At What Point Do People Revolt?

At some point, one more piece of straw does break the camel\'s back, even if that piece is, in and of itself, insignificant

By: Erick Erickson (Diary) | March 31st, 2009 at 04:08 PM |

RESIZE: AAA

Moe wrote about the Washington State lunacy the other day. To recap:

Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation’s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

As the Associated Press notes, there’s just one problem:

Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and Trader Joe’s left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich and resistant to soap.

Washington State has turned its residents into a group of drug runners — crossing state lines to buy dish washer detergent with phosphate.

At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

At some point soon, it will happen. It’ll be over an innocuous issue. But the rage is building. It’s not a partisan issue. There is bipartisan angst at out of control government made worse by dumb bans like this and unintended consequences like AIG’s bonus problems.

If the GOP plays its cards right, it will have a winning issue in 2010. But it is going to have to get back to “leave me the hell alone” style federalism where the national government recedes and the people themselves will have to fight to take their states back from special interests out of touch with body politic as a whole.

Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the government apparatchiks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.

Tags: Dish Washer Detergent, Out of touch government, Revolution, Tea Parties, Washington

COMMENTS

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Achance

and if we could find a way to keep a coalition together that included “out of my bedroom,” we’d be unbeatable.
zsmvf6

is that the gay rights activists will not stop until they’ve forced every one else to accept their lifestyle as morally right, regardless of your religious views,

I’d think that a “out of the schools” stance would have more support and a broader base,. but that’s me.
http://www.dirkworld.com dirkbelig

Do you seriously think picayune laws like this are going to spark a rebellion – or at least a GOP resurgence – when the Left has the trump card up their sleeve allowing them to accuse their opponents of “wanting dirty water and air”?

“More water pollution, but cleaner dishes,” is NOT going to win any races. Sorry, but facts are facts and people are sheep these days.
candoo2

that no one is cleaning any guns or really worrying about anything more than the next paycheck.

Scott is very much an apolitical guy that really just deals with day to day situations while planning for his family and their future. He does not do the political scene like I do, but he knows I’m into it.

The revolution is not going to happen over consumer products, according to my bro.

I have to agree.
IJB

Believe me, the vast majority of people will willing club baby seals themselves, if it would measurably make their lives easier and more convenient. And that includes a substantial number of self-professed greenies.

It’s the little things like dish detergent that will cause regular folks to go ballistic. No amount of chanting “Dirty water! Dirty water!” will overcome that.
bcb1

Phosphate-free detergents and cleaners like TSP-free have been around for a long time, in many places you haven’t been able to buy phosphate-based cleaners for years.

I just don’t see the big deal? Phosphate-free detergents work fine. Even phosphate-free TSP (tri-sodium phosphate), the stuff that you use to clean before painting your house – works fine.

I don’t understand the mindset of being outraged over….well, over unimportant stuff like this.
Swamp_Yankee

I’m going to revolt by smuggling laundry detergent on the black market. If this is as profitable as I think it will be, I?ll donate a portion of my profits to Right Wing organizations.

If things become more draconian, I?ll expand to hydrogenated fat, then cigarettes and then, doomsday, ammo.
SecularRepublican

I just don’t think there will be a revolt over dish soap. Just a hunch…
candoo2

It is ignorant at worst. It is time to come forward with ideas, not silliness.
peg_c

Because I am roiling mad. Thanks for an enraging but fairly cathartic post, Erick. Hey call me a nut – I really don’t give a d@mn at this point – but IMHO these politicians all need to be beaten to a bloody pulp FOR STARTERS. We used to say there would never be violent protests and revolution again in this country. It may not be over small conveniences but there will be a straw that breaks the camel’s back, and violence is looking more plausible and way more necessary.

The whole family is taking off Tax Day for local tea parties and we can hardly wait. Our outrage needs an outlet. What the government is doing with the auto industry, finance and banking industries, exec paychecks and likely the oil industry next deserves some true outrage and a groundswell of targeted indignation and resolution in 2010 such as the Democrats have never seen before. The fact that corrupt and incompetent politicians who are holding hardworking Americans’ feet to the fire while being held to no standards whatsoever is just insult to injury. This unbearably light and unaccomplished flibbertigibbit of Marxist bent in the W.H. is a daily, hourly assault and insult to intelligent, hardworking people.

