Warning: Coarse Language Ahead. Marco Randazza has a fresh mouth. He makes no excuses, and uses it not only to kiss his two babies (and his lovely wife, leaving us all confused as to what she sees in him), but to channel Lenny Bruce. If Marc wasn’t around, we would have to invent him, as he’s got both the balls and brains to keep the rest of us honest.
In his post on the Dr. Laura debacle, where he’s one of the few (maybe the only one) who is honest enough to allow that her castigation for use of the “N-word” was wholly disingenuous, Marc argues in support of a person he despises. This is the core of a First Amendment lover, that he can hate what she says while defending her right to say it. It would have been easy to argue that the combination of her use of the word with her otherwise bigoted views renders her speech outrageous. Marc didn’t take the easy way out.
But his second post on Dr. Laura, at the needling of Venkat Balasubramani (whose name I’ve gratuitously tossed in here), squares up the pervasively mistaken grasp and abuse of the First Amendment by no less a potential presidential candidate than Sarah Palin.
Marc takes aim and then destroys this bit of abject stupidity.
Dr. Laura isn’t the first one to try and bamboozle us by crying “First Amendment,” when the First Amendment just doesn’t belong in the picture.
A number of years ago, I was on South Beach with Jennifer. She was sunbathing topless, which is normal on South Beach. Some perv walked by with a camera, and did a little behind-the-back maneuver — trying to surreptitiously snap a photo of her. When I got up and confronted him, he actually said that he had a “First Amendment right” to take photos there, since it was a public place.
He was absolutely right. The First Amendment protects his right to take photographs in a public place.
For that reason, I did not call the police. I just beat the shit out of him until he gave up his camera, and then I threw his camera into the ocean.
No First Amendment problem there.
Boom. For those who prefer a clear, concise rule, Marco offers that as well.
The First Amendment protects you from the government. The First Amendment does not exempt you from an ass kicking by your fellow citizens.
Lest anyone be disturbed by Marc’s violent behavior or the irony of a guy who defends pornographers being troubled by a topless picture of his wife, bear in mind that he’s got a very hot wife and very hot daygo, wop, guinea, greaseball, Italian blood. While Beta males may be all the rage amongst the iPad set, there’s nothing wrong with having some balls.
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Can’t say I agree with the whole beating-the-guy up thing. Battery and property theft/damage in return for snapping a photo of someone who clearly had no expectation of privacy, and who it could be argued didn’t want any privacy…
I’m all for calling people idiots or bigots when they open their mouths and say something idiotic or bigoted, but I’m not such a fan of violence in response to no violence, between citizens.
Did anything give you the sense that anyone was asking whether you approved?
Peter doesn’t get it. Its not that the guy wanted to take a photo. Had he walked up and said “hey, honey, nice tits! Can I take a picture?” She would have said yes, and who would I be to interfere?
Its the slimy, behind-the-back way he did it that got his ass beat down.
Submitted comments will be subject to moderation before being displayed and also I may unleash the snark if you don’t post something agreeable.
I’m really kind of at a loss here as to why you would allow my comment to go through after your moderation check, and then respond that way. (Seriously, what is up with that?)
So distilled down that basically reads “If someone engages in behavior I find personally offensive, I get to beat their ass and steal from them.”
Thanks for the link/mention, gratuitous as it was!
Let’s make this a teaching moment.
1. You get to disagree with me. I get to disagree with you.
2. I don’t moderate comments to exclude those that disagree with me.
3. If you can’t handle a little snark or disagreement, this is the wrong place for you.
4. My blawg, my rules. This is another area where you don’t get a vote.
You’ve been here a while. Have you not noticed the occasional snarky comment?
No reason to thank me for a gratuitous link. That’s the beauty of gratuitous.
Steal is the wrong word. More appropriately, I get to beat their ass and destroy their offending property. My guess is the proper response is, absolutely. Would you sit there and think mean thoughts at the offender?
While I have to agree that the lady in question has no outright expectation of privacy, there is also no RIGHT to sneak a pic in the manner that this fella chose.
With that part out of the way, IMO, the offender was lucky to have only suffered that minor loss. Standing up for one’s friends and family is a rare thing in this sissified country. We need a lot more men willing to make their stand as this man clearly did! Damn the consequence of the action!
I have been here a while, and let me lay down my experience so far – if someone says something you disagree with (and you do allow a lot of those comments to go through) you respond with varying degrees of snark and mostly address the content of the disagreement, not… the disagreement itself. That’s why I’m at a loss, I’ve never seen you do… whatever that was. “Hi I noticed you disagree with what was posted, so here’s me bullying your disagreement instead of responding to the substance.”
But yes I am fully aware it is your blog, your rules, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So long.
That was bullying you? Reason 429 for not having anti-bullying laws. If you can’t take a little snark, you’re really fragile. So yeah, I think this place may be a little too rough and tumble for you. Hope you find a nice place with lollipops and unicorns. Sorry I hurt your feelings.
I don’t know that she had no expectation of privacy. There’s an etiquette at topless beaches, and people are expected not to oogle or take photos, so the expected norm is quite the opposite, that people’s privacy is to be observed.
Some guy named Brian Tannebaum said that it’s important to always thank people for links and “shout outs.” Just following the advice of my personal branding consultant that’s all!
Well, Tannebaum certainly knows his SM Guru stuff.
Exactly, dumbass. If I “stole” it, I would have kept it. I gave him the chance to give it to me so that I could delete the photo and send him on his way. He didn’t want to do that. He got his ass beat and his camera trashed. Seems appropriate to me. I’d do it again tomorrow.
That’s one of the problems with this fucking country. First we let the women play on an equal playing field. (That I approve of). But then we let them decide that society had to be cunt-centric… as in, men ought to be cunts.
There is a time for resolving disputes in a civilized manner, by filing a complaint and litigating it. But, there’s also a time to just kick a motherfucker’s ass, right there on the beach, in front of his fucking family. This was one of those times.
The state shouldn’t have a monopoly on enforcement of social rules.
Naturally, the prosecutor wouldn’t have likely agreed with me if I got arrested that day, but that was a risk I was willing to take. Too bad Peter is such a fucking man-gina that he won’t ever understand that.
Tread lightly, Marco. The blawgosphere is becoming a refuge for morons and whiny, gutless pussyboys whose greatest pride is that they cry while watching The Bridges of Madison County and who would rather hang out with their friends who just happen to be girls so that they can share their feelings. And maybe discuss designer shoes and the propriety of wearing peep toes to court.
Oh, so you’ve read “Concurring Opinions” too!
Maybe he should come to notguiltynoway where everyone gets a balloon.
I have never seen the Bridges of Madison County.
While I have no personal experience at topless beaches, I have to agree with that, from what I’ve heard you can expect an ass kicking if you behave like a pubescent child at a topless or nude beach. I think the guy deserved an ass kicking. If you can’t handle the tits, go somewhere else. And, if you need a picture, you can buy a magazine.
That could explain why you don’t whine.
I went topless at the beach. No one took a picture, but if they did, I was ready.
I think some ornery old criminal lawyer beat the whine out of me a while back. And I can’t stand movies with a lot of talking and where shit doesn’t blow up.
Marc might be a bit hot-tempered when it comes to protecting people he cares about, but that’s part of why I married him.