Rich “starbursts” Lowry opens up a can of silly in the National Review with a piece titled “The Murders That Don’t Count: In America, the lives of young black people are cheap, unless they happen to fit the right agenda.” Already groaning? Don’t stop now. It gets worse:
Delric Miller IV died in a hail of bullets a month ago. When someone fired 37 AK-47 rounds into his Detroit home at 4:30 a.m., he was mortally wounded while dozing on the couch. He was nine months old. No one made the multicolored teething ring he got for Christmas or his toy hammer into a national symbol of random violence.
Last year, Charinez Jefferson, 17, was shot and killed on a Chicago street. “She begged the shooter not to shoot her because she was pregnant,” a pastor explained. The alleged assailant, Timothy Jones, 18, shot her in the head, chest and back after seeing her walking with a rival gang member. New York Times columnist Charles Blow did not write a column about Jefferson’s killing as a symbol of the perils of being a young black woman in America.
Last June, a stray bullet from a confrontation on a Brighton Beach, N.Y., boardwalk killed 16-year-old Tysha Jones as she sat on a bench. A 19-year-old man, out for revenge after an earlier scuffle on the boardwalk, was charged in the shooting. Tysha’s heartbroken mother was not featured on all the national TV shows.
In January, 12-year-old Kade’jah Davis was shot and killed when, allegedly, 19-year-old Joshua Brown showed up at her Detroit house to demand the return of a cellphone from Davis’ mother. When Brown didn’t get the phone, he fired shots through the front door. No one held high-profile street protests to denounce gunplay over such trifles.
You have to work to be this obtuse. In each and every case listed above, the police and authorities have arrested and charged the murderer, or are working nonstop to discover who the murderers are and track them down and prosecute them.
That’s one reason why the Trayvon Martin case is different. We know precisely who killed him, yet he walks free and clear. That is why the outrage is so loud. Trayvon Martin was killed for the crime of walking while black, the cops did nothing to investigate his death and appear to be actively impeding any investigation, they basically gave his killer a pat on the back before sending him on his way, and then they slapped a John Doe tag on his corpse and threw him into the morgue’s lost and found pile.
Yes, each and everyone of the murders that halfwit Lowry mentioned is awful. Yes, black on black crime is awful. But in each case above, the victim’s family are receiving some semblance of justice.
And that is all anyone wants for Trayvon Martin. Justice.
Lowry just can’t be that stupid.
Gus diZerega
It is hard to be bright and principled and be a right winger. It helps to be neither.
abo gato
Yes, he can. The right wingers are willfully stupid. It makes their life so, so much easier.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Of course Lowry can be that stupid.
RossInDetroit
No, but he thinks his readers are and statistics are on his side there.
cathyx
So in other words, if we don’t make a big story out of every innocent black person who is murdered, we shouldn’t make a big story out of any.
R Johnston
The empirical evidence suggests otherwise. The possibility that he’s that stupid also follows as a direct corollary to the proven fact that peak wingnut is a lie.
Polish the Guillotines
Team Stupid, or Team Evil?
Zifnab
It may also be worth noting that Lowry rattled off a list of gun fatalities. And yet, had his article been entitled “Gun Deaths Rampant in the US: Perhaps maybe we should start further restricting access to firearms or something” Lowry would have been strung up by his own entrails by the NRA.
But whining that the political ramifications of homicides in black neighborhoods aren’t benefiting the GOP? That’s always fair game.
ice weasel
Well, as many have already pointed out, he can be that stupid. Yes, he can. He can also be that much of an asshole.
Stupid. Asshole.
I can live with that.
BruceFromOhio
Sorry, you’re wrong.
Baud
It’s not about being stupid. It’s about creating enough noise so that people tune out instead of focusing on the injustice.
Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water
@Polish the Guillotines: I vote “both”
Sly
Unless my racist id decoder ring is failing, Lowry is saying that no one really cares about Trayvon Martin beyond the fact that his murderer was not black, and that this implies a racist pathology among those “making a big deal about it.”
A common type of defense mechanism to insulate oneself against the racial dynamics of an event or social phenomenon. The smartest thing Eric Holder ever said is that Americans are cowards when it comes to race.
Svensker
(Thought I’d clicked onto Sadly, No by mistake. Oh, wait, no toilet, so not SN. TBogg, izzat you?)
Yes, Lowry can be/is that stupid. Also, too, a dick.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
You are kidding, right? Of course he can be that stupid. He is that stupid for fuck’s sake. Are you seriously undercaffeinated and/or hungover today, Cole?
ET
Lowry can be that stupid.
The sadness of Lowrey is that without the Martin incident Lowry wouldn’t be writing an article about all of those others because he wouldn’t have bothered to look at those other situations in order to illustrate how the left will use senseless death.
Trayvon Martin was just as obscure as all of those mentioned and would have remained that way, except for the fact that the event was made more public by the nature of what happened and what happened after.
JPL
There is a great concern among some that stand your ground laws will be overturned because of a few mistakes. The AJC had an article about claiming self-defense and you can now shoot your spouse if you live in a Stand your Ground state. link
Emrventures
He’s not that stupid, not by a long shot. But his livelihood depends on him pretending to be so, and so that is the path he’s chosen.
different-church-lady
Lowry lives in a world where symbolic meanings of events matter more than the events themselves. Therefore it’s easy to understand how he would mis-attribute the outrage over the Martin incident — he thinks everyone is engaging the subject from a cookie-cutter left/right perspective because it’s the only one he himself knows how to process. He can’t understand that Trayvon Martin was an actual person, not a archtype.
AA+ Bonds
Oh yes Lord knows if there’s one problem in how crime is treated in the United States it’s that white people have it too fuckin rough
BGinCHI
Shorter Lowry: when n*ggers kill each other no one says anything, but when a white guy does it, holy fuck look at how upset everyone gets!
