Two horrific mass shootings have rocked our world in the past few weeks. In Aurora, CO, an insane man walked into a theater and shot dozens of innocent people, leaving us with a hollow pit in our souls as we searched for an answer to the question of why an ABC news man was so mean to the Tea Party.
On Sunday, a white supremacist committed another mass shooting in a Sikh gurdwara, which the Southern Poverty Law Center totally called because he was in a shitty white supremacist band. Again, after a horrific event, we are left with a single burning question that only Ann Althouse’s commenters can answer: WTF, SPLC? What did the white supremacist ever do to you before he killed and injured all those people?
For some reason, Althouse felt that the best way to discuss the SPLC’s report was by headpatting her commenters’ completely, blitheringly, spectacularly wrong thoughts on the matter…AFTER they’d all been proven completely wrong:
IN THE COMMENTS: Sorun said:
By the way, what happened to all of the dangerous white militia groups in the 90s? They were everywhere! Did they all just decide to go bowling instead?
How much money did the SPLC raise from that great crisis?
Oh man! This is a very good point: after a mere one mass shooting this week, isn’t the egg on the SPLC’s face? It must be woefully embarrassing for them, like showing up to picture day in the wrong clothes, except with a bunch of dead people you warned about.
CommonHandle said:
I find it a bit creepy that SPLC defines its “intelligence project” as following around anyone who has an association with people or groups that espouse racist beliefs, even if nothing that individual has done or said themselves comes across as overtly racist. Creepiness aside, aren’t there plenty of real racists out there? people who regularly and unambiguously engage in racist speech? That the have a “profile” of this man isn’t only kind of disturbing, but it seems pretty frivolous.
NAILED IT. Dudes with bodies full of neo-Nazi tattoos who play in white supremacist bands in front of giant Nazi flags with Confederate flag guitar straps (sexy picture here) find themselves in a weird position. They’ve done nothing objectionable or wrong, yet whenever they go to purchase weapons or scope out non-Christian places of worship or kill people, the SPLC is always on their asses. WHAT ABOUT THE REAL RACISTS?
Sorun said:
The SPLC didn’t prevent any of this.
What the hell good are they if they’re going to get in everyone’s business but not accomplish anything other than paying their own salaries.
Sorun? Call him Smartun. If the SPLC was going to be worth more than a bucket of warm piss, they should have convinced someone in power at DHS to track domestic terror groups, including white supremacist groups, to try and stop them. But they didn’t. And conservatives wanted them to, the whole damn time.
Rob Crawford said:
The description of his band sounds like “Rage Against the Machine” and that “Peace Through Music” crap.
Thank goodness we have SPLC to tell us which is a hate group, which is a bona fide band, and which deserves hundreds of thousands in charity dollars!
Ha, yes, Tom Morello is the greatest murderer in music history. Of lames.
At least Althouse didn’t blockquote any comments about how this was a black-flag Fast & Furious operation. Those are probably in the comments to the comments.
[Althouse]
{ 199 comments }
Did they all just decide to go bowling instead?
Bowling is a good sport for them. It doesn't involve running and beer is just 5 feet away. They also get to sneak out in better shoes than they arrived with.
Camper Van Beethoven told me to take the skinheads bowling, so I did, and I think it's really helped them with their self-esteem and anger issues.
I missed bowling, having overslept after Jah decreased the number of clocks by exactly one.
If the ball was white and the pins were black (or brown) the game would be perfect.
CVB also told us to give some cowboys some acid, and unfortunately we ended up with Ted Nugent.
This is why I love this site. I thought I was the only lonely Camper Van fan with big lanes.
I once experienced the thrill of actually *seeing* LBJ's Cadillac.
There's not a line that goes here that rhymes with anything.
You just made me flash back to a shitty summer job at a Montgomery Ward's in 1992. My manager was a young, aspiring punk musician who name dropped that song (without mentioning CVB as far as I recall) and that lovely incongruous phrase has stuck with me for 20 years.
