The comment thread here at Boing Boing is simply stunning in its ignorance. Watch as a bunch of people who took "Social Studies" instead of "AmGov 101"and who wouldn't know a platoon from a platypus discuss the Coming Martial Law Of The Evil George Bush! And how to fight it!
The uprising of the unarmed hippie ignorami! It's awesome. Really!
How do people this dumb stay alive? You'd think they'd be dropping dead left and right from driving off cliffs while text-messaging or forgetting to breathe while setting their entertainment centers to TiVo Dancing With The Stars.
(And to the guys way off to my right who are going on about the 1st BCT's current rotation, you are aware that it is a BRIGADE Combat Team, right? How many divisions did the Army use in Baghdad? And they're going to do Operation Garden Plot with one BCT? Pass the bong, dude, 'cause I want some of that.)
(H/T to Unc.)
Many moons ago this was the sort of thing you'd see on right-wing bulletin boards, griping about President Clinton. It was just as loony then, except at least the complainers were somewhat better armed.
ReplyDeleteI could never quite get my head around it: So, you're telling me that the whole idea is that we send our military to take over the rest of the world; and while they're busy, the UN is gonna send their soldiers here to take over America. Have I got that right?
My personal favorites were the lunatics who tried to convince me that the stickers on the backs of roadsigns were for foreign armies to find their way around because, as everyone knows, they all drive on the opposite side of the road.
Err...yeah. They all do, except for Continental Europe, most of Asia (Japan excluded), nearly all of Africa and South America. Yup. Except for them, they all do ("But dude, you just don't get it...I have this video...they have pictures of actual signs that have these stickers!")
It's comforting, in the same way that the Book of Ecclesiastes is comforting, to see that their lunatics are as crazy as our lunatics.
gvi
Facts aren't as exciting as fantasy.
ReplyDeleteI'll be down by Beech Grove today to get some work done for the blogger 9mm Para. You know, right in the shadow of the FEMA Beech Grove death camp. (Google that for hours of fun...)
"Martial Law is coming! Look at the 1st BCT!"
"Dude, you couldn't secure downtown Detroit with one brigade, let alone CONUS. Besides, the Alabama National Guard could kick the their ass."
"How do people this dumb stay alive?"
ReplyDeleteThey survive because they live in a country where they can behave irresponsibly without repercussions. If martial law ever befalls the U.S., they would be the first to turn in their neighbors and cover up the mass graves.
I once argued with a gun banner type, and his biggest point was that some assault rifles in the hands of civilians wouldn't stop the 101st Airborne ( for instance) for 30secs in the govmint's tyrannical plans and removing them would have other benefits.
ReplyDeleteI looked at him and said, and HOW many massacres of armed resisting civilians would it be before it couldn't be hid and the local Natl Guard Units and a good fraction of regulars said "to hell with this" and joined the civilians side?
Crickets. As we both considered a 2nd civil war.
You just don't understand the left.
ReplyDeleteIt took a few divisions to take Baghdad because even though they were backward third worlders, they had a gun culture.
The way the left reacts to toy guns, pictures of guns, and how they treat kids who draw pictures of soldiers with weapons, one platoon could take Seattle, and a decent squad could keep San Francisco in lockdown until they either starve, or agree to take a bath and recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
A brigade is all that is needed to subjugate the unarmed leftist sheep.
If there was such thing as a day of accountability for the people in the media who have worked slavishly to terrorize their fellow Americans with tales of economic doom, then there'd be hell to pay, indeed.
ReplyDeleteIf Obama comes out on top next month, you watch-- within 24 hours it'll all be sweetness and light, and shiny happy people, although things will not materially have changed a whit. Perception is reality.
Ahh! I love the smell of PSH in the morning...
ReplyDeleteThis is especially amazing if you actually know anyone who is currently in the military or ever was...the idea that they are automatons that could be commanded to take on civilians for the purpose of a take-over of the country is patently absurd. It's also hilarious to see the "war in Iraq is unwinnable" crowd claim that the same type of war here is a fait accompli when any force would face some of the most knowledgeable, well-equipped and skilled civilian marksmen in the world (not that it would be a pushover but they certainly wouldn't be randomly hip-firing AKs!) And with the vast majority of our resources already committed elsewhere it's not even remotely likely they could be detached from those situations soon enough to retrain and redeploy to secure the nation for the Bush Empire but I guess if you're completely free of any actual working knowledge of these things, it sounds perfectly plausible.
The way the left reacts to toy guns, pictures of guns, and how they treat kids who draw pictures of soldiers with weapons, one platoon could take Seattle
ReplyDeleteKevin
Naw, the Pink Pistols from Capitol Hill would take 'em out.
Somerled;
ReplyDeleteNot to mention: how many officers and NCOs (not to mention troopers) in the 101st would refuse to execute their orders? After all, they are required to be LAWFUL orders. Says so right here on the label. And I'm told those folk take that point seriously, since Nuremberg and all.
M
Tam, I'm still bitterly disappointed the financial apocalypse hasn't lead to bands of roving zombies on the streets (yet). All this sensible commentary is a real buzzkill. Stop it and get with the programme.
ReplyDeleteI get a kick out of the same folks who say:
ReplyDelete1) The Iraq war is hopeless, because a modern professional army is helpless in combad against an irregular force of part-time fighters with small arms and improvised weapons
and
2) It is ludicrous to consider the 2nd amendment protection against tyranny, because there is no way an irregular force of part-time fighters with only small arms and improvised weapons can take on a modern professional army.
It has been said that genius is the ability to believe two contradictory things at the same time. If so, then the Left is composed entirely of Einsteins.
Some time back I had a similar discussion with someone over at du Toit's.
