There's a certain amount of irony about people who complain about free speech being under attack, then appearing to encourage Second Amendment remedies because they don't like what somebody said.
I think most of us can probably agree with Scott Wooledge's analysis of Boston Mayor Tom Menino's And Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's recent comments urging Chick-fil-A not to try to set up shop in their cities. Yes, it was overreach. Yes, it hijacked a very important national conversation about CFA's despicable anti-gay donations. And both of these mayors walked their comments, which were passionately made probably with the best of intentions, back. Unwise comments? Yes. Examples of tyranny and a warning that Menino and Emanuel are going to start beheading evangelicals? No. Nobody's freedoms are going to be trampled.
But tell that to libertarian Mississippi candidate for U.S. House District 4's seat Ron Williams. Apparently Menino's and Emanuel's comments are the worst threat to America since 9/11. So Williams decided to get out his fountain pen--or whatever libertarians write with--and write a letter to the editor for the Biloxi Sun Herald. And, as rabid right-wing libertarians are wont to do, he made some downright insane, and I would argue dangerous, comments. And yes, of course, it involves the people taking up arms against the dangerous tyrant mayors of Boston and Chicago.
In his letter, Williams said the mayors' comments run afoul of the First Amendment. Then he took it a step further and added:
Let me make it clear, the CEO is being punished by government officials because he exercised his First Amendment right of free speech. The Constitution is very clear. When government restricts and punishes the people for exercising their First Amendment rights, then we are to default to the Second Amendment (right to keep and bear arms). These two mayors need to be introduced to the Second Amendment ASAP.
He went on to say:
The correct response to these mayors would be to send troops or whatever to remove these men from office, by whatever means is necessary.
Orly. Okay. Let's put our guns away and think this through. The mayors walked their statements back. Not a whole lot of people agree with them. They have said they will in no way use their positions to interfere with CFA setting up franchises in their cities. Menino, for his part, admitted to being wrong. Does this sound like fascism to you?
When pressed, Williams said his comments in the letter were "hyperbole." Ya think? I think "hyperbole" is quite the understatement.
He also said:
I’m not saying anybody should go shoot these mayors. But politicians need to be reminded, our founding fathers were quite clear that it’s quite possible for our country to fall back into the hands of tyranny ... I’m a thou-shalt-not-kill kind of guy, but these guys should be reminded of the Second Amendment ... I guess the word reminded would have been better (in the letter) ... I needed a thesaurus beside me.
Something is telling me his lack of thesaurus isn't the problem here.
Wayne Besen over at Truth Wins Out reminds us of the very real problems facing Mississippi as Williams, a candidate to serve the state, runs his mouth inciting violence against distant northern mayors.
- A Mississippi black man’s life expectancy is lower than the average American’s life expectancy was in 1960.
- A quarter of the state’s households don’t have access to decent, healthful food
The state has the highest rate of teen births in the nation. (Yet, there is one abortion clinic in Mississippi, and Gov. Phil Bryant, a former deputy sheriff, is working hard to render it inoperable. Until this year, schools taught abstinence. See Uganda’s results.)
- In the United States, the black infant mortality rate is more than twice that of white infants, so Mississippi, which is 37 percent black, has huge neonatal intensive care units. Caring for the thousands of premature babies (weighing between one and four pounds) costs millions of dollars. According to Dr. Glen Graves of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, these tiny, deprived babies grow up to be plagued with chronic illnesses.
[...]
- Of the state’s population of nearly three million, 550,000 are uninsured. At the moment, Governor Bryant is claiming that the state might not accept federal money to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. But even if it does, there won’t be enough doctors to see all the Mississippians who need them; the state has 176 doctors per 100,000 people, the lowest such number in the country.
And what is Williams worried about? None of
these issues, that's for sure. He has his bowels in an uproar over a couple of mayors making unwise comments that they later walked back.
This is the real threat to America in this asshat's eyes.
No. A thesaurus wouldn't have helped Williams one bit. There's no helping this guy. He knew exactly what he was saying--and that is the real problem.