TheAgitator.com
Wow.
Friday, July 8th, 2011So this site has had close to a half million visitors in the last 24 hours. Busiest day in my 9 1/2 years of blogging. (For some perspective, last May was the first time I topped a million visitors in a month.)
The source of the traffic is the post below on the vegetable garden in Oak Park, Michigan, which made the front page of Reddit, then got a link from Drudge. If you’re new here, welcome. Hope you’ll stick around. I actually have to close comments on that post, because I just can’t keep up with them. There are about 300 still awaiting moderation.
That story is ridiculous, of course. And I imagine the Oak Park servers and phone lines are getting a workout. Which is good. But it’s also a little strange that of all the stuff we cover here, this is what blows up the Internets.
Never come between a homeowner and their vegetables. Torches and pitchforks are always at the ready.
As a long-time reader, I’m glad you’re getting this extra exposure.
I’m not surprised this is the sort of article to bring in extra traffic: Most people (still) never imagine they’ll have a run-in with an out-of-control police operation. But it’s easy to imagine a confrontation over landscaping code.
In any event, thanks for all your excellent reporting.
It’s not going to be some major injustice that makes the public start riding the politicians out of town on a rail – if that was the case, it’d have started a long time ago.
No, it will be the little things piling up over time.
Vegetables in the front yard unites everyone. Hippies love locally grown produce, leftists don’t like stories of the man keeping people down, libertarians don’t like ridiculous regulations and conservatives believe that property rights are sacrosanct. It’s the Agitator’s perfect storm. Don’t tread on my tomatoes.
Nothing weird about it at all. It is the current culmination of the evolution of the perfect example of petty government intrusion. I think what makes it so fit to spread the word is that it doesn’t have dead dogs or dead Marines (yet).
Obviously you’ve been focused on unimportant issues like the drug war and criminal justice for too long! Time to convert your site to a gardener’s-rights theme. :) That’s obviously where the money is!
That’s ’cause you’re a big HuffPO guy now all mainstream and stuff. Oh Radley, you’re gorowing up so fast. Well one good thing abotu all this increased traffic is that more and more people will be exposed to the wit and wisdom of Dave Kreuger. Oh yea, and maybe Alyona can come back and do more guest blogging. Did you tell to her about me yet?
Welcome to Radley McBalko’s, over 1 million balls kicked!
Oak Park city planner meets the internet
More perspective: You’ve had twice as many visitors in the past 24 hours as I’ve had in my first year. That’s very, very humbling.
Police and other state agents murdering people? Meh.
State enforces lawn maintenance regulations= outrage.
( I would hope I wouldn’t have to explain that I am outraged by both things, but I will.. FWIW I fucking hate front lawn conformity and my neighbors that spend all their time and energy watering and fertilizing a patch of plain grass. I have the urge to tear up every lawn that I see and replace them with gardens or even weeds.)
All those years covering puppycide when you really should have been focused on veggie-cide…
I din’t think people would go for it. Usually links to agitator get a little bit of attention but that’s it(yeah swat teams suck but we got more important things or hey he’s a Koch funded etc….) Reddit is a strange place. Hope the traffic was a good thing overall.
Police shoot dog – minor outrage
Police shoot Marine in SWAT raid – outrage
City Planner targets Vegetable Garden – supermegaoutragegasm
I think part of it is that many people will see the headline and assume that he/she/it did something wrong to deserve their interaction with the police, and their eyes kinda glaze over. But when you get a zealous town official (and everybody lives in a town, amirite?) it turns into an everyman situation where people realize that these tyrants do in fact exist and they’re terrorizing people who are doing absolutely nothing wrong. That fires up people who normally don’t pay attention to govt abuse.
And anytime Drudge links to a blog, it asplodes the servers.
The whole ‘freedom and liberty’ thing is – finally – starting to grow some legs.
A number of people still confuse freedom an liberty with chaos and anarchy, however, so our work isn’t finished. The war in defense of freedom and liberty is never-ending.
