You came here to promote your blog and your most recent piece. I gave my opinion and my reasoning. I just noticed your blog in the last month and started reading it first thing in the morning. I added it to my faves list 2 weeks ago along with Daily Howler, Kevin Drum, Digby, and Glenn Greenwald.

Why are you writing the blog? If you want to persuade or have an exchange of ideas, call me naive, but I am not sure ridiculing someone who showed interest in your work is conducive to building an audience. If you are writing just as a hobby for your own satisfaction, then I don't think you should have a comment section or pimp it here. If your first post in this thread was just an invitation to read the post or to only comment agreement, I apologize for misunderstanding.

The comment you chose to cherry pick came from someone that had read your work for three weeks and probably agrees politically with you a vast majority of the time. I felt let down as a reader of your blog and I conveyed my reaction. You turned it around as being all about me, when I was trying to point out you were disrespecting all of your readers by not being well enough informed about the subject you chose to ask for a few minutes of your reader's time,

I learned my lesson and won't try to articulate for others, but I don't have time for someone who can't be bothered to do some basic research on subjects they deem worthy of exploring.

Approx. 4-5 minutes later, if my memory is correct.. When I have time I will verify the timeline .

So what the hell was Zimmerman doing for 4-5-10 minutes?

I didn't realize fights were illegal? But I'm pretty sure stalking is.

Chippy if you have a series of contentions or questions about the case, list the top five and I will try and address them later tonight. I just came into take a break while mowing the yard, and realized this thread heated up.

Do you see now why you could be considered ignorant on this topic? You are strewing misinformation and clearly lack details related to the case. Take a step back, a deep breath, and make it a point to seek the facts before you make an opinion. Don't let the media spoon feed you your talking points.

You didn't realize fighting was a crime? Fighting is a crime in all 50 states. Stalking has a tough definition to pin down, in the legal sense, it often depends on frequency and level of harassment. With only one incident, I can't see what Zimmerman did being labeled stalking in any court of law. If you take the broad definition of the word, not the crime, then sure.

Fighting is not illegal.

Also, it's really pissing me off that you're telling me that the media is "spoon feeding" me info. I didn't even watch anything regarding this fucking joke of a trial.

You're being a real fucking asshole about this, Eagle.

No, I just don't want to debate here. It's why I haven't, and all I've done is post the link. If I try to debate on every board I'm on, I'll just be repeating myself and getting nothing done.

Come onto the blog and post and we can have a discussion, as I have done with others who comment on the blog.

And thanks for reading it!

Groucho- Fair enough.

But fighting is not illegal.

If Zimmerman felt he was being assaulted, then fight back, and call the police and have Martin arrested for assault.

For pointing out that you have no idea what your talking about? Chip, I like you, I respect you as a poster, but you're throwing nonsense around in this thread.

Can you back this up at all? What makes you think that fighting isn't illegal? Can you provide me with a scenario?



If you fight with your sibling at home, you could be charged, but it's likely no one will ever escalate the incident legally. If you fight in public, you certainly are breaking the law, even if both parties wish to fight. If you fight where one party instigates it, well, why the hell are we talking about this ... fighting is illegal in all 50 states.

Nonsense is saying that murdering someone is not punishable by law.

As someone who knows very little about the trial, and only bare essential facts, why would I think Zimmerman is guilty? Because "the media", which I don't watch/listen to, told me he was?

No, I think Zimmerman is guilty because he murdered someone.

So was Zimmerman in a fight with Martin? If so, isn't that illegal?

Chip is a willful idiot. Why debate him?

I'm sorry that I think killing someone should be illegal.

Murder is illegal, the jury didn't believe it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman committed murder, and neither do I. As has been discussed, you can't be guilty of murder just because you killed a person. There are instances where killing another human being is excusable, and the state never proved that Zimmerman acted with intent, he was within his self defense rights in the state of Florida.



You could make the argument that he engaged in disorderly conduct, though a good defense lawyer would argue that all eye witnesses back Zimmerman's claim that he was attacked and beaten, and really took no part in the fight up until the single gunshot. Martin had no wounds associated with any type of physical altercation preceding the gunshot.

lol, what a pussy.

Oh, David. If you didn't try so hard to be the next Algren, people might notice you.

As Groucho posted on his blog...

White guy, walking through the hood, gets followed by a black man with a legal owned and carried gun. White guys tries to fight his way out, black guy shoots and kills him.

Black guy is in prison. Fact.

I keep asking you, separate emotion and feelings from the verdict. You are engaged in an argument regarding the outcome of a legal trial, and you are on the wrong side armed with a very limited understanding of the facts at hand.

If you want to talk about gun laws, racial profiling, or any other number of topics leading up to the event, by all means do! Just stop insinuating that the verdict here was wrong. Lacking omnipresence, there is no possibility for a perfect judicial system, and even if there were, I'm not sure the outcome here would be any different (assuming the same laws apply).

You have a tragic incident, a boy dead, and a nation which clearly sweeps it's racial issues under the rug. We can keep having brave idiots walk around screaming injustice, or we can have a rational discussion about the real issues at hand which lead to these incidents. I get so animated in these discussions because I think the type of ignorance you continue to display here is what helps foster an environment for these problems to continue.