Quote Of The Day

Ken AshfordBloggingLeave a Comment

Well, Aaron Walker got SWATed last night, which provides him an opportunity to act like a First Amendment martyr.  It also allowed him to play his favorite game: "I am famous, look at me".

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Dang, indeed.  It also got him some Twitter followers, which for Aaron is validation of self-worth that he apparently didn't get as a child:

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Still, the SWATing was a disappointment in that it didn't go far enough for Aaron:

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Hey— you can't win 'em all.

And then Aaron described the incident on his blog, which included this gem, today's quote of the day:

One of the officers tonight asked me why I keep talking about Brett Kimberlin if it brings on this kind of trouble.  It’s because Freedom of Expression is something I don’t just believe in, but I defend.  And this threat to Freedom of Expression needs to be defeated.  It is that simple.

You have to love the way Aaron capitalized the words "freedom" and "expression".  Clearly this makes Aaron a Very Important Person. 

I assume most people are wondering whether Aaron struck a superhero pose when he answered the officer's innocent question.  Perhaps a breeze struck up, and his cape (a towel from Bed, Bath & Beyond) was able to flap flap flap in the wind.

I don't wonder about that.  Instead, I wonder about the police officer who asked the question.  He probably walked away from the conversation, turned to his buddy and said, "We need to keep an eye on this one."  And they had a chuckle over it.

Still, it's odd how Aaron thinks he is defending Freedom of Expression ™.  By doing what, exactly?  Trying to get Kimberlin prosecuted for… what, huh?

No, it doesn't make sense, but Aaron fancies himself as the Martin Luther King of the First Amendment, because, well, it sounds good.  What he and his (literally dozens!) of rabid followers haven't figured out is that the First Amendment is fine.  Aaron himself created a website which deliberately pokes fun at a religion.  And when Aaron created that site, did any government entity try to shut it down?  Why, no.  If that site can survive without any federal, state or local government curtailment, then the First Amendment really is alive and well.

Even when the First Amendment errs, as it does from time to time, it is quickly and easily remedied (as Aaron learned recently when a local judge barred him from blogging about Brett Kimberlin).  The system works.

So let's dispel the myth that Aaron Walker is a protector of the First Amendment.  That's what he tells himself, but that's vanity and ego, nothing more.  No, Aaron Walker, who writes 32,000 word blogs, doesn't have a problem with his expressive freedoms (except that he perhaps overuses them).  What he really wants to protect is right to be a dick without any consequences whatsoever.  

Now, I grant you, the First Amendment does protect dickish speech.  That's why Aaron can write the things he writes (it's also why the Westboro Baptist Church can be dicks, too).  But Aaron doesn't realize that the people he "goes after" — well, some of them are dicks, too, and they have the right to retalliate by any legal means necessary.  And indeed, they do (SWATting being the notable exception, but we don't know who is behind that).

Is any one surprised by the outcome of Aaron's dickishness?  Aaron seems to be.

Aaron Walker is the Eric Cartmen of right wing bloggers.  He'll come after you, but the second there is any repercussion, he folds and whines.  He'll hide behind the veil of anonymity, or employ "the Spartacus" defense ("hey, everybody's being a dick… why single out me?), or make himself out to be a martyr who needs your money because he got fired from his job because his dickishness pissed off another dick who, in turn, notofied Aaron's employer of Aaron's dickishness.

Aaron is no doubt a rising star among the Fighting Keyboard Kommandos, who bow at the altar of the now-dead uber-dick Andrew Breitbart.  What he fails to realize is that 99% of the population don't know who he is and who Brett Kimberlin is, and what's more… 99% never will know or care.  Aaron needs to get a life, grow a pair, and take care of his family.  He needs to stop living in a comic book world of his own dickish mind.  I doubt he will.  And that is the real tragedy.