Both sides do it!
/I fucking hate that guy
Zandar
Lowry’s not being stupid. He’s being ridiculously wrong, for the exact reasons you stated, in order to “prove” that liberals are the bad guys in the Trayvon Martin case, and you’ve explained very well what the key difference is that generates the outrage.
He’s not being stupid at all. He’s being a race-bating asshole.
AA+ Bonds
Like Rich Lowry would ever write about women named Charinez, Tysha or Kade’jah if he couldn’t do it while wearing a Klan hood
demkat620
My right wing so called friend told me that this was all rushing to judgment and when the truth comes out about Trayvon Martin it will be clear that he stole those skittles and he deserved to die.
I. Kid. You. Not.
This is a level of crazy I just couldn’t imagine. He too can’t rap his head around the fact that it is because his killer is walking that free people are upset. To him its all about being black.
JPL
@Zandar: Every time I see a priest, I worry that he might be a…………
Whoops wrong thread.
Scott
If George Zimmerman had a defense fund, Lowry would’ve already contributed the max. If Zimmerman ran for Congress, Lowry would vote for him. And the minute one of the GOP candidates makes a “Don’t Re-Nig” joke, Lowry will put the bumper sticker on his car.
AA+ Bonds
Where were you on Kade’jah, Rich, where’s your TNC-style multi-column series on the shooting of Kade’jah Davis
Or maybe you’re just a racist Kluxer hack
Just Some Fuckhead
Lowry’s making the point that TEH LIEBRULZ only care when white people kill black people, not when black people kill white people or black people kill black people.
Lowry is simply making the racist argument. He’s not stupid, he’s just a racist.
JPL
@Just Some Fuckhead: last week they told me Zimmerman wasn’t white so get your facts straight
Merp
I think Lowry is just trying to rip off 2666
Polish the Guillotines
Jackholes like Lowry are deliberately and with pure malice, trying to incite the self-deputized race-warriors to violence. They keep groping around for their Reichstag fire and they won’t give up until they get it.
Ukobserver
After reading that l can definitely say that Rich Lowry CAN be that f@#king stupid.
walt
The random violence in the black underclass is a moral scandal, which the rest of us then assume to be an aspect of their unworthiness as human beings. I mean, there is a reason people are trapped in bad neighborhoods. Nobody wants them. We will walk away from them and mutter under our breath that it’s not our responsibility.
American conservatism is a moral blight. It dehumanizes these people as it abandons them. It inflicts a judgment on their lives that justifies neglect. And it’s always ready to blame liberals for trying to do something or anything to change their lives for the better.
Rich Lowry is a nice white asshole. As dumb as Jack Kemp was, at least he cared about these people. Lowry only cares about stoking the cruelty of his tribe in order to reinforce its solidarity. A party of nice white people would sooner exterminate them than help them.
Suffern ACE
By a strange coincidence, Ann Coulter wrote the exact same column. That must prove its true when two columnists independently come to the same conclusion.
swordofdoom
@Just Some Fuckhead: Yes, but racists are pretty much definitionally stupid.
Martin
Of course he can be. But this goes to my point about being in power. Lowry never really needs to worry about justice not being sought for violence against his class. No white person – even a teenager – would get gunned down without a proper investigation. He can’t see that side of the problem because in his world it’s effectively an impossibility.
It may not even be intentional on his part, but his refusal to even explore the concept while collecting money to write about it is simply inexcusable.
Lyrebird
Thank you John!!
And if anyone has and would like to contribute spare change to the legal fund, search for Parks and Crump (law firm) for the link or go here. Pardon shameless plugging… I just like to be able to DO something and not just stew, yikes!
Cmm
I have had a coworker ask me the same question…why the fuss over this blackmail killed by a white person when black on black murders are rampant? I have tried to explain about the lack of prosecution and the buttons that such a killing will push in those who have the history of wanton, punishment-free killings of their people for hundreds of years. But the main thought I have, which I don’t say, is, the fact that you can sit back and ask that question is the perfect illustration of white privilege.”
KG
@Martin: poor white kids get gunned down all the time. hell, middle class white kids can get gunned down in similar fashion – a couple of tats, a piercing, the wrong hair cut or clothes – someone like Zimmerman could’ve easily shot a white kid as he did Martin. It’s a power thing, but not necessarily a race thing
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@efgoldman: They both are.
David Koch
OT
Big front page story in today’s NYT on the pervasive use of solitary confinement in the California prison system.
Funny how Cole and the greater righteous blogosphere are silent, even though this torture is being practiced on a large scale in the largest state in the country.
If only Bradley Manning was in a Pelican Bay hole, maybe the rest of the victims could receive some incidental, collateral attention.
slag
Besides all that, I’m curious what Mr. Starbursts thinks liberals are trying to get at when we push for funding for head start and social safety net programs. Does he think Schools Not Jails is a rightwing matra? Not to mention gun restrictions (gasp! I’m such a fascist!).
Slowbama
It’s possible to hold two thoughts in one’s head at the same time. It’s entirely possible — and in this case very, very plausible — that these two things are true and not mutually exclusive:
1) Martin’s killing likely fits the definition of murder and it is a miscarriage of justice if Zimmerman isn’t eventually tried; and
2) As a young African American man, Martin was still over ten times more likely to be killed by another young African American man, regardless of Zimmerman’s or anyone else’s possible racist intent. That this wasn’t the case in this killing doesn’t make other killings less painful or remarkable.
There is racism in this country, it’s bad, it needs to be eradicated. But the vast majority of deaths of African American men are at the hands of other African American men. Not just a few more, but the overwhelmingly huge majority.
True fact.
