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What really happened at UC Davis?

ELLI PEARSON: Well, we were protesting together, and the riot cops came at us, and we linked arms and sat down peacefully to protest their presence on our campus. And at one point, they were -— we had encircled them, and they were trying to leave, and they were trying to clear a path. And so, we sat down, linked arms, and said that if they wanted to clear the path, they would have to go through us. But we were on the ground, you know, heads down. And all I could see was people telling me to cover my head, protect myself, and put my head down. And the next thing I know, I was pepper-sprayed.

[my emphasis]

Case dismissed.

And no, it is not acceptable to scapegoat a couple of riot police or a university Chancellor just to quell the emotional demands of mobs, or to sate a public outcry manipulated by a hostile press. For context, consider: How many police have been injured nationwide in these “protests”? Because by this sophomore’s own admission, the police were trying to leave and it was the protesters who decided to prevent them from doing so.

Obama, Biden, Reid, Pelosi, and the majority of their activist arm in the mainstream press have supported and romanticized these scattershot, intellectually bankrupt mob actions, hoping to sell them as a coherent “movement”; with their new stimulus push — camouflaged as a “Jobs Plan” — they’ve pretended to be on the side of the “working man,” singling out police and emergency personnel as those whose jobs they are trying to protect.

But the truth is, the Democrats are torn between using these unionized civil servants as propaganda tools, and despising them as symbols of law and order in a country where they are guardians of a neutral rule of law instead of soldiers for a dictator running a police state.

We shouldn’t be fooled. And we shouldn’t stand-by and watch innocent people be sacrificed simply because we worry about the long-term implications of receiving negative press. The left is looking for its Kent State moment. Hell, they’ve been longing for it.

This wasn’t it. And given what’s coming, we needn’t pretend it was.

(h/t Adam Baldwin)

****
update: And Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

For my part, we’ll be trying something non-traditional this year — not because I wanted to, but rather because the little armored Panzer rat blew most of our Thanksgiving shopping money on Sambuca, American Spirit cigarettes, and shoo-fly pie, then tried to fool me by carving what he thought looked like a turkey in a mound of Scrapple.

I don’t even want to tell you what he thought he could pass off as yams.

But enough about my problems. Have a great day, all!

135 Replies to “What really happened at UC Davis?”

  1. bh says:

    I’m thankful that we celebrate Thanksgiving on Saturday so that I can watch three football games today.

    Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

  2. leigh says:

    I really wish the cops would round up these kids and take them to the poley, especially the kids who are interfering eith the cops. That felony conviction will take care of all of their student loan problems since they will no longer be eligible. Win win.

    Happy Thanksgiving, ya’ll!

  3. sdferr says:

    Stripper poley or vaulty-poley? Into the pit with ya, chillens. heh. And Happy Thanksgiving Day.

    DemocracyNow. Faugh, what could be worse? Barry Rubin just today points out what we know, but say all too infrequently:

    The founders of America knew very well that every democracy in history had failed. They knew that unless they understood why this had happened and remedied it, the United States would soon become just another monarchy or dictatorship.

    They found the answer in this principle: No one can be trusted with power; every individual, party, or group will inevitably abuse power. Thus, the solution they proposed was to divide up power, to ensure that nobody got too much of it.

  4. leigh says:

    Arrgh, it’s the fat fingers this morning. Pokey. Calaboose.

  5. sdferr says:

    Hehs again leigh, as I pokey thee this national holiday, on the principle that it’s half-a-crime to let a juicily comedic typo go to waste, (notwithstanding the obvious proximity of the correct key on the key-board to carry the intentional weight).

  6. McGehee says:

    My wife is working tonight, so we’re celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow at her mother’s house. What I’ll be thankful for is that my mother-in-law has taken to keeping a bottle of Scotch at her house just for me.

    The fact one bottle probably won’t be enough, isn’t her fault.

  7. happyfeet says:

    if nobody really got upset about the soldier what got bonked by a canister definitely for sure nobody’s gonna care about some whiny california students what encountered some noxious fumes

  8. GeoffB72 says:

    Regarding the bolded text, what if the quote came from a frat boy complaining that a coed maced him when he and his buddies were just having some fun with her. It seems to me that by this girl’s own admission, her group was for all intents and purposes engaged in kidnapping. You may say it’s different because the cops can defend themselves, but that only applies if they’re allowed to.

    You have to be extremely impressed with the speed with which this movement has evolved, however. It only took them a few short months to turn a small collective into an inner city: different groups have their turfs, lawlessness is the norm and the cops who might protect people from each other aren’t welcome.

    And we’re not living there, so there’s something to be thankful for.

    Happy Thanksgiving, all!

  9. LBascom says:

    “the soldier what got bonked by a canister”

    You mean this soldier?

  10. TaiChiWawa says:

    PTOOU!-GAAGH! YOU MEAN THESE AREN’T YAMS!!

  11. happyfeet says:

    no that was a different one here is a story about the one what got bonked in the head

  12. geoffb says:

    This doesn’t seem to make any sense.

    NATHAN BROWN: Because what we’ve been seeing for two years on various UC campuses is that senior UC administrators basically use police brutality as a systematic tool to terrorize student and faculty protesters, to suppress dissent, to suppress free speech, and to intimidate students into not protesting, which, of course, has not worked: students continue to protest. But it’s the systematic use of police brutality, basically, to enforce tuition increases, for which I want to hold—

    Enforce tuition increases? With police?

  13. geoffb says:

    Also linking this again.

    Video: UC Davis Occupiers Agreed To Be Pepper Sprayed Before Incident…

  14. sdferr says:

    The Zombie post is useful background too.

