The Wikipedia entry on the title of this post is pretty minimal. I think that it could be usefully expanded and improved by pointing out this creature as a prominent example.

I expect too-frequent commenter "Jim Harris" to be along to defend him any minute.

The thing that makes this especially fun is that the judge is a Marine. I wonder why the scumbag wasn't also ordered to pay for the cost of a new paint job. Why should the Marine or his insurance company be forced to pay for the damage?

Don't worry about restitution for the damage - I'm sure that the insurance company will take care of it. They're usually pretty diligent about recovering damages where possible. This guy isn't done with the court system yet...

Looking forward to hearing about the scumbag Jay Grodner being disbarred.

Sure, Grodner broke the law and he deserves what's coming to him. This, on the other hand, is effectively legal. If Grodner does get disbarred, he could work for an international security contractor.

But he would still need to be careful. It's a good thing that no one in the video keyed any of those cars, because that would have been vandalism. He also shouldn't enlist in the Marines. The Marines are bound up with government red tape that does not constrain contractors: rules of engagement, court-martials, other things like that.

Sorry guys but my post will be off topic.
Jim Harris, can you answer these questions:

How does a Nation-State impose its will on its people?

What is meant by the term, "last argument of kings"?

Robert,
you're wasting keystrokes. He'll just give some kind of Republicans are all evil over powered old money grubbers who all suck, GWB is murdering the American youth and our country in a bid for a New World Order answer.

Which if it was true, they'd be capping all the "Jim Harrises" daily and showing it as example to the rest of us on the single gub'ment controlled TV channel we'd still be getting.

We're not quit there yet. Maybe next week. Or next year after GWB declares martial law and suspends our right to vote.

Republicans are all evil

They certainly aren't. What is true is that the colossal stupidity of the Iraq war has sidelined honest Republicans. Paul O'Neill, for instance, was fired for criticizing the war to be.

The story about Grodner is a good example of the same phenomenon from the other side. There is no better way to anesthetize your brain than to complain and gloat about some idiot who keyed the car of some random Marine, when meanwhile in the real Iraq our paid mercenaries shoot at cars at random without getting in trouble. Sometimes they even shoot people at random and get no more than a slap on the wrist.

This isn't even about soldiers; it's about a much lower level of accountability than that. Whether or not you think that the Iraq war is a good idea, you should see that mercs who run loose with guns are a million times worse for America than Jay Grodner's antics.

"This isn't even about soldiers; it's about a much lower level of accountability than that. Whether or not you think that the Iraq war is a good idea, you should see that mercs who run loose with guns are a million times worse for America than Jay Grodner's antics."

Jim,

Why do you feel it necessary to try and patronizingly misdirect the discussion with something totally and completely unrelated to the original topic at hand? The two subjects aren't even remotely related. To try and argue otherwise is to try and link Pol Pot and Soupy Sales because they both drank water.

It only makes you look very, very, very, remarkably and profoundly stupid and very, very desperate.

That trick may work on the luddo-progressives and farm animals but it does not play here. Digging your hole deeper will not permit your escape.

"There is no better way to anesthetize your brain than to complain and gloat about some idiot who keyed the car of some random Marine, when meanwhile in the real Iraq our paid mercenaries shoot at cars at random without getting in trouble. "

I know the contractors and I know the luddo-progressives.

The contractors are by and large honest, mature and honorable people. The luddo-progressives are liars, immature, of low IQ and in general a wretched hive of pablum-spewing scum.

That video you posted is stupid and proves nothing but that anyone with a mac can add non-related sound effects to a video of someone driving and a retard will think it was actual gunfire.

Jim, try learning to think critically and stop swallowing whatever sperm the luddo-progressives shoot into your mouth.

Jim's fundamental problem is a bug in the Internet, in that it doesn't allow you to hear all of the people who are reading your tripe and laughing at you.

You maybe right Steve, Jim Harris didn't even answer my questions. At least I stated first that my post was off topic.

Anyway, Jim Harris has fitted the pattern. I posted these questions on other websites and the Leftists
(YogiBarrister for example) couldn't even answer them or answered the second question incorrectly (the second question is related to the rise of the modern nation state). Libertarians answered them correctly though.

Robert, your questions were pretty off-the-wall, but since you ask, here are some answers.

Two standard answers to the first question are: (1) government is a monopoly on violence, and (2) a free nation governs with the consent of the governed.

The answer to the second question is that "the last argument of kings" or "oratio ultima regem" is (1) a figure of speech that means the last resort, and (2) a phrase for military force, since it used to be inscribed on cannons.

Frankly it's silly to quiz people like this, especially if they can just Google for careful answers, but why not oblige if the questions are interesting. (Although again, too abstract and out of the blue.)

Also it's ironic to bring up libertarianism in this discussion, given that the war in Iraq is about as libertarian as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Rand, I think the occasional Jim Harris helps us remember our baby arguments. Like freedom is good, and the Iraqi death rate is down to less than Iran's death rate and has a population growth rate (4 times) higher than Iran's population growth rate according to the CIA World Factbook on Intelligence, as well as a higher population growth rate than Jordan. I guess it can't be too bad if folks are returning and having babies.