Smart people can see that these deaths are just as tragic as those deaths brought on by racism. Not less, not more, but just as tragic. Dead is dead.
mai naem
This is the same Rich Lowry who thought the Wasilla Hillbilly was hot stuff. I rest my case. Also. Too.
Birthmarker
And you don’t have family and friends of the alleged perpetrator running around to national media disparaging the victim, with what is starting to look like blatant lies.
Jewish Steel
Mrs. Polly’s gonna come looking for you if you start working the Blingee side of the street.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Assuming for a moment that Lowry is being sincere, it’s really the same kind of blinders that allow them to choose Michael Steele as the RNC head and then wonder why we are laughing, or why we weren’t smitten by Palin. They have a set of stereotypes about people, and they just cannot fathom anyone not fitting into their stereotype.
At my job, the one loudmouth political guy was spewing this nonsense about how liberals do not accept responsibility for their actions, while Republicans do. I finally got up and called him on it. Later he sends me an email saying he should do better, but he’d had some diet mountain dew and a cheese danish. When I pointed out he was blaming them rather than taking responsibility, he made something up about doing it to diffuse tension.
He tends to be a lot quieter when I’m around unless he gets really worked up. I don’t think too many people have challeneged him.
RSA
@cathyx:
Here’s one that should be a bigger story (Times link), quote from democracynow.org:
As with the Martin case, there’s the tragedy of an innocent death, and there’s the lack of accountability–the White Plains police have apparently stonewalled for the past three months.
Arm The Homeless
I spent the morning abusing myself and ran through all 37 pages of comments on the Orlando Sentinel site regarding Sharpton’s comments about amping up peaceful civil disobedience in Sanford. I have a thick skin, but those unmoderated threads were about the most overt, outward hate I have seen outside of an actual StormFuck’d screenshot.
This shite has driven the haters to the point they are openly discussing Race Wars on mainstream media. It’s all out there right now, the boil has popped
rikyrah
Lowry and the all the rest of them didn’t give a shyt about Black-on-Black crime until this case.
fuck his racist ass.
JPL
@David Koch: Why not post a link.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Slowbama: I can’t tell if you’re trying to defend Lowry, agree with John, or what. I think we all here agree that every murder is bad, but I think Lowry is trying to cover for Zimmerman in his own way: 99 blacks were killed by other blacks, so don’t think of this murder as being worse.
Slowbama
@Arm The Homeless: Let’s be very clear. Your own handle could be taken as a call to “race war.” In any case, your friend Rev. Jackson has specifically said “blacks are under attack,” which is pretty obviously a reference to a need to defend one’s self.
Of course, young African American men are indeed under attack, primarily by other young African American men, as noted above, to the tune of at least ten times more than at the hands of anyone else.
I would mention the obvious “race war” aspect of the NBP $10K bounty, but I know from experience they will get a pass for their illegal suggestion here. Just as long as they aren’t white weirdos stockpiling weapons in the mountains somewhere — that shit needs to be stopped, pronto.
Steve in Indiana
So Mr. Lowry, you worship the Second Amendment so much, maybe you can answer me this question. How many of those young victims would still be alive if their killers (alleged and otherwise) didn’t have access to their weapons?
P.S. Why is aborting a baby immoral and shooting one isn’t?
(Ask the NRA).
asiangrrlMN
@Zandar: So. Very. Much. This. I will not say anything else because this is a semi-family-friendly website, but I will be in the corner quietly sharpening my rusty pitchfork™.
@Slowbama: Fuck you motherfucker with your reverse racist bullshit. You are a disgusting piece of shit. GTFO with your idiotic self.
Cleek and MikeJ., are we gonna have new pie-filters soon?
Arm The Homeless
@Slowbama: Really? That’s the problem? Two dumb-asses (one who was arrested recently) in leather jackets are an existential threat to the Euro-centric control over the levers of justice? Really?
If you would like to point me to your website, I will discuss the ramifications of institutional poverty with you. But it sounds to me as though you have your statistics memorized, so what can I tell you that you don’t already know?
Amir Khalid
Rich Lowry:
Lowry is attempting a misdirection. The outcry is not about Trayvon Martin being black and Zimmerman being white. I would challenge him to point to anyone seriously asserting that it is. Nor is it about Trayvon living amid social disorder (he wasn’t). It is about the Sanford police’s failures: shirking a clear duty to properly investigate Trayvon’s killing, being suspiciously lenient (or even partial) toward George Zimmerman — which, for all we now, may have more to do with his being Judge Zimmerman’s son than with his being white.
__
Did racism enter into this killing and Sanford PD’s dereliction of duty? It’s possible, even likely. That’s why it has become a federal matter as well. But it’s not what’s driving the outrage here.
__
There is also the broader question of the Stand Your Ground laws in Florida and other states, which may have given legal cover to armed confrontations like this one — and which, in this instance, may have helped bring about a needless death. Rich Lowry could, and would if he were honest, be writing about the unintended consequences of such laws, which were promoted by the right and enacted despite dire warnings from the law-enforcement community.
Shari
Not at all condoning what Spike Lee did, but Fox’s Jon Scott is beyond the pale when asking if Lee is “Inciting The Same Kind Of Violence That Killed Emmett Till”
Oh, and for fun, Judith Miller weighs in too.
Slowbama
@Arm The Homeless: No, that’s not the problem. Didn’t say it was. Don’t recall mentioning anything about Euro-centric levers of justice either, other than to say Zimmerman should be tried for what he did. We are all in agreement on that, though that is not enough agreement for most here.
