The Futile Dribbles of Laura Ingraham and Fellow Hate Spewers
Read Time:8 Minute, 25 Second
by Burr Deming
Basketball legend LeBron James was reminiscing about the role models of his youth:
When I was growing up there were, like, three jobs that you looked for inspiration, or you felt like these were the people that could give me. Like, it was the President of the United States, it was whoever was the best in sports, and then it was, like, the greatest musician at the time.
Those role models represented something distant and unattainable, but they still inspired.
You never thought you can be them, but you can grab inspiration from them.
There were also sources of more immediate inspiration. They became role models in the immediate neighborhood.
There was a neighborhood African-American cop, and he was cool as hell, come around. I felt like I could be him. Yes, I could be him.
There was more, of course. Some discussion about his own attempt to be a better man, to be worthy as a role model.
Then came a comment that placed a conservative target on the back of LeBron James. He talked about what happens when a role model does not take that responsibility seriously: the added responsibility it puts on others.
At this time right now, with the President of the United States, it’s at a bad time. And while we cannot change what comes out of that man’s mouth, we can continue to alert the people that watch us, that listen to us that this is not the way.
Laura Ingraham struck back with a righteous fury. LeBron James had no political expertise. He had no national mandate. He had no right to express himself as if he did.
LeBron and Kevin, you’re great players, but no one voted for you. Millions elected Trump to be their coach, so keep the political commentary to yourself.
And she had more pointed advice:
Shut up and dribble.
LeBron James was not the only subject of her wrath. His friend and fellow basketball star, Kevin Durant, had agreed with him.
I learned a lot of life skills from playing basketball. You need to empower people. You need to, you know, encourage people. And that’s what builds a great team. And I feel like our team as a country is not ran by a great coach.
Coach Laura was not about to let that go unanswered.
I’m still trying to get over the fact that Kevin Durant said: “I feel like our country is not run by a great coach.”
Does that mean I should go for a run tomorrow morning before my radio show?
Get it? He used improper English. He ought to shut up. And dribble.
I’m okay with dismissing the occasional odd opinion expressed by famous people. Not every argument is compelling, or even cogent. Not every opinion is meant to convince anyone who is not already committed.
Charleton Heston comes to mind. Remember Charleton holding a weapon overhead in front of a cheering throng?
From my cold dead hands!!
It’s possible, I suppose, that I just don’t remember. I’m getting to the age of lost memories. Someone might have pulled a Laura on him. Reminded him that he’s a great actor, but that nobody elected him to anything.
Yeah! Shut up and go …
… part the Red Sea!
Clint Eastwood was actually elected Mayor of a small California village for a term. He was still capable of the occasional inane public appearance. But when he campaigned for Mitt Romney in 2012, it never occurred to me that anyone would tell him he had no right to speak. Not to his face.
If they had muttered something like that behind his back, I’m confident about my own imagined response. I’d remind them of that the First Amendment applies to every citizen, including the occasional crazy uncle. It’s freedom of Speech!
Let’s quote the Constitution: There shall be on this continent freedom of speech, and every American citizen shall have the right to take the stage and talk incoherently to an empty chair. I think Eastwood had it about right when he spoke out that night:
How do you, uh, how do you handle,uh, how do you handle, promises that you’ve made when you were running for election? And how do you handle, uh, how do you handle it? I mean, what do you say to people? uh…
Oh, my.
In our running debate about guns, there seems always to have been a special temptation to cut off any opinion that is not deemed qualified by firearms expertise. If we do not make the requisite distinction between automatic and semi-automatic weapons, if we do not know the difference between a magazine and a clip, we really should shut up and dribble.
Motivations are at issue in ways that strike me as absurd. We are not concerned with the deaths of innocent people. We are out to cancel your freedoms.
After the murders in Parkland, the usual tactics from the usual suspects seemed sure to prevail. We had seen this re-run too many times before.
To be sure, there has been a share of rational discussion. Would the banning of guns even be possible? Another school shooting was cut short when an armed teacher intervened. Did that not demonstrate that sometimes armed defense can save lives?
Student organizers have joined others in offering five proposals for gun safety. None involve banning guns. All are supported by the overwhelming majority of Americans, including most gun owners.
- Fund gun violence research and gun violence prevention/intervention programs.
- Eliminate absurd restrictions on Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms officers.
- Universal background checks.
- High-capacity magazine ban.
- Limit firing power on the streets.
But, for many, the issue was not specific safety proposals, but whether these surviving students had any right to speak at all.
The usual fringe elements put out conspiracy tales. The kids were actors pretending to be students. They had not really been there.
A small-time politician campaigning for a minor office in Maine made national news. Leslie Gibson was unimpressed with young survivor Emma González.
