[Author's Note: upon publishing this column, several readers contacted me to inform that the photo referenced was taken at an earlier anti-capitalist protest in Portland, not at the OWS rally in New York, as was cited in a number of blogsites that inspired my piece. Apparently, the OWS defecation was directed at a police vehicle, not the burning flag. I do not "pull" my mistakes, just acknowledge and correct them. The point of the piece is still relevant if police cars are defaced, but I apologize to my readers for the unwitting error. Tim]
There could be no more perfect iconic image for the bowel movement that is Occupy Wall Street than the photo of the guy with his red pants around his ankles taking a dump on a burning American flag.
That single disrespectful, aimless, and irrelevant act of stupidity encapsulated the disrespectful, aimless, and irrelevant OWS protest for people like me who have spent weeks trying to understand its purpose. I get it now – they hate America. I feel foolish that I wasted even a minute of my time looking for something more to it, something of possible substance.
I suppose some liberal apologist might be able to torture up some absurd symbolic meaning out of this act (“we’re number two!”), but here is what it conveyed to me: this guy is an ungrateful piece of excrement - his cause personified.
To a Libertarian, the difference between Republicans and Democrats is not always clear. But events like OWS remind us that while Republicans often lose sight of what liberty is, Democrats know it full well and hate it. The signs say they want to end capitalism. Crapping on a burning American flag was not an olive branch to the liberty movement from OWS; it was a challenge. Bring it.
When someone booed a gay soldier’s question at the Republican debates, every candidate quickly denounced it. Still, Democratic media pundits savaged the field for waiting even a few hours before issuing their rebukes.
It has now been days since I first saw the pictures of OWS flag burning and defecation but I have yet to hear a single Democrat condemn it - an act that any reasonable person would consider despicable if not criminal.
Just the opposite; President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, the head of their patron SEIU, and celebrity mouthpieces like Kanye West and Tim Robbins stepped forward to embrace and encourage the OWS protest shortly after the boy in the red pants dropped a deuce in the name of…of…exactly, there is no point to this whine-in.
Clearly, Democrats are capable of expressing outrage; that is pretty much their Johnny-one-note note. So one can only conclude that they do not find burning and defecating upon the American flag outrageous behavior. That is all you have to know about the current sorry state of the Democrat Party.
I was appalled this week when the Tea Party embarrassed civil rights icon John Lewis; the sight of a bunch of white guys shouting down a black Congressman who came to address them showed that racism still…oh, wait, that wasn’t the Tea Party, it was the OWS protestors, so never mind. Haven’t seen mass hypnosis like that since the Manson family or Jonestown; the only question is whether the least hinged among them will end up killing themselves or someone else when they lose their grip on that last marble. Thank you, thank you, Second Amendment.
Earlier this year, this same left-wing rent-a-mob distinguished themselves in Madison by booing the national anthem, drumming out the Pledge of Allegiance, screaming vulgarities at 14-year old girls, blowing the eardrums out of downs-syndrome kids, disrupting a Special Olympics ceremony, threatening to sodomize a gay photographer, threatening to kill opposition politicians and their families, extorting businesses, picketing a sheltered workshop, and committing mass insurance fraud.
Do you remember? Own It, Democrats. Now your boy lit our flag on fire and took a dump on it. Own That, too.
That’s right - Own That. You educated them, you encouraged them, you put them up to it, you paid them to turn out, you cheered them on as they did your dirty work – blaming others for your failed socialist policies. Knuckleheads led by knuckledraggers – that was Madison, and it is now OWS. Think we don’t know?
I fully support the right of every American to protest, including the right to perform stupid and outrageous acts like flag burning. But I also support the right of citizens to enact local safety ordinances and lighting things on fire is certainly prohibited in Manhattan, as is pinching a loaf on the sidewalk.
If I were the judge, his sentence would be to have a T-shirt made with a picture of his act of fecal protest and make him wear it for a day at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Let that useless pile mingle with the brave and noble wounded warriors who have left pieces of themselves on foreign soil defending that flag. It is neither a proper Christian nor Libertarian thought, but it would be ok with me if they beat him to a pulp with their stumps, and I bet they could. Please forgive me.
The OWS protestors demand money from those who have earned it, health care from those who must provide it, education from those who can impart it, and housing from those who build it. In exchange, they offer nothing.
I hate to be the one to break it to you Jedi’s, but this is not the kind of keen business acumen that employers are looking for in a tight job market. Herman Cain is right – it is your own fault that you are unemployed.
And enjoy the sleeping bag sex with those idealist OWS girls while you can, gamers; because they will soon be grown up women with an appetite for Louis Vuitton and you will be back in your mom’s basement dating your imaginations again. When it’s time to pick the father of their children that prick from Citibank with the BMW is going to start to look pretty good. Hey, I did not make the rules.