  15. happyfeet says:

    would the anti-capitalist job-hating Obama administration miss an opportunity to rape a Texas-based company for 6 billion dollars and then hand that money to an overseas-based company?

    nope

  16. Pablo says:

    no that was a different one here is a story about the one what got bonked in the head

    Yes, that’s Scott Olsen, the IHateTheMarineCorps.com guy. Semper Fuck You, as it were.

  17. dicentra says:

    I am thankful for flannel sheets (even if they don’t match) and for my car stereo that plays MP3s off a 4-gig USB drive and for Amazon.com for selling non-protected MP3s for cheaper than iTunes and for time off from working so I can finally vacuum the spider webs off the curtains and for good weather this year so that driving from SLC to Boise isn’t an extreme sport and for Kroger® Sugar Free In An Instant Morning Boost Caffeinated Drink Mix (in cranberry, orange, and grapefruit, though admittedly the latter two aren’t as good because they don’t dissolve well in cold water) so that I won’t have to keep napping during the holiday and affordable gas so I can make it up here and even for Intermittent Cat, who is intermittent, for providing endless amusement.

    And for pw, which provides a place for me to come snark at will.

  18. Bill M says:

    What idiots. Amy Goodman really needs to rename her show to Socialism Now.

  19. urthshu says:

    Happy Thanksgiving to all of you. The Ms. is doing poorly, so I’ll be off to my friend’s bar later for the Bird & Booze. I do not know if I can get him to make me a Hot Brown.

    For fun take a look at that. The giveaway?

    “I am struggling to understand a world in which the only anti-capitalist organisation is Islam and it seems the only way we can have Islam is with Sharia law,” [Greer] said.

    You see, it has to be something other than rotten Capitalism, but what, pray tell?
    And you know, its maybe the first thing I’ve seen about Islam from a feminist.

  20. serr8d says:

    Hey, Happy Thanksgiving to the pw crew and commenttarantinos! I emulated the President, and had ham and turkey. But no arugula, srry!

  21. serr8d says:

    Oh, this I must share, from Ann Barnhardt (who hasn’t figured out how to assign permalinks to posts just yet…)

    So, Ann, who are you supporting for President?

    NO ONE. It’s like a pageant has broken out on the fantail of the Titanic amongst the oblivious at 2:00am on the 15th with the winner to be announced upon docking at the port of New York. That’s what this election cycle is like.

    But just a quick word about the Michelle Bachmann appearance on the Jimmy Fallon show on NBC, wherein Fallon’s band played a song called “Lying @$$ Bi***” to introduce Bachmann.

    It goes without saying that Fallon, his band leader and production team are moral degenerates. That’s obvious. What I want to talk about is Bachmann.

    Okay. You want to be the President of the United States of America, Michelle? You want to be the Commander in Chief? You want to be the leader of the free (?) world? Um, if you can’t see an ambush coming from Jimmy Flipping Fallon, who is a former SNL cast member (after the Phil Hartman era which is when SNL stopped being funny), and thus, by definition, a flaming liberal with no class who is wholly reliant on adolescent gutter humor, do you really think that you’re qualified to be the CiC? I’m serious. If you and your staff aren’t smart enough or self-aware enough to figure out that you don’t go walking into obvious set-ups with slack-jawed TV talk show hosts, then do you REALLY think you are going to be able to go up against Putin or the ChiComs? Hon, if you get rolled by JIMMY FALLON, then you won’t stand a chance against Hu Jintao.

    But then, the very fact that the gateway to the Oval Office is now kept by the likes of undignified flotsam like Jimmy Fallon and these other TV carney hacks is just more proof that this country is officially, totally and irrevocably screwed.

    My name is Ann Barnhardt, and I’m #OccupyingReality.

    I’ll say it again: that gal is 99.997% pepper spray. Good for her!

  22. newrouter says:

    ameritopia

    The framers’ formalism, with its humility about our knowledge and its limits on our power, is at work not only in our political institutions but in our economic system too. American free enterprise, like our constitutional system, establishes rules of the game that restrain the powerful and create competition that helps balance freedom and progress. And in economic policy, just as in politics more generally, that framework is undermined by a populism that wants to take from the wealthy and by a technocratic mindset according to which Washington should pick winners and losers. In economics and in politics, our defense against these dangers has to start with an adherence to procedural rules and forms that restrain the hubris of the powerful — defending markets, not coddling big business or soaking the rich; defending the Constitution, not advancing technocracy or populism.

    It is no surprise that we find the same pattern in our economic and our constitutional debates. In fact, the humble assumption of permanent human imperfections and the humble desire for forms that might prevent large mistakes are at the core of the greatest achievements of the modern age: of constitutional democracy, of the free market, of the scientific method. Yet the most ardent champions of liberalism in our politics have too often failed to see the power of such humility, instead articulating a liberalism rooted in utopian ambitions or their mirror image — naïve resentments — all dressed up as a theory of justice.

    The difference between these two kinds of liberalism — constitutionalism grounded in humility about human nature and progressivism grounded in utopian expectations — is a crucial fault line of our politics, and has divided the friends of liberty since at least the French Revolution. It speaks to two kinds of views about just what liberal politics is.

    One view, which has always been the less common one, holds that liberal institutions were the product of countless generations of political and cultural evolution in the West, which by the time of the Enlightenment, and especially in Britain, had begun to arrive at political forms that pointed toward some timeless principles in which our common life must be grounded, that accounted for the complexities of society, and that allowed for a workable balance between freedom and effective government given the constraints of human nature. Liberalism, in this view, involves the preservation and gradual improvement of those forms because they allow us both to grasp the proper principles of politics and to govern ourselves well.