Fluke bucket
I think it was a white Hispanic Jew that killed Martin.
different-church-lady
Hey, you know what? Let’s give Lowry what he wants here. Let’s get some marches going for the Delric Miller IVs, the Charinez Jeffersons, Tysha Joneses and Kade’jah Davises of the world. Let’s get a lot more heartbroken mothers on national TV so we can see the consequences of ignoring urban decay. Let’s throw a big bright media spotlight on how the poor and minorities have to bear the burden of senseless violence so much more than the rest of society. Let’s get a big fat national conversation going on all this.
Wait… what’s that, Rich? You’re saying that’s not the point you were trying to get across?
Shalimar
You mock, but it’s effing hard to construct a believable argument when you aren’t allowed to actually say what you really believe.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Slowbama: Except, no, the NBP did not get a pass here. When it was brought up, everyone condemned it as idiotic.
Now that I know where you are coming from, I see that you are also missing the point.
Does it scare you that Jackson is using the same language the Right has been using for decades? Sorry, but even this white man can see that what he is talking about goes beyond the “give me your money or else” type of talk. “Those bastards always get away” that Zimmerman said is what he is talking about.
mk3872
Did Lowry just inadvertently make the case for more stringent gun laws ??
Slowbama
@Shari: Well, Lee was clearly inciting that kind of violence. What other purpose do you think he had in mind? I’m all ears.
Lee essentially admitted this by offering a quick settlement. He got off easy, but that’s how it goes.
BruinKid
@Polish the Guillotines: Classic Daily Show bit from 2010 about Fox News: evil or stupid?
Same applies here to Rich Lowry.
Slowbama
@Belafon (formerly anonevent): Again, we can entertain two thoughts in our heads simultaneously:
1) What right-wingers say along these lines is generally (always?) wrong; and
2) What Jackson, Sharpton are doing is also wrong.
It’s really pretty easy to do when you get the hang of it.
Arm The Homeless
@Shari: The activist wing of the party is ready to go whole-hog on trying to portray this is some sort of reverse-racisim from the Left. I think this may be one of those moments when their bubble is just not quite as big as they assume.
This is going to motivate their ranks, no doubt. The question is whether Obama and the Left can motivate new voters in numbers that he saw in 2008. This is where I believe the election hinges. A few more points with young women, a few more points from hispanic and AA voters could go a long way in tight states like Florida, and even make places like NC and GA that much more difficult for the GOP to contest and win.
sharl
@Jewish Steel: Heh, I thought of Mrs. Polly too, when I saw the Blingee; thought I was at RR for a moment, and was thinking ‘thank goodness she’s back, hopefully with revived spirit.’
I hope she is finding restful recovery during her blogging hiatus. The business with Strange has knocked her for a loop, more so than the rest of us. I hope she is taking the time to take care of herself.
Yutsano
@Slowbama: My question for you is this: what relevance does the high AA on AA murder rate have on the Martin case?
Heliopause
@Suffern ACE:
You know, they have a point. It’s been almost impossible to get anybody in the public sphere to talk about black-on-black violence. If only there were more principled conservatives speaking out on this issue, as Lowry and Coulter have done. The silence in the African-American community is deafening. It’s sad that only brave voices such as Lowry and Coulter have even noticed this problem and put themselves on the line for it.
Martin
@KG:
True, but you’re missing the point. Those poor white kids deaths get investigated and the perpetrators arrested and incarcerated. Is the same always true if they’re black? Usually. What about if their perpetrator is suspected white and middle class?
There was more than one lesson in the movie ‘Gran Torino’.
Arm The Homeless
@Slowbama: As a native-born son of Georgia and a long-time resident of Florida, let me be the first to tell you to kindly fuck off, confederate hold-overs such as yourself have lost. You lost so badly that you and your multi-generational losers are still stuck hiding behind your IPs to get your bigoted message out in public.
We get that you’re paranoid, but I would like to add another anvil to your desperation by reminding you that your children will simply speak in hushed tones about the hate they endured at the hands of cowards such as yourself. We will pity you, but we will still continue to spit on your memories. Count on it. Now eat pie, Pfuck-nuckle
P.S. here is the link to your historically illiterate bigotry: https://balloon-juice.com/2011/12/07/when-honesty-informs-history/#comment-2919500
Slowbama
@Yutsano: It is relevant in that that is the subject of the tool Lowry’s musings, which is the subject of the original post I believe.
piratedan
@Baud: ding ding ding…. it’s argumentative equivalent of “both sides do it”….It’s old R tactic of throwing enough crap against the wall to turn off those who are just starting to question the reality they’ve awakened to.
I don’t think Lowry is stupid, it strikes me as deeply calculated. We have to start wondering if these guys are actually smarter than us and are just inherently evil in order to maintain their stranglehold on power in our country but tossing us our red meat and putting just enough smear out there so they can squeak by until the next news cycle.
Slowbama
@Arm The Homeless: Generally the one who is paranoid is the one obsessively citing old posts and using profanity copiously, rather than making anything close to a cogent argument. No shit off my behind, as we say in our neck of the woods.
Chuck Butcher
Maybe not, but the assumption is that his readers are and will swallow this swill because it tastes good.
cleek
@asiangrrlMN:
grab the latest. should be working.
http://ok-cleek.com/blogs/balloon_juice_disemvoweller.user.js
burnspbesq
@David Koch:
If you want to dictate the content on a blog, start your own blog.
Arm The Homeless
@cleek: Thanks for the pie-update. Seems to be working now in FF
ETA I love the link to the Wiki on Pie. Nice touch
Frankensteinbeck
@Slowbama:
Except that the point of this post was that Lowry’s pointing out black-on-black violence in his post is itself irrelevant, and an excellent example of racist rhetoric. Given a specific scandal that blatantly reveals a horrible problem – in this case that a law in Florida has given the police cover to ignore a hate crime and provides justification for systemic approval of hate crimes – he did what you’re doing. He changed the subject to a radically different problem which he phrased in a way to imply that the victims of this systemic approval of murder do not deserve sympathy and should not be concerned with a law that not only could, but IS being used to allow murdering them to be legal. Lowry’s article, and your interjection for the same reasons, are irrelevant, insulting, and serve the cause of racism by attempting to deflate outrage against the baldly outrageous.
gnomedad
You know that saying about never attributing to malice what can be explained by stupidity? Fuggedaboutit.
