Meade and I arrived at the Capitol midday, and I'm stunned at the signs taped everywhere, many more than there had been before. There are pillows and sleeping bags and other things piled up, and many people are sitting or lying on the floor.
As we walk around on the first floor, we find some protesters have pushed a table loaded with junk up against the back of the Veterans Memorial and have taped their various notices to the back of it and piled stuff up around its base. Meade insists that they move their table and take down those signs and tells them they are hurting their own cause by disrespecting the monument, and instead of simply apologizing, they defend their actions — they're using the back of the monument, and they are passionate about their cause — even as those who died in wars were passionate. Here's the 9-minute video, which were, for us, among the tensest moments of the protests:
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The pair of you showed yourselves better than the gaggle of protesters and not by anything as much as showing simple, decent respect to the memories of men who had lost their lives in defense of the people who didn't even understand how they were defiling them.
Sign, sign, everywhere a sign...
Hey- that's Five Man Electrical Band!
My favorite verse:
And the sign said, "Everybody welcome. Come in, kneel down and pray"
But when they passed around the plate at the end of it all, I didn't have a penny to pay
So I got me a pen and a paper and I made up my own little sign
I said, "Thank you, Lord, for thinkin' 'bout me. I'm alive and doin' fine."
Wooo!
Wooo, indeed! I like that sort of humility. Always nice to know that people are doin' fine and don't need anything.
On the other hand, there are those who think that they know the intent and will of the Divine, and who constantly invoke it, sometimes with demonic certainty and an appalling lack of doubt... these people annoy me!!!
If you are a grown, competent, and well-fed man, you ought to be able to take care of yourself, and you should get on with your life and not bug me.
You might want to forgive those who disgraced the memorial. You might want to go back in time to one year ago and forgive them then. If you are still bitter about it, Althouse, even in the slightest, then you might want to let it go...
That would be Your job.
And no one here is the least bit bitter, You know.
Geez, those protestors were really delusional, weren't they? They got all worked up about something Scott Walker said he would do in his campaign, and then dared to compare their situation to people who were brave enough to defend this country, and sometimes die in that defense?
Unbefreakinglievable. I guess those protestors were just as stupid as they were delusional. And they're too stupid to realize just how stupid they are.
What really really bothers me is that this reminds me of how stupid I was at that age.
But, me and my friends often had our activism about causes in college, and I'm sure we were even more irreverent than these kids are today, but I'm also pretty sure we would have been shamed by your approach enough to accept your advice and remove the stuff with little or no argument. It would have been a combination of more respect for our elders and a less emotional basis for our position. I think we would have just said: "You know sir, you're right." and just moved them. I'm just speculating, of course, but their reaction seem alien to me. To argue with older adults about something like respect for a war memorial would have been out of bounds back then, and besides it's clearly not even a debatable position. I think they know it, but just need to to resist for resistance sake alone. That's kinda new, or Wisconsiny, I don't know which.
Didn't watch the video because I always get irritated when I see the Madison freakshow. Glad that Meade and Althouse keep watch for those who want to know, and we appreciate the risk they incur by being close to these crazy folks.
Interesting "passion play".
Wouldn't you agree, God?
I humbly suggest that you not ask loaded questions, Penny. The gun is apt to jam, and the bullet to come out the other side.
God and guns?
Sorta gives me tingles.
Anyway, where was I?
RIGHT!...Looking in on Democracy-in- Action!
Rather passionate. Wouldn't you agree, God?
My dear Penny -
Vibrator. Handheld showerhead. Little circles with your index finger. Husband, if you got one...
If you are waiting for God to tell you it's okay... well... it's okay!
Think of big Republican guns and enjoy!
OMG, there I go again, asking a question.
OMG, I guess I was using your name in vein too?
Word is, you're into forgiveness. Course that just might be rumor.
Who knows really?
In any case, if I offended you, that was surely not my intent.
Penny, my dear, stop beating around the bush! I'm telling you that you... uh... need to start beating around the bush! Proceed directly to orgasm! Do not pass Go, do not collect $200!
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, should not die, but have life everlasting.
Papa used to cry in church, as a boy it frightened me to see this huge man, who held power over all of us, to see this man bring his head down low almost touching the pew in front of him, and weep.
Sweet Jesus touch my soul....
OH! Ohhhhhhhhh! Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Thank you, God!
I'll take that under advisement. ;)
Any one else see the irony of the "corporate special interest" sign next to the "SEIU" sign?
Rusty
Of course, what would liberalism be WITHOUT the irony and/or hypocrisy?
"You might want to forgive those who disgraced the memorial."
Well, now that is an individual choice. Not one taken up with the 'blessing' of government, group pressure, certainly not by the suggestion of idol worshippers. I suggest you mind your own forgiveness, 'god'.
Libtard: If you are still bitter about it, Althouse, even in the slightest, then you might want to let it go...
I just love how leftist cretins are pushing back against Ann's remembrance posts of their dishonorable acts. Like cockroaches who hate the light.
I enjoy their whiney pushbacks against the Truth because it means it hurts them.
So it would have been better to tear down their signs and overturn their tables screaming "Brood of vipers!!! This is supposed to be a war memorial! But you have made it a den of thieves!!!!!!"