RECOVERY BEGINS WHEN OBAMA LOSES HIS JOB (and all the other thieving statists!)
Herodotus

That is more than enough reason to be outraged.
techsan

I do feel that something small and somewhat innocuous will trigger outrage. Is this particular issue the thing? Maybe so, maybe not. But consider the spread of Hannan’s redress of Brown. Something will eventually capture the God-given sense of liberty and freedom the vast majority of the country shares. With as many socialist grenades the liberal governments (federal, state, and local) of this nation are throwing, one of them is bound to hit a nerve. I have to hope this is true. If it’s not, then we are going to have a very long road ahead of us.
JustLeaveMeAlone

n/t
mom2oneson

Didn’t make a rule like no new fast food in certain low income areas?
It’s so dumb they don’t even see fast food provides a service, prepared meal at an inexpensive price and being calorie/fat dense is good when you are hungry.
JustLeaveMeAlone

It was tried there… not sure of the final outcome.

Besides the food itself, what about all the food-service jobs?
mom2oneson

this would be so great for a tea party, everyone pour it down the drains, on the sidwalks, or have car washes, something rebelllious.
Michelle

I don’t think the point being made is simply about consumer products. And, yes, this is a small issue, but it points to something larger. The larger point is this is just one more aspect of out-of-control government interference in our lives based on “clean air” or “clean water” or “for the children” as liberals tend to abuse to get what they want.
I mean who doesn’t want clean air and water and to keep children from harm, but I don’t like it when they’re used as a cudgel to control every tiny aspect of my life including the dishwasher detergent I use.
The big picture is ever increasing government control. Dishwasher detergent just happens to be this week’s example.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

It’s like the abused spouse who takes every abuse for years and when he/she finally snaps it’s usually over something innocuous. If they feel they’re in a corner from which they can’t escape without drastic actions, the abuser is going to be in a world of hurt. Luckily most snap, walk away, and keep walking never to look back.

Unfortunately the American people have nowhere to go but here so, as a whole, we’ll be backed into a corner. It’s going to be ugly, really ugly, when the nation snaps.
Swamp_Yankee

No joke. They’re banned in bakeries.

http://www.culinologyonline.com/news/a-boston-trans-fat-ban.html

I guarantee this ban is gaving the Italian mob in the North End another market.
GT350

The revolution won’t be over dishwasher detergent. It’s going to be lack of good beer and fast cars that starts the cultural war.

Didn’t you people see Smokey & The Bandit? It was a huge hit in 1977 because it hit a cultural nerve (It wasn’t the acting nor the plotline). Clean air & gas mileage meant emasculated cars, downsized cars, mandatory 55mph. And you couldn’t buy Coors beer east of Texas. So Smokey hops in a badass TransAm and sticks it to the Man.

Right now it’s cool to be a greenie & environmentally aware. Sooner or later, the preachiness is going to get old & Americans want to be Americans again.
mom2oneson

They always bash flea medicine on animal and recommend dish soap. I wonder if these folks even have animals because cats do not like to be bathed. One of my furbabies is a little impaired and usually very sweet, he doesn’t hunt bugs even but even he will claw and scratch if you try to put him near water. I shop at the organic store and I add nutritional yeast to their food to help repel fleas them but we still have to use flea medicine. So they are always bashing flea medicine..what will they do now!
candoo2

disagree with is Violence, then you have already lost the war, the battle and the ideals that you base your being on.

I am sick of hearing about the slightly masked BS from idiiots like Glenn Beck and his We Surround You idiocracy, as well as anything else that actually calls for armed insurection.

More brains, less stupid. We have the best ideas. Now, how do we impart them to the American people?
Flagstaff

After all, under the likewise government-mandated CFL bulbs, they won’t be able to see the stuck-on food, anyway. And once it’s in your mouth, it’s too late!

Really, I don’t know of anyplace that’s made the “bad” detergents illegal before, though. The “good” ones work ok for us, probably because we have a water softener installed.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

nt
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

There are some other remedies but I can’t remember them at the moment.
Flagstaff

I imagine it’s full of trans fat.

I wonder if all the no-longer-needed-by-bakers trans fat will go to work on the MTA.
Swamp_Yankee

There is something seething and brewing in failing states like Mass, Mich and Cali. People are taught to hate Republicans, but that isnt stopping the growing hatred of Democrats. The conservatives are small, but desperate and the populous is growing uneasy.

There is something going on in Massachusetts that I’ve never witnessed before. People are ready to rage.
candoo2

the entire example that was set with this diary was at best ignorant. At worst, it was another attempt at spinning what the diarist wants you to believe.

We are legion in our beliefs. We are not stupid in others attempts to make a mountain out of absolutely nothing that matters at all. Consumer products are important, of course. Just not in this forum.