Oh, and the kicker is – we worked at a mall in San Leandro.
If only the ball was white and the pins were black (or brown), the game would be perfect.
This comment has been deleted by the user because it breaks all the rules.
^^ No shit. I wish I'd seen that one.
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Sometimes life is like a new bar
Plastic seats, beer below par
Food with no taste, music grates
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Hey.
Motto half-theft !
C'est comment touche pas ma planete
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Hitler?
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The New Black Panthers?
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Pshaw. Everybody knows that when a nutcase goes on a shooting spree, he must be:
a) Liberal
-or-
b) Athiest
(Ha! Trick answer, all liberals are athiests and vice versa)
So obviously, when something like this happens, it means that it didn't really happen, unless it was caused by either a) or b).
Also: Kenya
c) watched First Amendment stuff
I recognise that dance they're doing in that there picture…. what is its name?
Wait. I got it. It's called the "Shag" isn't it, Jesse?
Phew, nailed it.
I would guess it is not the Safety Dance.
We can leave your friend's behind
We can ass, we can ass…
To be honest, the Tea Party lost a load of karma with all that "blood of tyrants" horseshit. Sometimes, forgiveness can be akin to "Hey! You fooled me twice!"
Well to be honest they really do have a lot of racists in the TP; it's an open question as to why we should automatically assume any violent shooter is a teabagger but it's not an unfair assumption. Consider that first off, Stormfront has smugly stated that the TP is a great recruiting ground for white supremacists since they so emotionally oppose (no other way to describe it) our first black president. It's unknown how many new racists came from the TP but the evidence suggests many. The TP does as you say often employ violent imagery and overt threats about what will happen if things don't go their way, the TP also likes to use "white slavery" as a fear-based rationale and many teabaggers talk about abandoning "white guilt"…whatever that is. I have more…
As for the Sikh there were numerous incidences after 9/11 of Sikh's in turbans being confused by right wing racists as muslim and suffering attacks…there's also the ample and palpable hatred of Muslims, Hispanics, Blacks and in some TP's Jews. Not to mention, a movement built upon selfish intollerance, (with many groups) white paranoia and rage shouldn't exactly be surprised when people assume white males who attack political targets are initially conflated as teabaggers…they are their own worst enemy.
That SPLC is indeed creepy with all these reports about half wit hate groups! Couldn't they just publish kute kitten videos????
I'm surprised none of them went off on some "all Muslims are hate groups" tangent and demanded that the SPLC label the NAACP as an anti-white hate group. Maybe they just hadn't gotten around to it…but considering the whole pasty whiteness of the wingnuttery I'm really surprised when they don't bitch about "hey, you're the REAL racists!" any time someone black or brown accuses a wingnut of racism…that's their usual Q.E.D.
Then they'd be the Southern Totes Rich Awesome Center.
This makes me want to go out and buy an Ed Nugent cassette, and play it real loud over and over till it breaks ! For freedom ! Ted, I meant Ted !
Hey I see a use for 100 round clip, shooting the tape over and over again.
I don't mind the smaller magazines, because the time I spend reloading is good for angry muttering.
"Peace" is that golden moment when everyone stands around reloading.
Did you make that up? Because that's kind of poetically beautiful.
Sure they should be following those leftist peace groups. They are the real trouble makers. Always looking for way to make they world a more peaceful by saying things such as an RPG for hunting deer is overkill.
Or the ones living in trees. They probably just bide their time, waiting for a Good Christian to walk under them, and then they drop a hardcover copy of Zinn's A People's History on them.
SPLC is the new ACORN. Because Obama.
Yeah, and why won't Eric Holder just show his birth certificate already?
(am I doing this right?)
aren’t there plenty of real racists out there? people who regularly and unambiguously engage in racist speech?
Yes, there certainly are…and many of them hang with the Tea Party.
Asshole.
I actually got told by a conservative person once that I was being the racist because I preferred blacks to succeed.
