Neanderpundit

I tend to be a first and second amendment absolutist. This flag burning bullshit is just that, bullshit.

Let people burn the flag if they please.

Now, let me tell you what i think of free speech.

Freedom of speech has NEVER meant freedom from consequences. As the dippy shits found out, shooting off your mouth can fuck things up for you.

Here’s the thing: Not so many years ago, in this very country, if you made a pass at another man’s wife, if you burned the flag, if you disrespected someone, if you mistreated a lady in public, you were subject to get an asswhipping. People tended to be polite, and treat one another with respect, because there was a fair chance they’d get popped in the nose if they didn’t. And as often as not, that settled the affair, right there. Sure, there were exceptions. Sure, a lynch mob is not a good thing. But Civility causes it’s share of problems. I’m not happy about being civil to people who disrespect me, or my rights, or the flag. I AM civil, because the alternative is a criminal record. I’m not happy that there is no code of gentlemen, anymore. The idea that a man would face up to his own faults after being shown the error of his ways at the end of someone’s fist, and move on somewhat better for it. The idea that actions have consequences.

No, I don’t want to make it illegal to burn the flag. I really don’t. I’d sure like to make it legal to pop someone in the head when they do, though. Put the consequences back into the action.

You may have missed the fact that Acidman has passed on.

Young, too. Younger than dad, when he died.

I have read all the tributes, and a lot of eloquent words were said. I had to take a little time to digest it, myself. As I always do, when someone around me dies.

Rob Smith had trouble in his life. A lot of it was laid on his shoulders by others, but he put some of it there himself. He lived exactly as he chose, and while the choices he made were not always good for him, nor best for the people around him, he stuck by them no matter how hard. It’s very easy to be critical or condescending, but most of us don’t live with the same sense of the world that Rob had. I knew him only through his writing, never having had the opportunity to meet him in person- but I knew him as a decent soul. At his best, he made us laugh. When I could make him laugh with something I had written, i was always very proud. At his worst, he pissed off and alienated people. Whatever his internal demons were, I never fully knew, nor, probably, did anyone else.

I wish that Rob were still with us. I wish he had published the columns he wrote for the Effingham paper. I wish he would reappear again tomorrow, to laugh at us all. But he won’t. I wasn’t close enough to him to be heartbroken by his death, but I was a good enough reader that I’ll miss him. And I’ll search through the archives for as long as his site is up, remembering the fights and laughter.

God keep you, Robert Smith. God hold you in the hollow of his Mighty hand. And thanks for the time you gave to us.

The Corrosive One has passed on, according to a post by his daughter.

I don’t think he offed himself, I think this was natural causes, badly timed. Athiest or not, he’s in my prayers.

We hardly knew ye, Acidman.