Our co-blog Buck Naked Politics rounded up blogger commentary on the trampling/stampeding death one Wal-Mart employee as a result of over-enthusiastic Wal-Mart shoppers here. Mr. Swift has a somewhat different take. Like William Kristol, who urged Bush to pardon wiretappers and torturers (see our nutshell summary), Mr. Swift would like to see Bush pardon the Wal-Mart shoppers and---following Kristol's lead---award the offenders the Medal of Freedom.
Here's a taste. You'll want to read it all.
There will always be some collateral damage in a free market.
Socialists who hate capitalism are now trying to scapegoat these
patriotic Americans who celebrated an American tradition by rising before dawn on the day after Thanksgiving to express their love of this country by partaking of the bounties
of the free enterprise system. How can those of us who were not there
judge people on the front lines of the Christmas shopping rush? Can we
honestly say that we would not have rushed past or over this
unfortunate man on the way to grabbing the last plasma TV
or Wii to bring some Christmas joy to our children? After 9/11
President Bush said that the best way to defeat the terrorists was to
“go shopping.” Should we now condemn those who took him at his word?....
They refused to horde their hard-earned dollars in low-interest savings accounts but instead went out to spend it, just as President Bush has urged them to do, at an American company that in the best American tradition has given consumers the best bargains possible by not overpaying their workers and by scouring the world for the cheapest merchandise produced in countries that are not subject to draconian labor and environmental laws. Isn’t that the very definition of freedom? (More)
They refused to horde their hard-earned dollars in low-interest savings accounts but instead went out to spend it, just as President Bush has urged them to do, at an American company that in the best American tradition has given consumers the best bargains possible by not overpaying their workers and by scouring the world for the cheapest merchandise produced in countries that are not subject to draconian labor and environmental laws. Isn’t that the very definition of freedom? (More)
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