By Johannes P.
I am not a particular fan of Bill Clinton’s politics, and find his legacy as a President to be mixed at best. But I am willing to give the former president credit when he is right, as when he famously said, “The era of big government is over.” I immediately thought of those words when I heard the news about the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo . . .
When Clinton made that pronouncement, he meant solely that the American welfare state, as it was then constituted, couldn’t meet the goals of promoting economic prosperity for the many, and at the same time providing an effective safety net for everyone who doesn’t participate, at a level of taxation that the American people find politically acceptable. While that statement may have been a tad premature (government has since grown to an extent Clinton would have thought unthinkable 20 years ago), the 21st century has shown that in another aspect, era of big government may be well and truly over – that of personal security.
Big government as represented by a large standing army, a blue-water navy with aircraft carriers, hundreds of air- and sea-launched nuclear weapons, and an annual budget of over 50 billion euros, did not protect the victims at Charlie Hebdo. Big government as represented by strict and complicated gun control laws designed to weed out anyone considered ‘undesirable’ by the state did not protect the victims at Charlie Hebdo. Big government as represented by a national police force with over 100,000 members who were tasked with specifically protecting editor Stephane Charbonnier and his staff from death threats did not protect the victims at Charle Hebdo. The big government idea that puts its faith in technology for security did not protect the victims at Charlie Hebdo.
The solutions of big government (or big-anything) are effective only to the extent that the problem facing it is big. France (yes, even France) Â could prevail against many nation-states in the world. The enemy in this case, however, was a small group of people who may have been French nationals (they reportedly “spoke fluent French”) armed with weapons that most of us could purchase with a few months’ pay.
Further, this kind of attack was one with serious emotional consequences. This wasn’t some criminal gang seeking to score some cash. They were determined religious ideologues who wanted to silence critics in the most violent way possible, to make sure that anyone who thinks about critiquing their pathetic ideas would think twice in the future. To borrow Voltaire’s phrase, they did it not just to silence Charlie Hebdo, but also pour encourager les autres.
The terrorists’ message is: big government and big technology cannot stop us. All we need is a few dedicated followers and we will get you. The whole point of the attack was not to change French government policy, it was to change the behavior of people in France and around the world just like you and me.
Once we get past the initial wave of outrage, once everyone is done shouting “Je suis Charlie!”, once everyone is done changing their internet avatars to the tricolors and posting angry messages on Twitter, how many will stick around to offer a serious intellectual critique of Islam? How many stand-up comedians will be willing to tell a few jokes about it? How many television cartoons will be willing to openly mock its excesses?
The constitutions of France, the United States, and other countries may enshrine the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, but what good are those documents if people are simply afraid to exercise those rights because they fear physical attack? When faced with an enemy that walks among us, from some scattered individuals who take inspiration from a common ideology, but who work autonomously in small cells embedded in the larger society, big government can’t protect all of us all the time.
The right to speak your mind against violent people like those who perpetrated this atrocity in Paris comes with the price of being ready to defend it. Not just ‘defending it’ by posting a few messages on the internet and changing one’s avatar. Not just ‘defending it’ by joining the service and serving a tour in an expeditionary force in some foreign locale. Instead, the price is to be prepared to execute a plan of personal self defense – in workplaces, on the streets, in schools, at home – with the equipment available. If the enemy invisibly walks among the people, only the people can defend themselves in extremis.
The victims at Charlie Hebdo were disarmed by big government promises that gun control laws equate to safety, by societal expectations that only police and security services can be trusted to carry firearms at the ready, by the hope that technology would provide a ‘magic bullet’ solution. Thankfully, in (most of) America, we do not have those kinds of limitations.
So don’t hesitate. Start today. Get the equipment, training, and (most important of all) mindset to protect yourself and your loved ones. Your rights and your lives may depend on it.