    The other, and more common, view argues that liberal institutions were the result of a discovery of new political principles in the Enlightenment — principles that pointed toward new ideals and institutions, and toward an ideal society. Liberalism, in this view, is the pursuit of that ideal society. Thus one view understands liberalism as an accomplishment to be preserved and enhanced, while another sees it as a discovery that points beyond the existing arrangements of society. One holds that the prudent forms of liberal institutions are what matter most, while the other holds that the utopian goals of liberal politics are paramount. One is conservative while the other is progressive.

    Link

  23. newrouter says:

    “My name is Ann Barnhardt, and I’m #OccupyingReality. ”

    ’cause getting the big wigs @ nbc to apologize is a defeat in annie’s book? that girl talks tough but she doesn’t go into enemy terrain.

  24. happyfeet says:

    Ann Barnhardt is as american as mom’s apple pie and 219% more patriotic.

  25. newrouter says:

    annie fights like a girl

  26. newrouter says:

    more ameritopia

    It was February 25, 1825, and the U.S. Capitol was under occupation?—?sort of. Robert Owen, a successful Welsh businessman and socialist, wasn’t standing in the Rotunda holding up a placard. He was addressing a joint session of Congress from the dais of the House of Representatives. President James Monroe and president-elect John Quincy Adams were present for at least a portion of the speech. As Joshua Muravchik explains in Heaven on Earth, a history of socialism, the elected officials were mesmerized by Owen’s plans.

    In the speech, Owen shared his dream of cooperative villages where workers would see their poverty alleviated and their spirits transformed. Inspired by the success of his New Lanark community in Scotland, where employees lived in hospitable conditions and the children of laborers received early childhood and primary education, Owen hoped to bring to America exquisitely planned spaces where a new, improved mankind would come into being. Owen thought his scientifically organized village would “lead to that state of virtue, intelligence, enjoyment, and happiness, in practice, which has been foretold by the sages of past times, and would at some distant period become the lot of the human race!” Utopia, according to Owen, was not confined to the printed page. Utopia could be realized.

    Link

    mark’s book roll out

  27. guinspen says:

    we’ll be trying something non-traditional this year

    We went with the monkey.

    Happy Thanksgiving, all!

  28. B. Moe says:

    Cool quotes, newrouter, but the links don’t seem to be related.

  29. SDN says:

    Jeff, tell the panzer rat that according to my late grandfather’s description of cooked armadillo, ham on the half-shell is a real possibility. He can adjust his profile accordingly…

  30. newrouter says:

    The site of his American utopia would be New Harmony, on the Wabash River in southwest Indiana. Owen welcomed residents to his colony that April. “I am come to this country,” he told them, “to introduce an entire new state of society, to change it from the ignorant, selfish system, to an enlightened social system which shall gradually unite all interests into one, and remove all cause for contests between individuals.” There would be no 1 percent versus the 99 percent in New Harmony.

    Things did not work as planned, however. Structuring a community along rational lines was extremely difficult. There weren’t enough skilled laborers. Many of the residents were lazy. Shortages were commonplace. Central planning hampered the efficient allocation of meals. Factions split off from the main group. The community closely monitored the activities and beliefs of every member. Alcohol was banned. Children were separated from their parents; one later said she saw her “father and mother twice in two years.” Owen expelled malcontents. Only his generous subsidies held New Harmony together.

    And not for long. Owen’s “new empire of peace and good will to man” fell apart within four years. But the socialist utopian impulse lives on to this day. America
    in particular has a long and storied tradition of individuals coming together to create perfect societies. In these earthly utopias, competition is to be replaced by cooperation, private property is to dissolve into communal ownership, traditional family structures are to be transformed into the family of mankind, and religion is to be displaced by the spirit of scientific humanism. The names of these communities are familiar to any student of American history: Brook Farm, Oneida, the North American Phalanx. None of them lasted. None of them realized the ecstasy their founders desired.

    Link

  31. newrouter says:

    Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Bradford, who had became the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take a bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.

    That’s right, long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened? It didn’t work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation!

    But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years-trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it- the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild’s history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.

    “The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years…that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing-as if they were wiser than God,” Bradford wrote. “For this community [so far as it was] was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense…that was thought injustice.”

    Do you hear what he was saying, ladies and gentlemen? The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? This had very good success wrote Bradford, for it made all hand industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.

    Link

  32. geoffb says:

    Though she hasn’t provided links to individual posts as serr8d stated there is much to read at her site so here is the link to Ann Barnhardt.

  33. newrouter says:

    “Um, if you can’t see an ambush coming from Jimmy Flipping Fallon, ”

    annie promote mittens you’ll alot more hits.

  34. newrouter says:

    @33 supply your own “get”

  35. guinspen says:

    nishiowenshinji

  36. newrouter says:

    hey a dedication for annie the barn

    Midnight At The Oasis

  37. guinspen says:

    “cactus is our friend…”

    Yowza.

  38. NoisyAndrew says:

    And no, it is not acceptable to scapegoat a couple of riot police or a university Chancellor just to quell the emotional demands of mobs, or to sate a public outcry manipulated by a hostile press.

    Yeah, but this is California. Riot Police and University Chancellors are just varied manifestations of The Man. Man.

  39. geoffb says:

    Wisdom is found in strange places. More, more, more.

  40. newrouter says:

    hey annie you be a moosehunter? gabby stuff?

  41. Ernst Schreiber says:

    Every last punk-assed provacateur in that circle-jerk of fail ought to be expelled.

    Which is why the chancellor will be forced to resign.

  42. Ernst Schreiber says:

    If anyone’s interested in the history of socialism in the U.S., as alluded to be newrouter in a number of comments, Daniel Flynn worth a read.

  43. happyfeet says:

    nishi said bye the other day… that she was hanging it up, at least for at time

    i think that sucks

  44. geoffb says:

    OT:

    Some polling from Rasmussen.

