CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: A PRIMER

The purpose of civil disobedience is to bring moral pressure against those who have the power to change an unjust law. This is accomplished by breaking the unjust law in a visible manner so that authority figures lose the moral high ground when they arrest the lawbreakers for doing something that non-oppressed people are allowed to do.

For example - in the 60's blacks would sit in white areas of segregated facilities. They didn't cause any trouble, just waited to be arrested for being black in a white area.

The law sucked, they were in the right, eventually the law was changed.

Now you've got this crap with people protesting the Arizona immigration law:

Several dozen people were arrested around 8 a.m. Tuesday; leaders wrapped up the protest about half an hour later. For the most part, the protest was peaceful. Those who were arrested were were sitting on the street in front of the immigration detention center. They were blocking a van coming out of the facility, which reportedly contains illegal immigrants in the process of being deported. About 24 people were taken into custody.

The protesters arrested will be charged with disorderly conduct or blocking traffic. The police chief in Broadview said he would try to make sure the charges were lenient. He said for the most part they were peaceful arrests and said he did not want to arrest the protesters but had to because they were breaking the law.

What unjust law are they breaking? Is disorderly conduct unjust? Is the law prohibiting blocking traffic unjust?

If they want to make their point, they should renounce their American citizenship, become Mexican citizens, then walk across the border and announce that they're in the country illegally. Repeat until the powers that be repeal all immigration laws.

THAT would be civil disobedience.

What they're doing is just being assholes.

HOW TO BOYCOTT THE MSM

A guy emailed into the Fred Thompson Show his idea for punishing the MSM for being so biased:

"NBC, MSNBC, ABC, and the other mainstream media continues to attack the Tea Parties. But it is our money buying the products advertised on those stations that allow them to attack us. Can you please explain that if we all collectively stop buying the products on those stations, that their advertisers will send a tingle up their legs faster than we can do that. If they stop their propaganda, then it will be harder for them to win in November. We are only funding the hate speech against ourselves. The Founders had to risk death. We only have to risk buying our second and third choice products."

Fred basically patted him on the head and said "That's nice, you go ahead & do that. Just remember to vote in November, because that's a lot more effective".

Which is true.

Unless you do the boycott right.

Gerard of American Digest wrote the seminal work on the topic about 5 years ago. Short version: boycott, yes, but more importantly, make sure you write to the advertisers you're boycotting so they know why their sales are down so they will stop advertising with your target.

There's three things I want to add to this: who, how, and what next.

Who - the smaller advertisers: Huge companies get mountains of hate mail every day. 5 or 10 more is just going to be a snowflake in the daily avalanche. For a smaller company, those 5 or 10 make a mountain out of their molehill. It will get their attention, and may motivate a change in behavior.

How - be firm but nice: The theme for your letter should be sadness, regret, and disappointment, not anger. Cursing, TYPING IN ALL CAPS, and name-calling will get you dismissed as a crank. Try this:

Dear Company,

I've used [Product] for a long time, and it's one of my favorite things. Sadly, though, I can no longer use it. I've noticed you advertise on [Offensive News Media Program]. That show is so biased and offensive to me that I can no longer in good conscience support a company that supports them with their advertising dollars. From now on I will be using [Competing Product]. It's not as good as [Product], but it'll have to do for now.

Please consider discontinuing your advertising on [Offensive News Media Program] so that I can switch back.

The important thing is to keep it brief and to the point. Keep your complaint about the Offensive News Media Program to a single sentence. If you rant and vent for paragraphs, you will get dismissed as a crank.

What next - spread the word: let your circle of politically-active friends know who you've targeted and why. Invite them to join in. Invite them to suggest other targets. Drop a line to your local Tea Party chapter, if you have one. And remind everyone to keep the program positive, along the lines of "We love you, [Product-maker], please give us a reason to start giving you our money again!".

Now go get 'em.

DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MILLIPEDES

What's the evolutionary advantage for spiders having 8 legs?

I mean, insects get along fine with 6.

So, maybe it's because spiders are predators, and they can use the extra two legs to hold their prey while the other 6 hang on to their web.

But if that's the case, why aren't there any 6-legged tigers?

Just something to think about while your Easter dinner digests.

[Inspired as a random tangent after seeing this]

I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE, I CAN HEAR YOU FACEBOOKING

I finally updated the Bad Example Family blogroll.

Or "pruned the family tree", as it were.

Which only sounds dirty.

Bad Example Family members who haven't posted in the last 6 months have been moved to the "Bad Example Milk Carton Kids" blogroll.

If, for some reason, one of you Cartoners starts posting again, drop me a line and I'll put your prodigal ass back onto the 'roll.