I think Radley should try a flat top haircut.
“I actually have to close comments on that post, because I just can’t keep up with them. There are about 300 still awaiting moderation.”
Fuck moderation, I always say!
There’s a saying about snowflakes and avalanches and triggers but I can’t be buggered to find it. So… um, snowflakes, avalanches, triggers.
I suppose it’s the simple minded pettiness of this particular situation. But it’s not that simple since this isn’t the first case of an overzealous bureaucrat wasting their time and our money on something so petty (lemonade stands come to mind).
I suppose it’s also the timing. People are on a cusp in many suburbs around the nation. There’s something in the air.
I’ve looked around my own neighborhood and have noticed that this year a surprising number of neighbors have planted some veggies/fruits/legumes in their front yards. One family even has corn growing up amongst the azaleas. It’s a fascinating, ominous, yet thoroughly refreshing trend.
No one ever went broke underestimating the stupidity of the American public.
You deserve it. Although the whole situation is very funny to me. After all your years of hard work, traveling around the country, and having a direct impact on the exoneration of quite a few innocent people, a story about a vegetable garden drives this much volume.
I hope the story also drove some lasting traffic toward the SWAT and justice system issues that happen every day.
I’d even be content if people realized just how systemic these ‘local code enforcer’ issues truly are.
It should be encouraging to see the large amount of interest generated by what is essentually a property rights issue, such rights being central to our very way of life.
As ownership of property imputes control, try having a right to life without ownership of your body, for example.
Oh, and there goes the neighborhood. Oh well, this place hasn’t been the same since karma ratings were discontinued….
But it’s also a little strange that of all the stuff we cover here, this is what blows up the Internets.
“All politics is local” – Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill
I guess government authorities kicking down (wrong) doors and killing (innocent) people isn’t that shocking anymore. Maybe it just happens too often. Truth is, we haven’t had a good “government bans vegetables” story in a long while..
The garden story has more of the “it could happen to me” element than a SWAt-raid-dog-shooting story does, I suppose.
A not to those types: a SWAT-raid-dog-shooting could happen to you, even in your upper-middle-class predominantly white crime-free suburban utopia.
#13 | Warren Bonesteel — “A number of people still confuse freedom and liberty with chaos and anarchy.”
Including you. Chaos and anarchy are polar opposites, mainstream media obsessions about destroying definitions notwithstanding.
Just so we’re clear, the status quo — STATISM — is chaos (except to those rare privileged few that control the system). Anarchy, or individual sovereignty, (to use a term that has not been rendered wholly counter to its true meaning by perverse common usage) is order.
The foodie world got hold of it and it’s going around on Twitter. That’s how I saw it…
Greg, I have a lot of fun playing baseball and kadima (that fun beach game with paddles and a ball) with my son on my nice patch of front-yard grass that I meticulously maintain. Why are you such a hater? I don’t go around to my neighbors tut-tutting to them about the various stages of neglect they seem to prefer for their own front yards. Perhaps you’d be happier living in some HOA neighborhood where the by-laws stipulate no front lawns?
See, that’s what’s weird about this story. I can actually see the POV of the neighbors who don’t want front-yard farms on every lot. I find corn to be an ugly plant that only belongs on a real farm. Agreeing to live together with others necessitates some compromises, and that’s what all the arguing is about, where to draw the line. In fact, this story sums up the mission of The Agitator rather nicely — where should the line be drawn?
Just like your freedom to extend your arm ends where your neighbor’s nose begins, so do all human interactions depend on one’s proximity to one’s neighbors. True freedom only exists in isolation. Once one chooses to associate, true freedom ceases and the compromises begin.
You just never can tell what is going to blow up on the internet. If I could figure it out, I would be rich.
Nice one Radley. Maybe now the Drudge readers will get a shot at reading about all of the nasty things police do to citizens on a daily basis.