If you know what I mean.
E Pluribus Unum

But I guess they were stupid and had lost the ideological war.
candoo2

Actually, I don’t really care for it then, but I’ll drink it because it is just beer. Green, yes. Beer, absolutely. The obvious is to drink and forget the color.
techsan

…is that I have good friends around me that don’t “get it”. We RSers are starting from a foundation of the Constitution. Good friends of mine don’t seem to be. I do hope it snaps…and soon. I think the ugly part comes with time. I pray we stop the insanity before then.
techsan

“Good friends of mine don?t seem to be” should finish with ” oblivious.”
aesthete

n/t
candoo2

They still dislike baths, but we use a harness and put them in the sink (minus sharp nails). They will get used to it, however I suggest two people in the beginning. One to hold the front of the kitty and talk in low voice and the other to scrub and rinse.
candoo2

The times were different and they won.

So, you are telling me that violent insurrection is the key today?
Because your ignorant response to me seemed like you were saying that.

Grow up, OK?
bcb1

But the American Revolution was about Independence from Great Britian. Pegc was talking about violence…for the sake of phosphate free detergents for God’s sake. Geez.

I’m thinking that not a whole lot of people are going to carry their pitchforks and flaming torches into the streets cause they can’t buy phosphate-based detergent anymore.

Hey, just a feeling though. Who knows, maybe I’ll look out the window and the troops will be rallying around the “Give me Tide or Give me Death” flag. who knows?
aesthete

It’s the idea that government has any role whatsoever in deciding for you what school you go to, how big a house you should have, what percentage of income you should give to others, etc. It’s an erosion of our freedoms, and intrinsically illegitimate. The inconvenience of such laws is not what will turn people; rather, these inconveniences will awaken the decidedly American sentiment of, “Get the h*** off my lawn”.
techsan

I tend to agree. The state went further Blue. But with the local governor raising all odds and ends of taxes to cover budget deficits, local school referendums are failing left and right. Any chance anyone can actually vote on a tax it is soundly rejected. People are tired of the robbery. I’m still concerned about the 50-ish% who live off the backs of a few who actually went to school, worked hard, and succeeded.
mom2oneson

why else do women add Cascade or other things to their husbands/boys work or gym clothing.
bcb1

There are many areas of the country that banned phosphate-based cleaners years ago. TSP-free and phosphate free laundry detergent have been the rule for years in many places. As far as I know, this has never been a big deal, it’s never been a campaign point for Democrats or Republicans.

So now Spokane county does the same thing, and it’s the end of the world?
mom2oneson

I thought it was just laundry detergents. If dish detergents are off the shelves they are enforcing it.
Now I’m wondering where else?
Kyle-MI

If liberals are out of power, there are many, many countries they can go to get what they want. This is the last stand for conservatives. There is no other place. What do you think these people will do when more and more is taken from them and they are demonized more and more. You ought to be very scared of any injured, corned animal. But you just keep on pushing. Just keep on shutting up the opposition. Close off that pressure relief valve. The boiler isn’t going to blow up, will it?
Kyle-MI

not to mention the size of your toilet
http://web.mac.com/mayo99/iWeb/Site/VladBlog/VladBlog.html Vladimir

…now lost to the ethersphere, or whatever you call it, was on the subject of two of my all time red-flag phrases used by the MSM to push for bigger more intrusive government at the Federal level.

“CRAZY QUILT” and “PATCHWORK QUILT”

As in, “the laws regulating ____________ across this country are a patchwork quilt of local codes that vary wildly…” As seen on 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Dateline, 20/20, CNN, etc, &etc.

Well, then, what we need is CONSISTENCY! At the FEDERAL LEVEL!

I could generate a list as long as my arm of issues, from boxing, to horseracing, to food production, you name it, that just CRY OUT for Federal regulation because the locals are too stupid & inconsistent to manage it.
Achance

we’ll see who wins.
Mike gamecock DeVine
JadedByPolitics

how WE should have a “holier” than thou message when dealing with the cretins known as Democrats is an interesting picture of someone who has no idea the ENEMY in which they are dealing with!

You stay cool, calm and WE will take up the banner of WRENCHING the Republican Party out of its stupidity and getting this beautiful country BACK in the SADDLE AGAIN!
pilgrim

Many colonists had already taken a liking to coffee instead of tea. It didn’t matter, because the principle of any taxation without any representation was enough.
BlueLandRed

“we” have rebelled in the past against things like Whiskey Taxes.