Amber and Chad won’t be sharing that Condo in Boca with you, Poop Boy. So grow up, pull up your pants, go apologize to a Vet and learn a trade. You still have your whole life in front of you, and this is still a great country - don’t mess it up.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
There could be no more perfect iconic image for the bowel movement that is Occupy Wall Street than the photo of the guy with his red pants around his ankles taking a dump on a burning American flag.
That single disrespectful, aimless, and irrelevant act of stupidity encapsulated the disrespectful, aimless, and irrelevant OWS protest for people like me who have spent weeks trying to understand its purpose. I get it now – they hate America. I feel foolish that I wasted even a minute of my time looking for something more to it, something of possible substance.
I suppose some liberal apologist might be able to torture up some absurd symbolic meaning out of this act (“we’re number two!”), but here is what it conveyed to me: this guy is an ungrateful piece of excrement - his cause personified.
To a Libertarian, the difference between Republicans and Democrats is not always clear. But events like OWS remind us that while Republicans often lose sight of what liberty is, Democrats know it full well and hate it. The signs say they want to end capitalism. Crapping on a burning American flag was not an olive branch to the liberty movement from OWS; it was a challenge. Bring it.
When someone booed a gay soldier’s question at the Republican debates, every candidate quickly denounced it. Still, Democratic media pundits savaged the field for waiting even a few hours before issuing their rebukes.
It has now been days since I first saw the pictures of OWS flag burning and defecation but I have yet to hear a single Democrat condemn it - an act that any reasonable person would consider despicable if not criminal.
Just the opposite; President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, the head of their patron SEIU, and celebrity mouthpieces like Kanye West and Tim Robbins stepped forward to embrace and encourage the OWS protest shortly after the boy in the red pants dropped a deuce in the name of…of…exactly, there is no point to this whine-in.
Clearly, Democrats are capable of expressing outrage; that is pretty much their Johnny-one-note note. So one can only conclude that they do not find burning and defecating upon the American flag outrageous behavior. That is all you have to know about the current sorry state of the Democrat Party.
I was appalled this week when the Tea Party embarrassed civil rights icon John Lewis; the sight of a bunch of white guys shouting down a black Congressman who came to address them showed that racism still…oh, wait, that wasn’t the Tea Party, it was the OWS protestors, so never mind. Haven’t seen mass hypnosis like that since the Manson family or Jonestown; the only question is whether the least hinged among them will end up killing themselves or someone else when they lose their grip on that last marble. Thank you, thank you, Second Amendment.
Earlier this year, this same left-wing rent-a-mob distinguished themselves in Madison by booing the national anthem, drumming out the Pledge of Allegiance, screaming vulgarities at 14-year old girls, blowing the eardrums out of downs-syndrome kids, disrupting a Special Olympics ceremony, threatening to sodomize a gay photographer, threatening to kill opposition politicians and their families, extorting businesses, picketing a sheltered workshop, and committing mass insurance fraud.
Do you remember? Own It, Democrats. Now your boy lit our flag on fire and took a dump on it. Own That, too.
That’s right - Own That. You educated them, you encouraged them, you put them up to it, you paid them to turn out, you cheered them on as they did your dirty work – blaming others for your failed socialist policies. Knuckleheads led by knuckledraggers – that was Madison, and it is now OWS. Think we don’t know?
I fully support the right of every American to protest, including the right to perform stupid and outrageous acts like flag burning. But I also support the right of citizens to enact local safety ordinances and lighting things on fire is certainly prohibited in Manhattan, as is pinching a loaf on the sidewalk.
If I were the judge, his sentence would be to have a T-shirt made with a picture of his act of fecal protest and make him wear it for a day at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Let that useless pile mingle with the brave and noble wounded warriors who have left pieces of themselves on foreign soil defending that flag. It is neither a proper Christian nor Libertarian thought, but it would be ok with me if they beat him to a pulp with their stumps, and I bet they could. Please forgive me.
The OWS protestors demand money from those who have earned it, health care from those who must provide it, education from those who can impart it, and housing from those who build it. In exchange, they offer nothing.
I hate to be the one to break it to you Jedi’s, but this is not the kind of keen business acumen that employers are looking for in a tight job market. Herman Cain is right – it is your own fault that you are unemployed.
And enjoy the sleeping bag sex with those idealist OWS girls while you can, gamers; because they will soon be grown up women with an appetite for Louis Vuitton and you will be back in your mom’s basement dating your imaginations again. When it’s time to pick the father of their children that prick from Citibank with the BMW is going to start to look pretty good. Hey, I did not make the rules.
Amber and Chad won’t be sharing that Condo in Boca with you, Poop Boy. So grow up, pull up your pants, go apologize to a Vet and learn a trade. You still have your whole life in front of you, and this is still a great country - don’t mess it up.
“Moment Of Clarity” is a weekly commentary by Libertarian writer and speaker Tim Nerenz, Ph.D. Visit Tim’s website www.timnerenz.com to find your moment.
