Some of you may remember, back in the mists of history before May 2005, when the most contentious pie-related issue among the left had nothing to do with Markos, but instead involved choosing what flavor of pie to throw at the nearest representative of the lunatic right.
There was an incident in April, for instance, in which David Horowitz was hit with a selection from the dessert cart. (The “leading critic of the leftovers” was apparently unharmed.) William Kristol caught another. Someone hit Pat Buchanan with some salad dressing – probably a guy who didn’t read the Guidelines On Appropriate Food Flinging sent out from from Leftist Headquarters in February.
I do understand the appeal of such character assassination – I was present for one of the very first such pie attacks, in 1975 in Buffalo, when notorious piessailant Aron Kay put a blueberry tart into the face of one Robert Zubrin, lately famous for advocating invading Mars but who was then a campus footsoldier for Lyndon LaRouche.
But throwing a pie in someone’s face – in fact, throwing any object – is assault, and I do not condone it. I find it amusing after the fact as long as no one gets hurt, but that’s different from condoning it. It’s a waste of perfectly good pie, for one thing. There are starving people who need that food, like Ann Coulter.
And it also gives pathetic right-wing hacks a charge of violence to lob back at people like us.
For instance. Licking his wounds after the assault, Horowitz was quoted as saying: “There’s a wave of violence on college campuses, committed by what I’d call fascists opposing conservatives,” Horowitz said. ”It’s one step from that to injury.”
Michele Malkin weighed in in typically obtuse fashion, as did conservative attorney Stephen Bainbridge, who in response to the Growing Wave Of Food-Related Violence clasped his right hand decorously to his clavicle, uttering a little Camille-cough, and asked “How soon until they start using guns?”
I suppose that depends which “they” we’re discussing, Professor!
Here’s a short list of incidents in a very short time period in the early 1990s – before such things got really out of hand during the heyday of the 104th Congress, Timothy McVeigh, and other terroristic groups – compiled by my friend David Helvarg in his book The War Against The Greens. I ran a version of this list on Creek Running North in April, and got no response from any of the three pundits mentioned above. I know. It’s hardly fair to expect prominent conservatives such as Malkin and Horowitz and Bainbridge to find my little backwater of the internets.
So as an act of generosity to the three, I’m making it available in this more accessible venue. I mean, Horowitz and Bainbridge and Malkin will certainly wish to condemn acts like these before racing to judgement against more pie-throwers. No need for them to be hypocritical, after all, by condemning only the actions of the left. And besides, they’ve got some catching up to do.
In fact, because I am so grateful to them for at long last beginning to notice the spread of violence throughout our society, I’ve included an email link at the end of each item to make things easy for the three of them. All David, Michelle or the Professor have to do to formally condemn any of these acts of terroristic violence is to click the link, click “send” on the blank email that pops up – how easy can it get? – and then I’ll advertise their good wishes to the world, with no extra effort required on their parts. Who says we on the left don’t bend over backwards to make it easy for our opponents to do the right thing?
Violent Attacks by Rightists on Leftists (partial list)
Judi Bari, Darryl Cherney: Earth First! organizers who fought to win the Northern California section of Earth First! to an agreement not to spike trees. After Bari received a series of graphic threats of violence due to her work to end logging, a bomb was placed in car by persons still unknown. On May 24 1990 the bomb exploded in Oakland, nearly killing Bari (who later died of cancer) and seriously injuring Cherney – 1990
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Tim Haynes, logging company worker employed by the husband of Candace Boak – a local right-wing activist – arrested and charged with making a bomb threat at the Arcata Action Center, Arcata CA. The threat followed a local “dirty tricks workshop” led by members of the Sahara Club, a right-wing vigilante group devoted to violent harassment of environmentalists – 1990
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
“We were told that if we killed any of them [anti-logging activists], there was $40,000 that was there to help us in court or help us get away.” – Ed Knight, California North Coast resident and freelance security guard-cum-Hell’s Angel, describing conversations with anti-environmental vigilantes – 1990.