Sadly, it didn’t take but 24 hours for almost all main stream media to capitulate, cowering in fear. Most seem to adopt a “this is whole unacceptable, but don’t print anything to make the Islamists mad” position. It’s as if the urge of political correctness is so strong, they just can’t bring themselves to blame the perpetrators and their religious beliefs. It has to be the West’s fault somehow.
You’ve gotta tip your hat to the perpetrators though. They won twice with one act of violence. The avenged their prophet killing the Charlie Hedbo staff, then won again when everyone reporting on the violence wussied out and censored themselves. Well played jihadis!
How come I get this feeling a new modern dark age is coming on like when the western Roman empire collapsed?
Well, if the US does collapse it could bring back the dark ages. The EU, not so much.
The EU is a bunch of weenies.
I didn’t vote for him but in hind sight I appreciate his practical governance, welfare reform, and balanced budget. I also appreciate that his AWB precipitated the purchase of my first “assault weapon” when my ears were bent on the assault on my rights in the first month in my first real job in 92. I wish he had the balls to kill bin laden in 98? when he had the chance.
You gotta eat, but his choice in women is marginal at best. Never the less he is the best president we’ve had since Reagan. Before that obviously JFK.
Right. Impeachment, lying under oath, adultery, accepting foreign monies (Riadi) for re-election, and a slew of security issues at the White house. He was just…awesome.
As much as I disliked Clinton, I would have gladly traded the current occupant for him now.
What really horrifies me is the memory of the sense of relief I had when the DNC nominated him over Hillary. (ANYONE but Hillary!)
The Devil you know, don’t you know…
Hillary probably would have been better. She was(is) so hated, everything she did would have been fought tooth and nail. The fear of being thought of as racist kept the kid gloves on in the fights against Obama’s policies.
As much as I disliked Clinton, I would have gladly traded the current occupant for him now.
So would most Democrats.
Right. I am as hard core right wing as they come. I don’t like Clinton’s morality but I never doubted what team he was on. Never said he was awesome, but he was a a good president who put the US first.
Except when he traded our ICBM tech to the CHICOMs for campaign contributions… Or did nothing about bin laden or other jihadis after we got attacked in 1993.
Other than that he was very pro American (p@ssy),,,
How soon some forget.
The ONLY team that POS Bill Clinton was ever on was Team Clinton.
Sadly, the point above is correct. MUCH rather ole’ Bill that Obuma (or the witch of LittleRock).
I’m sorry… Was this post supposed to be satire?… A 10-year arbitrary AWB that did nothing to deter crime is fondly remembered as the impetus for you to buy your first “assault rifle”?… To casually lament that he should have killed Bin Laden in 1998, but did not?… To jokingly state that a serial adulterer in the Oval Office, (before and after), makes “choices in women that are marginal at best”?… Really?… I get it that there are many conservatives that would trade Obama for Clinton any day, but it seems like you’re viewing his presidency through rose-colored glasses.
Hey, the AWB started my relationship with ARs, too. The morning after it passed Congress, I was at my lgs waiting for it to open. Went home with a new friend. Damn things are addictive, I guess I have 3 lowers and 4 (?) uppers now. Maybe 5. And at least one spare barrel, and a few thousand rounds of each of two calibers. And a suppressor! Thanks, Bill!
I’m not partial to any politician except for a small handful of outliers, but you should research how the clinton administration cooked the books to get a balanced budget. Sure he didn’t spend like there was no tomorrow like his two successors did, but if I remember correctly they counted IOUs shoved in the social security bucket as assets.
And they still do!
This ultimately is another argument that supports: Second amendment protects the first (and all others). There is a time when violence is an appropriate response or the threat of violence to deter criminals from harming you. If we want to win the “war on terrorism” what we need is constitutional carry in every state. Otherwise our freedom of speech is a memory, even if our government doesn’t directly take it from us, the terrorists will. And arm the ladies, because the terrorists are more afraid of dying at our hands. Dying from another male, it’s Jihad and they go to heaven with 72 virgins. Dying at the hands of a woman is ultimate shame and they lose completely.
Saddest thing about this massacre, from an armed-self-defense standpoint.
