It’s been a long day, filled with concern over the fee-fees of professional leftists like you and me, reasonably wonky (for here at least) discussions of economic stimuli, and lots about many of our usual boogey men and women.
So, let’s get to it: I don’t care what Rand Paul did when he was in college, but everyone’s dying to talk about the Aqua Buddha stunt. I agree with Ben Smith — the hunt for the victim of the stunt will soon begin. If and when she is found, we can expect the people at Hot Air to check out her countertops.
Stuck in the Funhouse
I want to blow something up
Cat Lady
Remember when everyone thought Admiral Stockdale was teh crazee? Good times.
Dave
This would probably benefit Paul if he was running in a state that wasn’t so conservative. Hell, I can relate to being baked and doing stupid shit in college. But I doubt the Jesus freaks in rural Kentucky can.
+2 (and rising)
Just Some Fuckhead
I don’t think countertop is supposed to be capitalized.
stuckinred
@Dave: They grow plenty of herb in Kentucky.
BombIranForChrist
I think Rand Paul is a dangerous lunatic, and I also think that this story sounds a lot like your typical college prank. My guess is that the woman was not “kidnapped”, but is characterizing it as such for her own personal agenda. I would say this if the kidnapped was a man or a woman.
I could be completely wrong. Rand Paul’s craziness could extend to kidnapping, murder, goat-humping, etc., but I would be surprised. If he was guilty of anything, aside from harboring extremely bizarre and simplistic rules of governance, it would be something medically creepy like storing all of his urine in jars and / or attempting weird Kentucky style mating experiments, like the Island of Dr. Moreau meets the Dukes of Hazzard.
Kidnapping is just not crazy enough for this dude. He’s more of a connoisseur of the wacky.
chopper
@Cat Lady:
GRIDLOCK!
stuckinred
CalD
I don’t give a damn what Rand Paul did in college either. But if he’s lying about it, that’s in the present.
Omnes Omnibus
Aqua Buddha? Is that a new aftershave? I have heard tell of Aqua Velva, but this Aqua Buddha is new to me. Does it smell ghey?
Dan
Is it terrible to be interested in anything that might damage Rand Paul’s electability?
BombIranForChrist
I am trying to sing “Aqua Buddha” to the tune of “Viva Las Vegas”, but it just doesn’t quite work :(.
SoINeedAName
Ahh … whether it’s “Buddha” or “buddha” – they both have TWO d’s.
Allan
Bong hits for Aqua-Buddha!
DougJ
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s a special blend: Old Spice, Hai Karate, and something that takes spots out.
MikeJ
@stuckinred: Keep your Kentucky skunkweed, we’ll keep the BC bud out here in cascadia.
(This is not meant to disparage the fine, fine work done by our neighbors to the far south in Alto California.)
Omnes Omnibus
@DougJ: Sounds ghey to me.
Steve V
Is the Politico commentariat getting even worse? I used to read Ben Smith religiously, but then he basically turned his blog over to Sarah Palin full time and I couldn’t take it any more. The commenters were bad then, but judging from that story it’s gone full-on birther.
stuckinred
@BombIranForChrist: Whateveah dawg, they say this stuff is all so much stronger than cambodian red was so I’ll defer to ya’ll youngin’s.
Allison W.
Don’t care what he did then either, but I do wonder why he was so quick to talk about legal options, according to TPM.
DougJ
@Steve V:
Yes, his commentariat is the craziest. I’m sure he’s all Palin all the time for teh pageviews. Forget it, Steve, it’s Politico.
me
Is Aqua-Buddha Billy Bong Thorton’s larger brother?
Comrade Mary
Back in the 80s, I dated a grad student who had been part of the school’s engineering secret society as an undergraduate. Most of their stunts, like painting the dome of the building holding the campus newspaper office, were typical mildly annoying/amusing stuff.
But this guy went out of the way to describe to me how he and another member of the society had kidnapped the student president of one of the university colleges (mine, in fact) as a prank. It was meant to play into the faux-rivalry engineers indulged in with artsies. They held her for several hours, moving her from place to place, and even tying her to a chair before finally letting her go. There was no fuss about the incident when it happened, and it seems that the woman at least mostly tolerated her captivity, but she had been genuinely surprised when she was grabbed and had been really annoyed that she was being inconvenienced (said my source: she was no longer on campus when I heard the story, and may have had a different story to tell).
I can’t imagine any campus tolerating something like that today. Of course, I can’t imagine myself continuing to see someone who thought this was a funny prank either. I had lousy taste in men back then.
brat
Look, Kidnapping is a felony. This is NOT stupid kid stuff. Then there is the coercion involved with the forced pot smoking.
These are two glaring instances of violent behavior towards a woman. It’s not kid stuff.
I wonder how he treats his wife, female family members and staff. I bet pretty shabbily.
Folks need to dig like crazy into Rand Paul’s past and present. I bet he’s got a closet full of horrors.
maus
I just want to see the Prison Planet crowd go crazy about Paul’s involvement in proto-freemasonry.