"Preferred." I never spoke to this person again, because preferred.
I never knew that screaming it out while playing bad thrash metal at deafening volume makes it ambiguous.
I'm struggling with the logic here. Perhaps if I slam my head in the car door for a half-hour or so, it will coalesce for me.
It helps if you have Rush or Glen Beck on the radio whilst you're slamming.
"By the way, what happened to all of the dangerous white militia groups in the 90s?"
Um, I think I remember them doing a little something in Oklahoma City….
Yea, nothing disbands a group of thugs faster than realizing that they overstepped their boundaries and everyone hates them and refuses to fund them any longer.
"The SPLC didn’t prevent any of this.
What the hell good are they if they’re going to get in everyone’s business but not accomplish anything other than paying their own salaries."
You know who else didn't prevent this? The police. And the army. And Jesus. They're all fired.
Nor did any of the people that Wade Page may have told what he planned to do.
Hahahahahahaha … not so fast, buddy.
You can't 'fire' Jesus. He works in mysterious ways, y'know.
Are we talking about wimpy liberal Jesus, free market Jesus, or muscular Jesus?
Maybe it is time to put anti-gun arguments in the same framework as anti-gay arguments, so the wingnuts can understand them?
My religion says guns are bad, so anyone else owning a gun is religous persecution against me!
LIKE!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll see your "guns are bad" and raise you a "My religion says that ignorance is bad."
There. Now the Tea Party, by its very existence, is persecuting me.
Help, I'm being repressed!
I find if you are in the business of denying the pernicious effects of racism it is a little hard to see it even when it spits in your face.
Yes, it's true: The SPLC sat on its ass through the entire 00s decade.
SPLC site currently off-line. Either too many Wonkettes, or too many of the "we're not rascists" visiting.
Bitch had one too many boxes of wine again. At least she spared us a drunken vlog.
Aw, but those are the most fun! The bloodshot eyes, the flushed cheeks, the nipples barely staying in their sheet metal cups in what one might euphemistically call an attempt to flirt with the camera…
Ann Althouse and Pam Gellar, separated at birth?
The shooter couldn't have been racist. He is white, and everyone knows that only those inferior neegras can be racist.
When are these guys going to turn their attention to the real enemy: Muse.
I hate Adobe too.
Bastards.
Oh, wait…. nevermind.
They're too scared to take on Muse, because they heard that Matt's Plug-In Baby crucifies his enemies, and are also concerned that he might reveal the Undisclosed Desires in their hearts.
You really should Take A Bow.
Much more wingnut nonsense like this, and I'll be asking: "Apocalypse, please"
I am so glad I don't waste my time reading Ann Althouse's bullshit — and this is wildly misconstruing the facts, even for a lawyer. Her conclusion? " Whatever the degree of racism in the the punk rock music, the music is less connected to the murders than the "Batman" movies were connected to the Aurora murders."
What stupid bullshit — it's not like she doesn't or shouldn't know that a punk or metal band isn't the same as a white supremacist band that plays punk or metal — and abetting this obfuscation is just covering up for racists. What's up with that, Ann?
Stupid bullshit is what she does. Well, that and copious amounts of cheap wine.
For Ann, punk rock is something exotic and foreign, like sobriety.
Well you can only imagine her reaction if she was listening to Refused.
"What did he say?!?!?! Capitalism is organized crime!??!!?!?!"
I'm holding out for a white supremacist polka band, myself.
You know who had white supremacist polka bands, don't you?
Awwww shit… that didn't even OCCUR TO ME.
I was just going for the opposite of punk rock.
(raises arm in triumphant Black Power salute)
The opposite of punk rock is actually still punk rock.
Don't ask me to explain, explanations are not punk rock. Unless they are.
Jimmy Sturr and the Grupenfuhrer Five?
Great comment on the link: "How dare you criticize one of our key demographics?"
To be fair, Ann Althouse is dumb as a doorknob.
This is mean to doorknobs.
