Category: Rants a.k.a. Commentary, Sarcastic? Moi? || By

Several people have sent me links to a website called, "Don't Be a G-20 Jackass."

Indeed, many Pittsburghers are wondering: Why are self-proclaimed champions of the working-class breaking the windows of working-class people in Lawrenceville?

Others have called talk radio stations wondering why the protesters --- who are overwhelmingly leftists, some of them self-identified Marxists or socialists --- aren't happy now that Barack Obama is in the White House.

After all, he's a liberal and a Democrat. Shouldn't the leftists like him?

I'll answer the second question first. I've known socialists. Barack Obama is no socialist. As far as your hard-core leftist is concerned, Obama is just a younger Dick Cheney with more hair and a deep tan.

Now, you may not like the fact that Obama bailed out the auto industry, but I heard a socialist arguing the other day on Pacifica Radio that if Obama really cared about the working class, he would have nationalized all of the auto plants, stopped manufacturing cars (because they pollute), and guaranteed employment for anyone who wanted it.

That's a socialist.

As for the first question, many people are mistakenly assuming that all of the G-20 protesters have a common agenda. They don't.

Some of the people in town are legitimate anti-war or anti-nuke or anti-globalization demonstrators. Those people are largely peaceful and cooperative.

But the ones who get the most attention --- a minority, but very vocal and very visible --- are basically nihilists, not pacifists.

They are immature, self-centered and like to destroy things. Their agenda is to create havoc.

They are to liberals what the Klan is to conservatives --- the crazy cousin who nobody talks about. If they didn't have a G-20 summit, they'd find some other reason to go break windows, paint graffiti and set fires.

In short --- they are here specifically to be jackasses.

So asking a group of nihilists "not to be jackasses" is like asking frogs not to croak, or Glenn Beck not to say insanely idiotic things. To quote Barney Frank, you might as well go argue with your dining-room table.

I don't have a dining room table, but if I feel like engaging an "anarchist" in a debate, I'll just go bang my head on the front porch until I pass out.

Which, coincidentally, is also what I do instead of watching Glenn Beck.

. . .

As a brief sidebar, I have long been a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and I am proud to say so.

I don't always agree with the people whom they defend --- but that's the whole purpose of the Bill of Rights, to protect people who do and say things that are unpopular.

Still, here's a question I always wonder about. Leftists constantly complain about police oppression and harassment.

So when leftists get mugged or burglarized, why do they call the police instead of the ACLU?

. . .

Finally, a tip of the Tube City hard-hat to "O," also known as The Angry Drunk Bureaucrat.

As one of his many public services, he's compiled a map of G-20 related road closings for Pittsburgh.

Personally, I didn't have any problems getting to work on Thursday, and I expect very few on Friday. That's because I'm working from home, and demonstrations on Dravosburg Hill have been mercifully light. (However, the constant military helicopter traffic into Allegheny County Airport on Wednesday was a little bit creepy.)

Hooray for capitalist technologies like call forwarding and high-speed Internet!