Putting Words in Rick Perry's Mouth, Ct'd

The Wall Street Journal has come to Rick Perry's defense regarding his statements on Ben Bernanke (statements that some, including Andrew Sullivan, have interpreted as threats). From the Journal:

Let's stipulate that Mr. Perry, in his first week on the Presidential stump, was wrong to use the words "almost treacherous, treasonous" in referring to Mr. Bernanke. Both of those words ought to be reserved for specific acts of betrayal against America, and the Fed chief is certainly a patriot. In particular, "treason" is the only crime specifically defined in the Constitution, which is something a tea party politician ought to learn.

On the other hand, everybody knows Mr. Perry meant no literal harm and was indulging the irrational exuberance that is one of his trademarks. The faux-outrage from liberals who routinely refer to the tea party as "terrorists" shouldn't be taken seriously.

The WSJ can get bent for referring to "liberals who refer to the Tea Party as terrorists," but the gist of the article is basically accurate. Andrew Sullivan responds:

There is nothing faux about the outrage here. And the bargaining position of the GOP over the debt ceiling was classic economic terrorism - using a collapse of the entire global economy as leverage for their anti-tax fanaticism. The threat of personal thuggery is not "irrational exuberance." It is rational intimidation.

Despite his silly statement about "personal thuggery," Sullivan also has a point here. While referring to Perry and the Tea Party as terrorists is irresponsible and hyperbolic, Perry and his TP cohorts are playing a dangerous, dangerous game by attempting to drag their crackpot economic theories into the real world. In this respect, the debt ceiling debate and bombastic statements about Bernanke et. al. are only the beginning.

Comments

Apparently, Liberals Are The Illuminati

posted 10/5/2012 by the Salt City Sinner Greetings, sheeple, from my stronghold high atop the Wells Fargo Building in downtown Salt City, where I type this before a massive, glowing bank of monitors that display the ongoing progress of my 23-point plan for complete social control. Whether you want to demonize me as a "liberal," or prefer the Glenn Beck update "progressive," we all know the truth, and it's time to pull the curtain aside: like all left-leaning persons, I am actually a member of the Illuminati. How else to explain how much power my side of the aisle wields in U.S. American politics? According to conservatives, liberals/the Illuminati control the media * , science * , academia in general * , public schools * , public radio * , pretty much anything "public," the courts * , and Hollywood * . Hell, we pretty much control everything except for scrappy, underdog operations like WND and Fox News, or quiet, marginalized voices like...

Where (Else) to Find My Writing

REGULARLY UPDATED Posted on 1/9/2020 - UPDATED 2/4/2025 MY FULL-LENGTH NONFICTION DEBUT! BLACK SUNRISE ON PISS EARTH: FASCISM, NIHILISM, AND THE 21ST CENTURY OCCULT Black Sunrise on Piss Earth: Fascism, Nihilism, and the 21st Century Occult is a nonfiction, anti-fascist, punk rock, and no-holds-barred look at the role that nihilism and the postmodern occult have played in the development of fascist movements in the United States, Great Britain, Germany, and elsewhere – a coordinated movement I call the Fascist Internationale. The manuscript’s title is a reference to Piss Earth 2025, a piece of fascist agitprop that I respond to, using my refutation as a framework for looking at the dangerous, deadly, and dumbass ideas undergirding everything from QAnon and Christian Identity to Nazi Satanist- worshipers the Order of Nine Angles and portions of the Asatru (Norse Pantheon worship) and chaos magick communities. HE LED US INTO THE WILDERNESS AND SPOKE TO US My fourth novel! No...

A Sinner's History of Utah: The Commercial Street Red Light District

posted on 8/12/2015 by the Salt City Sinner I moved from Utah to the American South as a teenager, and pretty quickly learned that if you hail from the Beehive State, there are a series of extremely dumb questions you will be asked when people first meet you that would not be asked of someone from, say, South Dakota or Maine. “Are you Mormon?” is obviously the first one – and a pretty reasonable question, all things considered. That is usually followed up with some sort of question about polygamy, however, which is lazy and ignorant and gets old remarkably quickly. Sometimes I would be asked if one can buy alcohol in Utah. This is, again, a not entirely unreasonable thing to ask, especially since many of these interactions took place back in the days of private clubs and membership cards – but it did strike me as a little silly given that I was often asked about Utah and booze while going to college in Conway, Arkansas, which is a town located in a dry county where sales ...

Salt City Sinner

Search This Blog