    Among likely GOP primary voters nationwide, Romney is just behind businessman Herman Cain with 23 percent support; Cain earns 26 percent of the vote and Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is in third with 14 percent support. Romney runs best in New Hampshire – where he picks up a commanding 41 percent of the vote — but falls short of Cain in Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.

    A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Iowa caucus-goers shows that Cain is in front with 28% followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 21%. Congressman Ron Paul is a distant third at 10% followed by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich at 9%, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann at 8%, and Texas Governor Rick Perry at 7%.
    […]
    Only one-third of the caucus-goers (32%) are certain of their vote and don’t expect to change their mind. Among these voters, 30% prefer Cain, 22% Romney, and 17% Paul.

    Among those absolutely certain they will show up and participate in the caucus, Cain leads Romney 31% to 18%

    The first Rasmussen Reports poll of South Carolina’s Likely Republican Primary Voters shows Cain with 33% support, Romney at 23% and Gingrich at 15%. Texas Governor Rick Perry earns nine percent (9%) of the likely primary vote, Texas Congressman Ron Paul five percent (5%) and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann two percent (2%). Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman each pick up one percent (1%), as does “some other candidate.” Ten percent (10%) remain undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

    Of those who are currently certain of their vote, Cain leads Romney by 12.
    […]
    If it was just a two-man race in South Carolina, Cain leads Romney 50% to 37%, and he leads Perry 56% to 27%. Romney leads Perry 49% to 30% in that two-way matchup.

    The latest look at the Republican Primary race in New Hampshire shows former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney remains the clear frontrunner.

    The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary voters shows Romney with 41% support. Georgia Businessman Herman Cain comes in a distant second with 17% of the vote while Texas Congressman Ron Paul picks up 11% support.

    Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich receives support from eight percent (8%) while former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman attracts seven percent (7%). No other candidate reaches five percent (5%) support. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and five percent (5%) more are undecided.

    What a candidate needs to do to get past the early States is to win either Iowa or New Hampshire or finish a strong 2nd or 3rd in both. The key however to winning will come in the South Carolina and Florida primaries which are the first winner take all ones. Winning one or especially both would go a long way toward winning the candidacy.

    All the March primaries will be proportional allocation of delegates which will make anyone with a good early lead, made by winning SC & FL, alomst impossible to catch until the main group of primaries come in the Spring. Even then it would be hard as the bandwagon effect would be hitting if one candidate has a substantial lead in March.

  45. serr8d says:

    nishi said bye the other day… that she was hanging it up, at least for at time

    i think that sucks

    I missed that hanging-up thinger. But, it’s for the best, at least until she finally grows a few flagella of wisdom with which to prop up her massively overbearing Bell Curve of intellidumbth.

  46. serr8d says:

    Oh! ‘feets!

    A beer for you. )

  47. Carin says:

    nishi said bye the other day… that she was hanging it up, at least for at time

    i think that sucks

    That can happen when people finally have a realization that they are completely and utterly wrong. They go underground for a bit in the hopes that when they return, the silly things they espoused with have been forgotten.

    But I haven’t seen her around for almost 3 years now, and my memory is long.

  48. happyfeet says:

    it’s ok if people are wrong on the internet it’s just nice to see people engaged I think that’s the most important thing

  49. guinspen says:

    Gaiaspeed, monkeyzonofoot!

  50. Carin says:

    I’m not saying it’s not ok to disagree or be wrong. I’m just speculating why one may take a break.

  51. happyfeet says:

    I wonder maybe she did have an epiphany of some kind

  52. Carin says:

    As much as I enjoyed disagreeing with her (although, perhaps I’m remembering it more fondly now?), I’m more than happy to “lose” an adversary and have them join the team.

  53. Pablo says:

    A momentary lapse of unreason?

  54. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The difference between peaceful and non-violent protest? When you protest peacefully, you don’t get a facefull of pepper spray.

  55. John Bradley says:

    “We were protesting the presence of Campus Police at our thingy, so we joined hands to keep them from leaving.”

    They make my cat’s behavior seem logical and well thought-out. And he’s an idiot. Even compared to other cats.

  56. […] Occupy movement functions as a magnet for these confused and/or hate-filled people. UPDATE: Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom calls attention to one protester’s account of the now-infamous pepper-spray incident at […]

  57. LTC John says:

    I’m supposed to care about people hassling the cops getting pepper sprayed?! When I was getting shot at by everything in the Iranian and Jaish al Mahdi arsenal, I would bet none of those knuckleheads even yawned, much less cared.

    Oh, and that vet who got bonked in the head whilst fighting the cops in Oakland. Sorry, mate, you made you bed, lie in it. I am serving to stop the disorder and lawlessness you were spreading. So no sympathy from me.

  58. leigh says:

    Well, Colonel, you’re just a baby-killer! Just like my Colonel (USA, retired) husband was in Vietnam! Those kids are in college, man! You? You’re, you’re, well, youknowwhatyouare!

    They really make me sick. I’m so glad my kids all occupy the starboard side of the electorate. And the bonked on the head soldier ought to go help out at the VA hospital instead of hanging out with the unwashed.

  59. […] Goldstein of Protein Wisdom sums it up perfectly… Case dismissed. And no, it is not acceptable to scapegoat a couple of riot police or a university […]

  60. SDN says:

    Oh, and that vet who got bonked in the head whilst fighting the cops in Oakland. Sorry, mate, you made you bed, lie in it.

    Yeah, LTC John, it annoys the heck out of people like him and his supporters that I don’t grant them “absolute moral authority” on the basis of their service. I remind them that past is not prolog: Benedict Arnold started out as a decorated American hero, then made the wrong choice.