Mike in NC
I don’t believe that Little Richie qualifies as a halfwit. Maybe a quarterwit?
Slowbama
@Frankensteinbeck: Again: We can have two thoughts in our head at the same time.
It is entirely possible that:
1) Racism is a huge issue and seems to have played a role in Martin’s death, for which Zimmerman clearly should be held accountable to the maximum extent of the law; and
2) While we’re all paying attention to the untimely deaths of young black men, more attention should be paid by society — especially by people with megaphones like Jackson and Sharpton — to the much more imminent physical danger posed by black-on-black violence, a clearly quantifiable phenomenon.
Really: if saying those two things aren’t mutually exclusive makes me a racist, you have a more broad definition of “racist” than most Americans are going to accept.
And I will point out — though none of what is said here affects me emotionally in any way — that though I have and will continue to refrain from any personal, ad hominem attacks against anyone here, I am very much the target of them. But I’m the one that’s causing problems!
Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937
Lowry’s response suggests that he doesn’t understand the basic facts. He only sees race. Blah people are murdered every day, what’s the big deal?
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
No, he can’t. But he can be that evil. These people desperately want to steer this killing away from any talk of racism. I suspect it’s because a lot of them do understand how pervasive racism still is in this country, and they don’t want to have to own up to their part in keeping it so. So they try to throw enough sand in everybody’s eyes that we het all befuddled, and somehow miss the point you wrote of above. And if we miss that point, then the only other difference here is that Martin’s killer wasn’t black, and that means that Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and Mrtin’s mother and father and their lawyers and all the other liberals really are anti-white racists. That’s all it is. And if the only racists are the uppity blacks who hate whitey, and their white-guilt-drunk white liberal friends, then they’re off the hook. They’re not only off the hook, they’re brave truth-tellers, speaking truth to power, risking everything to stand up for what’s right against the libero-fascist, race-baiting, poverty pimps. That’s all it is.
eemom
@burnspbesq:
Burnsy, that’s a cheap shot.
The fauxrage amongst “progressives” over cause celebre du jour Manning, when they don’t give a shit about solitary confinement for any one else, much less the rampant abuses and injustices that go on every day and everywhere in this country whose victims don’t happen to be the darling of the Greenwald/Hamshers/Coles/Anne Lauries of the world, is a bullshit call that needs to be made.
Make it, DK.
Frankensteinbeck
@Slowbama:
Strictly speaking, no. Humans are never good at this, and if you are interjecting a separate topic, especially one that suggests the victim is causing his own problems, you are heavily distracting from the original subject and weakening it. Thus, in this case, serving a racist agenda of trying to make this horrible event a non-topic, which is why Lowry wrote his story in the first place. Whether or not you mean to be doing the same thing, you are doing the same thing.
EDIT – Implications are particularly powerful here. For example, you suggest that Jackson and Sharpton are ignoring black on black violence. They certainly are not. They have no reason to discuss it as part of THIS issue, and framing it in the way you did suggests that it’s a problem caused by blacks, rather than a problem caused by generations of racist institutions forcing young black males into economic and social blocks that cause those violence levels, rather than skin color. They are entirely concerned by the injustices that created that system. However, you’re phrasing it as if the fault is the young black male’s – again, making him seem less a victim in the face of an event where he’s been victimized so horribly that something should be done about it.
Villago Delenda Est
@Suffern ACE:
I’ve always said that Ann Coulter’s greatest regret is that she was born decades too late to the Bitch of Buchenwald.
Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937
@Arm The Homeless: Obviously you haven’t seen the Faux News Nation website. You’ll need a steel reinforced suit to protect your self from those racist comments.
WyldPirate
I think Rich Lowry sucks, but Cole left out some pertinent point that Lowry made.
Like this:
And this:
Lowry, even though he is a dickhead isn’t excusing Zimmerman; he’s making a legitimate points that the media is turning into a circus while ignoring a pervasive problem and that resolution of the Martin case will do fucking nothing to address intraracial violence.
The single biggest step that could be taken to end many of these homicides would be to legalize drugs.
someguy
Lowry’s not totally wrong. We have a couple hundred murders a year in D.C. Half of them get solved. The rest of them? Well, No Snitchin’, right? Most of the victims are black, though an increasing number are Hispanic and killed by bangers. Nobody gives a fuck, based on the news coverage and political discussions in the city council (non-existent).
WyldPirate
@eemom:
Interesting that you say that as it’s nearly identical to what Lowry is saying.
Frankensteinbeck
@someguy:
True. It’s just that he’s putting it in a ‘Why are you paying attention to this problem instead of this other problem? You must be dishonest!’ way when this problem very much deserves attention.
@WyldPirate:
Untrue. The outrage of the Martin case is only minimally that it was a hate crime. The reason it’s such a big deal is that it’s the first flashpoint of an institutional change legalizing hate crimes. It’s a declaration that killing blacks for being black is effectively legal now.
Slowbama
@Frankensteinbeck: I never said Martin’s death was a non-topic. Never even intimated it. Suggested otherwise as a matter of fact. Just. Read. Better.
Chyron HR
@someguy:
I assume the rest of them also get solved and then the police go “Derp derp standin’ his ground” and let the confessed murderer go free. I mean, assuming that the situation you’re describing is in any way analogous to the Martin case.