Is that the takeaway?
You don't have to hold a grudge in your heart to point out that something is wrong.
Besides... repentance is important, too. And we're not seeing much of it from the libtard crowd.
When they do, grace is boundless and freely given.
It's a matter of opinion whether taping some things on the blank marble behind the war memorial was disrespectful to the veterans who died for the freedoms the protesters were exercising.
Though there were lots of vet present, the first people who were offended were two right wing bloggers looking to make a confrontational video for the propaganda purposes of the right wing blogosphere.
The folks who taped up the signs politely listened to the concerns of Althouse and Meade even though the two bloggers were coming at them like nasty assholes from the get-go. And they removed the signs (the video makers didn't give a shit to make that clear) because they obviously didn't want to do anything to the memorial offensive to anyone's sensitivities.
Meanwhile, some found the makers of this video disrespectful of the war memorial because the real agenda behind the video was to exploit the memorial and manufacture fake outrage on partisan web sites. In contrast to the protesters they confronted, Meade and Althouse do not give a shit if their video was taken by some as disrespectful to the war memorial and the veterans it honors.
Did those vets fight and die so that two ideological concern trolls could use them in a phoney manner to discredit people exercising democracy?
Also, Meade lies in the video when he presents himself as "not unsympathetic" to the protesters' cause but merely concerned about the image that will go out. Meade spent every day running around looking for any little thing to make a fake-outrage video over. And, wow, here he found a group of polite young people who didn't want to disrespect any veterans, yet for some reason Althouse still posts the video with a title pretending they did disrespect vets.
This video stands as a memorial to two bullies who like to shove cameras in peoples' faces, wag their fingers, and pick fights for YouTube. Meade was swearing in this video in the opening seconds and he and Althouse became ruder and ruder jerks for no reason.
All they had to do was calmly talk to them as human beings and the issue would've been resolved even quicker, since they were dealing with people who didn't want to disrespect the memorial at all.
But there was another agenda at work here and they wanted to make a video for InstaPundit and Michelle Malkin to link to.
The folks confronted by Althouse and Meade apologized for offending anyone. Althouse and Meade should issue a similar apology.
"The folks confronted by Althouse and Meade apologized for offending anyone. Althouse and Meade should issue a similar apology."
We have nothing to apologize for.
"The folks confronted by Althouse and Meade apologized for offending anyone."
Where and for what did "the folks confronted" by us apologize? To whom did they apologize.
It's a matter of opinion whether taping some things on the blank marble behind the war memorial..."
Behind the war memorial? If I taped a sign on your back, would say I'd taped something on the blank space behind you? The reverse side of something isn't behind it. It's part of it.
"The folks who taped up the signs politely listened to the concerns of Althouse and Meade even though the two bloggers were coming at them like nasty assholes from the get-go."
Did you even watch the video? Both of us were saying "you're hurting your own cause." They should have removed the signs immediately and apologized. That was patently obvious. The efforts at defending the actions were... hurting their own cause, as we told them.
"And they removed the signs (the video makers didn't give a shit to make that clear) because they obviously didn't want to do anything to the memorial offensive to anyone's sensitivities."
Here's the video we made when we returned to the monument 2 days later. Check it out.
And, as noted above, the only decent response was to remove the signs immediately and apologize. They went on and on defending what they had done. That's what you see in the video, which goes on for 9 minutes.
"Meanwhile, some found the makers of this video disrespectful of the war memorial because the real agenda behind the video was to exploit the memorial and manufacture fake outrage on partisan web sites. In contrast to the protesters they confronted, Meade and Althouse do not give a shit if their video was taken by some as disrespectful to the war memorial and the veterans it honors."
You're just making things up. We went down to the protests over and over to see what was happening, and we were fair to everybody. We focused on whatever was interesting and gave many people much time to explain themselves in their own words, drawing them out, even asking them to consider what they were saying from other points of view.
I wasn't on one side or the other when the protests began (as you can see from my first posts on the subject). (BTW, Walker's plan cost us a lot of money personally, so I was motivated to find fault with what the GOP was doing.) But the scene at the Capitol became more and more nightmarish, and I did eventually feel quite upset with the horrible noise and disorder. But I was genuinely shocked to see them using the monument as a notice board and piling up all sorts of junk at the base of it. I couldn't believe they went on and on justifying it. You can see at the point when my hand (with the camera) starts shaking uncontrollably that I am genuinely outraged.
"The folks confronted by Althouse and Meade apologized for offending anyone."
I'm not sure they ever apologized, but apologizing "for offending anyone" sounds like the old "non-apology."
Did they admit they were wrong? I want to hear an apology for DOING IT.
But I still won't apologize. I'm proud of our work at the protests, and I will defend it.
That is, I don't think it's wrong and I'm not sorry we did it.
And I'm sure not going to say sorry if anyone was offended. If anyone's offended, I'm perfectly okay with that. If it upsets you or others that these protesters got exposed doing something wrong, that's fine with me. We meant to do that. Every day I write things expecting some people will be offended, and I mean to do it and have no regrets. I stand by my work, and I take the criticisms.
This reminds me of Kevin Kline's character, Otto, in "A Fish Called Wanda"
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