Jim, if you argue next that Iraq is overpopulated, I promise to laugh.

anyone with a mac can add non-related sound effects to a video of someone driving

Yes, anyone can splice in gunfire sounds, and paste in the flying shell casings, and airbrush in the rounds hitting the sidewalk and car hood. In principle, that video of mercs on the loose in Iraq could have been faked. But in fact, it was a real video of employees of Aegis Defense Services shooting at cars in Baghdad. Aegis and the US Army both investigated the video, and they both said that nothing in the video was staged. Also the guy who posted the video, Rod Stoner, was an Aegis employee and he has given interviews.

No, both the US and Aegis said that somehow, shooting up those cars was within the rules of engagement. The problem is that they didn't explain how. Their reports are confidential. If there was a good reason to shoot up and wreck these Iraqi cars, and terrify their occupants, you would think that they could explain what it is. After all, these weren't even military operations; Aegis is just supposed to be a crew of private security guards.

So it really looks like someone who likes to vandalize cars, such as Jay Grodner, could destroy property to his heart's content by working for Aegis or Blackwater or any other such Iraq war contractor.

You also said, Mike, that these contractors are men of character. That just doesn't square with the resume of Tim Spicer, the CEO of Aegis. Several men under his command were convicted of murdering an unarmed Catholic man in Northern Ireland, but to this day Spicer doesn't see that they did anything wrong. Instead of looking trustworthy, it looks like the US chose to contract with one of the worst Rambos from Britain.

remember our baby arguments

Remembering baby arguments is all well and good, but you might also check whether those arguments make sense.

Yes, freedom is good, but Iraq doesn't have it, according to Freedom House.

Yes, Iraq has a high estimated birth rate and a low estimated death rate according to the CIA, but all that the CIA is saying is that it thinks that Iraq is a rabbit warren. The Gaza Strip has an even higher birth rate and an even lower death rate according to the same reference --- is that progress? In any case the CIA doesn't know the real death rate (or birth rate) in Iraq, because the Iraqi Health Ministry is controlled by Moktada al-Sadr.

They also don't know the net migration rate, which is why they report it as a blank 0. It is true that some Iraqis are returning to Iraq because they would rather, at this time, live in Iraq than as illegal aliens in Syria. The plight of Iraqi refugees is a lot like Fred Thompson's presidential campaign: A long, massive decline followed by a few half-steps forward.

Again, this entire adventure is about as libertarian as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. We have spent more than a half trillion dollars minding Iraqis' business for them. The Iraq war is bigger than the GDP of Iraq.

All of that pontification is all so well and good Jim. owever, are you aware absolutely none of it does not have one motherf_ucking thing to do with the keying of Sergeant McNultys car?

The point is, Mike, if keying someone's car makes you the epitome of a scumbag, where on the scale is shooting at a lot of cars up and down the roads of Iraq? Rand is wasting his emotions on a trivial level of dishonor among Westerners who have any relation to the Iraq war. (Presumably he does not put keying a car in the same class as acts of Islamic terrorism.) He's making a mountain out of a molehill, or maybe a canyon out of a paint scratch.

What about starving the Ukraine? What kind of scumbag does that make someone?

You can take this line of thinking to extremes.

You simply wanted to make some cheap snark point about Iraq. If it hadn't been an OT post in this thread, you would have made it in another.

We understand this, you are as transparent as a vaccum, why do you not get it?

Jim Harris said:

Robert, your questions were pretty off-the-wall, but since you ask, here are some answers.

Two standard answers to the first question are: (1) government is a monopoly on violence, and (2) a free nation governs with the consent of the governed.

The answer to the second question is that "the last argument of kings" or "oratio ultima regem" is (1) a figure of speech that means the last resort, and (2) a phrase for military force, since it used to be inscribed on cannons.

Frankly it's silly to quiz people like this, especially if they can just Google for careful answers, but why not oblige if the questions are interesting. (Although again, too abstract and out of the blue.)

Also it's ironic to bring up libertarianism in this discussion, given that the war in Iraq is about as libertarian as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Wow, you answered my questions Jim Harris! Yes, my questions were "off the wall", that is "off-topic" but congratulations Jim. You're absolutely correct that the answers can be easily found on the Internet. But what fascinated me was that other leftists on the other sites were unable or unwilling to answer. The questions were easy to answer.

As far as Iraq goes, the root problem is the U.S.'s dependence on petroleum. Before the U.S. had troops in Iraq, the U.S. had troops in Saudi Arabia. Even though most of our oil doesn't come from the Middle East, disruptions in the Middle East oil supply can cause huge fluctuations on the world oil price. This is an engineering problem.

But what fascinated me was that other leftists on the other sites were unable or unwilling to answer.

There is no mystery in that. Quizzing people is not the way to win a debate; it just comes across as patronizing.

As far as Iraq goes, the root problem is the U.S.'s dependence on petroleum.

Whether or not that's the "root problem", the Iraq war has made it a lot worse rather than better. Not only has it done nothing to increase or protect oil production, we could have bought a vast amount of oil with the money spent on the war.