It’s a lot easier to relate to a veggie-garden intrusion by Local Yokels than to 4th Amendment violations by Federal Storm-Troopers at an airport far away.
If this is how it has to begin, so be it. Keep agitating!
Baby steps, Radley. I found you fairly recently but you’ve already educated me quite a bit and have inspired me to educate others on government abuse and overreach. Expect that effect to be multiplied. Keep fighting the good fight.
The Revolution will not be televised… will not be televised… will not be televised… I think you hit it on the head Radley… people can see this happening to them but don’t believe ATALL that a SWAT team can show up at their door in error, blow their dog away before their childrens eyes, traumatize them for a few hours, rip their house up and not appologize or pay for damages… only to find out later that the team was called in to serve a warrant on a non violent offender…
Radley, it’s kind of amazing how you’ve managed to bring the plight of this hyper-local organic vegetable farmer to light, considering the fact that you’re a heartless, corporation-fellating Libertarian and all…
;)
a SWAT-raid-dog-shooting could happen to you, even in your upper-middle-class predominantly white crime-free suburban utopia
It’s true, in a sense, that a SWAT invasion could happen to anyone. However, there are two important distinctions here. First, in the whitopian neighborhood I live in, mistaken invasions are nonexistent. You have to look nationwide to find even a few instances of such raids that could conceivably have happened to me. Below a certain level of risk, I simply cannot worry about something seriously. It’s like being struck by lightning, or perhaps more aptly being blown up by a terrorist. It’s not something that demands my attention.
More importantly, even in our increasingly strong-arm state, SWAT invasions still happen to nearly all of their subjects (99%?) because of something they did. Certainly the use of militarized police and no-knock invasions for non-serious arrests is highly troubling and IMO should be stopped immediately. However, it is still debatable; the other side has a argument. The bottom line is that use of unlimited force can be justified against criminals. The argument is about practicalities, not the moral justification of the policy itself. It’s a qualitatively different thing to have the state use force (no matter how restrained) against a so-called criminal who isn’t, even though she chose her behavior. This is far more offensive. It cannot be justified.
Maybe people feel like they can bitch about this and (a) have some hope of making a dent in the injustice and (b) not be in fear for their own lives (or for the life of their dog).
There are about 300 still awaiting moderation.
I’m confused: when I post, my comment seems to appear right away. Does each new identity get its first post moderated, then after that, new posts from the same identity appear without moderation?
Well, gardening is actually important to some people, as opposed to the lives of people they don’t know.
#23 CyniCAl:
I’m really not following you on the whole ‘chaos’ thing. I don’t think either statism or anarchy can claim to be ‘opposite’ to chaos, but surely anarchy would generally be more chaotic than statism.
I think your objection hinges on the fact that you seem to take ‘chaotic’ to be a negative. I don’t – I appreciate the the lack of order exists when everyone can spontaneously decide to do whatever they want.
“Anarchy… is order” makes no sense at all to me.
This post reminded me of a post from long, long ago when Radley said he averaged 1500 readers (too lazy to look it up, especially since I don’t feel like correcting my own memory).
At that time I was amazed because I had expected readership to be much, much bigger.
This current number of hits is beyond what I expected.
It should stay that way, unless Cynical in California scares them all off :)
Mises has some thoughts on “chaos”.
Really depends on what your definition of “chaotic” is. This is where people usually cut/paste a Webster’s definition of “chaotic” without understanding how it applies to human interaction (among other things).
Don’t moderate them. Once your guest blogger misused an apostrophe, which I kindly pointed out in a comment. One of two things should have happened: the comment should have been printed or the error should have been corrected, but neither did. Grammar is important.
The city of Oak Park, MI’s reaction to the Garden just such an environmentally unfriendly one that it’s flabbergasting. This day in age, with all our climate problems, homeowners should be discouraged from wasting water and fertilizer on useless lawns and encouraged to put in vegetable gardens, even in front of their houses. Thanks for sharing the report!