ReplyDeleteApart from what's already been discussed (refusing to obey illegal orders, mass desertion, etc.) I pointed out that a modern military sits at the apex of a massive and complex civilian infrastructure. Everything from spare parts to daycare for dependents requires willing participation by civilians.
That's something not likely to be found if the .mil starts herding them into the various FEMA Death Camps (cleverly hidden so that only thousands of Intarwebz nutjobs seem to know about them.)
Of course, you can't reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned into, so just bring lots of popcorn and enjoy the spectacle.
(Sigh. Sometimes I miss the days when all we had to worry about were the 50,000 UN troops secretly camped outside of Libby, Montana.)
revgreg:
ReplyDelete...the idea that they are automatons that could be commanded to take on civilians for the purpose of a take-over of the country is patently absurd."
Really??
Remember, it was the National Guard who went house to house in New Orleans, sticking automatic weapons in people's faces and confiscating their legally-owned firearms. And the citizens they were forcibly disarming had done no harm to anyone at all.
In the event of civil chaos, military people would be assured that they were "real Americans defending the Constitution" and they would follow orders.
oh, and kevin - yeah, they may have SanFran on lockdown, but Oakland may be another matter...
ReplyDeleteSpeak for yourself, twinkletoes. I and every Soldier in my Reserve unit can recite their Oath of Enlistment (or Oath of Commission/Warrant), and can tell you what defending the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, means, as well as the exact nature of Rules of Engagement, legal orders, Escalation of Force, and the consequences of violating even the spirit of these regulations, ESPECIALLY stateside.
ReplyDeleteThat's Officers, NCOs and Other Ranks, just in case you didn't know.
The phrase "Don't do anything that would land you or your superiors on the cover of USAToday" is darn near institutional wisdom, my friend.
We're not the droids you're looking for.
gvi
Anon: Only one Oklahoma NG unit participated in that NO gun grab ... and the Lt. who ordered his unit to participate was cashiered for doing it.
ReplyDeleteThe rest was done by NOLA, LA, Chicago, and NJ cops.
There aren't enough of those assholes to do the whole country.
The only reason that gun grab worked was because communications were interdicted by FEMA ... word could not get around, so for the few days they did it, the cops had a free hand.
On the one occasion they confronted a disobedient neighborhood militia, the cops backed off, and left.
If anything, the lesson to learn from Katrina is the importance of having a firearm stored off premises ... somewhere handy, and not effing buried in a pipe.
Oh Me, Oh My, I have been a loyal Boing Boing reader for several years. There are many people just like me, that do the same. The site is great in uncovering weird shiznit. I do admire some of the MAKE types that are trying to do the most with using the debris of other "wiser" people. There appears to be as broad a swath of political sensibilities displayed in the Techno Geek World as anywhere, except maybe the Science Fiction World. The bad part of that comment is that many of the "Free Forward Thinking Leftists" have either forgotten to take their meds and/or maybe they suffer from a mental disorder. I have to say that I look to Tam, Kim and Ace to set me straight every morning. I even started the accursed "John Ringo saves the world set" during my recent double bypass in Memphis. Hell, I was just trying to see how close I could get to death without knowing it. I am about 3 months shy of my 50th and I had a "widow maker" stalking me. Which brings up a question that I have for my surgeon during my next visit. When can I start shooting again? Do I really have to wait 8 weeks?
ReplyDeleteMark, that is true. When I was in law enforcement I swore a oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution. Every law enforcement office I worked for in east-central Kansas had a federally mandated "Emergency Preparedness Plan" on the shelf in 3-ring binders. One of the immediate tasks listed for law enforcement officers was to confiscate firearms.
ReplyDeleteI suspect they're still sitting on the shelves. After I read it, I decided I'd quit before carrying large parts of it out. There's nothing in the Constitution that states it can be dispensed with in case of emergencies.
You lost me there at the end. Was posse comitatus unnecessary? Quaint? Paranoid? (I'm aware its still in force, but its been pared down since 9-11.)
ReplyDeleteThis would not have been done 20 years ago; I think its reasonable to examine it critically now.
The question I have is not what Bush is going to do with a brigade, but what the next Janet Reno might do with it.
The framers seemed to assume flawed office-holders when they wrote the constitution; our current Congress and administration seem to assume we'll always have men of good will and competence as they write our new laws.
1) "The Framers" had nothing to do with Posse Comitatus. George Washington was long dead in the 1860s.
ReplyDelete2) Posse Comitatus was "pared down" long before 9/11 and the eeevil BushRoveCheney conspiracy. During the Reagan administration it was determined that troops could be used in certain special situations,such as the War on (Some) Drugs, or emergencies caused by rioting or natural disasters (Do you remember LA in the last year of Bush the Elder's term?)
This doesn't mean I think it's right mind you... I was just expressing amusement at how lathered up the Mighty Militiamen were getting over one brigade. Maybe if they jogged more and drank less Budweiser, they'd be in better shape to take on a BCT or two.
ReplyDeleteI was unclear. I knew Posse Comitatus dates to just after the Civil War, but I was thinking of it as compatible with Constitutional government, contrasted to even a single homeland brigade which I consider at least extraneous to the Constitution as written.
ReplyDeleteThe violations of Posse Comitatus are two decades old, and no more repugnant now than they were then.
ReplyDeleteMy umbrage is taken with those who act like this is some new, significant, and uniquely repugnant thing. Where were they when the USMC moved into South Central?
So, there's a Brigade Combat Team in the US of A. Well guess how many combat DIVISIONS are still here on home ground, they're not all in the Middle East. Every fort or post in the U.S. has combat troops stationed there. Still there's not enough to do it all at once but some commo would have to be arranged between the militas.
ReplyDelete