The "Secret Mission" of the Minutemen

Weather Underground?

http://www.wunderground.com

Love that site!

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.

(sorry, it just had to be said 'tis all).

Yes, in this case, I can do it just using my nose.

Craven, thanks for the example. It makes as much sense as the article's comparison does.

You pretty clearly laid out the case for why the article doesn't make much sense from a logic standpoint. I never would have thought to use the word "buttocks" in an explanation. :wink:

You may note that the government of the time took very active steps to discourage said groups. Like arresting, shooting, and/or imprisoning them.

I wonder if the current right wing government wil do the same with these right wing vigilantes?

While the weatherman clearly had some real and cogent points to make, both the government of the day and I disagreed with a number of their methods.

I do not know whether the current crop of people with guns and no mandate also have a real and cogent point to make, I AM clear that their behaviour is extraordinary for a civilised country to accept - if it IS accepting it.

At least they are not, the article says, shooting people - at least as yet. Will that be next?

As long as some deranged idiot doesn't decide that is the proper solution. The media, especially that of disarmed nations such as your own, like to focus on the fact the Minutemen legally carry firearms for personal protection, then refer to them as "vigilantes", a term that I maintain is critical and derogatory, no matter what some might say.

Should the Minutemen be able to defend themselves in the desert against personal attack? Absolutely.

(edited to correct a grammatical error)

I think that it is appropriate for me to point out that Cjhsa is absolutely correct to characterize the term vigilante as a pejorative.

I rarely agree with him, but my sense of justice would not allow me to remain silent on this matter.

Thank you Setanta. I was also surprised to find that my local San Francisco news channel held the same opinion. I rarely agree with them either.

Hmm - defend themselves in the desert against those whom they are hunting?

"'E threw 'imself in a most savage manner upon my bullet, your honour."

Hmmmm:

• vigilante [vig·i·lan·te || ‚vɪdʒɪ'læntɪ]

n. one who takes the law into his own hands; volunteer on a vigilance committee Babylon French-English

• vigilant

adj. vigilant, watchful, wakeful; mindful, discreet; wary Babylon Italian-English

• vigilante

adj. vigilant, watchful

• vigilante (m)

n. supervisor, security guard Babylon Portuguese-English

• vigilante

adj. awake, alert; observant; vigilant, watchful; waking Babylon Spanish-English

• vigilante

adj. observant, watchful; alert, vigilant

• vigilante (mf)

n. guard; caretaker; lifeguard; superintendent; proctor Dutch-English Online Dictionay

• vigilante

cab

Tom van der Meijden Spanish-English Online Dictionaries

• vigilante

watchful

Tom van der Meijden French-English Online Dictionary

• vigilante

watchfully, alertly

Tom van der Meijden Interlingua-English

• vigilante

1. ppr of vigilar; 2. adj vigilant, watchful

• vigilar

v 1. to stay awake; 2. to watch, be on the lookout;
vigilar super to watch over, look after Dutch_English 22000

• vigilante

cab spanis learner's dictionary

• vigilante

vigilant hEnglish - advanced version

• vigilante


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vigilante
n : member of a vigilance committee [syn: vigilance man]



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1 more results (out of 1 available) Spelling Alternatives

Well, i'm gonna weigh in here, having followed this thread since its inception.

Leaving aside the unfortunate decision of Cjhsa to link this to the social security flim-flam currently under consideration (Republicans in the 1930's adamantly refused to allow FDR to invest the funds in the stock market), and proceeding to the basic issue, i observe the following:

Referring to these possibly misguided individuals as vigilantes is simply an exercise in baiting, and turns up the heat of the rhetoric without contributing anything useful to the debate. Similar remarks about those who favor gun control legislation are equally irrelevant.

The villains in this piece are not the illegals, and not the "Minutemen." The villains are the "Coyotes" who take these poor peoples' money and dump them across the border in the Chihuahuan desert with no maps, no food, no water and no clue. These citizen volunteers would be well-advised to include with their firearms large amounts of potable water--the illegals they encounter are likely to be badly in need of it.

The villains are the scumbags who profit from the labor of the illegals, and who are almost immune to prosecution. Every border state has legislation to penalize those who employ illegals, and in every one of them, the enforcement would be laughable if the victims were not so pathetic. Politicians are loathe to apply pressure, for fear they will lose the votes of the Hispanic community. They are also addicted to campaign contributions, and those who employ illegals are nothing loathe to step up with checkbook in hand.

These illegals are simply doing something which all of our ancestors did when coming to the United States. They want a better life, and few places on the globe offer that opportunity as readily as does our country. No other place in the western hemisphere offers that opportunity, except perhaps Canada, and the reason they're not headed there ought to be obvious. Some of them may indulge in criminal behavior after their arrival. It is worth noting that the opportunities which they sought are not to be found on the ground waiting to be picked up, and among the poorly educated and those without marketable skills (which would have allowed them to apply for legal entry) crime is often the resort when legality does not pay. It is also worth noting that crime is a resort of legal immigrants as well.


Among the "Minutemen" some may be motivated by a crypto-racist attitude of anti-immigration. Certainly scumbags like Pat Buchanan attempt to appeal to such a prejudice with their crypto-racists rants about immigration, legal and illegal. However, it cannot be assumed on the face of it that this motivates all or even a majority of these people who are heading out to the desert. They are correct in that the Federal government does not allocate the resources necessary to get the job done well. When California hollered, they shifted their resources west, and the "Coyotes" shifter their operations east. The illegals are by and large not taking jobs away from Americans--they are taking jobs nobody else will do. Economically, politicians have a lot at stake in not preventing illegal immigration.

So the villains of this piece are not the illegals, and not the "Minutemen." They are the Coyotes, and American politicians.

That's so entertaining dlowan. Gotta admire your cut and paste skills.

Which is precisely what they are doing. They have been accused of illegally detaining illegal aliens (explain that one) for simply offering them water and shade.

Why, thank you, Cj, you so seldom appreciate my efforts!



Set - that pejorative stuff is interesting.

I would have thought it a pejorative term - except to people of a mindset as to embrace vigilanteism (and they are surprisingly many, I believe) - but the definitions do not appear to bear this out - which is why I presented them.

Perhaps it is a concept which was, at its inception, considered reasonable, but which is no longer considered so?

I think someone here has already mentioned this, but most contemporary Americans are going to have their view of the word strongly colored by exposure to the motion picture and television genre of westerns. In those works, vigilantes are always the bad guys, and often the foils against which the great virtues of the heros and heroines are played.

There is a justifiable underpinning to all of this in that vigilantism developed a bad reputation in this country long before motion picture and television westerns. The most powerful latent images of "vigilantism" for the American psyche remaining from the days when it was still sufficiently common to be familiar, are of lynch mobs, and most frequently, of the lynching of blacks accused of sexual crimes against white women.

For whatever the dictionary may say, to 99.9% of adult Americans, vigilante is a dirty word.

That vigilantism is seen as a pejorative is deserved, given that vigilantism has inherently negative aspects for a society.

The minutemen are, without a doubt, vigilantes.

Thankfully it seems they have a sense of their limits in this regard and mitigate against the dangers of their undertaking.

Maybe you all can help me find a good word to use for these idiots running with guns in the desert hunting brown-skinned folks.

If vigilante isn't clearly and unmistakably pejorative, perhaps there is another word that will express my contempt.

I am pretty sure "moron" is a suitable term... any other ideas.

Moron is too general.

You need something a lot more specific.

Though, I agree with Craven that, so far, this lot seem to have some sense.

But, it only takes one...

Wow, I sense desperation on the part of the illegal alien lovers. Hunting, with guns???

M-101 at night.