But I just don’t see today’s citizens rebelling to protect their right to pollute – which is what you are doing when you stick a bunch of phosphates down the sink.

I never quite understand why some people get so upset when their ability to pollute is restricted. I mean, we all have to share this planet and it isn’t like after we use this planet up, we get another. And pollution can have very long term effects and does in a way become a form of generation theft.
Mike gamecock DeVine
navychick1993

There is a two-year moratorium on the building of fast food restaurants in South LA…formerly known as South Central LA. Mind you, there are very few grocery stores in the area; they end up going out of business because no one shops there or too much crime.
6eorge Jetson
http://MacBigot.com macbigot

Go rent it. Really. Little things can add up pretty quickly and spur a full-scale riot. The Dums are creating a perfect storm, and the Republicrats are doing nothing to push us back to common sense.
http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

The Indoctrination Factories are driving us toward the “Idiocracy” over the “Republic”.
TXCHLInstructor

Lard is mostly *saturated* fat, and has little, if any trans-fats, unless it has been hydrogenated. It is, in fact, better for you than polyunsaturated fats — especially for cooking, which converts polyunsaturated fats into trans-fats. Saturated fats are more heat-stable (and naturally occurring, so the body can properly use them).
–
www.chl-tx.com (Thanks, BHO, for the wonderful ‘stimulus’ you have given my business)
http://fairfaxgardener.blogspot.com ddstrain

which were not quite as radical over 8 years as we’ve seen in the past 60 days, we did see group of people (albeit a fringe element) reach the tipping point. Some acted when backed into a corner, some went on the offensive.

Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, David Koresh, Randy Weaver, Kevin Harris, maybe others I don’t remember.

Right now the upper crust is being attacked. These are the folks with other paths available and resources in reserve. As soon as the Obama’s radical assault “trickles down” a layer or two, beyond the board room and even past the soccer mom, we will regrettably (but likely) see a similar reaction.

The trigger, I don’t know. Maybe the shuttering of coal mines and loss of family farms (to taxes not foreclosure this time). Maybe hyperinflation and the inability to afford heat or food. Maybe the state over-reaching in its intrusion in the parent-child relationship.
Mike gamecock DeVine
dwarfmama

We held all four legs with one hand and lowered the cat (on its side) into a shallow basin of warm water. For some reason, they don’t seem to panic as they do when lowered feet-first.

We don’t have cats now – I’m seriously allergic. The bathing was an attempt to reduce the level of allergens.
Achance

had they not been so engrossed in Lefty self-delusion in the beginning. The ’94 Counterattack was inconceivable to them and they were as shocked and defensless as was Burnside’s 11th Corps when Jackson’s troops came screaming out of the woods on the right flank at Chancellorsville.

BHOs minions are acutely aware of the humiliation of ’94 and the groveling they were reduced to in what they had planned to be their moment of final triumph. They’ll do everthing in their power to not let it happen again.

I do know that we as Republicans and conservatives have to do everything in our power and influence to assure that the first blows get struck by the other side this time. If anyone on the right resorts to violence they’ll be marginalized and ruthlessly suppressed. We cannot afford to be defeated in detail.
RJD

!!this is not an attempted threadjack!!

Liked Falling Down, but haven’t seen it in years. Idiocracy was a good premise that went for over-the-top instead of biting social commentary. I think I would have liked it if Jim Carey had accepted/remained in the lead. Not saying the product would have been better, but there’s always wishful thinking.
RJD

Not really believable until 9/11. Now, it’s a different movie (not necessarily a good movie, but different).
Menlo

If this eliminates Cascade, the most popular brand nationwide, from an entire state, I’d like to know why the manufacturer isn’t responding. In this economy, a move like this would have to do enormous damage to P&G. The government may be after their other products too. The left is in a panic over the lost trees from soft bath tissue like Charmin.

I pray we never see the day P&G seeks a government bailout.
http://fairfaxgardener.blogspot.com ddstrain

I think that more people, with less options will reach the end of their rope and BOOM. Within a couple years, some people out there will feel cornered and have nothing to lose. Someone will resort to violence and they won’t care about being marginalized in the future. They are being marginalized by the Prog/Left agenda right now.
harlan

At what point may speculating about revolt actually become encouraging revolt?

For instance, I believe that there should be a list…a “living” list, (you know, in the same vein as a “living” constitution). The list would necessarily contain names of proven “statist” subversives, to be updated regularly.

Of course, that side would consider most conservatives to be subversives as well. But then again, which side has the lion’s share of firepower? (…and have no intention of relinquishing that advantage.)