MikeJ
@brat: His policy papers are full of horrors. I’m all for anything that helps bring him down, and I don’t think it was right to kidnap this woman, but I also don’t think she was *that* upset by it since she didn’t file charges.
I’d say this proves he was stupid and annoying when he was in college. Which I sincerely hope isn’t held against one forever.
maus
@MikeJ:
Specious reasoning there, bub. Not that it’s necessarily a big deal, but fear of retaliation is still a big thing, if she was fucking freaked about it. I hope she is and was fine, but I wouldn’t assume that no charges filed means no fear.
El Cid
Could there be any more verification of the maxim that “libertarian” are just Republicans who want to smoke weed?
MikeJ
@maus: You’re correct, that’s not really proof. However, Comrade Mary tells a similar story of a friend of hers, who was annoyed , but not to the point of thinking it criminal. From what I’ve heard, I’d guess it was a similar situation, but you are correct, I have no way of knowing. I wonder what she thinks.
Violet
@MikeJ:
Maybe, but you have to remember where this was and during what era. Baylor University in the 80’s would not have been the kind of place a woman could have pressed charges for something like this. She would have been kicked out of school and vilified.
Baylor didn’t even allow dancing back then. Accusing an upstanding male student of kidnapping and admitting to smoking pot? That would result in her life being ruined. If it happened, it’s little wonder she didn’t press charges. Maybe she didn’t want to, maybe didn’t even think about it. But had she thought about it, she very likely wouldn’t have done much more than that.
Spaghetti Lee
I certainly hope that the aforementioned Kentucky Jesus Freaks don’t take to kindly to all these foreign substances and false-idol worshipping, and cast their ballot for that nice all-American boy Jack Conway instead. Because this man cannot make it into the Senate. A fullmetal teabagger/objectivist dickhead is precisely what we don’t need.
But beyond the politicking, I do think this is kind of a big deal, blindfolding and tying up someone and dumping them in your truck, driving them to the boonies and trying to make them take drugs. Sure, we shouldn’t all be judged by what we did in college, but it shouldn’t be an ironclad excuse, either.
WereBear
I believe it’s sick.
What if it was “kidnapping and forced alcohol”? What if it was “held at gunpoint/didn’t know it wasn’t loaded/made to take a Quaalude”? Or how about “Didn’t let her out of the room until she shotgunned a Pepsi”?
The details don’t matter. And I don’t care if it was a prank. It was a forcing of someone’s will on an unwilling victim. Even fraternities let the guys go if they don’t want to be spanked with a board.
This was a felony.
Keith G
Hi-jinks and bong hits. As I said over at P.A., in my circle of friends, Ohio State c. late 70s, that was a normal weekend – except the abduction would have been pre-approved (no innocent civilians). Many hands of Bong 50 were played.
My frosh year I was assigned to a dorm floor in Park Hall that housed much of the male swim team. I could not keep up with the weirdness, but it was entertaining.
Ah…the 70s.
Brachiator
I’m outraged, OUTRAGED that Rand Paul would …
Wait a minute. Nope. Don’t care.
If you are not doing stupid shit in college, you’re not trying hard enough and either don’t belong there or are practicing to be a tight-assed Republican.
Bella Q
I got no gripe against stupid shit getting done in college. It’s the restraint and forced relocation of an individual that has me wound up. Not funny, not appropriate, not a prank. Not lawful. And especially since given the tenor of the time and place she had no option of redress. I hope the good Rs of the Commonwealth of Kentucky see it for the anti-social behavior that it is.
Ripley
Don’t care what he did in college, but he crossed a line when he killed that homeless guy last week. Too much, Randy; too, too much.
Sloegin
Just weird enough to be true. And afik, the Rand Paul camp hasn’t exactly denied it yet, just said that they’re “exploring legal options”.
brantl
I find anything that points out what a nutbag Rand Paul (and his dad) are, is perfectly appropriate in this race. I hope that nutbag asshole goes down in flames. And I don’t just mean that he loses, I want him to lose spectacularly.
Paul in KY
Mike, it’s a little hard to get BC bud way the hell down here in KY. Our weed is quite good, IMO.
Snarki, child of Loki
Of course they’re “exploring legal options”!
Like “how much can we lie about this on TV without consequences?”
I think the more damaging aspect of this story is the statement that “90% of the liberals at Baylor were in this group”
So Randy Paul is a liberal? Hung out with liberals?
Ogami Itto
@40 Rand Paul: Deep Cover Liberal
http://tinyurl.com/38bku2g
Indie Tarheel
@BombIranForChrist:
Wrong song, try this one.
Randy Paul
@Snarki, child of Loki: This one is.
Please it’s Rand Paul
Me
Um, whether she pressed charges or not… the point is:
He abducted a woman.
That’s actually a pretty serious crime. Felony… How long does one spend in prison for such things?
I mean, imagine if it where an ‘undocumented worker’ who abducted a woman like he did….