You can't beat the Devil but you can rob that sucker blind.

 So I do want to get this knocked out this morning instead of waiting until tonight to do it. However, I'll be double damned if I can come up with anything interesting to put here. There really isn't all that much I feel like ranting about.

 I guess I could talk about that Harper's letter and this blinkered idea professional op-ed writers have that they're somehow suffering under the brutal oppression of being told they sometimes write utter nonsense. But that is just so tedious and, frankly, doesn't ring true. I find it difficult to empathize with someone who goes from a six-figure job with The New York Times editorial board to a six-figure job with any other publication, particularly in a country where on-the-ground reporters are getting arrested and the shit kicked out of them by cops simply because they're covering protests. It's not so much that it doesn't ring true, it's that I just don't care.

 Having a regular column in a major newspaper used to mean something. It meant you've traveled, paid your dues, and stomped the terra. It meant you had the history and experience to have the insight worth sharing. Now it seems it's a job that anyone can snag, provided they come from money or know someone heavy in the publishing business. I don't want to pick on him, but Ben Shapiro's a perfect example. His dad is a mover in the business and his mom is a shaker in Hollywood. His family connections got him columns with Townhall and World Net Daily 20 years ago where he'd write about being a virgin in the sinful world of post-primary education.

 After apparently failing as a screenwriter, he used those same connections to get gigs with Breitbart and The Daily Caller - itself the brainchild of a spawn of privilege and connection, Tucker Carlson - and blabber on a podcast. This part is just personal, but I don't think he has anything interesting or elucidating to say. He's the type that rails against elites when he himself is a prime example thereof.

 As a side note, the other issue I have with him is the whole "debate leftists and destroy them" thing. Debate outside of high school isn't supposed to be a contest or a king-of-the-hill thing. It's an intellectual process to help you sharpen your arguments and clarify your ideas, not (necessarily) to change your "opponents" mind. Even in high school, you're judged more on how well you use rhetorical devices and avoid logical pitfalls than the veracity of your premise. And good lord, don't get me started on how misused the concept of "logic" is in these debates and how much Shaprio and his cronies are responsible for the debasing thereof.

 Anyhow, to tie all this back around, the idea that anyone on the Times editorial board or any editorial board of any major publication is good for anything but an occasional interesting stroke is foolish, and it is the high of pomposity to suggest that telling them they're full of shit is somehow "canceling" them or infringing on their free speech. I realize this may sound a bit silly coming in this format, but just because it expresses an opinion, no matter how succinctly and intelligently, doesn't mean it should be paid attention to, much less held beyond reproach or criticism.

 The main thing is you are free to say what you wish - First Amendment aside, that just deals with governmental control, which is ephemeral and circumstantial anyway - but you must be willing to accept the consequences. I can sit here and say all day that, for example, work should be abolished or the police need to be restructured from the ground up, and that's fine. However, anyone reading it has the right to tell me to skip rope and forevermore ignore anything I have to say.

 "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," said Kris Kristofferson, and that goes double for "freedom of speech". Speak as if you have nothing to lose - or nothing to gain - and you'll as likely as not always speak from the heart. But take your licks when they come. You do yourself no favors by demanding everyone accept whatever dumb shit you say and not push back.

 I swear, it embarrasses me to no end that that's what I wanted to be when I grew up, an op-ed writer. Again, I realize it's a bit weird that stance is coming from someone who does that same sort of thing for fun, but there you go. I ain't going to pretend otherwise.

 I should probably go ahead and wrap this up. I do want to make a note about what's going on in Portland, specifically federal officers in tactical gear with no identification are snatching protesters up off the streets. That ain't right. I've said it elsewhere, but all these clowns who're making hay about the First Amendment or Second Amendment are going to be mighty shocked that neither is worth shit because we all let the Fourth and Fifth get rubbed out.

 Bet you won't see the folks from Harper's write a letter about that. Support local journalism. They're about the only ones looking out for you anymore and we're going to be up a creek once they're gone.