Nobody needed a tactical rifle and body armor. The street was so narrow and the distances so small that an 870 or 590 in the trunk, combined with appropriate cover, would have made a HUGE difference.
That’s so true. I know they supposedly picked that target because they were mocking them (What weenies)… but strategically there is almost a level of arrogance conveyed by going in to a target like that that could be SO easily defended if only anyone had ANY real weapon on them.
I am unable to get over the concept of police protection due to numerous death threats, so they send unarmed police. Does that somehow make sense to anyone at all? And the unarmed police WENT! I would have quit if they would not arm me for that job. They were obviously going to be attacked, and even if they were attacked with knives, I want a gun.
@Larry sadly I think it’s gotten to the point where police and everyone around them thinks somehow their magic uniform really IS magic that makes them a whole other type of human. The authority to defend someone isn’t in your magic uniform, it’s in your weapons and ability to use them. I appreciate the work that honest law enforcement officers do (i.e. not corrupt/criminal shitheads who put on a magic uniform to shield them from their crimes, but the actual GOOD ones.) But they can’t be everywhere at once. Weapons are the biggest reason criminals don’t just run them over. And any law-abiding citizen of average intelligence can be trained to be just as effective at protection.
“Dying at the hands of a woman is ultimate shame and they lose completely.”
Make publicly known all firearm bores are swabbed with a pig fat based lubricant.
“The product is “a HIGHLY EFFECTIVE Counter-Islamic terrorist force multiplier.”
“So the belief behind the oil is that a person killed with a bullet that travels down the barrel of a gun greased in pig fat would be desecrated.”
http://www.silverbulletgunoil.net/
Doesn’t that just warm your heart?
Ha! Yes. AND if you can manage it… be wearing your bacon T-shirt! (somehow bacon T-shirts are a weird trend on the level of the whole mustache on t-shirts and mugs thing.)
And yes, it warms my heart. I’m glad you dudes can get in on the fun and it’s not just us ladies! 😉
Pig fat forever! Bacon!
Off topic but, I think some of the bacon trend made a comeback due to “epic meal time” and it’s creators.
Gas the terrorists with bacon scented perfume bombs. They will be unable to fight and we can flush them out unharmed….. though hungry.
swine neckbone chili.
Evan, bacon is delicious. I don’t know how it ever was not a trend. Like ever.
That’s actually brilliant! The extreme Islamist is a brainwashed fanatic. Adhering to the Quran and it’s Jihadist teachings is at a fanatical level for these followers. Just the thought of being tainted with pig fat upon their death would have an imense psychological impact. The idea is simple yet clever. Heck…, instead of dogs being our household pets and guard dogs, we should get pot belly pigs…. lol.
Fight superstitious nitwits with their own superstitions. Pig fat and ladies. The kurds sent in several all female military units to fight ISIS to play on their fear/disgust of dying at a woman’s hands. I’d absolutely tell them my guns were cleaned with pig fat as well.
Except it’s all a load of bullshit. There is nothing in Islam that says that someone injected with pork (or torn by dogs, another common myth) is eternally damned. Heck, Muslims are explicitly allowed to eat pork and other forbidden foods if they’re forced to under duress or if they’re starving and have nothing else to eat.
And there you are, just another dhimmi spreading lies. Why do you crawl on your knees in submission to muslim terrorists? Do you think they will reward you for it. What a sad, pathetic thing you are. I would feel pity for you, if you were not a bigger enemy than the muslim terrorists are.
“And arm the ladies …”
Sounds fantastic to me!
You are still thinking defense, no harm, so is the rest of the world… But we should really ask ourselves how do me move forward, rather than fall back. How do we take the fight to them? You are either retreating or advancing, and we are not the ones advancing.
I like Ron Paul’s suggestion for a September 11 response: Letters of Marque and Reprisal (basically bounties), intelligence gathering, and special forces actions.
Invasions or air strikes are expensive, ineffective, and tend to piss off enough people that they just make new terrorists to fight next year.