Individuals appearing on such a list , (those whose names would be the most worthy of opprobrium), could possibly be eligible for such niceties as tar and feathering, or being run out of town on a rail, (or whatever the modern equivalent may be)

Now, that doesn’t mean I’m explicitly encouraging revolution.

But then again, it is almost pitchfork time.
http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

I think some of you have missed the point.

I do not expect a revolution to break out over dish washing detergent. But I do think an accumulation of little things like this will lead to something very ugly.

At some point, one more piece of straw breaks the camel’s back, even if that straw is, in and of itself, insignificant. But it yields the fight.
http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

I drink right from the Glass

Sorry, couldn’t resist the brief levity break!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled arguing
Finrod

What is it with government banning things that work? Toilets with enough flow to work, cold medicine that works, dishwater detergent that works, …
$peciallist

I just installed a toilet today that is a disaster….it has about 2 cups of water in the bowl….and about 1 gallon in the tank

I swear you have to hold down the handle…they dont sell any other kind (unless you want to pay 400.00)…

the tenant will Not be happy…
zsmvf6
JustLeaveMeAlone

Nowhere did she mention detergents or phosphates — so I can’t even say to you, “nice job of trying to marginalize her feelings”.

What she did say, as did others here, is that many people are fed up — with creeping, nay, steamrolling socialism, a loss of individual liberties, nanny state regulations, having our future income seized by a Congress and President who’ve drunk the koolaid, etc.

At some point, we are going to get fed up. It starts with Tea Parties and protests. It continues with Civil Disobedience. And maybe, just maybe, someone gets mad enough or desperate enough to get violent.

Hopefully it will not come to that. Hopefully the protests will work; if not, the civil disobedience will get the attention of the President Goodwrench and his happy gang of Marxists.

But what Patrick Henry said in 1775 is just as true today as it was then. The current power-holders in DC would be wise to listen to the dissident voices of the present AND of the past.
Mike gamecock DeVine

malicious destruction of property? But, as to washing one’s clothes, the only available alternative is banging rocks on them down by the river, so it appears the tyranny of Washington State is more oppressive as to these two specific matters than that of the King of England. The Boston Tea Party was BEFORE the Declaration.

getting it now?

This is not that complex an issue.

straw breaks camel’s back?

get it

see, before that last straw there were other straws…
RedInABleuState

I don’t know what it will be…but I’m sensing that we are getting to that point. In my own little world of following politics…people are angrier than I’ve ever seen them with their elected officials. And I would not be exaggerating it to say it is bordering on rage. Calls for the guillotine and such.

I’ve been online for years and have seen the exasperation build. But, we’re now to the point of the “I don’t follow politics” people knowing exactly what is going on…and not liking it.
RedInABleuState
Mike gamecock DeVine

This is the first hard times in so many people’s lifetimes after the 25 year Reagan recovery. They are attentive as hell and they naively put their faith in a fool. They expect Obama to make life nirvana overnight and he can’t.

The spoiled are being mugged by reality and they will become conservatives by 2010. probably by September, 2009.
tnjim

…who is probanly trying not to draw too much attention to themselves right now. Tiny Tim Geithner and Barney Frank are already talking about regulating pay for all execs, those getting bail-out money or not. They’d just love to be given a reason, any reason right now to advance that agenda.

Not that Frank & Co. really need a reason.
IJB

The Other Side will have to do that.

It probably means a nice family somewhere, or maybe even a whole town, will have to get mowed down by the Obamabots.

But, and this key – if they fire the first shot, we make sure we fire the last shot.
http://www.scottbomb.com scottbomb
persiflage

that has people riled up, but the nanny philosophy of the politicians.

A mature technology exists, implementable at centralized wastewater treatment facilities, to remove nearly all phosphate from wastewater effluent. What has people burned, I think, is that the politicians refused the technological fix for the problem, and instead insisted that a million people must immediately change their behavior to satisfy the aesthetic preferences of those politicians!

That is the kind of stuff that will eventually have people reaching for the torches and pitchforks, tar and feathers.

I’m going to attend one of these “tea parties” here in New Jersey, with a homemade poster that says
RE-ELECT
NOBODY
mom2oneson

first Sunday of the month they have a huge insert of their coupons!
With only of us we don’t use that much but it sure is nice getting them inexpensively when we do need them.
E Pluribus Unum

I simply pointed out the obvious flaw in your assertion that “choosing violence” means you have lost the ideological war – which is exactly what you said.

You then put words in my mouth : you are telling me that violent insurrection is the key today?