  61. Carin says:

    Oh, and that vet who got bonked in the head whilst fighting the cops in Oakland. Sorry, mate, you made you bed, lie in it.

    The irony is that they instigate violence, and then are SHOCKED when they get hurt. They are supposed to be able to agitate w/o the smallest bit of risk of harm to themselves.

    And I thought they were down for the struggle.

  62. serr8d says:

    I remind them that past is not prolog: Benedict Arnold started out as a decorated American hero, then made the wrong choice.

    A more recent example, one these history-challenged Owwies might recall, is Timothy McVeigh.

  63. geoffb says:

    There is something that must be understood about everything done by the left. It is “stage managed”. Not exactly scripted but they set up the scene to maximize the probability of getting that one perfect photo-op or viral video.

    In the case of the OWSies they station those who if hurt by the cops would be great victims right up front in the places that are most vulnerable. Vets, the disabled, children make for great propaganda when hurt.

    This is done at all levels on their side. Do you think that Pelosi marched, huge gavel in hand, with the black caucus through the streets of DC for nothing back at the Obamacare vote. It was to set up a possibility of some racial slur being thrown by the Tea Party “racists”.

    With a compliant media they can then claim that what they wanted to happen, happened, even if it didn’t, but the staging works even without the media compliance. Not every time but by loading the dice they will get the outcome desired eventually.

    The various activist manuals are full of details of how to stage every event to get the coverage that favors their side. Rush on his TV show used to show how the Clintons did this too.

    They are not shocked or outraged, they stage it to give an excuse to behave shocked and outraged. You are looking at a play not reality.

  64. Cardin Drake says:

    Well, I am as conservative as it gets. I thought what the cops did was stupid, unnecessary, and repugnant. These students were primarily protesting higher tuition. Every college student in the country should be out protesting higher tuition. The era of high tuition enabled by federal loans that can’t be discharged needs to come to an end. College tuition needs to be affordable again. If that means lower salaries for the education establishment, so be it.

  65. sdferr says:

    Cardin, what the police did has nothing to do with what the students are protesting. What the police did is solely concerned with keeping public order, and to that end, was mild and thoughtful, both for the students sake and for their own.

  66. Carin says:

    Cardin, if they are protesting the University, then why are they surrounding the police? The police are not in charge of tuition. The truth is lefties just can’t stop themselves when it comes to these stereotypical relationships. Cops = pigs. duh

    Honestly, the entire protest was stupid and pointless. Lefties should take lessons from the tea party on how to hold events to raise awareness.

  67. geoffb says:

    The era of high tuition enabled by federal loans that can’t be discharged needs to come to an end. College tuition needs to be affordable again. If that means lower salaries for the education establishment, so be it.

    You are right that the era of inflated college costs which ride on the back of, supposedly cheap, student loans must come to an end. However that is not what, even in terms of the single issue of student loan costs, that they are protesting. They don’t want lower tuition, lower college costs. They want someone else to pay those costs for them.

  68. Carin says:

    . The era of high tuition enabled by federal loans that can’t be discharged needs to come to an end. C

    The ONLY thing that is going to make that happen is for kids to stop going to college en masse. Stop going for 5 and 6 years. For us to make sense of the entire process of education, where kids learn what they NEED to before they graduate from high school to get a job, and stupid jobs don’t need to “require” a college diploma for a job that’s only gonna pay $10 or $12 an hour.

  69. Cardin Drake says:

    No, it wasn’t. It was unnecessary, because the decked out riot cops were not in any danger whatsoever from the students. It was stupid, because the protesters wanted a confrontation, and the cops played into their hands.

  70. Carin says:

    Geoff, can you imagine if college education was free? OMG, it would be as highly valued as free high school educations.

    Then employers would have to start requiring graduate degrees in order to find employees that could read and write.

  71. leigh says:

    Cardin, if all these students were doing was protesting higher tuition, they could have done so with their (parents) pocketbooks and gone to a less expensive school. The students need to be expelled for refusing to follow the directives of the campus police. These “kids” have already tried to occupy the Dean’s office and other faculty buildings (it’s just like the ’60’s, man!) and caused a lot of damage to buildings and grounds, as well as disrupting campus life for those who will soon be taking finals before Christmas break.

    We’ve seen this movie before: the students take over the faculty buildings; the faculty capitulates to their demands, their demands continue to escalate. The Dean quits and a newer “hipper” Dean is hired. Fast forward 40 years and here we are.

  72. Carin says:

    The cops were completely surrounded. There was an entire CROWD of folks yelling “fuck the police”.

  73. sdferr says:

    Cardin, I only assume you have never personally tried to move heavy inert weights the likes of linked-armed protestors? Nor suffered the back injuries that come with such territory? Nor do you consider the ease of injury caused to the protestors themselves, who, as one police offical put it, don’t come with handles. You really should take a wider more comprehensive view.

  74. leigh says:

    Has anyone calculated the costs of these “peaceful” protests? How much lost classtime (which equals forfeited tuition dollars, geniuses), overtime for police of all stripes, increased commuter time for those who live/work around the campsites of the Occuppiers—-no, I’m not conflating them, they are of a piece across the land—the costs of clean-up, EMTs and firefighters, et al? It has to be astronomical.

  75. happyfeet says:

    I went to a huge ginormous thanksgiving fulled of charming obamawhore types and not a word about the protest monkeys was spoken … it’s just not topical i don’t think in real life

  76. Carin says:

    It was stupid, because the protesters wanted a confrontation, and the cops played into their hands.

    That’s a game you can never win. If the protesters want a confrontation, which they clearly did, then they will simply become increasingly demanding.

    And, let’s not forget who is really complicit in this: the media. They are who presented the entire episode incorrectly.