Frankensteinbeck
@Slowbama:
But you DID come in and lengthily defend Lowry for trying to make ‘black-on-black violence’ the topic of discussion, thus doing the exact same thing he did. Which, as I have explained above, is a tactic Lowry is deliberately using and you are using (I have no idea if deliberately) to make young black males seem less the victim here – when they as a class have just been victimized horribly. All of which I’ve been explaining. Just. Read. Better.
60th Street
Lowry’s on a roll this week.
Jay
“(The) lives of young black people are cheap…”
Lowry ought to buy Marty Peretz a beer.
eemom
@WyldPirate:
Actually it’s not, you racist fuckwit.
Comparing a race-motivated murder in a white enclave to rampant random killing in crime-infested destitute urban areas is not quite the same thing as comparing the sturm und drang “OMG the government is trampling on civil liberties” outrage over the solitary confinement of a single “progressive” poster boy to the deafening silence over the government’s trampling of civil liberties every day, all the time, of people who are just ordinary people.
Now see if you can figure that out, before you admonish us all against another evening of “hating on whitey.”
WyldPirate
@Frankensteinbeck:
I disagree. The resolution of the Martin case does NOTHING to address the high black on-black rate of homicide rate which is what Lowry was referring to. You rarely hear mention of that rate much less any media firestorm over it.
Lowry is right. You don’t see the outrage and media firestorm about intraracial killings. Shit, in some larger cities, they no longer make the front page or barely merit a passing mention on local news.
This is a seperate issue than the fucked up “stand your ground” law, the profiling of Martin due to his race and dress and the fact that the po-po are apparently knee-deep in giving Zimmerman preferential treatment and covering the crime up..
Trout
If Martin had managed to wrestle the gun from Zimmerman (like in the movies) and shot Zimmerman then Martin would be in jail right now charged with murder AND with theft of the gun.
Slowbama
@Frankensteinbeck: Really, this is very simple: It would be a better world if even one percent of the societal and media energy that is being expended in being suitably outraged over Martin’s death would ALSO be expended in solving the — again, quantifiably more imminently dangerous — problem of young African American males being killed by other young African American males.
This is only an outrageous sentiment at certain blogs.
Really, it’s very simple.
AA+ Bonds
@burnspbesq:
In my experience, that is both inefficient and ineffective compared to influencing the writers on an existing and better-read blog, something that can be done with relative ease
AA+ Bonds
@efgoldman:
Surely you’re not that naive to think that this message originated with one or the other of them
Slowbama
I want to point out again that calling someone a ‘racist fuckwit’ and then demanding that the target of the verbal abuse be banned or filtered is problematic.
AA+ Bonds
‘Tray-cists’
AA+ Bonds
@eemom:
What a weird little strawman
AA+ Bonds
DO YOU HAVE PROPER CONCERN FOR ALL INJUSTICE EVERYWHERE? SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS
Frankensteinbeck
@Slowbama:
And like most simple things, utterly wrong. As I have laid out above – extensively – this issue deserves the attention it is getting, and trying to change the subject has only the effect of distracting from who is being cruelly victimized here. Especially when you phrase the distraction the way you and Lowry do, as if ‘black on black violence’ was the cause and not the effect of black suffering. If you would like to discuss how blacks have been systematically denied the educational and economic opportunities they deserve and been treated as the enemy by law enforcement so that they do not feel that the police can ever be on their side, maybe you will add to the discussion of how unjust the Martin case is, although that’s still a ‘maybe’. If you want to talk about blacks killing each other more than white people do, you are distracting from an important topic and blaming the victim. Which, yet again, is Lowry’s intention here. He’s not subtle about it.
@WyldPirate:
It is a completely separate issue, and one that’s very complicated and easy to describe in a way that makes black men look bad, which is why it’s a distraction and why he’s using it.
eemom
@Slowbama:
um, I never demanded that. And I wasn’t talking to you.
Who the fuck are you, again?
Frankensteinbeck
And now, unfortunately, I am out of time. I will have to leave countering these politely phrased attempts to blame the victim for others to deal with. Ta!
WyldPirate
@eemom:
I was talking about the outrage from the two groups while ignoring an even bigger problem you foul-mouthed, ill-tempered piece of human garbage.
Now run along and shove your head back up your rectum so you’ll feel at home.
David Koch
@burnspbesq: I didn’t know you had “love it or leave it” inked up on your fat ass, burnsy.
Flashing back to your Republican roots? It’s okay. Go ahead. Get it outta of yous system. Put awn a Haawd Hat and punch some OWS hippies.
tofubo
as atrios would say to simple questions/simple answers:
yes, he is that stupid, or willfully obtuse, one of the two
different-church-lady
@WyldPirate: In other words, what you’re saying is you can’t hear dog whistles.
David Koch
@eemom:
eemom = bad mamma jamma
different-church-lady
@WyldPirate:
Exactly. Which is why Lowry’s efforts at conflating them are… puzzling, to put it politely.
different-church-lady
@Slowbama:
To paraphrase Letterman’s rejoinder to O’Reilly, “It’s not simple for us, because we’re thoughtful.”
nellcote
@WyldPirate:
The single biggest step that could be taken to end many of these homicides would be to create decent jobs.
WyldPirate
@different-church-lady: and
No, what I’m saying is that Lowry has a goddamned legitimate point and that Cole left out the two paragraphs in lLowry’s piece that he used to make the point.
Instead, people here to the same sort of shit that conservatives do; scream about something else.
Lowry is undoubtly a dick. However, he used those cases as example of ANOTHER PROBLEM and that is the high rate of black homicides.
Or maybe you don’t give a shit that the homicide rate of blacks is far higher than whites.
different-church-lady
@WyldPirate: Fine — Cole left out the legit points and you left out Lowry’s use of those points for whistling at dogs. Deuce.
