Compared with a flag burner who was shocked, shocked and horrified, when a disabled Marine vet broke his nose.
Or (since I usually defend officers) an officer who challenges someone to hit him, expecting the fear of time in 'the hole' or additional charges to protect him, and is flabbergasted when the subject cleans his clock.
There's a stupid, self-centered, entitled mindset which believes that you have the right to fuck with anybody you want without consequences. Grow up. Doing this is playing with emotion and emotion in most societies leads to action. Don't believe because our culture is extremely polite and forgiving (and it is, despite various political beliefs) that you can safely provoke emotion without getting emotion.
The kid who was cutting off the driver was getting off on the power of making someone else angry. Drawing a gun was wrong, there will be consequences... but only a moron would be surprised that provoking anger led to- you guessed it- anger.
I don't mind killing a bear if it needs killing or you need meat, but if you torment an animal and get eaten, you had it coming.
Couldn't agree more. I remember a clip from Chicago during the '68 Democratic convention. Some kid standing almost nose-to-nose with a cop, giving him the finger and calling him a pig.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the officer is not supposed to whack the lad, but anybody standing in front of a man who has a big stick and a sidearm and certain leeway to use them who does stuff like that? I have no sympathy for him.
I was the driver of the car that got boxed, I'd claim self-defense. More people killed every year with cars than guns. A man in fear for his life because he believes somebody might smack him with an automobile?
They don't want me on that jury ...
I'm always amazed at the idiots that build beautiful homes in a forest, and then, in tragic amazement, they cry on TV while their homes are destroyed in the glorious blaze of forest fires. Of course, they are still building multi-million dollar homes all over the coast of Florida, Louisiana and Texas. These homes are insurable. My house, built in 1927, and nowhere near a flood zone, has weathered multiple hurricanes; yet, we are "uninsurable" except by the government subsidized property insurance that is only available to people that are refused by everyone else.
ReplyDeleteHaving the right to behave a certain way doesn't include escaping the consequences.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Molly.
ReplyDeleteWhere there is a right there is also a responsibility. You abuse your right, you pay the price.
ReplyDeleteI'd consider that an axiom (or was it a dendrite?).
Actions have consequences. Every action is a choice. You are responsible for the consequences of your choices. These are lessons I am teaching my six-year-old son. Where does it get lost in adults?
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