I AM TJIC

Last week, I posted my first (and probably last) drunk blog...

Which I stuffed down the memory hole first thing the next morning.

OK... I admit it. That was cowardly. Unlike some of my friends, who have the guts to let 'er rip and leave it stand, I caved. I took a good, long look at what I'd written, and decided in this day and age (and considering my typical luck) I wasn't willing to take a chance with how I was received.

What was so bad?

Well... heh.

I was getting frustrated with the various narratives on Jared Loughner. See, to my mind, he's crazy. Period. The only question of interest to me was "Which brand of crazy is he?" Schizophrenic (which to my mind, at least, means genuinely ill and not accountable)? Psychopathic (sane but evil, and therefore culpable)? I was insulted by both the rush from the left to blame Palin et al, and the delayed rush from the right to blame anything from atheism to conspiracy theories. To my mind, asking "Why?" of a crazy person is... well... crazy.

Anyway, I was trying to make a statement about jumping to conclusions about Loughner's motivations. So I did my little inebriated post, drawing parallels between Loughner and myself. I pointed out that (like Loughner) I'm an independent, I'm an atheist, I have a taste for music that could would be construed as violent, I distrust the government... I may or may not have thrown in a little something about marijuana. (It was in my mind, and in a draft I started on the subject another time... not sure if I included that part, and can't check now. Heh.) You get the gist.

And I included an invitation for DHS to come on over and pick me up for a chat.

Yeah. Smart move, that. Which was my entire motivation for stuffing that sucker down the pipes. I thought, in the days of a government that would dream up fishy.gov, should I even joke about sending the goon squad to my house?! Nope. Fluuuuussssshhhh! Away with that post.

Right after, that same morning, I read a frightening story about a blogger who was being harassed by the government. Travis Corcoran (TJIC from his blog Dispatches from TJICistan, now down the memory hole like my post) was actually more than harassed. Based on little more than a joke of questionable taste (“One down, 534 to go.”), he had his weapons, ammo and gun license taken away. And, let's be real, only the most naive among us don't realize he's also made at least some form of watch list.

And my reaction?

Whew! Glad I offloaded that sucker! Coulda been me making headlines instead of snarking about them!

Bad response. Selfish, stupid, gutless, enabling response.

Thankfully, other bloggers have done better. The Classic Liberal has a roundup of those who had the appropriate - and necessary - reaction: I AM TJIC. Check out Eternity Road, Coordinated Illumination and Borepatch for perfect examples of the correct response.

And while I may be late to the party, I'm here. And I picked up my guts on the way.

Because when I saw a blogger getting a dose of exactly what I'd been worried about, I shouldn't have felt relief that I changed my own post. I should have felt anger that we've come to this point. I should have felt the disgust that such blatant trampling of the Constitution deserves. I should have felt solidarity.

And I should have put the damn post right back on the blog, goon squad be damned.

I didn't do any of that... I blew it. But I'm not only an imperfect creature. I am also one that learns.




I am TJIC.

And whether you blog or not, you'd better be, too. Otherwise, we'll all be stifled.

(Sincere thanks to those listed above for getting it right, and for showing the way.)