M2RB: Cheap Trick
I try to sleep, they're wide awake, they won't let me alone
They don't get paid to take vacations or let me alone
They spy on me, I try to hide, they won't let me alone
They persecute me, they're the judge and jury all in one
They don't get paid to take vacations or let me alone
They spy on me, I try to hide, they won't let me alone
They persecute me, they're the judge and jury all in one
By Nick Gillepsie
That's probably Nakoula
Basseley Nakoula to the right, the man who says he served as
"logistics manager" behind The Innocence of Muslims, the
short trailer/movie/whatever that some folks still believe is the
reason that various American citizens, soliders, diplomats,
embassies, and consulates have been attacked throughout the Middle
East over the past week.
[Go
here to watch the 13 minute video, which most recently served
up an anti-Mitt Romney ad for me before running!]
He's being helped into a car by Los Angeles Country sheriffs.
This is from early Saturday morning when, as the
Los Angeles Times writes, he was "taken in for a voluntary
interview with probation officials and has not been arrested or
detained."
And there's this:
On
Friday, U.S. courts spokeswoman Karen Redmond said the Office of Probation in
the Central District of California was reviewing whether Nakoula [a.k.a. Sam
Bacile], who has been convicted on bank fraud charges, violated terms of his
probation in relation to the video and its uploading onto the Internet.
He
had been ordered not to own or use devices with access to the Internet without
approval from his probation officer -– and any approved computers were to be
used for work only. "Defendant shall not access a computer for any other
purpose," the terms read.
Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit writes that this arrest is
WHY
BARACK OBAMA SHOULD RESIGN. Just for the record, this is what it looked like
for a man who made a film that made the Obama Administration uncomfortable.
When
taking office, the President does not swear to create jobs. He does not swear
to “grow the economy.” He does not swear to institute “fairness.” The only oath
the President takes is this one:
I
do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve,
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.
By
sending — literally — brownshirted enforcers to engage in — literally — a
midnight knock at the door of a man for the non-crime of embarrassing the
President of the United States and his administration, President Obama violated
that oath. You can try to pretty this up (It’s just about possible probation
violations! Sure.),
or make excuses or draw distinctions, but that’s what’s happened. It is a
betrayal of his duties as President, and a disgrace.
Reynolds doesn't seriously think Obama
will resign, of course, but he argues that "Obama’s behavior — and that of
his enablers in the press — has laid down a marker for those who are paying
attention." Which is to say, the focus on the film and the larger notion
of free expression as the real problem is pretty goddman godawful.
Recall, for instance, Obama's spokesman
Jay Carney's assertion that the recent deadly attacks on
American people and property throughout the Muslim world are a
response not to United States policy, not to, obviously, the Administration, not the to the American people. It is in response to a video, a film, that we have judged to be reprehensible and disgusting.
And the
administration also leaned on Google, owner of YouTube, to pull the
video (Google has thankfully and rightly
declined to do so, although it has reportedly blocked it in
Egypt and other countries). Mitt Romney, whose fumbled response to
the attacks in Egypt and Libya last week bizarrely became a bigger
story than the attacks themselves, has also castigated the
film.
As Matt Welch has noted, it shouldn't be difficult for the
president of the United States - and the press more generally - to
conjure up a specifically American response to situations like
this: "In
the United States, we are not in the business of approving these
messages."
As important - maybe more important, really - there is dwindling
reason to think that The Innocence of Muslims movie or trailer or
whatever it is should be accorded any major role in the recent
attacks. As
Kevin Drum of Mother Jones summarizes things, extremist Arabs
and Muslims can always conjure up a pretext for whatever they want
to do and there are strong indications that the attacks in Egypt
and Libya were planned long before this film ever drifted into
view.
My colleague Tim Cavanaugh is right, I think, when he focuses
not on the putative cause of actions,
but their essential function: "The purpose of the attacks in
Egypt and Libya was for the Sunni leadership to show it can unleash
mob attacks against American diplomatic assets. (There may be some
historical exceptions, but it's more or less axiomatic than mob
attacks cannot happen without government approval.) That point has
been received by everybody except U.S. State Department
employees."
There are really two large points in all of this which should be
kept front and center.
First is the one related to free expression. As I suggested
during the Mohammed cartoon controversy - another
outrage that was completely ginned up by religious fanatics who
counterfeited drawings and toured the Muslim world stoking outrage
that simply did not exist - "No one should be beaten or killed or
imprisoned simply for speaking their mind or praying to one god as
opposed to the other or none at all or getting on with the small
business of living their life in peaceful fashion. If we cannot or
will not defend that principle with a full throat, then we deserve
to choke on whatever jihadists of all stripes can force down
our throats."
