a coup pulled off by the plumbers of America. Why not?
Mussolini? Trains on time? Sadly, no.
I thought the Supreme Court installing the Bush junta was a military coup. We all know how well that worked out.
Herr Doktor, my hat is off to you again! You are teh bestest!
The call for a military coup is a negotiating position. They’d be perfectly happy to settle for a Fujimori-style dissolution of Congress.
Matt T. said: “Might as well have a coup pulled off by the plumbers of America. Why not?”
At least the water would run on time!
“Mussolini had the trains running on time”
but did he, or is that another wingnut lie?
“The Stand”, was that the Stephen King 2nd coming one? I remember reading that at high school and thinking it dumb, even though I loved King at that time (I’ve grwon out of it now). One of my contempories thought the idea was really cool, and I wondered what happened to that kid. The kind of folk who thought 99.9% of the population dying, so they could get “.. diamonds and stuff… ” , fight the antichrist and get an easy lay were destined for a sad, disappointing life, I fear.
I can’t help wondering if the day may yet come when the only thing that can save this country is Jeff Goldblum figuring out how to infect the aliens’ computers while Randy Quaid is soon to fly an F-14 Tomcat into the tailpipe of one of the invading ships.
Might as well have a coup pulled off by the plumbers of America. Why not?
Didn’t Richard Nixon try something to that effect?
Bergen Evans wrote what should have been the last word, back in 1954:
“All authoritarian political systems offer ‘leadership,’ and those who support them argue that they are at least efficient…. The myth of fascist efficiency is fossilized in the endlessly repeated assurance that Mussolini ‘made the trains run on time.’ …[His regime] brought disaster… and the trains did not run on time! The author was employed as a courier by the Franco-Belgique Tours Company in the summer of 1930, the height of Mussolini’s heyday, when a fascist guard rode on every train, and is willing to make an affidavit to the effect that most Italian trains on which he traveled were not on schedule—or near it. There must be thousands who can support this attestation. It’s a trifle, but it’s worth nailing down.”
Shorter version, from someone in Wikiworld:
“Mussolini did get the trains to run on time, but mainly by adjusting the time schedules to match when the trains actually ran.”
Not-so-short version: Mussolini’s Fascist state showed all the efficiency — and flexibility in the face of crisis — as you would expect from a system where every arm of government was riddled with commissars, and people were given authority on the basis of their ideological purity rather then competence.
At least the water would run on time!
Hee hee! And when the hamsters seize power, at least the Interducts will run on time!
Hey, dude, fuck you. Seriously. G.I. Joe isn’t real and military coups aren’t to be encouraged. Dickweed. I mean, the nerve, advocating a military take-over because the very political figures generated from the system and culture you claim to be superior to all others turned out crooked and incompetent. Hey, here’s a wild idea, if you don’t want venal, greedy assholes in charge, quite acting like the greatest thing a guy can do is make a shit-ton of money, even if he has to be nasty to do it.
Sure, Sowell may have just implicitly endorsed a military junta destroying the very democratic fundamentals upon which this country was founded, but you swore at lot in your comment. I think we all know who the real unhinged America-hater is here.
i think i’ve figured it out. sowell secretly, deep down inside, wishes that the iraq war would be over. but he can’t say so, or he’ll get kicked out of the cool conservative club…so he’s come up with a clever way to get the troops home! bring the war home! who needs a timetable for withdrawal from iraq when you have san francisco, los angeles, and new york to invade? sweeeet!
It’s kind of sweet that these characters hark back to the “founding fathers” with such adoration, yet pine for a military coup, something the founding fathers had the good sense to be terrifed of.
People who don’t want to have a rational conversation about “open space� (wtf IS that, anyways?)
Econocritters like Sowell believe that “sprawl” is the result of Individual Free Choice and is thus, like just about everything else in our society (except libruls, Muslimofascists, and women enjoying teh sexx), an Earthly manifestation of The Sacred Market. But this great and holy truth cannot be spoken of. Because our society is so totally controlled by PC librul elites. Oh yeah….this last group are somehow also not of the Market.
If Sowell’s coup happens, does that mean the troops have to fight us over here so that they don’t have to fight us over there?
“Wow! It would be so cool if a plague wiped out the entire world, because then we could restructure society just the way we want it, and I could walk into stores and take anything I want. And I just KNOW I’d be one of the survivors. I wouldn’t be one of the people rotting in the comfort station�
You better believe that happy crappy!
The home run records that made Babe Ruth famous have been broken but one of his records will probably never be broken — pitching the longest shutout in World Series history, 14 innings. Few pitchers go even 9 innings these days.
Which proves exactly how much baseball SUCKED back in those days. Those guys throwing 14-inning complete games were obviously soft-tossing and not putting their bodies under anywhere near the strain of today’s fireballers.
Who would you rather face late in a game, a guy who has thrown 14 innings already, or a fresh-out-of-the-bullpen Jonathan Papelbon?
Sometimes things change because the old way of doing things was idiotic. See: 2008 election.
And of course, the millitary would immediately have power over all the country and there wouldn’t be sections taken over by any fringe groups or annexed by our neighbors. I’m also sure the Islamofascist won’t try and do anything while the government is turned upside down. Nope, that would be just rude.
Anyone who hasn’t, go read the unabridged “The Stand�.
And the lesson in The Stand is that the military took over at the direction of the leaders who were trying to hide something from the public. Not for ideological reasons; not for national security reasons, but to cover up incompetence and malfeasance.
Pretty insightful, Stephen King.
Which proves exactly how much baseball SUCKED back in those days.
Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns, and Money deserves credit for this link to the Onion article, “In My Day, Ballplayers Were For Shit”
No, see, these are Random Thoughts. It’s a cross between emptying-the-notebook-because-you-can’t-think-of-anything-to-write-about, and auditioning for Larry King’s job.
Try it yourself. It’s fun!
“Cameron Diaz has never looked sexier!”
“Liquid Plumber, Liquid Drano–they BOTH get the job done!”
“If there’s a classier guy than Mr. Milan Kundera I don’t want to know about it!”
“When they say there is nothing like a dame, they’re talking about Dame Judi Dench!”
One commenter wrote he would support a coup, but only as long as the majority of the population supported it.
Uhhhhh, isn’t that what elections are for? A majority of the people vote to change the government peacefully! What a radical concept!
Try it yourself. It’s fun!
Hot-saucing or impalement? Hollywood weighs in on how much discipline is too much coming up.
This ‘I would support a coup’ nonsense is really their code for ‘I can’t wait for President-For-Life Bush to authorize we ‘conservatives’ to take our guns and go kill our liberal neighbors in a massive local bloodbath, for that’s the only way to pretect America and our Freedoms and our Party of Life’.
I live next door to people that are praying fervently that the Pres says it’s Ok to kill me and my children. And they call our side the Party of Death…
no no, you guys, i’ve really got it this time. sowell wishes the war would be over, can’t say so out loud, and so (the cheeky genuis!) he’s realized that if military leaders were in charge of the country, they’d get us out! that has to be it!