Freedom Is a State Of Mind Edition

But I will accept any rules that you feel necessary to your freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

Attributed to Robert Heinlein

Reading about the sentencing of the killers of Anthony Walker, I can’t help but wondering where the Ice Pick Safety groups are. If he’d been killed by a gun, there’d be groups all over this. (Instead, those groups are sitting back patting themselves on the back because they did such a good job protecting Anthony from gun crime.)

Although the trial ended in a blaze of publicity as Paul Taylor and Michael Barton were sentenced to life imprisonment, it was Mrs Walker’s extraordinary poise and lack of bitterness that took the attention. It shone like a beacon in a world more used to recrimination. It even robbed the killers of notoriety.

But behind her weary satisfaction that Barton and Taylor no longer terrorise the streets of St John’s estate, Huyton – “two less to worry about, I suppose” – she is angry that racist malevolence is still at large. On the day the trial ended, the word “nigger” was sprayed at the spot where Anthony died.

“How can you desecrate the place where someone’s blood has been spilled?” she asks. “This is a human being. There are many decent people here but this minority, they are vermin. What do you do with vermin? You trap them and dispose of them – those you can catch. The graffiti in the park said it all. They are out there and they are not remorseful.”

See, Mrs. Walker gets it. The blame here doesn’t fall on the weapon used, it falls first on the criminals.

I’m sorry for Mrs. Walker’s loss. I can only pray that she finds some peace, and that his killers somehow come to understand what a horrible thing they’ve done and truly repent for it.

Varifrank has a piece up “In Praise of Propaganda.” He’s supporting the idea of propaganda, since paying reporters to report the truth seems to be the only way they’ll do it.

To back that up, he has a few of the stories that the American press has covered:

• Reported that the turkey that Bush held while visiting Iraq was in fact, plastic when it was in act, turkey.
• Reported that Jimmy Massey was a “Marine who was against the war”, when he was certainly against the war, but was not a Marine.
• Reported A Marine was captured by Al-queda, when it was in fact, a 7 inch GI Joe Doll.
• Compares our soldiers to characters in zombie movies.
• Compares our actions at abu-ghirab with the saddam regime, as if being held in a compromising position by the ugliest woman from West Kentucky was anything like being killed, butchered and buried with a 1000 people from your hometown.
• Showed Representative Murtha statement against the war every 15 minutes for three weeks, while totally ignoring Joe Lieberman’s positive statements for Iraq.

There’s more. Go read the whole thing.