Second: U.S. foreign policy is part of our problem with the
wider world. It's not the whole problem and it doesn't sanction
anything done by al Qaeda or the PLO or Iran or the despotic Syrian
government or anything else (even as it might help explain and
predict where, why, and how those actions take place). But when
idiots like Jay Carney and large chunks of Congress and the
president and his main rival for office and so many others continue
to insist that the way the U.S. has acted over the past five, 10,
and 50 years has no bearing on foreign attitudes toward America,
its people, and its interests, you've just got to wonder how these
people tie their shoes in the morning. Are they really that stupid
or are they just totally convincing as actors?
At least since the end of the
Cold War, the United States has drifted along without anything
resembling a coherent or sustained conversation about foreign
policy, much less working to hash out a consensus position that
reflects our body politic. In the 1990s, we
witnessed Bill Clinton lurching from action to action. He
ordered 25 major troop deployments over eight years, twice as many
as Ronald Reagan. George W. Bush entered office promising a
"humble" foreign policy that repudiated "nation building" and then
embraced a disastrous "region building" approach from which we have
yet to extricate ourselves. Barack Obama tripled troops in
Afghanistan without bothering to clarify our mission there and
unilaterally decided to drop bombs in Libya. Congress has acted the
role of helpless bystander in foreign policy for going on the last
20 years at least (for god's sake, far more members supported the
second invasion of Iraq than the first!).
The predictable result is a foreign policy that is completely
unpredictable and unprincipled. There are simply no clear rules
governing when and how America will act militarily, what we stand
for, and what we stand against. Or, as Obama's bizarre phrasing of
our relationship with non-enemy Egypt (which receives billions of
dollars in aid from us), even who are allies are.
And we wonder why things aren't going our way around the world?
Nick Gillespie is the editor in chief of Reason.com and Reason TV and the co-author of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America, just out in paperback.
Dream Police - Cheap Trick
The dream police, they live inside of my head
The dream police, they come to me in my bed
The dream police, they're coming to arrest me, oh, no
You know that talk is cheap
And those rumours ain't nice
And when I fall asleep
I don't think I'll survive the night, the night
'Cause they're waiting for me
They're looking for me
Every single night
They're driving me insane
Those men inside my brain
The dream police, they live inside of my head (live inside of my head)
The dream police, they come to me in my bed (come to me in my bed)
The dream police, they're coming to arrest me, oh, no
Well, I can't tell lies
'Cause they're listening to me
And when I fall asleep
Bet they're spying on me tonight, tonight
'Cause they're waiting for me
They're looking for me
Every single night
They're driving me insane
Those men inside my brain
I try to sleep, they're wide awake, they won't let me alone
They don't get paid to take vacations or let me alone
They spy on me, I try to hide, they won't let me alone
They persecute me, they're the judge and jury all in one
'Cause they're waiting for me
They're looking for me
Every single night
They're driving me insane
Those men inside my brain
The dream police, they live inside of my head (live inside of my head)
The dream police, they come to me in my bed (come to me in my bed)
The dream police, they're coming to arrest me
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police, they come to me in my bed
The dream police, they're coming to arrest me, oh, no
You know that talk is cheap
And those rumours ain't nice
And when I fall asleep
I don't think I'll survive the night, the night
'Cause they're waiting for me
They're looking for me
Every single night
They're driving me insane
Those men inside my brain
The dream police, they live inside of my head (live inside of my head)
The dream police, they come to me in my bed (come to me in my bed)
The dream police, they're coming to arrest me, oh, no
Well, I can't tell lies
'Cause they're listening to me
And when I fall asleep
Bet they're spying on me tonight, tonight
'Cause they're waiting for me
They're looking for me
Every single night
They're driving me insane
Those men inside my brain
I try to sleep, they're wide awake, they won't let me alone
They don't get paid to take vacations or let me alone
They spy on me, I try to hide, they won't let me alone
They persecute me, they're the judge and jury all in one
'Cause they're waiting for me
They're looking for me
Every single night
They're driving me insane
Those men inside my brain
The dream police, they live inside of my head (live inside of my head)
The dream police, they come to me in my bed (come to me in my bed)
The dream police, they're coming to arrest me
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
The dream police (police, police)
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