Here Are Some News Items Open Thread

54% of Democrats say they want a "fresh face" in their presidential primary.

Was that a shot? Because it sure sounds like a shot.

Why are people rushing so hard to pick the nominee of the Republican Party so long out from the first debate?

Were I a part of this party, which I'm not, I'd want more information. I'd want to see how these guys think and talk.

Now as for why people are attempting to play Viral Games and Freep the primaries (like polls are freeped) and otherwise use social-media panics to push people into hasty decisions?

I would say some people like to prove they have "juice." That's 99% of the thrill of pushing something as a viral meme -- it proves you had "juice," that you could put the meme in your head into someone else's head. This is going to sound strange, but I think we have the same drive to spread memes as we do to spread genes -- and we "win" the Memetic Race when we propagate more memes than our competitors.

This is obviously a primitive instinct which I for one am quite tired of. But I do think I'm right about the theory.

As to why people rush you -- because they want you to come to a conclusion before you think about it. It's an aggressive move, getting you to accept their conclusion without your line of thinking about it.

People who rush you into decisions rarely have your best interests in their own minds.

Reason's Robby Soames finds that America is as free as far as speech as ever, except if you say something that a majority does not like. Then you're fucked.

Richard Epstein writes that there was a lot of race-baiting in the DOJ's report on Ferguson. Primarily, the DOJ's refusal to state, cleanly, that Wilson was innocent, that Michael Brown attacked him and brought on his own death, and that anyone saying otherwise is wrong -- or lying.

The legal conclusion is surely correct, but the tone of the report's findings are slanted against Wilson...

What the DOJ now has to do is to acknowledge that the killing of Michael Brown was a justifiable homicide. It must abandon its contrived legalisms and defend Wilson, by condemning unequivocally the entire misguided campaign against him, which resulted in threats against his life and forced his resignation from the police force. Eric Holder owes Wilson an apology for the unnecessary anguish that Wilson has suffered. As the Attorney General for all Americans, he must tell the protestors once and for all that their campaign has been thoroughly misguided from start to finish, and that their continued protests should stop in the interests of civic peace and racial harmony. In light of the past vilification of Wilson, it is not enough for the DOJ to publish the report, and not trumpet its conclusions. It is necessary to put that report front and center in the public debate so that everyone now understands that Wilson behaved properly throughout the entire incident.

The situation is made worse with the publication of the second DOJ report which offers a top-to-bottom condemnation of Ferguson’s criminal justice system. This report was clearly prompted by the belief that Wilson’s killing of Michael Brown was the result of structural problems in Ferguson. But why pick on Ferguson after Wilson was exonerated?

I've often said, because it sounds clever and may even be right, that it's not the true things we believe that define us -- everyone believes that the sun is warm; how does that differentiate us? -- but the false things.

I also think that a political movement is marked by the false things it either believes or goes silent about, because a large number of its congregants wrongly believe the false things to be true, and will get upset if you claim otherwise.

The media likes to claim the GOP is full of false believes, especially about Science, and that may be true here and there.

But which is the party which still believes that Michael Brown was assassinated, or that his death was caused by "structural racism" in Ferguson, rather than that which seems more likely to be the more proximate cause, to wit, his punching an armed police officer in the face and then reaching for his loaded weapon?

The Democratic Party is not properly called the Stupid Party because all of the stupid, false things they believe are either widely believed by the media, or never contradicted by the media, because the media does not want to upset the sensibilities of its fellow Democrat voters.

But yes, they believe all sorts of stupid, false, vicious and racist things.

posted by Ace at 07:19 PM

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