Doorknobs are smarter than Ann Althouse. Sometimes doorknobs turn to the right and sometimes they turn to the left.
And if they get stuck you can take care of it with a little WD40. Or KY Jelly.
Sorun?
He was pretty scary in The Lord of the Rings.
I thought he was the drummer in Guns n' Roses for a while.
Is that the one who died in a bizarre gardening accident, or the one who choked on vomit of unknown origin (perhaps but not necessarily his own, but how do you dust for vomit)?
I thought it was the one who exploded on-stage.
Sorun- it's also "Nuros" spelled backwards!
"The SPLC didn't prevent any of this." ?!?
What do these wingnuts imagine the SPLC shouldn't be doing that they're not already? Somehow I don't think they're envisioning arming the SPLC and turning them into a paramilitary force.
Maybe these people think that the SPLC is like some kind of anti-terror squad, like Team America or SHIELD. If so, they should have come up with a more clever acronym; "Spilk" just doesn't resonate.
Well, you know, if the SPLC decided to whip up a well-regulated militia, the freepers surely wouldn't object to this exercise of Second Amendment rights.
"By the way, what happened to all of the dangerous white militia groups in the 90s? They were everywhere! Did they all just decide to go bowling instead?"
Maybe they should check with the folks in Oklahoma City. Assholes.
"Did they all just decide to go bowling instead?"
Yes, and Camper van Beethoven gave them a ride to the lanes.
"I may not agree that you are shooting the right person, but I will defend to your death in hail of police bullets your right to shoot them."
NRA 2012
I read somewhere yesterday, I think Rude Pundit, where the statement was made that if the NRA was run by Muslims instead of whitey it would be classified as a terrorist organization by the State Department.
Southern Poverty Law Center? Who the hell wants to listen to what a bunch of poor cracker attorneys has to say?
Kudos to Althouse commenter "dpoyesac" for calling the blogger out on drafting behind a HuffyPo piece when ex-wonk affiliate Dave Weigel could do instead; more succinct but w/ enough linked supporting material to his credit. (So which one of you is "dpoyesac"?)
Lemme get this straight — they're bent out of shape because the SPLC was keeping an eye on Wade Page, instead of tracking down real racists?
Thank god they aren't trying to track imbecile teabaggers, because that would be a truly massive undertaking.
Tracking hoverround and cheeto sales? Yes, but it's doable.
Why is the SPLC so racist against white supremacists?
"Creepiness aside, aren’t there plenty of real racists out there? people who regularly and unambiguously engage in racist speech?"
He's right. We are going to have to do surveillance on everyone's grandmother.
And my Uncle Bill!
And hey, why is the Southern Policy Law Center wasting their time watching white supremacists who often commit mass murders, it's not like the FBI ignores them while targeting liberal groups that have never committed an illegal act or anything.
"By the way, what happened to all of the dangerous white militia groups in the 90s? They were everywhere! Did they all just decide to go bowling instead?"
Um, no. They were broken up by the Feds.
They retired, bought hoverounds and turned into teabaggers.
Ha, your comment almost sounds like gub'mint actually did something right for once.
"shitty white supremacist band."
Isn't that redundant? And why does the SPLC hate tattoos?
Isn't Althouse the halfwit that married one of her commentors?
Blogging fer love, baby! There's hope for Newell yet.
"The SPLC didn't prevent any of this."
Maybe this is a job for the SPCA?
Sorry, but all of their shelters are "no kill."
Make sure to spay and neuter all your racists.
"How much money did the SPLC raise from that great crisis?" Good question!
Answer? Probably only about 1% as much as the NRA raises EVERY DAY from convincing dumbasses that Obama is going to use some Socialist Muslin trickery to take away their guns….
How indecent, to keep an eye on people who preach hatred and espouse violence. It's not like something terrible could happen.
"Auntie Ann" comments: The celtic cross (his has a big tattoo on his left upper arm) is also widely used by supremacists.
Holy shit! This is awful news for Altan, Clannad, and especially Máiréad Nesbitt.
