Alright, I have to address something posted by my good buddy Wertz over at his blog, The Wertz Generation. Here is Wertz’ post:
You may be thinking, “OK, dude, just reply over at his blog.” Well, it’s not going to happen.
See, I like Wertz. He’s a great guy. We originally met online after he liked what he saw over at America’s Debate. He joined up and “got it” right away. He was one of the first two staffers ever on the site, the other one being the wonderful Cyan.
Wertz and I have met in person several times, and he has even enjoyed the hospitality that is my humble home. We have had several engaging debates live and in person, and Wertz knows that I will often take a very odd position to make a point.
I don’t intend for my comments to be seen as mean, rude, hateful, or disrespectful. Any perception of this by The Wertz Generation audience would be mistaken. I don’t want to cause trouble over at Wertz’ site (although I really don’t want to cause trouble over here either!). So, out of respect for Wertz, I am not going to post this at his blog.
So, let me cut my comment from Wertz’ reply form and paste it into mine:
You may have heard that Bill Kristol, neocon founder of the Project for the New American Century and one of the greatest enemies this country has ever had, got pied while addressing students at Earlham College the other night.
Kristol-1 Kristol-2 Kristol-3
This innocuous act of civil disobedience has apparently caused even more outrage than the attempted “assault” on Anne Coulter a few months ago, with calls for the expulsion of the students involved. Puh-lease. This was a joke – and the mildest possible response to someone like Kristol, who is lucky he wasn’t driven off campus by villagers brandishing pitchforks and torches (as he would be in any setting which harbored a handful of genuine patriots).
Best take on the incident is from Rising Hegemon. Hilarious!
Hypocrisy at its finest here!
Let’s look past the political prejudice and emotion and look at the State of Indiana’s laws, shall we? Bear in mind that I don’t agree with either of the assaulted parties.
(Impertinent parts edited out)
Battery
Sec. 1. (a) A person who knowingly or intentionally touches another person in a rude, insolent, or angry manner commits battery, a Class B misdemeanor.IC 35-42-2-3
Provocation
Sec. 3. A person who recklessly, knowingly, or intentionally engages in conduct that is likely to provoke a reasonable man to commit battery commits provocation, a Class C infraction.
Yep, that sure seems to be battery and provocation to me, both misdemeanors.
Let’s look at the Ann Coulter situation, which occurred in Arizona. Arizona law reads:
(Impertinent parts edited out)
13-1203. Assault; classificationA. A person commits assault by:
3. Knowingly touching another person with the intent to injure, insult or provoke such person.
OK, so it was a misdemeanor there, too. And, they were arrested.
So what is the lesson here? The law is the law unless The Wertz Generation disagrees.
Let’s extend this with a hypothetical. Let’s say that someone, for whatever reason, decided to throw a pie in the face of a speaker at a homosexual rights rally.
The Wertz Generation would be outraged. There would be calls for arrest, and if it happened at a university at the hand a student, there would surely be calls for suspension or expulsion.
Charges of “assault” would be cried from the treetops! The “law only applies when it favors me” crowd would be calling for prosecution under hate crime statutes– after all, the victim was gay.
And The Wertz Generation would applaud in hypocrisy.