‘Our nation is broken.’
— Gov. Bryan Cox, Utah
Maybe we were too old to fully appreciate Charlie Kirk in his too-short lifetime, but the young man was engaged in free and open debate on the issues of our time where it mattered most: on our blinkered college campuses. (His “Prove Me Wrong” tour visited UW-Madison 09-04-2024.)
Sure, he was provocative. To some commentators we’ve heard, that was a defect. The implication being that if you poke the sacred cow expect to get gored. Sorry, we consider intellectual confrontation a feature, not a bug. University students need that hard, cold slap of Mennen after shave — if for no other reason than to counteract the progressive hegemony that seems to lock down campuses in its suffocating grasp even in deep red Utah.
Debate — even fierce debate — is how this USA got birthed.
Yet 1,000 students and faculty signed a petition seeking to ban his appearance Wednesday 09-10-25 from Utah Valley University. Got to think crime investigators are pouring over the names of those intolerant petitioners.
Kudos to university acting president Jim Mortensen for affirming after the tragedy that his school stands for free speech. Would that the Ivy League and our own Big Ten have that kind of brass! “The left had particular reason to hate Kirk,” law professor Jonathan Turley writes.
Violent speech has long been acceptable on campuses so long as it targets conservatives. … Campuses have long been the bastions of the left, reinforced by faculties which now have few, if any, conservatives or Republicans. Higher education has long been an incubator for intolerance; shaping a generation of speech phobics who shout down or attack those with opposing views. Kirk struck at the heart of that power base.
‘A political assassination’
Case in point, the English prof who overturned a college Republican info table at UW-Eau Claire. For that matter, try advocating for school resource police officers in Madison’s public schools!
Hearing his turn at the press conference, the lovely Lisa wanted the Republican governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, to run for President. “This is a political assassination,” Gov. Cox said.
Charlie believed in the power of free speech and debate to shape ideas and persuade people Historically, our university campuses … have been the place where truth and ideas are formulated and debated and that is what he does. … It is foundational to the formation of our country. When someone takes the life of a person because of their ideas, the very idea of that constitutional foundation is threatened.
If anyone … celebrated even a little bit at the news of the shooting, I would beg you to look in the mirror and see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere.
‘The gloves are off’?
Whether Charlie Kirk’s assassin was paid or not, the hit was done professionally. It is reported that the single fatal shot (there need be no grassy knoll) was fired from 200 yards away — two football fields. That suggests a trained sniper. The killer is now “in the wind,” as one security expert told CNN. Sure to stoke Deep State vows of revenge among our own paranoids. Not just the Oath Keepers but the likes of U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, D-WI, who posts “The gloves are off.”
• Dane County GOP has called for a vigil for Charlie Kirk and his family, 5:30 p.m. Friday 09-12-25, State Street side of state Capitol, Madison WI.
• Flag over UW-Madison’s Bascom Hall at half-mast.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: One yearns for a fireside chat from the White House — some reassurance — however suspect. But this is a good start. (His pardon attorney, Ed Martin, vows vengeance.)
Conservatives are not enforcing Jew-free zones on the campus quad. Not shouting down opponents, not enforcing speech codes, not vandalizing the campus, not requiring DEI loyalty oaths. Not shooting Republicans on the ball field. Sorry, Matthew Dowd (now formerly) of MSNBC, that you consider Charlie Kirk’s speech “hateful.” (Were you “triggered?”) Does not mean he had it coming.
At the moment, conservatives own the moral high ground, thanks to the martyrdom of Charlie Kirk (for that is what it was). As with Don Vito, we want no acts of vengeance. This war must stop.
18 responses to “Free speech and the Constitution took a bullet”
As far as “intellectual confrontation” Blaska refers to, Charlie Kirk was a mixed bag. Sometimes he did it very well, other times he drank the koolaid. He spread massive disinformation about COVID and the vaccines as well as the 2020 election. I first wrote about his lies when he immediately attributed Damar Hamlin’s (Buffalo Bills safety) collapse to the covid vax, without even knowing if Hamlin had been vaccinated. That was an egregious misstep on his part. At times, he was not at all very fond of facts and data and preferred to pander to emotional partisanship. No one should get assassinated for partisan beliefs, but he also should not be lionized as many have been doing.
At least he only drank the kool-aid sometimes–as opposed to the wild-eyed leftist ideologues who’ve hijacked our higher education system. They’ve been drunk on the stuff for decades.
They killed the man—-but they cannot kill the message
Well, with other assasinations of the 60s, it did stifle the message. Jfk, rfk. Malcolmx, mlk jr, lennon ’80 all were able to sway people through their voice and intellect. This is a rare occurrence no matter what they believed. Those deaths did stifle progress and free speech in the usa. Not sure where this leads for conservative movement but hopefully they catch the perp and justice is served. 200 yards is a long shot but i have hit deer from that far away and i am no marksman
WHOM IS “THEY”?
