If federal officials show up at my door someday to take away my pellet gun (“Honest, I only used it to knock squirrels off the bird feeder, officer”), I will probably look back and regret the day I wrote a blog about the Oath Keepers.
Even mentioning this topic is probably a fast-lane shortcut to getting my name on that White House list of dangerous conservatives, pro-lifers and right-wing extremists.
To the angry left, the Oath Keepers are tossed in the same shopping basket with the KKK, skinheads and survivalists. But as usual, that’s a hysterical overreaction.
Actually, the Oath Keepers are probably not scary at all to most Americans.
They are active and retired military and law enforcement officers who have sworn an oath to “protect and defend the Consitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, so help me God.”
That’s nothing new. The oath is almost as old as our country. But the difference is that the Oath Keepers take it seriously.
At the Oath Keepers website, they list the orders they will not obey, including:
orders to disarm American citizens
warrant-less searches
orders to impose martial law
orders to invade a state that has declared its sovereignty
orders that allow foreign troops on U.S. soil
And others, all listed in the video above.
Here’s what one says:
I am a combat veteran who served in the Army infantry in Iraq from August 2005 to December 2006. I served in Mosul, Tall Afar, and Baghdad. I was a Specialist, and spent most of the time there as an m203 grenadier. I vow to do whatever I must to keep the Republic from becoming something else. Something that calls itself a Republic, but just under the surface it may become a _____ state. You fill in the blank. Marxist, communist, Socialist. At the end of the day it’s all the same isn’t it? I cannot and will not allow this to happen. I will go to any length to see the sons and daughters of this great country inherit a free Republic. I vow to keep the oaths laid out so astutely on this website.
God Bless America!
I suppose the left sees groups like this as kissing cousins of the Clinton-era militias that watched the skies for black helicopters carrying U.N. troops to take over America.
But I see something else. I see people who understand and respect our Constitution enough to pledge that they will defend it. And the fact that so many people think it may soon be necessary to defend it, tells us something about the growing uneasiness about the Obama administration.
There’s a reason ammo and gun sales have been off the charts. There’s a reason middle-class voters have taken to the streets in Tea Party protests. There’s a reason people are so worried about the future. Obama and his Pelosi Democratic Congress have done too much, too fast, in the wrong, socialist direction — bailouts, takeovers, appeasing our enemies, confusing our friends, socialized medicine, unemployment, environmental regulations that increase government pollution in our lives…
I hope and pray we are a long way from the day when a federal official comes knocking to take away my pellet gun or throw me in jail for not having enough government-approved health insurance.
But if that day comes, I hope that officer is an Oath Keeper.
Liberties are being eroded more and more each day. Eric Holder’s Injustice Department issued a subpoena to a news web site asking for identifying information on all visitors:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/09/taking_liberties/entry5595506.shtml?tag=mncol;txt
Where are all the civil libertarians now? I wonder if this has numbed the chill down Chris Matthews leg? It is a scary time we live in when the Justice Dpet. can subpoena to find out who has been reading the news!
It’s nowonder the rightwing, GOP ad conservatives are seen as a bunch of racist. I saw these fools on the Chris matthews show and the Oath Keepers came off as wannabe Timothy McVay types who think President Obama is going to enslave white people. The Oath Keeprs are the kind of idiots who believe Sarh “The airhead” palin would make a good VP. These are the people who show up to Teabaggers rallies with Obama is Hitler signs. And dont get me started on the rightwing birther idiots. And you expect people to take you guys seriously and with respect. You all are a bunch of rightwing racist who love spouting your garbage to rightwing racist talk show host like Cunningham. Limbaugh and Hannity. It’s nowonder the GOP voting base consist of the “Deep South and Appalachia”. Good luck trying to expand the GOP “big tent”. I just dont thinkthere are that many racist left in america,
You see the logic through which people like Peter Bronson and the Tea Partiers function in these sentences:
“There’s a reason ammo and gun sales have been off the charts… Obama and his Pelosi Democratic Congress.”
I would love to see some documentation of the assertion that the increase in guns and ammo sales is the result of the actions of the current federal government. But people like Peter Bronson don’t rely upon facts, nor do they use logic. An average 9th-grader can use principles of rhetoric to deconstruct his sentences. The above proposition (which is typical of Peter’s body of work, I think it’s fair to say) proceeds like the following faulty logic:
1. It was sunny on Saturday.
2. The Bengals won on Sunday.
3. Therefore because it was sunny on Saturday, the Bengals won on Sunday.
There are certainly principled, intelligent thinkers who advocate and argue from the political right. But unfortunately for the GOP, they don’t get as much press as the illogical and uninformed commenters in the media, whose intellectual content is about as original as the Oath Keepers’ stealing the theme from The Last of the Mohicans for their pitifully maudlin video. (Do they also refuse orders to obey copyright laws, Peter?)