Some friendly advice, cant-doo: when you are busy calling somebody ignorant, double-check to make sure that you are not impaling yourself on their sword.
peg_c

I am participating in tea parties and I don’t even own a gun. I am the least violent person I know, but this Marxist government has a whole lot of peaceful, peace-loving people up in arms, figuratively and possibly literally in the future. I want no part of a country that will take the march to socialism/fascism laying down. If that means violent insurrection down the road, probably after I’m dead, so be it. You don’t beat your enemies by being nice but by being as nasty and dirty as they are. As a country we have forgotten this but had d@mn well better remember it before we have no country anymore – whether because of enemies foreign OR domestic.
Menlo

There is no match for their brands, many of which have been common for nearly a century. Folger’s puts Starbuck’s to shame, and the world would not be the same without the Charmin bears.

I challenge anyone to call them evil. They use many of their products to contribute to charitable work and deeds around the world.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

being subject to laws in which they had no say… kinda like how things are today.

If they could have worked with the British government towards representation, the revolution would never have taken place. Unfortunately, like King Obama, King George and the British Parliament thought all those country bumpkins were just blowing smoke. They thought also, that a few British soldiers would set things right.

They were wrong.
http://impudent.blognation.us/blog kyle8

It was such typical Hollywood lefty crap. Here we have radical Islamic extremists in the world and in their version, they are the good guys and the US military, of course, are the bad guys.
Common_Cents

Obama’s own will be the first to riot. The poor who are the most vulnerable having their hopes of change dashed will be the ones to lead the charge. They were outright lied to and sold a bill of goods that promised that help is on the way. It will not.

For Obama to prevent it he will have to continue to deflect their anger to Bush and evil corporations(you know, those things that create jobs and stuff).
Common_Cents

No jobs or no food is a much more powerful reason to revolt than for principled reasons (no matter how valid they are) by people who have food on the table.
pabarge1

“Were I in Washington State, I?d be cleaning my gun right about now”

I call baloney on you.

My guess is that you’d be doing right now, which is pontificating on a blog.

While this is egregious it is far less offensive than a mile long single spaced list of nonsense being peddled by the leftist big-gov types.

Read you history. People don’t put up with this kind of crap only to jump up at the point of some minor straw on a camel’s back and run out and revolt.

Revolutions happen in a very different way, and our American history should have taught you that.
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

If you had anything really important that you might want to find again someday I’d suggest this site:

http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

I know a lot were upset over having lost archives in the transitions.
peg_c

2 more common phrases (or used to be) that are a dead giveaway that the speaker is a braindead lefty. I just ran across those terms in “Atlas Shrugged” but they reverberate much more recently for most of us.
Common_Cents

Obama-topia is like Miller Lite.

Tastes great but less filling.

There’s gonna be more than a few hungry people finding out that the great tasting hope doesn’t change anything about their hunger, and wanting some real change soon.
jonathanswift

often lead to bloodshed.
joeyess

Spokane County became the launch pad last July for the nation?s strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July 2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.

RedState’s Reply?

Erick says:

At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator?s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

You want to beat people to a bloody pulp over dishwasher detergent????

Jesus, dude. Really. Seek some help. You need it.
RJD

terrorists were shown as Muslims in a Hollywood movie. But, the movie had the terrorist play the media and the media go along willingly. It had the “Wall” up between agencies.

It was a movie that when I first saw it, I rolled my eyes – it was standard fare, and very unbelievable (and not just about the military). After 9/11, there were certain elements of the movie that rang true, and which we will be hard-pressed to ever see Hollywood cover again.
RedSonja2000

As long as the right wingers keep riled up over laundry detergent, loading their guns over dish soap and foaming at the mouth over Tide the Democrats will be in office for a good long while.

Good job!
Susannah

That sounds like the toilet in our place. If you, literally, blow your nose and put more than two or three Kleenexes in there, the darn thing will overflow–one time it flooded half of the carpet in our apartment, and it all had to be replaced.
Kudzu

Its not about dish detergent. What Eric is asking is when is the breaking point for a people? You forget we are a big nation with a bit population. If Washingtonians like their government and the feds doing what they do then so be it. But Georgians may not.

You need to look long and hard at the years prior to the War Between the States to get an understanding to the social/economic differences that defined the country then and apply it to now. We’re not the same we were in the 1850s but the South is not the North and neither are the Midwest, values may be similar or different and thats how we elect the politicians we elect.

There are trip wires. Its a matter of for who and what. For South Carolina it was the election of Abe Lincoln. Don’t be naive and limit this to household convenience and consider the larger scope.