Personally I would be more in favor of paying for “scalps”. In this case however the “scalp” would be the lower jaw with beard attached.
The last time an airplane attack was committed on American soil without a formal declaration of war, we dropped two nuclear bombs on the country that perpetrated it.
Easy to nuke a clear and concise target though. You weigh the moral objection against the effectiveness of it’s ability to stop the attacks from a less advanced enemy, and you either hit the button or you don’t.
How do we nuke terrorists? The countries that would be destroyed are not the enemy here, and then there’s the global political fallout when the rest of the world sees what we’ve done.
Eventually, there will have been enough of these attacks that we cease to care.
Agreed, but when it comes to government, big is sexy. Unless they launch an invasion it will never be good enough.
I don’t expect this event will end big government. Quite the opposite.
One could have made the claim that the US military and trillion dollar budget didn’t prevent 19 Saudis from flying hijacked planes into buildings, so big government is dead. But government sees every crisis as an opportunity to grow.
You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.
-Rahm Emanuel (former Obama chief of staff, and big government proponent)
“he was talking to his school counselor.” -rahm emanuel.
I never thought I’d be nostalgic for the Clinton administration.
I never thought I’d be nostalgic for the Bush administration.
Which one?
Both? Either?
Seriously though, Obama makes W. look like a dyed-in-the-wool civil libertarian and champion of the Bill of Rights.
LOL the second. Don’t hate me, I kind of liked the first one, but I was a little kid and didn’t know any better.
@Carlos if ONLY we could get a civil libertarian. A girl can dream.
Unfortunately it has to get a whole lot worse than this before the rank and file wake from their sleep and take up arms. Other than my wife, no one I know has mentioned this event to me or posted about it on social media. I don’t think many Americans even realize the magnitude of what happened. Until or unless we see events like this every month with many of them occurring in the U.S. the average American will not take notice.
Heck, the Boston Marathon event is still a relatively recent event and we have all but forgotten it.
P.S. In no way am I advocating that it would be good for things to get worse.
In no way am I advocating that it would be good for things to get worse.
I will. As long as the slide is gradual enough for the situation to become the new normal for a large segment of society, the downward spiral will continue. IMHO, one of the better things that could happen to our country for the long term would be a sudden economic crash. Of course, I’d much rather see the ship righted without all of the massive pain and suffering that a crash would bring about. However, I just don’t see a large number of Americans waking up to reality without such a fundamental, deep reaching jolt.
The same goes for a gradual increase in “terrorist” attacks on US soil. 911 was major and sudden. Unfortunately, the response was, IMHO, inappropriate, ineffective, and damaging to our country. Major and minor “terrorist” attacks on US soil in rapid succession without any end in sight might actually awaken a large segment of Americans to the idea that they alone are truly responsible for their own safety.
Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. – Benjamin Franklin
Whatever you think of him, you must admit it was fun having him around.
Um the Francos could take out most of the world. How many nukes do they have? And you better hope Israel doesn’t use the Samson option. Yeah I’m no fan of any Clinton but you kinda thought he at least liked America…unlike a certain Barry Soetoro bowing to the moon god back in Indonesia. The ultimate Manchurian Candidate???
France is estimated to have about 290 warheads split sub-launched and air. Estimates are 240 warheads on sub-launched ballistic missiles.
Essentially, the West is facilitating the advent of radical Islam, and seems to have no clear perception that this is an enemy completely committed to destroying Western culture and perpetrating genocide against everyone who does not believe their extremist views.
So, no, Big Government cannot protect you, not only because it is logistically impossible, but because it does not have the will to do what is necessary. Rather, the Western Nations cling to the idea this is a “defensive” war and thereby give the JIhadists control of the battlefield and initiative while harboring them in within their own borders.
Personally, I have no nostalgia for Bill Clinton, but I do give him credit for accomplishing some good things, and, if there was no other choice, would prefer him over Obama.