  77. happyfeet says:

    leigh here is the story about *direct* costs what was circulating last week

  78. Cardin Drake says:

    Cardin, if all these students were doing was protesting higher tuition, they could have done so with their (parents) pocketbooks and gone to a less expensive school.

    Sure, but the tuition was raised after they started at the school. Universities really shouldn’t raise the tuition for students that are already in school. The education system is broken right now. Best estimates are that 30% of student loans are never going to be repaid. We have a new “education-government” complex that is to blame. Easy government loans plus high tuition plus no jobs upon graduation is a terrible thing. Lower tuition, get rid of the federal loans. I wish every student in America was out doing what these UCD kids are doing.
    How do you justify giving bankrupt banks loans at 0.1%, but you charge students 6 or 7% for their loans? The interest is not even deductible, except for a small amount. I am not a student. I went to school in an era where tuition was low, and you could work your way through school, which is what I did. We need to bring that era back. The bloated education bureaucracy is supported by all these easy loans, which can’t be repaid. The taxpayer will be on the hook again.

  79. sdferr says:

    And too Carin, the entire premise of “play[ing] into their hands” rests on the incomprehension of the public at large (displayed here by Cardin’s reaction), which is to say the ignorant opinion of the public at large. Is then the ignorant opinion of the public at large a more relevant consideration for the police as they make a decision whether to possibly injure themselves and the students, or handle the situation in a manner so as to avoid injury to either themselves or the students? I’d submit, it can’t possibly be so.

  80. happyfeet says:

    making the interest deductible would just make the problem worse I think

  81. happyfeet says:

    *fully* deductible I mean

  82. leigh says:

    I grew up in California, Cardin. There are two university systems that one preps for in high school. The UC system and the State system. The UC system is considerably more expensive than the State system, but both systems are much less expensive than universites in different states. As I understand it from an albeit cursory reading, tuitions were raised after years of faffing around about raising them because no one was brave enough to face the fact that costs are costs. I’ll return to my main point: most of these kids are there at an elite school, UCDavis is phenominal, on their parent’s dime and here they are pissing around on the quad instead of going to their Organic Chemistry lectures and labs. Davis has some of the most fantastic laboratory facilities of any Uni in the country, but I digress.

    Anyway, one of them is going to take a swing at a cop and finally get cited for it. BAM! A felony record at the age of say, 19 or 20 and not a chance at that expensive student loan program or a decent job because who is going to hire a punk kid with a felony record? The lesson here kiddies, and one that I have taught my own chirrun: get a scholarship, work part-time while in school, pay your bills on time, build your resume, get a fellowship or an assistantship in grad school if you need further education, and stay out of trouble. My eldest is on track to graduate with honors from a top tier school in May. He’s worked the whole time, carried a full load of classes, drives an old car that he bought himself and has no debt. He’s waiting to learn about an assistantship at grad school in another state. If not, it’s off to work he goes. Work he is prepped for and has amassed a network of contacts for over the years while working as an intern in the field. It can be done.

  83. leigh says:

    Thanks for the link, happy. Ima go read.

  84. Carin says:

    Personally, I’d like to see us adopt a bit from the German system. Start tracking in high school for “higher ed” or trade school. Iffen you’re going to work in the service industry … there is NO reason to go to college. I don’t care if you’re in hotel management – most of that stuff can be learned on the job.

    We’ve got to get it out of our head that people need to wrack up $80,0000 in debt (or even have parents pay that) for jobs where training occurs by doing.

    Even elementary education majors- honestly. You can either teach a kid to read or you can’t.

  85. Cardin Drake says:

    Leigh, the tuition increase at UC Davis is 20%. Every student on campus should be up in arms about it. If there is a funding shortfall, let the Chancellor and the bloated administrative staff, and the professors that teach 3 hours a week all take pay cuts. Some things are worth protesting.

  86. happyfeet says:

    you don’t need a college degree to become a board-certified lactation consultant

  87. leigh says:

    That’s fo sho, Carin. Elementary Ed has one of the most grade inflated curriculums and student GPAs in any discipline. I’m all for bringing back Teacher’s Colleges and removing Elem Ed from the curriculum at the University. Removing the emphasis on sociology from teaching would be a good place to start in the interm.

    The $80,000 in student loan debt is a handy untruth, as well. The average undergraduate leaves school with $24,000 in student debt or roughly the cost of a cheap car. The idea that the debt is “unmanagable” is BS. If that were the case, everyone would be walking and not driving. And, bonus! You don’t have to insure your student loan and it doesn’t cost more if you had crappy grades.

  88. leigh says:

    the tuition increase at UC Davis is 20%

    So? This was telegraphed for years before it was implimented. Get a job like I did while I was in school. Restaurants are always hiring.

  89. happyfeet says:

    The era of high tuition enabled by federal loans that can’t be discharged needs to come to an end.

    whatever happened to president gigglefart’s national service bullshit? I remember it passed but you never hear about it anymore.

  90. Carin says:

    I honestly don’t have as much a problem with the cost of college – it’s high, but that’s not my major gripe – it is that EVERYONE is encouraged to go to college. That kids don’t learn what they need to in high school and must incur the added expense. People go to college, and then later join the policy academy. Or work a trade. A friend of mine has two children – both good students – and one is now a longshoreman and the other is getting licensed to work on air conditioners. $24,000 (average – meaning many kids had NO debt, others had more – because personally I graduated with more debt than that 20 years ago) is still pretty good in debt if you are not going to be getting a particularly well-paying job.

    It appears higher education is doing more for those institutions than the students.

    SO many kids go to college, that merely saying you are a college graduate doesn’t mean shit. It used to have meaning – one that perhaps got you a leg up in interviews and perhaps paid off even if you had a rather useless degree. It doesn’t do that anymore.