There is nothing about this skinhead lesbian that impresses me and there is nothing that she has to say unless you’re a frothing at the mouth moonbat.
He derided her authenticity. She had been hiding with other students in what turned out to be another part of the school. So she was not really a survivor since she had not been in the line of fire.
As Gibson saw it, student David Hogg was a “bald-faced liar” for talking about politicians being owned by the NRA. After all, there existed more massive political donations than those contributed by the NRA.
We have always been able to count on Congressman Steve King for a provocative comment or two. He did not disappoint. He posted a picture of Emma González. Along with other national decorations, she wore an insignia representing the island of Cuba, part of her own heritage, in honor of her father. He attacked that ethnicity:
A fake image of Emma González tearing up the US Constitution made the rounds.
The tried and true, less issue-oriented attacks on surviving students were often personal. But now they seemed to have lost the power to abbreviate the discussion.
The attacks have bounced back with surprising force.
The Maine politician, campaigning unopposed for a minor office, the man for whom Emma González was nothing more than a “skinhead lesbian” apologized, then deleted the offensive message, then deleted his offensive Twitter account altogether, then deleted his entire campaign. He dropped out of the race and out of sight.
Steve King, who attacked Ms. González for her Cuban heritage for not speaking Spanish, found himself in a Twitter tsunami of furious responses from outraged citizens.
The fake Constitution-tearing image was quickly exposed. The exposé overtook and surpassed the original smear. It now serves as a shameful example of fringe perfidy.
Former Senator Rick Santorum suggested that students stop playing at victimhood and start taking constructive action.
How about kids instead of looking to someone else to solve their problem, do something about maybe taking CPR classes or trying to deal with situations that when there is a violent shooter that you can actually respond to that.
The responses to his suggestion employ simple logic. There has been little effort to make his words look silly. Little effort is required.
Surgeons take to the internet to counsel the Senator on the uselessness of CPR in shooting incidents. One writer posts a more succinct response:
https://twitter.com/BuyskeJ/status/977997418401816576
Celebrity does not confer automatic authenticity. Sometimes celebrities can be disregarded.
And how do you handle, uhhh, how do you handle it?
Even Senators are sometimes unable to defend their thoughts.
maybe taking CPR classes
Celebrities do share with ordinary folks the basic right to speak. Sometimes an occasional celebrity has had a very special sort of expertise thrust upon them. LeBron James:
I’m a black man with a bunch of money and having a crib in Brentwood and having the word “n****r” spray-painted over my place.
In a parallel sense, teenagers attending school can become a special sort of unwilling expert. They don’t have to know a bump stock from a bumper car. These young people are eloquent beyond anyone’s expectation.
We’ve been locked in a classroom. We have seen our friends text their parents goodbye. We are the experts. We know exactly what we’re talking about.
Certainly, those who remain skeptical of gun safety proposals should question and debate them. And they are doing just that.
But this time, at least for a time, attempts to silence these students have failed with spectacular effect. The shut-up-and-dribble folks are still not shutting up themselves. We wouldn’t want them to.
But, for once, this once, we watch with hope as the Laura Ingraham’s of the season are reduced to futile dribbles.
Via our partners at FairandUnbalanced.
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These days our whole world seems to be about talking points and that makes me sad, and I always thought a magazine was for reading, and a clip something you put on the potato chip bag.
Please don’t take this as disagreement or opposition, Ingraham is worse that a mere racist because she makes a living by justifying bigotry, but.
“if we do not know the difference between a magazine and a clip, we really should shut up and dribble.”
sounds too much like my assertion that people who don’t know what they’re trying to regulate shouldn’t be so sure their proposals will work. Joe the Plumber shouldn’t be writing our banking laws. People who don’t know what’s on the market shouldn’t be regulating it. It’s not about dribbling, it’s about listening.
Whether you call that 100 round drum a clip or magazine is immaterial. That you know it exists and is legal and available is important. Would you have banned bump stocks a year ago? I knew about them and other similar items. Do you know that you can build an untraceable AR-15 with no serial number from scratch with surplus parts and a plastic jig and a hand drill? Same goes for the AK-47. Did you know that you can shorten the barrel of an AK and remove the shoulder stock and it stops being an assault rifle would would be legal even though it’s more deadly? Did you? Facts matter. My Schwinn and my Harley are two wheeled road vehicles. Would you laugh if I said the difference matters?
We once had a ban that allowed you to buy civilian assault rifles and high capacity magazines at will and we pretend it worked so that we can maintain the illusion that ignorance is strength and not just the bliss it is. Let’s not do it again. Let’s not be trapped by talking points and slogans and smugness. facts matter.