I believe my comment at #63 will speak to my feelings about that.
Steve
What point does Lowry have aside from “Look over there”? Color me confused.
WyldPirate
@different-church-lady:
I read Lowry’s article differently. He used a litany of examples of black-on-black homicides. He did not excuse Zimmerman and he pointed out a legitimate fact; that there is far less outrage over those thousands of homicides than the Martin case.
Should there be outrage over the Martin case? You’re damn skippy there should be. There should be outrage at the 6-fold higher homcide rate of blacks than whites as well. Lowry was pointing a finger at the media and civil-rights activists for making a firestorm out of one and not the other.
Yutsano
@WyldPirate: Did you even read the post?
Patricia Kayden
Thank you John Cole.
Perhaps you need to put a countdown meter on your website showing how many days have elapsed since Zimmerman gunned down Martin and has been free to roam the streets and push his lies via the mainstream media. Tonight as I type this, his brother is on Piers Morgan. Couldn’t watch more than 5 minutes.
WyldPirate
@different-church-lady:
Your point at #63 WAS the point Lowry was trying to get across. Lowry is right in saying the death of Martin would have been ignored had his killer been black. Hell it almost was any way except for a different reason: the police are trying to cover it up. But that’s a separate issue of a two-tiered justice system and “help my boy out” plea from a judge.
eemom
@WyldPirate:
If you honestly think that Lowry was making a righteous, good faith argument you are dumber than dirt.
The good news is, if you actually WERE that moronically credulous, you wouldn’t have posted 99% of the other comments you’ve ever made on this blog.
Which leaves us with the alternative explanation, i.e., that you like Lowry’s piece because racism dressed up in its Sunday clothes appeals to you. And no wonder, after you made the mistake of showing us your true colors in your last hideous appearance.
Svensker
@Yutsano:
Thank you. I was too busy banging my head against the wall to come up with something so cogent.
WyldPirate
@Yutsano:
Yes, and I read fucking Lowry’s article as well. Many here evidently didn’t bother with that.
kay
Well, the other problem is that Lowry is wrong.
Since 2009 (that I am aware of) there has been a huge debate about just this issue in Chicago.
Jesse Jackson has been involved in it, to the extent of calling it a “national emergency” and so has Arne Duncan and Eric Holder ( a lot of the violence in Chicago was among teenagers).
HUGE debate going on, for YEARS now, in a major US city, where the current mayor, the former mayor, the US AG, the Ed Sec and all sorts of AA leaders are involved.
That Lowry does not know this is embarrassing, but not surprising: that he delivers a stern lecture w/out having any fucking idea what’s going on outside his think-tank bubble.
So, thanks for the lecture, Rich, but stop changing the subject.
Is there anyone lazier than a conservative pundit? The Chicago story was national news in 2009 and 2010.
Yutsano
@WyldPirate:
This apparently escaped your attention. And the fact that you think we pay attention to this murder at this point in time means you also think we ignore the other murders by default. It’s nice to know you have such a low opinion of us here.
different-church-lady
@WyldPirate: In other words, what you’re saying is you can’t hear dog whistles. Again.
amk
lowry writes for white peeps living in a whitey white world. whatchu expect ?
@WyldPirate:
That’s what is called as pure trolling. Divert and distract. You and lowry can GFY.
WyldPirate
@kay:
Now his is a legitimate criticism of lowry. It was a cheap shot at civil rights activists in Lowry’s piece. His criticism of the media is spot on, though.
The rest of you dumbfucks keep on misdirecting your rage at Lowry and keep on ignoring the fact that blacks are 46% of the homicide victims while they make up 13% of the population.
WyldPirate
@different-church-lady:
No, but what you are saying is you want to hear dog whistles. You and many here are no different than the conservative assholes you rage about. You are offended by the supporting evidence Lowry used to illustrate a different set of problems that the media doesn’t give a shit about black-on-black homicides and some people making appearences to pontficate about the Martin case are expoiling the situation.
kay
@WyyldPirate:
It’s not a legit critisism of media, either.
His whole premise is AA life is cheap unless there’s a racial angle.
That isn’t true. There was a huge national story about AA on AA violence 2 years ago.
If he didn’t hear about it, that’s because HE only pays attention if there’s a.racial angle.
He pulled this out of his ass because he wants to prove yet another conservative thesis, he started with the conclusion and gave it zero thought, and announces “true!”.
Google Jesse Jackson, Chicago, teen violence and see what media comes up.
He’s lazy.
eemom
Shorter Wyldie:
Damn! This Lowry makes some damn fine points. Never mind that he’s a mouthpiece for everything I purport to despise on every other subject I’ve ever bloviated about here….when it comes to the killing of black kids he makes some DAMN FINE POINTS.
kay
@WyldPirate:
You know what conservative media did w/the Chicago story?
They used it to smear all young black men, the entire city of Chicago, Obama, Holder, Duncan, and liberals.
That was their sum-total contribution to that debate.
We had it. They contributed nothing of value.
Where was Lowry 2 years ago when conservatives were demeaning and cheapening kids’ deaths in Chicago to score points with the base?
Seeking honest debate?
My. Ass.
gwangung
@WyldPirate:
This is from a really dumbfuck who can’t remember that a lot of the people there tarring y’ve been saying the same damn thing for years (while also castigating the media).
Moreover, these folks just might be thinking that these are two problems requiring two different solutions.
Twit.
WyldPirate
@kay: ss
The media didn’t make a three week 24/7 nationwide firestorm out of the issue did it? Why the fuck not? Because it didn’t fit the media’s agenda which is to makke money.
The facts are that as high as the black homicide rate is, it started nosediving in the mid 90s and dropped 50% in 5 years. Homicide is still the leading cause of death in black males between 18-34. One half of black males between 15-19 die from homicides. Nearly one-half of the roughly 17K homocides a year.