And I, for one, am sick of goddamned white supremacists stealing perfectly good Celtic imagery and turning it into something hateful. They stole the flaming cross from us – it wasn't racist originally, but the Klan has now spoiled it for all time. They stole the triskelion, because it can be rendered like a pseudo-swastika. But no more! I am a proud Celt and my culture is not racist and I will not let it be co-opted by pathetic hate-filled halfwits.
Q-Celtic or P-Celtic?
I so want to some day turn on a future PBS performance and see her do "Orange Blossom Special"
Máiréad Nesbitt
omfg cuteness overload, system error, shutting down
"Yeah, it was terrible that this poor misunderstood patriot neo-nazi (apparently they are patriots, as opposed to german nazis who were really socialists) had to die killing these turban-heads, he should have listened to us and call for their deportation instead"
Let me guess. Christians and job creators are the real victims here.
Today I join the SPLC in tattoo hatred
If hating tattoos is wrong, I don't wanna be right.
Google is racist against whites for not using one on today's doodle. Why hasn't the SPLC told the FBI??
http://www.google.com/
I wonder if Google internally ranks their doodles by hours of productivity lost to them.
I did nothing, I mean nothing, the day of the Pac Man doodle. Good times! Bad employee!
The Les Paul and Moog doodles both took out several man hours in my office.
I wonder where those guys got those nice orange jumpsuits.
It appears they were standard issue in their Heimlich manuever classes.
"Creepiness aside, aren’t there plenty of real racists out there? people who regularly and unambiguously engage in racist speech?"
I don't want to live in a world without Republican Primary Presidential Debates.
Damn not-for-profit groups always with their "raising awareness about the dangers of racism" because of ALL THE MONEY THEY MAKE DOING THAT!!1!
I quit before I got to the part about the Sikhs should have armed themselves.
A great moment in Ska; they just come right out and say it.
This comment was never meant to last.
"The SPLC didn’t prevent any of this."
But the SPLC can now say "We told you so."
By the way, what happened to all of the dangerous white militia groups in the 90s? They were everywhere! Did they all just decide to go bowling instead?
Well, one of them blew up a building in Oklahoma. Then they got their guy elected for eight years so there was no point in running around in the woods anymore so yes, they went bowling.
The SPLCThe NRARepublicans didn't prevent any of thisClearly, we need to "get rid of" Republicans…
pssssst … Don't tell Althouse but SPLC also reports on people of color. Its true! look it up!
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligenc…
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligenc…
Comment: "I frankly worry about these groups (Southern Poverty Law Center) more than psychotic nuts." Which is nutz in itself.
Morris Dees, history's (latest) greatest monster.
Why do these racists keep hurling themselves in front of innocent white men's bullets? SPLC has done squat to answer this question and should be defunded immediately.
They decided to go bowling instead…bowling for Columbine!
What happened to all those militia groups in the 1990's? Gee, good question. Ask David Koresh.
They were always there and they never went away. They loved W with his flight suit, affected TX accent, & brown people-killing so that's why we never heard anything from them for 8 yrs. But when a non-white person was elected President…
True story….today I heard some actual real life Latinos complaining about how the fact that the shooter was a neo nazi was going to be used politically…..to take their guns away. Read this comment as many times as you need to get why I think that is weird.
This comment has been deleted by the commenter becuz, well, why not? Anyway, I got nuthin'.
Ah, Althouse … the blog for basement-dwellers too dumb to find a basement.
The SPLC are plainly mere pikers in the Haeting Amerika Olympix compared to the CSGV.
There's booze in the blender and soon it will render that comment that helps me hang on
This comment wants to spit in the face of those badlands
Aw, shucks (blushes).
This comment knows it's all a lot of oysters and no pearls.
This comment left the cake out in the rain.
Love.
This comment would like to meet his tailor.
Blush in a zig-zag pattern! The NRA is placing Surveyor's Marks on your poem as we speak!
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