It turns out that the “Give Peace a Chance” tee-shirt boy was harassing shoppers at mall, and not just doing a little misguided free expression. See The Smoking Gun for the police report.
While nobody’s mentioned it, the interesting aspect of this story to me is whether tee-shirt can get a fair trial; he’s the head of the commission that disciplines judges, so there’s an inherent conflict of interest on the part of any judge hearing the case. Fair in this case would mean he should be convicted of trespass and made to do time; you don’t harass people with your politics in a private space; that’s what blogs are for.
If they were bothering people then why did the mall quickly drop the charges?
Since I was not there I have mixed feelings.
On the one hand I have a hard time believing the security guards would be that stupid. On the other hand we have not heard from anyone who was there. What they were doing that was offending people? The report says they were “stopping people”. Where they handing out leaflets? Where they trying to argue with people? So much seems unknown.
As a person against the war it has surprised me just how quickly proponents of the war turn to the “Why don’t you just go live in Iraq!!!!” and “With that attitude Hitler would still be in France.” They seem less willing to discuss what gives one country the right to invade another country that has not directly attacked you. If the criteria are: 1- they possess weapons of mass destruction. 2- they have a history of invading other countries. 3- they make the attacker feel unsafe. The US could be invaded by any number of countries.
Sorry the evidence that Saddam was in with Osama Bin Ladin was just “a little” thin. And I am also a bit skeptical of the “Maybe the President knows something that he can’t tell us.” Invading other countries is not supposed to be something you do based on we think this is what is happening.
The other “Saddam persecutes his own people” is a great argument and I just want to know when we are going to invade Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, and the list goes on.