Authorities, seek help
In response to steve; check the two by four in your own eye before you note the speck in Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric. He jumped to a conclusion, did he?
Charlie Kirk damn sure was a lion. Unlike you he did not hide behind an anonymous screen name. He put himself out there, despite the threats and was murdered for it.
That is a hero. Full stop. Just like President Trump.
And shame on you Squire. You want a fireside chat from a man you say “brays” because he comically trolls the people who call him Hitler? To say what? ‘Please stop murdering people?’
Ed Martin did not threaten violence, he left it to the Lord not a bullet. How dare Ed Martin quote the Bible at a murderer. Find a better example of any Conservative who suggests murdering a Leftist.
There is no equating evil. There is only condemnation or complicity.
LOL expat! Thanks for confirming my point–Kirk jumped to an unwarranted conclusion as he often did regarding covid and 2020–my point! And like Charlie, unlike you, I do not hide behind an anon screen name. My first name is attached to this post and the one above it. My Facebook page has all my background info. So does my blog page where I have criticized Kirk for stretching the truth about covid. And thanks for sharing I am an unshot hero, because I do just what Kirk has been doing, but with facts. And I too have been threatened to point that a couple of police reports have been made. Now, YOU stop hiding behind YOUR stage name and quit trying to be an anti-hero.
Covid was a scam. You bought into it. Remember all the masks that said “Not for protection from viruses” you believed would protect you? Step up and get your 8th booster. I’ll bet you have enough Thermosal in you that you’re your own rectal thermometer.
You may be right on Ed Martin, that he is reserving vengeance to the Lord.
steve, I see why you don’t capitalize your name. In this forum you’re a newbie and now, a fool. My name is Mark Lemberger and I’m easy to find.
I don’t care about your blog, your Facebook page or anywhere else you blither.
It is at least disingenuous and more accurately fatuous that I made your point. And its bizarre that you think so. It is delusional to say that I ‘shared that you are an unshot hero.’
You aren’t, I didn’t and I have no interest in being an anti hero.
You criticize Charlie Kirk, today of all days, and then claim you are like him because of facts and threats.
Are you ever right?
“some reassurance — however suspect” really Dave??? Do you know what’s in President Trump’s heart?? You show him massive disrespect even though he does many things that you like. Were you ever this skeptical of George W. Bush or Scott Walker?
JD Vance knew Charlie personally.
And COVID – does anyone really know what the hell that was all about (and continues to this day) Everybody was made crazy during that time, and I think people when they were in their right minds could not be blamed in being skeptical of something that was barely tested and not a traditional vaccine. Remember in fall of 2020 when all the lefties were skeptical? If Trump would have won in 2020, because of opposite-Trump, everything would have been inverted and probably the shots wouldn’t have made it very far in this country. And you know Trump would have been blamed for all the side effects/deaths that DID ACTUALLY HAPPEN!
Steve is part of the Big Pharma Covid Vaccination complex, he can’t back out now. The truth about mRNA vaccines is now coming out and, sadly, it will discourage people from getting “real” effective vaccinations going forward.
I read an intriguing article today labeling the Democratic party a domestic terrorist organization. Sadly it resonated.
It must have galled the Chancellor of UW-Madison to be forced to lower the flag above Bascom Hall, to say nothing of the Mayor and other Madison political poobahs to have to lower the flag at the City County Building in honor of someone they considered a devil (of at least the Devil’s enabler). I remember the mob that gathered last year to ‘peacefully protest’ Charlie’s appearance at UW Madison (they doubtless also did all they could to prevent it in the first place). If they thought they could have gotten away with it, they would have torn him limb from limb.
This is what happ. Even made a ens when you run around shouting “Nazi,” “fascist,” and Hitler all the time. Eventually somebody takes you seriously. You can’t compare somebody to the most evil and revolting person in the past 200 years, and expect for everyone to instinctively know that you are not being serious. People who cry “Nazi” sure don’t say it as if it is a joke. And you may recall the debate a while back about whether or not it was “okay to punch a Nazi.” The consensus opinion was, “Yes, if he’s a Nazi he deserves to be punched.” It would only follow that if he’s a really bad Nazi, it would be okay to shoot him dead. After all, he’s a Nazi. Ask yourself how many times you have heard a conservative called a fascist in say, the last 25 years. Back in the 80’s Reagan was called Hitler a few times, George W. Bush was called Hitler for 8 straight years. Even made a movie about his assassination. Of a sitting President! No biggie. He was a Nazi don’t you know. I hope a few more of these idiots make to colossal mistake of posting things like “Good riddance.” It is useful when they self-identify as a piece of shit. Now everybody knows.
When it comes to being intolerant, the U.W. Madison, and Dane county, are as bad as you can get, you are either in left wing lock step, or you are a fascist, no two ways about it.
After seeing people justify the execution of Charlie Kirk I think we have more problems than politics.
Assassination not execution.