As for apoliticals being unaware, even a bear wakes up.
AKSteveB
$peciallist
aesthete

would be great for me!
http://www.erickerickson.org Erick Erickson

And amen.
janis

You focus on the one detail mentioned while being completely ignorant of what Erick is saying in the entirety:

Libs want to regulate and legislate EVERY SINGLE DETAIL of our lives, including, but not limited to, what dish detergent we can use, no matter how crappy the results.

It’s this constant overreaching and interfering in our lives that will finally wake up enough citizens to stop your side.
http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

…holds full of teabags represented a MAJOR grievance; they certainly didn’t represent “some minor straw on a camel?s back.”

There’s something called the final straw, pabarge1. You should look it up sometime. It doesn’t have to be big — just enough to break the ole camel’s back.
Achance

are slaves. Half-free people revolt. BHO has made the same mistake many communist trained union and community organizers make; he has let his constituents define him and define their expectation of him. He didn’t do it like the demogogues usually do it, by making wild promises. If he had made the promises his constituents wanted, he would have been beaten overwhelmingly; he couldn’t say that stuff out loud. So, he became the diaphanous mass of hope and change that people could make into anything they wanted it to be. In doing so he hugely overpromised because he doesn’t even know what he “promised.”

When the Blacks, hard Leftists, and the other dependent constituencies look around a year or so from now, if not this summer, then certainly the next, and find they’re not drinking pink Bubble-Up and eating Rainbow Stew, they’re going to start burning stuff.
E Pluribus Unum

if you think the extent of his revolting would be “pontificating on a blog”.

You might do a little checking up, yourself.
Flagstaff

dam about what is or is not trans fat. (^;^)

But thanks for the info, anyway. Maybe that’s why those cooks swear by lard.
randy streu

sometimes, I wonder if they don’t do stupid stuff like regulating detergent just because they KNOW we’ll go after them for it.

That way, they get to pretend it’s about the single, relatively unimportant issue, and not the far larger problem of their stealing our freedoms.
E Pluribus Unum

the pigeon has wandered into the path of the tortoise, blissfully unaware of the danger.
Flagstaff

Looks like a deluxe model in southeast Asia. The standard models are simply a removable drain cover in the shower. Note the wastebasket to receive the paper–the answer to Susannah’s problem.
randy streu

If you think this is actually about detergent, you’re an even bigger idiot than your post makes you out to be.

It is about numerous, sometimes small, constant attempts by government to regulate our lives.
mbecker908
Rod_Patrick
zsmvf6

ate pigeons.

Is your quote Cato’s “Carthage must be destroyed?”
janis

many on the left are just plain stupid. Call me crazy, but there you go, the useful idiots over there just prove their idiocy repeatedly.
Rod_Patrick

Dear Liberal/Democrat Leaders,

What shall I buy?

How much should I pay?

Where shall I get the money?

Whom should I listen to?

What shall I eat?

What shall I say?

Where shall I work? Or should I work?

Where shall I live?

Should I pray to Jesus?

.
.
.

How much CO2 should I exhale?

.
.
.

How long should I live?

….. MAKES PERFECT NONSENSE TO ME!

FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
janis
Kate_Shanahan

don’t give them ideas. Next it will be measuring the number of household flushes to determine if you are eating or drinking to much for the environment.
janis

With what kind of toilet paper should I wipe my butt? Don’t forget that they also want to regulate that as well since that quilted stuff is apparently killing the planet.
E Pluribus Unum

The Romans eventually razed Carthage to the ground. And that’s what I intend to do to the majority media, then the Democrat Party, then the Marxist forces among us. Not a single stone on top of another. It’s war, for all the marbles, as far as I’m concerned.
Achance

make you use half a roll every time you go. I’m not a real big guy, and I just don’t know how all the fat people find a way to fit their butts on those things, ’cause I can’t do it!. Soap won’t get me there, but the sh#$$er may cause me to take up arms!
E Pluribus Unum

Twinkie Brigade
http://hillbillypolitics.com Steph C

With a name like Kudzu I knew you’d have to mention Georgia.

Totally beside the point, of course.
Rod_Patrick

Only if NYT pays me 1 dollar for every copy I use as sanitary paper.

On a second thought…… NOOOO!

The deadly NYT liberal virus might contaminate my perfectly-shaped CONSERVATIVE bubble butt!

[Sorry sis if it becomes so graphic. Blame specialist's Asian toilet. It's catching. ROFL!!!!]
janis

soap or inefficient toilets, works for me.