I would be tempted to say I would prefer Clinton to Obama except we are talking about Clinton back then. It wasn’t as if no groundwork was laid for Obama to do the crap he’s done. Clinton would have (IMO) done all this stuff too if he thought he could have gotten away with it. He and his wife seem like a solid political team (and both highly criminal.) Given that I think Hilary Clinton is the worst thing that could happen to this country after Obama, I definitely don’t think I would have preferred her husband now, either.
+1
As I say, “if there was no other choice” Clinton over Obama. I agree that Hilary would be a further disaster on top of Obama. I also agree that Bill is different than he was when he was President in Office and thereby an “unknown quantity” not to be chanced.
For all his faults, you got the idea that Bill Clinton loved this country and when he said he wanted to make this country great again, that he really meant it (even if the execution left something to be desired).
As for France, this act was perpetrated with the full knowledge that Charlie Hebdo was an undefended soft target. Reference the post the other day about France’s Machiavellian gun laws and see what I mean.
And if you think for one second these jackwagons couldn’t get away with this in the USA, look at the gun-free utopias of New Yprk, Chicago and Washington, DC. It’d be child’s play to pull a similar strike at the New York Times or Chicago Tribune, or hell even MAD Magazine.
I was just thinking that the CIA should buy MAD magazine…. 🙂
We’re on it.
sadly, i fear the onion will be next.
I still remember Rachael Maddow’s panties in an absolute twist over bible verses on Trijicon ACOG’s. She claimed that it was further endangering our troops. Until that line of thinking is completely purged from those with the power to influence I fear this change will never happen.
I’m sure her aversion with it was solely in consideration of the troops welfare…. Patriotic type that she is.
You mean Rachel Maddow is a girl? I had no idea.
Excellent article. One of the most cogent I have read on this or any blog in a long time..
Really? Willie Jeff “ended the era of Big Government”? All the things you list he did because he was dragged to them by a Republican majority, not because he wanted to end the “era of Big Government”. And when he had the opportunity to break Al Qeuda he punted, instead blowing up some random spots in the desert and a food processing plant that manufactured baby formula. Then Killary used THAT as an excuse to push Similac in large volume into Africa, this after WHO and UNICEF had blocked its import because of the adverse effect it had on malnourished infants in African countries.
So, where was the part where Willie Jeff was so great? I ain’t seeing it.
Until the proponents of “Big Government” are NO LONGER in charge of government it is f**king well not over. Period. Full stop.
“Big government … [several outstanding details] … did not protect the victims at Charlie Hebdo.”
While all of those details are certainly true, that will not sway very many people. Everyone will shirk their shoulders and say to themselves, “There was nothing that anyone could do to stop it.”
This is what happens when you have given in completely to defeat.
And the actual distinctions which can be made between attacks on innocent people in the U.S. by deranged psychopaths in Federally-declared ’Gun Free Zones’ — and attacks by persons under the auspices of ‘Jihad’ are what, exactly?
Ole’ Billy Boy was part of the pedo group banging teenage girls on sex island with Epstein, Prince Andrew et al.
What a role model!!!
Branch Davidian complex, Waco, Texas.
The definition of “Big Government” is NOT a competent strong military force. A military force being a Constitutional responsibility of the fed govt
In the US, Big Gov’t is doing things that are not Constitutionally defined as within its authority. As 90% of the crap in which the current organization engaged.
Bill Clinton, the ass that sold N Korea the machinery to build ICBMs. Yes this is how the knob heads of N Korea got their missiles ……You don’t hear about this to often almost not at all……for a $600,000.00 dollar contribution to the Democratic national committee he signed off on this sale against the US commerce commission saying no …..N Korea is on the no sale list…….didn’t bother Bill……maybe when one of these missiles lands in downtown LA the libs will wake up……..screw bill clinton before he screws you, oh wait to late.
If Clinton hadn’t been such a skirt chaser, he would have been even worse. We can be thankful he was so pre-occupied with his penis, or our country would have been a LOT worse off during his term.