Fine @aceofspadesHQ You Want To Know Why I’m Not Talking About San Jose?

do you? I seem to notice a lot of people don't. @tsrblke

— Ursus, Director of Weather and Banana Programming (@AceofSpadesHQ) June 7, 2016

Ace seems to take issue with the fact that that I’m not breathlessly talking about the mess in San Jose. Perhaps a fair criticism. I lamented on twitter (where I go when I lack the time to put together a post.)  Fact is though there’s nothing to say.

This is true for several reasons. First, if we have to say that people have a right to peaceably assemble without fear of violence from there opponents, then all is already lost.  And all is already lost. You know how I know that? Because I live just on the other side of the I270 loop from Ferguson. Indeed, I spent the first years of my life living in Spanish Lake, MO. My in-laws still live in Hazelwood. What happened in San Jose is, practically speaking, no different than what’s happened in Ferguson, or Baltimore, or Chicago. We surrender the rule of law to give people “space to destroy.” It’s un-American!

So when I was watching the precursor to burning times play out in my backyard, I howled at the wind, calling Nixon a coward ,noting that he chose to forgo the rule of law in favor of opportunistic photo ops. Meanwhile, I had a fucking map on my desk with a red line marked “containment” the line at which I had decided that everything had gotten too big and we followed one of the two exit routes either into St. Chuck or WashMo. (Rioting never really left a 1 mile stretch of road thankfully.)

Then on my college campus, protesters refused to leave. Going so far as to tell my brother they wanted to make him “uncomfortable.” I wrote about the idiocy of it at the time. The statements still stand, even more so in light of the fact that we’ve gone from “get in their faces” to “punch their faces.”

Again in Baltimore. This time screaming gave way to a macabre sort of gallows humor: “Well at least it isn’t us this time.” At this point macabre punchlines became more common. “Well I’ll go pull the Mossberg out of the basement” was a half joking response to every reported police shooting in my metro area.

So you’re right ace, I’m not talking about it. Because I’m all talked out. No one listened to me 18 months ago, no one’s listening now. The rule of law is simply a dream of days gone by. No amount of me saying “how horrible” is going to change that.

Protect yourself, because even though it’s the fundamental duty of the state, they seem to have no interest in it.