Lowry’s main point was that none of this hoopla over Martin is going to do a goddamned thing about the 8000 blacks that will be homocide victims. And on that, he’s right.
Jewish Steel
@sharl: Oh! I didn’t know that. I thought she was little quiet lately. Damn!
Positive energy, Mrs P!
WyldPirate
@kay:
I didn’t say Lowry was having a honest debate. Moreover, Chicago isn’t the entire goddamned could try, either. Furthermore, I have no fucking idea where Lowry was two years ago.
None of that changes the fact that he’s right in that the outrage over Martin will do jackshit to change the problem with violence in the black community that results in a homicide rate that is six times that of whites. That it is that much higher does cheapen the lives of the victims and we should be having a three week rage fest in the national media about it. We don’t because at 20 per day nationwide it isn’t enough to draw eyeballs in he media to sustain the rage.
kay
@WyldPirate:
Oh, bullshit.
Lowry is a member of “the media”.
And he’s wrong. We do debate AA on AA violence, but he doesn’t give a shit unless there’s a political angle or an opening to deliver another lecture on how liberals are the real racists.
It’s disgusting that he used children’s actual names to deliver this sloppy horsehit that he’s peddling, but anything to promote the dogma, I guess.
WyldPirate
@gwangung
I said these were separate issues multiple times in this thread, asshole.
/
eemom
Oh well. If we’ve gotta argue with an ignorant racist asshole, at least we know it’s a
literatesober racist asshole.WyldPirate
@kay:
Nice fucking strawman, Kay.
Why has there not been the outrage–on a national scale in a sustained fashion–over the homicide rate in the black population? Chicago doesn’t count as a comparison or even the occasional article written about it.. Those examples are a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the problem.
There has been nothing in the media even approaching this since the Rodney King case. Nothing even close. If the problem with black homicides was as important to some as this one specific case, we should be having protests nationwide. The fact is that it doesn’t fit enough people’s agenda–which was the charge lowry made–for it to be important enough to raise hell about.
kay
@WyldPirate:
Interesting that Lowry wants to talk about AA on AA violence rather than the NRA buying laws or police incompetence or corruption or why the DOJ had to step into a FL case before anyone
moved on this.,,,
Interesting that he goes nowhere near the myriad larger issues that we could be discussing and focuses like a laser on the race angle.
Which is what he’s whining about, supposedly, the focus on race.
He wants to talk about RACE Wyld pirate, he just doesn’t want to talk about race in a way that makes HIM uncomfortable.
different-church-lady
@WyldPirate: When Lowry can show us examples of black on black homicide where the local police let the killer skate without charges, then we can have this comparison.
Until then we’re talking dog whistles, no matter how limited the upper frequencies of your hearing are.
different-church-lady
@WyldPirate:
Then why did Lowry slap ’em together like he did?
kay
@WyldPirate:
Nothing is stopping the National Review or Rich Lowry from focusing on Violence in AA communities.
Maybe he can do some work, interview some people, learn something, and then just lecture his heart out on causes” and “solutions”
kay
@WyldPirate:
And he can forget the attempt to misdirect.
I imagine the “debate” moves to police actions and inaction once the special prosecutor finishes her work, so Lowry is going to have to debate his sudden burning concern with AA violence all alone.
The police investigation stinks to high heaven, it gets weirder looking by the day, so I imagine that becomes the story.
Some Guy
My god! WyldPirate has shown he is a troll his entire time here! Why are you giving this racist bastard the time of the day? Ignore him! Stop feeding, please. You’ll feel better about the world if you do!
eemom
It seems that some folks on this thread may have missed WyldPirate’s recent outing of himself as a dyed in the wool, 1950s era racist in the guise of a 21st century anti-Obama firebagger. Click and learn.
tofubo
@tofubo:
self referential comment, sorry, but here’s something better said by someone better
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
— Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
gaz
I began to create a commenting account at NRO, but I threw up in my mouth so I had to bail.
I wonder if Lowry gets paid to be this obtuse, or if it’s a service he provides for free.
gaz
I began to create a commenting account at NRO, but I threw up in my mouth so I had to bail.
I wonder if Lowry gets paid to be this obtuse, or if it’s a service he provides for free.
gaz
@Cmm: Yes.
Heliopause
@kay:
I guess my comment up @74 went into moderation for a while, but that was the basic point I was driving at. As someone who has been paying a little bit of attention to public discourse for a few decades now I know that prominent African-Americans have been raising this issue all along, and it’s ridiculously easy to find a few references to it in just a few minutes of internet research. Normally, of course, they have to let slip a problematic comment about whites and/or Jews, or have a sex scandal before they can get the big media to notice them, but in fact they’ve been talking about this issue all along. I think Lowry’s post is pretty plainly an attempt at misdirection.
Frank
“Stop the Violence” marches are routine in high crime areas. So this is another example of a conservative dick with a real neato angle thats just too cool to allow it to be disproved with any actual research.
Mister Papercut
@WyldPirate:
This post is long since pushing up daisies, but if I may: Rodney King and Trayvon Martin are discrete cases centered around single individuals. They’re easier to cover and, as a current event, allow for more engagement from the average news consumer, for whom it’s easy form to take a side and play CSI: The Home Game. The point is, give them what they want to keep bringing them back.
Widespread, sustained coverage of an abstraction like homicide rates in the black community would never happen unless readers and viewers (and, to the point, affluent readers and viewers, for whom urban black-on-black crime is likely of little personal concern) are guaranteed. It’s much a business decision as an editorial one. (IMO, the discussion would also be of little value when — and it’s a matter of when, not if — it devolved into whitesplaining.)