Saturday Night Massacre Redux?
James Lileks once again graces the editorial page of the Star Tribune with a piece on the pirates of Greenpeace:
Remember: Feeling passionate about your cause does not make you exude a special chemical that renders you immune to all laws.
In fact, willingness to accept the consequences of your dissent actually gives your dissent more moral weight. It's one thing to stage a lunch-counter sit-in at a Woolworth's in a liberal Northern town, and quite another thing to try it in the heart of Jim Crow land.
No one else will go to jail if Greenpeace is convicted. The organization could be placed on double-secret probation, and could lose its tax-exempt status.
Chances of that happening are just about zero; the PR cost to the administration would be horrid. As is, Greenpeace has been handed a marvelous fundraising tool. By the time this all plays out, a good portion of the faithful will be convinced John Ashcroft has decamped to the Amazon with a chainsaw in one hand and a shotgun in the other, felling old trees and shooting rare marmosets whose tears hold the cure to cancer.
Notice that he didn't use lemur.
Let's hope that this time around, Lileks appearance in the editorial page isn't an omen portending bad news.
You don't have any other kin working for this guy do you James?
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