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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Late Night Open Thread: The Courage of His (Insane) Convictions

Late Night Open Thread: The Courage of His (Insane) Convictions

by Anne Laurie|  November 20, 20123:05 am| 32 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, The War On Women, Assholes

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At least one of this year’s crop of very public Fetus Fetishists decided to act on his convictions. From the NH Concord Monitor:

Frank Szabo, the one-time candidate for Hillsborough County sheriff who sparked controversy when he declined to rule out using deadly force to stop abortions, has left the country.

Szabo, an aspiring organic farmer who moved to Goffstown from Pennsylvania in 2011 as part of the Free State Project, ran as a Republican for county sheriff, losing in the Sept. 11 primary to incumbent Sheriff Jim Hardy. Hardy won a sixth term last week.

In an interview with the Monitor ahead of the primary, Szabo pledged to protect citizens against rogue federal bureaucrats if elected, arresting government agents if he thought it necessary to protect property and personal rights. In an earlier interview with WMUR, he had said he might use deadly force to stop abortions but later retracted that statement, saying that he would simply arrest abortion providers.

On Sunday night, Szabo announced on Facebook that he had left the United States. He didn’t name his destination, though other recent posts indicate he’s in the South American nation of Chile…

Somehow one suspects that this might be related to the news that “Abortion in Chile is illegal without exception. The Chilean abortion law is considered one of the most restrictive in the world.”

Wonder if more of the Free State Project-ionists will follow the example of Mormon polygamists in the 1880s and set up “colonies” outside U.S. borders? Or does that require more of a joint initiative than can be summoned just from mutual hatred of anyone who’s not sufficiently like them?

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Reader Interactions

32Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    November 20, 2012 at 3:12 am

    This of course makes me wonder: what did the Chileans ever do to us?

  2. 2.

    Jewish Steel

    November 20, 2012 at 3:12 am

    Cisco (the basenji) was pretty freaked out, yes. But in fairness you’d feel kind of freaked out if, on your daily walk, some one had abruptly erected sculpture made of wire and twinkly lights which closely resembled you. Except with horns. And a servo powered articulated head and neck. Which swung slowly around to gaze at you as you passed.

  3. 3.

    ? Martin

    November 20, 2012 at 3:14 am

    Joint initiative? Every libertarian is a snowflake. They’ll vote each other off of whatever island they find themselves on.

  4. 4.

    Origuy

    November 20, 2012 at 3:23 am

    Chile? Why not join the Confederados in Brazil?

  5. 5.

    Allen

    November 20, 2012 at 3:26 am

    Hope Szabo didn’t let the door hit him in the ass on his way out. But he will be missing his hero, Pinochet. What a worthless sack of human excrement. Be gone with you.

    As an aside, I’m watching the “Dust Bowl” on public TV. I have a number of shirttail relatives who fled the dust bowl and were saved from the same dust bowl by FDR’s policies. Though arch conservatives you couldn’t say anything bad about ol’ Franklin around them. No sirree.

  6. 6.

    BruinKid

    November 20, 2012 at 3:30 am

    When are they going to finish that libertarian island paradise so all the Ron Paul fans can finally leave the rest of us who want a functioning government alone?

  7. 7.

    mdblanche

    November 20, 2012 at 3:47 am

    South America? That figures, but I always thought his kind preferred Argentina or Paraguay. Well, good bye and good riddance.

  8. 8.

    JoyfulA

    November 20, 2012 at 3:49 am

    Murderously antichoice libertarian?

  9. 9.

    300baud

    November 20, 2012 at 3:54 am

    Can we hope this is the start of a trend?

  10. 10.

    Fred

    November 20, 2012 at 4:00 am

    No doubt the man will find somthing in Chile to get his panties up in a bunch about, act on it and get deported. He will be back.

  11. 11.

    Shalimar

    November 20, 2012 at 4:01 am

    I can’t wait for him to tell the Chileans that there are way too many illegal immigrants in their country.

  12. 12.

    Chris

    November 20, 2012 at 4:10 am

    @mdblanche:

    Ha!

    I see what you did there!

  13. 13.

    mai naem

    November 20, 2012 at 4:24 am

    Rachel Maddow did a pretty devastating takedown of Grandpa Walnuts tonight. He looked like a loon. Now, I really think his cancer affected side of his face is looking bigger again. I think I’m going to tweet Megan McCain.

  14. 14.

    wasabi gasp

    November 20, 2012 at 4:25 am

    I think he’ll get homesick while not having abortions in Chile and will eventually come back and start not having abortions in the U.S. again.

  15. 15.

    danielx

    November 20, 2012 at 4:49 am

    Chile? Not far enough.

  16. 16.

    amk

    November 20, 2012 at 5:23 am

    I give it a week.