By the way, remind me to stand upwind of you when we man the barricades.
janis

mandated rump hygiene product?
janis

above article–we’re pretty revolting after this series of comments.
Rod_Patrick

NYT Multi-purpose Paper will be the first promo that will knock on your door courtesy of Obama’s US$6+ Billion Universal Service Soldiers Act. It has already passed in the Senate with only 14 Rs voting NO.
janis

much in the way of principles? We’re making progress.
Rod_Patrick

Aren’t chu glad?

We can win Erick’s Revolution with the big, mythical number of 14.

We only need a few 47 to win the Senate back. And it’s not overreaching, I guess.

LOL!!!!
The_Gadfly

someone once asked “who will cast the first stone?” without stating the necessary pre-requisite, and I jumped up and loudly, but not quite screamingly said, “Me! Me! Me!”

But yeah, I’m finding it harder and harder these days to resist the urge to physically smack some sense into some people.
http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

Take away my light bulbs and replace with dim CFLs that spill hazardous mercury all over the carpet when they finally go bad.

Take away my high flow shower head and replace with a water saver that drips water like the Chinese water torture instead of using enough water to make me feel clean.

Take away my 3gal toilet and replace with a 1.6gal toilet I have to flush twice or three times as often.

Take away my water softener and leave me with hard water that doesn’t allow soap to suds up in the shower.

Take away my detergent with phosphates and leave my clothes and dishes dirty.

Corrupt the press and academia to where they no longer care about facts but only about their preferred man-bites-dog narrative in which we are, inevitably, the bad guys.

Take away my charcoal grill, gas lawn mower, insecticides and fertilizer so I can’t pollute the air the jet-stream leftists fly through in their private jets.

Force me by law to put all three of my under-12 children in car booster seats, preventing me from fitting my family of 5 in a car, even in a station wagon. No, make me buy a van or SUV to comply with the damn law, then raise the price of gas to $4 a gallon and accuse me of being a polluter.

Tax whiskey and tobacco, telephone service, gas, hotel rooms, restaurant food, and electricity to the point where I can’t afford to have fun, talk about my troubles, drive anywhere, travel, eat out, or keep the house under 80 degrees in the summer.

Ban conservative talk radio and fox news to keep me from seeing or hearing from anyone with an opinion that isn’t as inane and knee-jerk lefty conformist as a college sophomore’s.

Ban old children’s books because of the miniscule amounts of lead in them. While you’re at it, put the makers of handmade wooden toys out of business by requiring them to perform expensive testing on their products. Do all this with the supposed intention of stopping Chinese factories from selling dangerous toys to us.

Take away my right to give money or time to a political cause according to my desire and ability to give.

Take away a company’s right to deduct the pay of its executives over a million bucks from its taxes, forcing it to use options and other gimmicks that only make the payouts bigger and the incentives more perverse.

Take away a company’s right to set its own control and accounting policies and force it to hire two different auditors that micro-manage every aspect of its “finances” down to the configuration of network devices that financial information flows over. What’s next for Sarbanes-Oxley, auditing the electricity that powers them? This has cut the profit of American public companies by 50%, but there is another 50% of profit left for government to steal away.

Raise up an entire industry of Attorneys General in the various states who believe their way to the Governor’s office depends on how many businessmen they can frogmarch to jail for losing money or filling out a form the wrong way.

Elect an entire party of lawyers to the legislature who pass such a multiplicity of mutually contradictory laws in the states and nation that nobody ever knows if they are breaking some law but suspects they are. That this forces everybody to consult lawyers for all sorts of things with terrible results for getting the wrong advice is not unintentional.

Sweet Lord when will this insanity end?
aarongardner
Common_Cents

That’s what I meant, losing their jobs and becoming much more difficult to provide for themselves. It’s the people that have had a taste of some relative success and can see how others live much more richly. Obama’s own will be the first to throw rocks. They were promised hope and change but won’t get anything.

That’s why the 1billion poor poor Chinese won’t uprise, because most of them don’t know that others live much differently.
http://beaglescout.wordpress.com LJ “Beaglescout” Miller

I made a diary of it, after expanding it.
zsmvf6

perhaps use their punishment as a cheap source of entertainment (via the Mikado), but to each his own.
savings

Removing marriage from government seems like a pretty good solution.
pasmunetwork

Food should be valued and maintained for a long time.
Bill S

.

RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

At What Point Do People Revolt?

At some point, one more piece of straw does break the camel\'s back, even if that piece is, in and of itself, insignificant

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