I’d say that the reason for the traffic is the use of the term “Michelle Obama” in the headline. This is a useful tip for future traffic hunting. Innocent old men and women robbed of the sanctity of their home in the middle of the night and then robbed of their life isn’t going to stir the masses. You’ve got to somehow work in a dig at a major political figure. (even if it isn’t a dig, and she didn’t have anything to do with the story and it was just a cute little joke)
@ #13 Total freedom would be anarchy. You equate anarchy with chaos however, which it is not. We will never be free as long as there is a government, since even the smallest government eventually grows into something like we have today.
Simply shrinking the government is not enough, it’s just a matter of time before it becomes tyrannical again.
Seeing as Anarcho-Capitalism is based upon volunteerism, I can’t imagine more chaos then we currently have. I would consider no-knock raids on pot smokers and innocent homeowners as chaos. I suppose you could say there would likely be an organized chaos in an Anarcho-Capitalist society.
Congratulations on the hits Radley. Unfortunately, the quality of the commentary seems to have dropped. Perhaps we need to be discussing abstract libertarian theory for a bit. :)
Cmon, all “gardens” are somehow tied to marijuana.
Hippies tried the “garden” alibis in the 60′s. Same with Adam and Eve, growing dope..why do ya think they got busted?
Any true Patriot gets all the lettuce he needs from Big Macs or Whoppers.
Well at least around here the police haves their priorities
Straight AKA beating up accident victims, You’ll
Just love the video.
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/28456654/detail.html
All I’ve got fer ya is a big Thumbs UP!
Does each new identity get its first post moderated, then after that, new posts from the same identity appear without moderation?
Yep.
it’s kind of amazing how you’ve managed to bring the plight of this hyper-local organic vegetable farmer to light, considering the fact that you’re a heartless, corporation-fellating Libertarian and all…
Oh, I expect Balloon Juicers would say this is just a “white people problem”, and more evidence that libertarians don’t give a damn about real problems poor people face. The first part is probably correct. Though that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.
I think Radley should try a flat top haircut.
I don’t think that’s an option anymore.
I think the reason you got all the hits is the title has “Michelle Obama” in it.
Excellent, insist on a jury! The Bill of Rights is there for a reason; anyone who foregoes its protection is a fool. And preparatory to trial, get full info on the substance of the complaint and on the complainant. Also, be prepared to go before the city council to argue against a change to the ordinances which would make your beautiful garden unlawful, because that will be the likely fallback if bullying you doesn’t avail. If they try to sneak through such a change without hearing you, publicize that too.
To John Jenkins:
“Don’t tread on my tomatoes.” I love it!
We need a t-shirt and bumper sticker design for this.
#31: “SWAT invasions still happen to nearly all of their subjects (99%?) because of something they did…”
Cheye Calvo and thousands of others would disagree with you.
Boyd has it right. “Chaos” and “order” really aren’t conceptually or theoretically helpful in looking at human interaction. I guess in one sense, anarchy is more “chaotic” because you don’t have a select and static group of Deciders in charge of everyone else, in another sense statism is more “chaotic” because some people are in charge of everyone (which means that nobody is in charge of them, unlike anarchy, where everyone who isn’t a hermit is accountable in some way to someone, and people in general are mutually accountable in various complicated ways). This is somewhat helpful, but it isn’t how chaos/order are usually applied in thinking and talking about social arrangements.
So I try to post one comment and now I’m having the problem others had awhile back with it not loading updated content. I need Agitation!
@42 Actually, it is a dig. Michelle killed her White House veggie garden.
@53 As a cop on flyertalk.com put it, “Don’t bring marijuana into your house and we won’t shoot your dogs.”
My response got me banned for a month.
Stroke your ego much Radley?
Think of this as ‘gateway outrage’ that will inevitably lead to experimentation with harder stuff, like being pissed off when a veteran gets gunned down in front of his family or when someone’s pets are shot in the back as they retreat from an invasion.
I think the story is right in that middle ground where its too small for a major site to dedicate a whole post to but important enough to link to with a small blurb.