  17. 17.

    amk

    November 20, 2012 at 5:57 am

    punk murdock’s UK ops unraveling. .

  18. 18.

    Patricia Kayden

    November 20, 2012 at 6:16 am

    Wow. I feel sorry for Chilean women. I can’t imagine living in a country where I cannot end a pregnancy under any circumstances including a serious threat to my health. We cannot allow that in the US.

  19. 19.

    Schlemizel

    November 20, 2012 at 6:21 am

    Can we get an Act Blue page set up for these guys? Certainly a number of them are not leaving because of the financial burden of the move, I’d gladly kick in $10 to help them go.

    If we all did that maybe we could have a sane country again

  20. 20.

    NonyNony

    November 20, 2012 at 6:47 am

    Wonder if more of the Free State Project-ionists will follow the example of Mormon polygamists in the 1880s and set up “colonies” outside U.S. borders?

    Jesus I hope not. These loons are our problem – if they self deport to some other country it just makes things worse there.

    Chilean women have it bad enough – they don’t need US loons to come down and make things worse.

  21. 21.

    Drunken hausfrau

    November 20, 2012 at 7:30 am

    Yeah, I’m sure he’lll find his govt jackbooted thug-free paradise in Chile… They have a good history of freedom.

  22. 22.

    Ash Can

    November 20, 2012 at 7:55 am

    @Fred: Hopefully he’ll do something that’s jailable but not deportable, and they’ll lock his ass up and forget about him.

  23. 23.

    El Cid

    November 20, 2012 at 8:13 am

    __

    Wonder if more of the Free State Project-ionists will follow the example of Mormon polygamists in the 1880s and set up “colonies” outside U.S. borders?

    As long as we can find areas of this or other countries set aside so that they don’t bother any other locals, I’ll contribute toward the fund to help them relocate.

  24. 24.

    Jay in Oregon

    November 20, 2012 at 8:24 am

    I have to admit, when I read this:

    At least one of this year’s crop of very public Fetus Fetishists decided to act on his convictions.

    I was afraid there had been a shooting spree at an abortion clinic or PP.

  25. 25.

    Woodrowfan

    November 20, 2012 at 8:42 am

    I was afraid there had been a shooting spree at an abortion clinic or PP.

    My first thought as well…

  26. 26.

    Kent

    November 20, 2012 at 8:53 am

    Wealthy and middle class Chilean women just go over to Argentina. The poor and immigrants suffer with illegal backstreet abortions. It is indeed grim.

    Unfortunately one segment of Chilean politics is in the thrall of Opus Dei and their ilk. On the other hand, Chile does have a more progressive side led by activists such as Camila Vallejo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camila_Vallejo and in many ways is more progressive than the US.

    Take voting for example. It is obligatory. And there is universal voter registration. Every Chilean has a national ID from birth. Your ID number on your national ID card is the same as on your passport and the same as on your driver’s license and social security. Every town in Chile has a civil records office where you go for birth certificates, national ID cards, passports, etc. Much easier than in the US. I know because my kids are all dual citizens and I take them there every 5 years to renew passports etc. All the voter suppression stuff we go through here just doesn’t exist which tends to make politics more representative. Since everyone always votes an angry old white men tea party election like 2010 is just impossible.

  27. 27.

    Origuy

    November 20, 2012 at 9:30 am

    @Kent: And apparently there is national health insurance with a mandatory 7% of income premium. Where you gonna go?

  28. 28.

    Biscuits

    November 20, 2012 at 9:41 am

    I feel bad for Chile.

  29. 29.

    PurpleGirl

    November 20, 2012 at 10:10 am

    @Origuy: They just keep saying and doing things which prove how ignorant they are of other countries and which also stand as proof of what we believe the ultimate reason they don’t like (and accept) Obama is — he’s black, blackity, black.

  30. 30.

    Citizen_X

    November 20, 2012 at 10:13 am

    Great, another “Libertarian” who puts the limit of government power in your uterus. Good riddance.

  31. 31.

    Rafer Janders

    November 20, 2012 at 1:35 pm

    When liberals are dissatisfied with the US, they can always threaten to decamp to countries that are just as (or more) advanced and also more liberal (Holland, Germany, the Scandinavian countries, France, etc.), and in many places even English-speaking (Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand, etc.).

    But when conservatives are dissatisfied, where do they go? There is literally no country on Earth that is as advanced as the US and yet also as conservative as they want. To find a country pure enough to meet their ideals, they always have to take a few giant steps back in quality of living, and certainly sacrifice on finding an English-speaking country.

  32. 32.

    central texas

    November 20, 2012 at 9:46 pm

    @Schlemizel:

    I’ll kick in provided that the surrender their passports and renounce their citizenship on the way out. I don’t want them back.

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