  91. Cardin Drake says:

    Leigh, if I was a student at UC, I’d be protesting too. The tuition increase is going to pay bloated pay like the Chancellor’s. A 20% tuition increase is entirely unreasonable. University pay has been rising much faster than inflation for decades. It is time for that to stop. I have no idea why ostensible conservatives are siding with the liberal academic establishment in this. Non-violent freedom of speech and protest is a right. There was no reason for riot police to even be there. The question is “are government workers going to continue getting more and more off the backs of poor students and taxpayers, or is enough enough.”

  92. sdferr says:

    Non-violent freedom of speech and protest is a right.

    Blocking public spaces is not. I myself doubt your claim to conservative bona fides on that lack of judgment alone. But as with free speech rights, so we have dupe for the left rights as well.

  93. leigh says:

    If I were a student at UCDavis I would be thanking my stars that I managed to get into such a fantastic school, damn the tuition. It’s half what it costs to go to Cornell. As to the Chancellor’s pay: this is a nonsensical argument, much like the one about CEOs. It’s not as if the job of a CEO and the job of a janitor are interchangable, and neither are the jobs of the Chancellor and the students he/she oversees.

    The riot police are on campus because the students are refusing to disburse and the chance for harm to the students themselves and to the facilities at the University is great. UC Davis’ laboratory facilites have been vandalized many times in the past, destoying many years worth of research. Expensive equipment and laboratory animals have been destroyed and harmed by misguided vandals thus setting back the search for cures to what ails us and further burdening the citizens with costs as those cures is driven up.

  94. happyfeet says:

    the 20% tuition hike is cause the failshit state of california can’t afford to shovel money anymore at these failshit bloated greedy universities what show no inclination to control costs

    if these dumbass pampered obamawhore college fucks really wanted to protest tuition hikes they’d stop paying the tuition and find a path to their futures where they didn’t willingly submit themselves to tuition rape I think

  95. LBascom says:

    “I have no idea why ostensible conservatives are siding with the liberal academic establishment in this”

    Yeah, that’s what is going on here.

    If the discussion was tuition costs, we would have a different take. My personal would be, it is a good example of what happens when government subsidizes something, and a harbinger for Obamacare.

    That’s not what we are talking about though. We are talking about students protesting the bill for something they bought of their own free will, them occupying public space(actually blocking students trying to get to class where they can actually get their moneys worth being educated), and what the police can and should do about the situation.

    So Cardin, what should the police have done? Used something other than pepper spray, or just ignored that 20 people were disrupting the education of hundreds?

  96. happyfeet says:

    i bet if the piggy piggy union whore cops had taken dumps in front of where the whiny whiny obamawhore protesters were sitting they’d have even better and faster results than with the pepper spray

  97. happyfeet says:

    these people a lot understand the language of poop

  98. leigh says:

    Well, Lee, the cops could have just mowed down the protesters in a hail of bullets like the heathen Chinese, but we don’t do things that way here. Although, I almost suspect that the protesters would be more than willing to sacrifice someone for Teh Cause. Who that someone is, remains to be determined.

  99. Abe Froman says:

    In-state tuition there is less than my school cost 20 years ago, and it took under five years to pay back all that I borrowed. It kind of makes me want to pepper spray these whiny douches myself.

  100. ThomasD says:

    because the protesters wanted a confrontation

    What they wanted was something spectacular, to be followed by formal complaints of excessive force (all of which require investigation) and lawsuits.

    Instead what they got was watery eyes and snotty noses, which, with the help of fellow travelers assorted mobys, they attempt to spin into atrocity.

    No sale.

  101. happyfeet says:

    at this point after Kent State everyone was still all abuzz I bet

  102. ThomasD says:

    Mebbe they can dredge up Neil Young to write some whiny screech about the horrors of topical habanero extract.

  103. leigh says:

    I think all of the geriatric rockers and folk singers have already put in a token appearance. Maybe some Peter Maxx type wannabe can design a must-have poster. I love that Jay-Z was selling t-shirts with an OWS insignia and not sharing the do-re-mi with the protesters. What a capitalist pig, man!

  104. Cardin Drake says:

    We are talking about students protesting the bill for something they bought of their own free will.

    No, we are talking about students already enrolled protesting a 20% tuition increase that is scheduled to take place next year. I hate Obama and Obamacare, and I can hardly think of any issue that I don’t come down on the conservative side. There is never a recession in the public sector. There needs to be one. I am mystified as to why conservatives think there is justification for a 20% increase in tuition to pay bloated public service employees. If it was 50% increase, would it still be wrong for them to protest?
    I can see there is no getting in the way of the dirty hippie bashing fest going on here. Carry on.

  105. sdferr says:

    No one here denies these simpleton students any right to protest. So quit with the strawman. They may protest all they wish, though without endangering themselves, the public at large, or trampling on the free movement rights of others. If they genuinely propose to make the political situation better, they might do well to include with their protest an explanation of their views of change for the better. If they persuade the public, and through their efforts effect peaceful change for the better, fine and good. But mere caterwauling and howling at price rises isn’t a useful way of going about it.

  106. leigh says:

    Are the students locked into attending the offending schools next year? If not, then transfer. Easy-peasy. It’s not as if they weren’t given a heads-up. Your landlord can arbitrarily raise your rent and your mortgage holder can sell your mortgage to a third party. Your credit card companies can decide that you are risky and raise your APR to 28%.

    Are you suggesting that all pricing for all goods and services remain static for all time? That’s called price fixing and there are laws against it. College is not a right and a college education is not for everyone. The world needs plumbers, electricians, hair dressers and AC repairmen, too.

