Well, other like doing it for fresh air and the satisfaction of a job well done. Some people hate paying for something they can do themselves. Of all the stuff to give this guy shit for, mowing his yard isn’t one.
6 Likes
I think it’s very silly to speculate this had anything to do with Rand Paul’s politics. I used to work in a business were I heard a lot of nasty disputes between neighbours. With the information I have (that is none except what I know about Rand Paul) my top guess a the reason would be the placement of a fence, and my second guess would be that the attackers wife and Paul have been spending too much time together.
Rand Paul and his neighbour are both human beings first. And human beings beat each other up over some really stupid shit.
I don’t like the implication of what you are saying. It only make sense is the absolute highest ideal we could strive for is to not be violent. I’d ask, “Not be violent in service of what?” I think of violence is bad because violence hurts people, not that it is uniquely bad or worthy of a special status. There are plenty of ways to cause misery and death without violence. People have done non-violent things far worse than a punch in the face.
I also think if we really discussed this it would quickly turn into a discussion about what counts as violence. Tackling someone is violent, tackling someone so they don’t wander into a dangerous situation might be justified - so we would have to start muddying the waters about what violence is; making exceptions for keeping children out of trouble; defining drinking something poisonous as “violent” so that we could justify using force to stop it.
No high minded ideals are needed to say that suckering punching your neighbour and sending them to the hospital is a bad thing to do. We all know it. People who are glad it happened to Rand Paul because they hate him know it.
My favourite job I’ve ever had was mopping the floors during my overnight shift at a store. When you start the floors are dirty, when you finish they are clean. I’ve had very few other jobs where I can feel like I’ve actually accomplished something. (Please interpret this as a deep dig at Rand Paul)
20 Likes
It’s probably therapy considering he gets nothing done in Congress.
4 Likes
I’m sure that there are several attempts out there to classify actions in terms of what hurt/damage they can inflict, and rank them, but oh my I am not going to even try.
However inflexibly I might have stated it, though, an injunction against unnecessary violence seems fairly solid from my own ethical once-around. It’s nothing to do with it being an admission to having lost an argument, or anything like that, but merely an attempt to stop us all descending into the kind of place the world would be if more of us decided arbitrary acts of violence were acceptable.
1 Like
Pet Peeve Projection Possibly Parenthetical
1 Like
He called the cops? So he’s ok with utilizing the coercive power of the state when it benefits him?
He should have pulled himself up by his bootstraps ( broken ribs and all) and fixed the problem himself.
Bonus irony points if he got beat with a hardcover copy of “atlas shrugged” #hypocrite
14 Likes
No, he’s a senator. Remember that they work for him, in a proper contractual fashion, so he’s not in violation of his Libertarian ideals–he’s perfectly within his rights to have his privately contracted police force show up and arrest an attacker in the face of violence. /s
5 Likes
We don’t know this is political, do we?. This could be some neighbor dispute and/or hoa shit. Not even kidding. Suburbs are brutal.
5 Likes
I know, right? (Tries to look cool and to blend with the in crowd)
2 Likes
I think this is (sadly) the new definition of “The American Dream”-- beating the crap out of a politician. Probably true for lot’s of people on both sides.
1 Like
6 Likes
That’s actually pretty plausible. The guy’s an anesthesiologist, and the few references I could find to these two was that there was “an ongoing feud” per neighbor reports.
I’ve worked hospital night shifts for many years (not anymore, thank goodness; that stuff exhausts you), but loud daytime noises really screw you up when you’re trying to sleep, and it can shorten your temper to microns-thin if someone is being a jerk about it. I personally remember having some very elaborate and bloody revenge fantasies about the neighborhood lawn maintenance guys at that time, because hours of noisy lawn work can totally destroy any semblance of rest for the rest of your sleep period.
I’m not saying I know for sure, but Paul really does seem like the kind of prick that’d adjust his mowing schedule to exactly when you asked him not to, just because “You can’t tell me what to do, waaah!” sounds exactly like what his rich-kid faux-Libertarianism would play out as IRL.
12 Likes
2 Likes
Everybody can be an asshole. I am curious what drove this guy to act in this way when the known costs for him would be so high.
4 Likes
It would seem that the Invisible Hand of the Free Market was balled into a fist.
6 Likes
That doesn’t surprise me. He’s way too cheap to pay someone to mow his lawn. He didn’t get rich by giving money to other people.
To Rene Boucher: Violence is not the answer.
To Rand Paul: You shouldn’t repeat that stuff you say at work around human beings.
10 Likes
It’s obvious from this picture that the whole thing is just about Paul not watering his lawn.
4 Likes
Perhaps the hedge trimmer wanted to be free of government interference.
I’m sorry, I’m not treating this subject with the seriousness it deserves. Perhaps because I suspect that when someone is very publicly a sociopath, it’s just possible he’s a private sociopath too. Let’s await the trial.
4 Likes
But apparently only a fourth-degree one? If breaking ribs is only fourth-degree, what do you have to do to get charged with first-degree assault?
