Looking back, those were a tough 6 months of martial law! The coup of the new president was this close!

>> ^Doc_M:
They go on to say that there is not a single study that supports the idea that having a gun in the house deters bunglers. This is simply a LIE! They are either simply lying or they are the most pathetic journalists ever to live.

Yes, Doc_M. We should listen to you, instead of the highly trained cops they interviewed in this report. You know, the ones who say it's pretty much bullshit that being armed during an attack such as at a school, a church, or home, is going to help you somehow.

Oh, but it's just those police-state cops who are trying to ensure noone owns firearms, so when martial law is instigated, we're all screwed!


BTW: Doc_M

Can you point us to studies showing this to be false? Nah, didn't think so.

You seem to completely miss the point of the story, and instead jam your own misguided wedge issue where it doesn't belong.

Wolf was wrong about martial law, but I don't think it was an unreasonable thing to say "doesn't that look like where we're headed?"

One could certainly have argued that was a possibility, but Wolf claimed she was making factual statements. For example, at 4:00 she states that, as of that date, we were already undergoing a coup on the part of Bush administration. She had certitude about every false thing she said, which is very different from making arguments about possibilities.

I predict that in 2010 we'll be having the same conversation about Peter Schiff's predictions about the end of civilization as we know it. (Given the available information (many unknowable factors), I give an 80% confidence level for this prediction.)

Self-doubt is a good thing, and Wolf and Schiff don't have it. It's very poor risk management on their parts. I'm a libertarian and a progressive, so I think it's my responsibility to be first in line to criticize their excesses.

If the press did their job, they'd do some work to see how much of what Naomi Wolf is saying is plausible or reasonable, and then turn the same critical eye to Beck, and then present a verdict that isn't predetermined to be "they both have about the same credibility." In other words, they should try to make an objective determination about what's really happening, even if it's closer to what one of the political parties is saying than the other.

What Wolf did was look at a sequence of events that actually happened, and plotted the trajectory towards a really uncomfortable conclusion.

Essentially, she said "hey, look at the way Republicans are using fear to achieve their goals, and it's following the playbook dictators use!"

Obama wins, and now Glenn Beck comes on TV every night and accuses Obama of using Wolf's playbook for dictators.

What's a modern day reporter to do? Both the left and the right are calling each other fascists -- this must just be a simple partisan squabble, so we'll just ignore both of them, except to condemn them for their strident partisanship (of which they're equally guilty, regardless of where the facts stand).

This is a bit like Bernie Madoff saying "hey, my clients cheated me just as bad as I cheated them!" and having the press refuse to indicate in their reporting who might be telling the truth, and who might not be, because that would be "partisan".

Wolf was wrong about martial law, but I don't think it was an unreasonable thing to say "doesn't that look like where we're headed?"

Beck, some 8 weeks into Obama's presidency, is saying it's the end of capitalism and freedom, and the rise of fascism. That's just not reasonable.

The fact that some intellectuals on the left said it in the last years of Bush's presidency, doesn't mean that when entertainers on the right make the same accusation in the opening days of Obama's presidency, both have equal weight.

I think media matters is sorta right that the press shouldn't try to evoke fear, but I think more accurately, I think they need to be judicious and just make sure that what they're reporting is valid.

Saying "beware toys made in China from these manufacturers because the FDA has found that many of them contain lead paint" is justified, even if it evokes fear. Saying "Letting the Bush tax cuts expire will crash the economy and drive us into a Communist dictatorship" isn't.

^mkknyr: She's not in this video, but right before the election she was harping on about the impending American fascism, how she was convinced the Republicans were going to rig the election, use the American military to quell the uprising on American soil, impose martial law. She drew a direct comparison to October 1, 2008 in America to February, 1933 in Germany. Basically, she was trafficking in fear; she certainly had me afraid.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Interview-Naomi-Wolf-Give-Me-Liberty



Thanks.

Yeah, she's one of the many nutjobs who "predicted" the financial crisis. There are two problems with that: 1. At any given times there are endless numbers of people predicting financial crises, generally for different reasons aligned with whichever fringe ideology they prefer. 2. If you look at her other predictions, as a general rule, they're dead wrong, as shown in that video.

Reality is, unfortunately, much more prosaic than our wildest imaginations.

I assume that after being so wrong, she's learned 0% of her lesson, same as all the figures whose predictions about Iraq were worthless (and who are still on TV, same as her). Down the memory hole, I suppose.

>> ^chilaxe:
>> ^mkknyr:
Wow. Never thought I'd hear the same argument coming from Naomi Wolf and Glenn Beck.

I didn't see Naomi Wolf in this video. I'm curious, where does Wolf make these arguments?


She's not in this video, but right before the election she was harping on about the impending American fascism, how she was convinced the Republicans were going to rig the election, use the American military to quell the uprising on American soil, impose martial law. She drew a direct comparison to October 1, 2008 in America to February, 1933 in Germany. Basically, she was trafficking in fear; she certainly had me afraid.

http://www.videosift.com/video/Interview-Naomi-Wolf-Give-Me-Liberty

WOOT, MARTIAL LAW, bring on the looting and mayhem!

Cling to your guns people. It's martial law time. Chaos everywhere. Grab a bottle of booze and start clicking like crazy. There's some votes to be voted on.

oh and it's "martial law"

I'm Marshall

and the guys that arrest you are "Marshals"

>> ^circles:
These are important questions that I agree, we will face in the next few years. Let's only hope that we the courts will get the chance to rule on them, rather than to simply have the situations forced upon us,


You poor kid. Once the Marxist himself Hussein boy finds a reason to declare martial law, your vote will be immaterial. Think of 1984, Star Wars, and other stories. Once you lose your rights, you'll never get them back. I wish I could like Nobama, I really do, but those power hungry tyrannical dictator types tend to leave a bad mark on formerly free countries.

>> ^Constitutional_Patriot:
You might get "lucky" and get stationed stateside for domestic terrorism duty now that martial law army and marine units are preparing to potentally "protecting" the the people in the event of a "national emergency". It'd would suck being prepared to kill fellow countrymen even though it's a violation of the constitution and UCMJ but hey at least you'd be stateside.


future truth ftw

You might get "lucky" and get stationed stateside for domestic terrorism duty now that martial law army and marine units are preparing to potentally "protect" the people in the event of a "national emergency". It'd suck being prepared to kill fellow countrymen even though it's a violation of the constitution and UCMJ but hey at least you'd be stateside.

come on bush, declare martial law. you know you want to. give the people a chance to put their fists where their mouth is.

Don't celebrate yet, Bush still has over 2 months to fuck shit up. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if he fabricated some national emergency to declare martial law and prevent the next president from taking over.

Merely martial law and Nazis? Doesn't this count as genocide, or am I going out on a limb?