Well, the garden article allowed me to discover you! Glad to find your blog and will follow. Thanks.
Welcome new readers. You should put this on your daily read web sites. Scroll down and read some of the latest stories and hopefully you will stick around and share some links.
Good reading!
For what it’s worth Radley, I have been reading your blog since ~2002-2003 and have very much enjoyed it. I don’t comment often, but your priorities and concerns mirror mine in a lot of ways. Thank you for all of your efforts and I owe you a beer. Maybe more than that. Thank you.
BTW, congratulations on your success.
I think maybe it’s something most people can imagine happening to them. Police busting down your door for no apparent reason seems kind of “out there” even to someone like me, who reads this blog regularly. Of course that, and many other miscarriages of justice are far worse in their consequences to the people involved, but maybe it’s harder to identify with those situations and easier for many people to see themselves in trouble over some seemingly innocuous thing that might irritate some neighbor.
And it seems such a wholesome thing that they’re trying to criminalize in that case. It kind of strikes home, because what could be more reasonable than growing a vegetable garden, and yet this woman has the local government all up in her business over it. The line “That’s not what we want to see in a front yard,” really struck me. As small as this story is, it’s one that really pulls the curtain back and lets everyone see that these petty bureaucrats really do think they own us.
Congratualtions, Radley.
I’m sort of new here but I think most people don’t want to believe what you are exposing about police and the injustice system.
So, not new, but I’m dying to ask… Why the approved moderation? I’m sure it should seem obvious, but it doesn’t.
Aside from that, congrats on the higher-than-normal patronage. I talk about this blog to everyone I know. Your work deserves at least that much.
Dear Agitator,
We can only hope that this fires up the intertubes in a way that eventually sparks SOMETHING in EVERYONE to WTFU.
You can bet your sweet bippy that I’ll be using this story to agitate a few in need
Thank you for covering this.
Keep pushing…
You be da bomb!!
Congratulations! Your work deserves a wide readership.
hmmmm…..perhaps people motivated by concern for their ability to “prep”?
Why the approved moderation?
Mostly to prevent spam. Only the first comment from a new commenter needs to be approved. Well, that and comments with multiple links, or over a certain number of words.
I wanted to post the following here: http://www.theagitator.com/2011/07/07/does-michelle-obama-know-about-this/ but am unable and so have instead posted here in the hope my comments might be placed at the aforementioned link …
I’m not American and thankful of the fact, particularly when hear a story such as this. I am quite bemused as to how a government and/or council could even consider making such an issue of something so very trivial when taking into consideration the bigger picture.
The American debt currently stands at some $14, 485, 536, 830, 586 (http://www.usdebtclock.org/) over 40% of which is owed to Japan. I find it difficult to understand how the American public does not on mass question their government with regard to the very real threat of losing their country to foreign ownership.
Mr. Kevin Rulkowski, you sir are a complete and utter imbecile (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/imbecile) and one of those whom are rotting America to its core. It is you and those like you who are turning America into a third world country beset with poverty, violence, discrimination, unemployment and a place where only the elite and powerful can prosper.
The rest of the world is watching as you destroy yourselves with greed and inane rules meant to speed up the pace of the destruction of your country.
For the sake of your children and future generations, your country and its leaders must change!
#21: “As ownership of property imputes control, try having a right to life without ownership of your body, for example.”
Speaking as a woman in general and a prostitute in particular: Welcome to our world.
^ Drudge reader, proud of it. Glad for the link here, interesting site. Hope your servers don’t “asplode.” (Nod to Nipplemancer. Nice bit of prose BTW. Is more available? Where?)
Oak Park garden dispute is a perfect “meme” for popular outrage. Most folks biggest investment is their home, and they know they work hard for it. Combine that sense of ownership with the “freedom” writ in the DNA of all Americans, and the petty official enforcing a questionable interpretation of an ambiguous ordinance is offensive indeed.