Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Bacon Bits: It’s Come to This

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

As long as you’re here, would you like to check out a book?

With public libraries struggling for relevance in a world in which  anyone can buy a book online, the Arlington Public Library has found a new role to play in the community: dispensing Naloxone (Narcan), a nasal spray that counters opioid overdoes. Deaths from drug overdoses have topped 100,000 annually, and, apparently, Arlington County is not exempt from the scourge. Arlington official Deborah Warren tells WTOP News: “Getting NARCAN into Arlington libraries means that lifesaving resources are more readily available in the event that someone is experiencing an overdose.”

I wonder what Martin Luther King would say about that. A local Republican in Abingdon has opened a store called Mountain Patriots. According to WCYB News, the store will sell pro-Trump, pro-military, and Christian-themed merchandise — and double as the Republican Party headquarters for Washington County. Local Democrats have protested the store opening. “When you conflate religion with politics, there is never a moment that our democracy is more vulnerable than at that point,” Washington County, Virginia Democratic Committee Chair Susan Stancill said. “That’s what our Founding Fathers understood. That’s what is enshrined in the First Amendment.” Er… perhaps someone should remind Stancill that MLK was a Baptist pastor and that the Civil Rights movement in the South was one big conflation of religion and politics. The First Amendment protects people from the state, not the state from the people.

All police are still bastards. A group including activists and “citizen journalists” have filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Richmond and dozens of police officers for unlawful arrests and harassment during the George Floyd protests of 2020, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Two of the journalists broadcast information about the protests on their Twitter accounts, and two were reporters with the Virginia Commonwealth University student newspaper. They charge they were subjected to pepper spray and tear gas. “It is not a crime to observe the public behavior of police officers,” says the lawsuit. I’d like to see this one go to trial. It would be the first time we got the police officers’ side of how they handled the “mostly peaceful” protests. The RTD certainly hasn’t reported it.

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8 responses to “Bacon Bits: It’s Come to This”

  1. Eric the half a troll Avatar
    Eric the half a troll

    If the local Republican Party wants to open a bullets and crosses shop, I say let them. Has nothing to do with the government which is what the founders established – note: political parties were not a factor at that point either.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      And they actually had the nerve to chide Obama over his “guns and Bibles” remark.

  2. David Wojick Avatar
    David Wojick

    Gotta love this: “The First Amendment protects people from the state, not the state from the people.”

    The problem is the left thinks the state is the people. Much evil follows from this belief. The American system was specifically designed to limit the power of the federal state. Happily that curb is still working to some degree, but less every day it seems.

    The state is me. If only.

  3. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
    f/k/a_tmtfairfax

    As I recall, many Democratic politicians, including Presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden have given campaign speeches in black churches. And many black preachers have endorsed Democratic candidates from the pulpit. But those are accepted exceptions to the rule that churches involved in politics are supposed to lose their tax exemption. It has to be an exception since the WaPo regularly blasts any ties between churches and the right but ignores the ties between black churches and the Democratic Party. And as it says “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      I think there is confusion between religion in government and political constituencies.

      Nothing wrong at all with anyone being religious or gathering in religious groups. What is wrong is when that group wants their beliefs incorporated into laws and institutions like public education.

      As far as I can remember, the black folks supporting Clinton and Obama never advocated for their religious beliefs to be incorporated into govt – unlike some of the groups on the right who do.

      1. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
        f/k/a_tmtfairfax

        The major push for the abolition of slavery came from New England Protestant Churches based on their interpretation of the Bible and their doctrine and they had to battle Southern Protestant Churches that held slavery was recognized in Scripture. That, sir, is the incorporation of religious beliefs into the government. And we are seeing a number of religious organizations and leaders using their beliefs to seek strong bans of firearms.

      2. f/k/a_tmtfairfax Avatar
        f/k/a_tmtfairfax

        Here’s another one. Just stumbled across a link to this story. https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/news/2022/06/09/united-methodist-walk-akron-targets-violence-urges-action-guns-uvalde-shootings-family-faith-church/10001191002/

  4. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Problem about that desire of yours is they have video of the cops targeting a group clearly marked PRESS with rubber bullets in those riots. Donut munchers

    https://mobile.twitter.com/TurncoatD/status/1266909773699538944

    Well, the good news is that no one at BR will ever be mistaken for the press.

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