The Finger They Gave Him Was His Own

Since when did McGruff The Crime Dog join the Purpleshirts?:

Ya know, I don't know that it was really necessary to show the actual severed pinkie; I think the blood spatters were more than sufficient to convey what happened.  Ditto the bad jokes, other than to add that it's a good thing for the victim that his chomping assailant wasn't a dwarf.

The details are pretty much what you should have expected:

About 100 protesters sponsored by MoveOn.org were having a rally supporting health care reform.

A group of anti-health care reform protesters formed across the street.

The finger-biting incident occurred after a member of the group protesting health care reform, William Rice, 65, of Newbury Park, [California] became involved in a heated discussion with a member of Code Pink, sheriff's Captain Ross Bonfiglio said.

After the argument, Rice returned to where his own group was standing.

A man from Moveon.org' area then walked over to the opponents and verbally confronted Rice, allegedly calling him names and acting aggressively, Bonfiglio said.

Rice later told investigators he felt threatened by the man and punched him in the nose, Bonfiglio said.

The punch set off a fist fight between the two men, during which the tip of Rice's left pinky finger was bitten off, Bonfiglio said.

As I understand it, the Code Pinko started the argument with Mr. Rice by barging right through the assembled health care freedom fighters, hardly a non-provocation.  Evidently he didn't take kindly to the trash that was talked at him and engaged the punk verbally - though you'll notice that he didn't escalate the confrontation any further.  That was left to the moveon.orger, whom, if I credited him with three brain cells to rub together, I might suspect was trying to goad Mr. Rice into doing precisely what he did - belt him a good one - for the inevitable youtube clips.  And that's what the story would have been, but for the small man, all dressed in black going Mike Tyson on Mr. Rice's ass.

The facts put me in something of a difficult analytical position.  Rice threw the first punch, but a strong case can be made that he was defending himself (to say nothing of the moveon.orger having it coming).  And certainly a punch in the nose - misdemeanor battery - doesn't justify assault with the intent to commit mayhem, a felony offense.  Then I think of what how the story would have been spun by the Obamedia had the biter and bitee been reversed, and how it actually was spun, and the neurotic impulse toward "bipartisan fairness" goes away.

Inevitably interviewed on Fox News a short time later, Mr. Rice had the following comments:

It's difficult to reconcile Rice's Ben Stein-esque demeanor with the pugilistic windmilling of a day earlier.  I can see why he wouldn't be eager to sue the pinkie-smoker, since the latter probably hasn't had a job in his worthless life and couldn't be shaken down for pocket lint.  Something tells me what Rice would really like is to shove that finger straight up his attacker's ass sideways (thus doubtless sparing him the trouble of doing it himself), but will settle for sending his miserable carcass up the river - if the cops can find him.

Thanks for giving us another living martyr, though, asshole, as well as another poster child for what Obamunism is truly all about.