It sounds like anyone who disagrees with Adam or straightnochaser is either racist or an idiot. (I won’t speculate on the probablities that the precise opposite is more likely.) There is no arguing with name-callers. But Adam: Try walking into a gun store sometime. Ask a few customers why they are buying ammo. (I did.) Ask the gun-store owner why his customers say they are buying ammo. (I did.) Read a few news stories about the run on ammo and guns. (I did.)It helps to ask someone who should know. The answer was always the same: “Obama.” So, if you wnat to know why people are buying ammo, ask them. You will get the same answer.
But good catch on the Last of the Mohicans theme. I never would have noticed that.
Peter: You used several transparent rhetorical escape devices without producing any real evidence to support your claim:
1. You deliberately conflate two separate propositions: Straightnochaser argues from emotion, while my question was purely factual. Conflating them as you did is totally disingenuous, which I’m sure you realized before you typed it. My question about evidence backing up your claim remains on the table.
2. Your personal anecdote is not the same thing as factual evidence, which you should also know. You may as well say, “I asked three Bengals fans last Sunday, ‘Who’s the best team in the NFL?’, and they all gave the same answer: ‘The Bengals!’ Therefore the Cincinnati Bengals are the best team in the NFL.”
3. You can’t claim a different standard for yourself and “straight news” when the subject of your column is the standards of the “straight news.” I understand that opinion columns are different from straight news, but if you’re going to attack the straight news for its supposed indifference to the facts, you can’t cop out on producing facts in your own column on that topic.
4. Your claim that “there is more than enough physical, witness and circumstantial evidence to indict Hassan [sic] for terrorism” demonstrates a simple misunderstanding of our judicial system generally, and particularly of U.S. or Texas terrorism law. (Have you ever read those statutes? I have.) Even presuming that the indictment spelled Hasin’s name properly, you’re simply making up information if you claim that admissible evidence has been made known publicly at this point. (Or, more to the point, that such information had been made publicly when you posted your column four days after the attack.)
I’d repeat my request that you demonstrate where you obtained such information, except that your personal anecdote about the gun store doesn’t make me confident that such a request would really get anywhere:
“I talked to three guys at a John Birch Society meeting last night, and we all agreed: Hasin was definitely acting on direct orders from bin Laden!”
Look it’s obvious Peter’s dead on analysis has got your panties in a bunch. You wouldn’t be here name calling if it wasn’t the case. If you can’t deal with the truth I advise you to stick to MSNBC. It will make you feel safer about your warped world view. This is really more of a site for thoughtful analysis than the name calling left wingers.
Adam must be reading with his eyes closed. I provided direct evidence — interviews with gun-store owner and customers. If I ask three gun-store customers why they are stocking up on ammo and all three say “Obama,” that is factual, first-person, direct-source evidence. The analogy to Bengals fans who are expressing an opinion is spurious. As for the rest of his sarcastic comments — one of the perks of having your own blog is not having to take orders, demands or requests from someone who makes up facts and then demands “disprove this” or “prove that.” And about that spelling: According to most news stories, it’s Hasan with one “s.” Not Hassan with two “s”s, as I had it; and not Hasin, as Adam had it. If you’re going to correct me, at least get it right yourslf.
Mea culpa re: the spelling. I actually realized it immediately upon sending, but we’re not able to edit our own posts. Mea culpa.
The rest of my post stands unrebutted. Apparently one of the other perks of writing this blog is that Peter can write an brand new uninformed post without addressing any of the logical flaws in his previous posts. Lucky guy: if only we all had no quality control in our own work product, our jobs would be much easier.
One of the perks of reading this blog is that at least we can rest assured knowing that no one’s paying him for his shoddy writing anymore. But it’s fun spotting the logical fallacies nonetheless; keep up the good work, Mr. Bronson.
P.S. One more thing: because I, unlike Peter, vouch for the accuracy of any claim I’ve made, I would be happy to address his insinuation that I am “someone who makes up facts.” Anyone have a clue what he might be referring to?
You just posted an inaccuracy again. Peter does vouch for his accuracy. Your batting a big .000 right now Adam. Better quit before you make a complete fool of yourself.
Did the teachers also tell you that grammar rebuttals are a sign of losing a debate?
Kilroy: Using Peter’s standards of accuracy, I’ll prove that you’re wrong:
I found four construction workers out at Kenwood Mall who agreed that every word I wrote was 100% true. And three English teachers out at Delhi Junior High who agreed that you need some remedial grammar lessons.
http://www.realoathkeepers.org/
http://www.youtube.com/user/RealOathKeepers
http://twitter.com/RealOathKeepers
Real Oath Keepers: Real Homeland Defense
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''Keep up the good work!