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
“I’m going to blow your fucking brains out.” – An unnamed logger and People For The West member in Pecos, NM, to Forest Guardians member Sam Hitt – 1990
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
“I am definitely spreading the word that Patricia Wolff should be quieted…Shooting individual offenders [is] justified.” – anonymous letter to Forest Guardians’ Pat Wolff – 1992
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
“I will kill you.” – An unnamed member of the right-wing Oregon Lands Coalition to Andy Kerr of the Oregon Natural Resources Council, at a public meeting at Central Oregon Community College – 1990.
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
“Utah will have harmony when Scott has a fatal accident in the environment!” – message taped to the front door of Scott Groene, Utah Wilderness Alliance staff member, Moab Utah – 1992.
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
River guide Bruce Hare, founder of South Carolina Forest Watch, beaten to the point of needing hospitalization by two southern loggers, who also did $30,000 in damage to Hare’s rafts – 1991.
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Castle Bunch, 57, of Windrock Tennessee, beaten at a town council meeting for opposing a new landfill – 1992.
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Michael Jackson, environmental attorney in Quincy, CA, has shots fired through the window of his law offices after a pro-logging rally – 1990.
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Diana Bowen of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition is chased and shot at multiple times after videotaping sulfur smoke coming from Ashland Oil refinery smokestacks in Kenova, WV, after other activists are threatened and run off local roads for similar taping – 1992
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Drunken hunter and member of Alabama right-wing group EAGLE kidnaps three hikers, one of them Lamar Marshall, publisher of the local environmental magazine Bankhead Monitor. After attempting to force the three to an abandoned well while ranting about “environmentalists,” the kidnapper falls over and the three escape – 1992
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Paula Siemers, anti-pollution activist in Cincinnati who lost her son to leukemia in 1989, receives death threats at her home in the form of notes, phone calls, and .30 bullets left in a pile on her porch. A rock is thrown through her window, injuring her daughter in bed. Her dog is fed poisoned meat: it dies. Dead animals are thrown into her yard, and her house is set on fire twice. She is attacked one night by two men, who beat and stab her – 1992
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Tony Winter, a Republican and member of the Albany NY environmental group CHEER, who is suing Merck claiming that pollution from their nearby plant killed his unborn child, escapes serious injury with his family when the front axle comes off his van while on the highway. A mechanic confirmed that the pins holding the axle in place had been tampered with. Eleven separate break-ins at the Winters’ home are verified by local police – 1993
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Jack Woodard, Tony Winter’s doctor, has his dog’s throat cut and its body dumped in his driveway – 1993
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Taylor County, Florida resident Stephanie McGuire, an activist opposing river pollution from a local Procter and Gamble plant with an environmental group named HOPE, receives numerous death threats. In the woods near her home three men attack her, hit her on the head with a rock, burn her with lit cigars, then slash her throat with a razor and pour water from the polluted river into the wound, telling her “now you have something to sue about.” She is raped, and then saved when her dog attacks the men, who have discussed killing her – 1991
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
McGuire’s house is burned down – 1993
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Charles Dickson, an activist opposing an oil industry waste disposal site in Seldantna, Alaska, is shot and tasered by two men who then burn his house down – 1993
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Florida oil pipeline opponent Bob Rackleff has his store burned down: police establish arson – 1993
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Bill Addington, a Sierra Blanca, Texas activist opposing a giant sewage sludge landfill, has his lumberyard burned down – 1993
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Lauri Maddy, a Wichita, Kansas anti-toxics activist, has her car rammed repeatedly at high speeds by unknown assaailants after attending a meeting with chemical company representatives: assailants disappear when they and Maddy approach a police car on route K-15 – 1991
Condemn this!
Condemnations received to date: [0]
Mr Horowitz, Ms. Malkin, Mr. Professor Bainbridge, our operators are standing by.