  107. LBascom says:

    “I am mystified as to why conservatives think there is justification for a 20% increase in tuition to pay bloated public service employees”

    Show me where anyone here has said there is justification for a 20% increase in tuition.

    Personally, my problem with you is this: “I thought what the cops did was stupid, unnecessary, and repugnant.”

    The protesters purposefully engineered a situation that demanded police action. They got what the wanted.

    Again, leaving aside any justification you might have for the protest, what do you say the cops should have done?

  108. Ernst Schreiber says:

    You disturb the peace, you pay the price.

    If me and my pals form a circle around you and refuse to let you out, we’ve kidnapped you; you’re being kept in place against your will. The officers were being held against their will and they responded appropriately as far as I’m concerned.

  109. Ernst Schreiber says:

    The world needs plumbers, electricians, hair dressers and AC repairmen, too.

    And there’s better money to be had doing those things than in picking up a —n—studies degree.

    Probably true for the humanities as well.

  110. LBascom says:

    Course if you really want to talk about fascist pigs and their union thug mentality, here’s a good kicking off point:

    Federal anti-drug grants, asset forfeiture policies and a generation of battlefield rhetoric from politicians have made pursuing low-level drug dealers and drug users a top priority for police departments across the country. There’s only so much time in the day, and the focus on drugs often comes at the expense of investigating violent crimes

    […]Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn’t bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for a pool of federal anti-drug grants. The more arrests and drug seizures a department can claim, the stronger its application for those grants.

    “The availability of huge federal anti-drug grants incentivizes departments to pay for SWAT team armor and weapons, and leads our police officers to abandon real crime victims in our communities in favor of ratcheting up their drug arrest stats,” said former Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Stephen Downing.

  111. B. Moe says:

    If you think it costs too much, don’t pay.

  112. sdferr says:

    Sure, but the tuition was raised after they started at the school.

    If we are to be scrupulously honest, the tuition was raised nearly a decade ago when the Deomocrat policy train of events in the State, running an increasingly out of balance budget with the complicity of weak Republicans, with ever higher shortfalls, had begun. The best time to protest, had these silly children and their parents been paying attention to their loss of freedom, would have been many years ago. These price rises were perfectly foreseeable, as are those which are coming to other States and other State provisions of service all across the nation. Oh, but it’s mean to insist that ignorance is no defense. These poor creatures should protest themselves.

  113. leigh says:

    Exactly, Ernst. Not only that, those jobs are resession-proof. Same with being a master mechanic.

  114. happyfeet says:

    they can always pay it back later in cheap plentiful obamadollars

  115. leigh says:

    I guess it is out of the question to, you know, get a job and save up for school first. Back in ancient times when I was in college, I knew a number of guys who had done some really difficult, but well paying jobs for a few years (mining copper in Arizona, working on the pipeline in Alaska, working on oil platforms in Texas, for example)and then gone to school. Me, I waited tables, tended bar and sold cars to put myself through school.

    My brother set up savings accounts for his ungrateful daughters’ college that were tax deductble. They repaid him by taking a useless major and dropping out, respectively.

  116. happyfeet says:

    this is the first I heard of this

    shaygirl13
    37 Minutes Ago

    Occupy San Diego went into a Walmart filled 75 carts and then left. Leaving workers to put it all back.

    Don’t compare these heathens to Tea Party or anyone else. they resemble more the mobs in that pit hole called the Middle East.

    stupid site doesn’t let you link comments

    what the eff do these losers think they accomplished exactly?

  117. happyfeet says:

    everyone’s all atwatter about the bath towel thing at a walmart in michigan but everyone looks like they’re having a good time really

  118. happyfeet says:

    here’s the video of the san diego thing they do that creepy repeating thing on and on I don’t know why their security put up with this for so long

  119. newrouter says:

    i like the sparkle thing with joey hairplugs

  120. happyfeet says:

    this is gonna be the mostest dumbest election ever I can tell already

  121. newrouter says:

    it’ll be fun like watching two trains collide

  122. happyfeet says:

    it’s time for Santorum, Bachmann, and Perry to go bye bye so we can find out who not-Romney is I think

    and Huntsman for God sake’s have a little dignity you disgust people on a visceral level and you need to stop reveling in it

    it’s deeply weird

  123. newrouter says:

    everyone should stay in. its only 39 days til political spin theater. its going to be awesome.

  124. happyfeet says:

    i’m bored though

  125. newrouter says:

    you need a joey hairplugs what sparkles. hours of joy. just don’t do honey roasted almonds that recipe needs tweaked.

  126. happyfeet says:

    i’m glad you said that

  127. Ernst Schreiber says:

    David Frum
    I might have to leave the party if it nominates someone other than Romney or Huntsman

    You shouldn’t get our hopes up like that Davey,

    you dirty tease.

  128. newrouter says:

    some frumpster advice

    @marklevinshow Mark R. Levin
    Why just leave the GOP, moron? Why not leave the country? That would be a real act of principle. fb.me/1l3AnVOYr

    link

  129. Pellegri says:

    You know I was thinking about the use of pepper spray for a while.

    I really prefer the fact they’re using it versus any other chemical deterrent they could be using because everything else has a profile that includes fatalities in it. Including chemical-free restraint, tasers, rubber bullets, etc.

    But hey accidentally killing people to spare them from pepper spray is cool I guess?

  130. happyfeet says:

    pepper spray can be fatal to asthmatics

    i read it on the internet anyway

  131. newrouter says:

    how about lemon-pepper spray?

  132. Pellegri says:

    mmm lemon-pepper spray

    with a side of fake butter spray

    @hf: anyone with a respiratory condition is potentially at risk but it’s a lot more favorable risk curve than stuff like CNS depressant gases.

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