3 Years after Andrew Breitbart’s death, no apologies needed
“Apologize for WHAT?”
On March 1, 2012, Andrew Breitbart died. My post upon hearing the news tried to capture what many of us were feeling, including reactions from friends and foes, Andrew Breitbart dead. We’ve tried our best to remember his death each anniversary:
As well as his legacy:
- “The country desperately needs another thousand more Andrew Breitbarts”
- Andrew Breitbart vindicated on Pigford after years of attacks from Media Matters and others
- Repeat after me again and again: “The Shirley Sherrod tape was not misleading”
- Andrew Breitbart: “Take on the bullies on the playground”
- What and who Andrew Breitbart faced
Later in the day on March 1, 2012, I wrote A personal note on the death of Andrew Breitbart. There’s not much I can add to it now:
I only spoke once with Andrew Breitbart. He reached out to me, and we spoke by phone. The topic is not important, but I was shocked that he even knew who I was; but as I’ve come to learn, Andrew seemed to know who everyone was in the conservative blogosphere. He was just that way.
Since my wife called this morning to let me know of Andrew’s death, it has been hard to focus on anything else. In her words, we don’t have that many bright media lights, and to lose him hurts.
Andrew lived in a world without restraints. He could be who he wanted to be, a luxury few bloggers have, particularly those who blog under their own name and work for others.
I live in a world of restraints, and I envied Andrew’s freedom more than you can know.
Andrew is irreplaceable, but we would serve his memory well to aspire to more freedom of thought and more freedom of action.
I’ve often wondered where to go with this blog. I now know.
The past three years have been a struggle to live up to that goal. But at least we try.
Andrew’s tweet “Apologize for WHAT?,” in reaction to (false) claims he had misled people about Shirley Sherrod, has become something of a call to action:
Last night was the last time Greg Gutfeld was on Red Eye. I learned that Andrew was on the very first Red Eye broadcast on July 28, 2007, described as a “contributor for DrudgeReport.com” [Featured Image].
Here’s Gutfeld’s remembrance of Andrew one year ago:
Mandy was one of Andrew’s key researchers.
Remember to say a prayer for both of them.
This image from Legal Insurrection reader Patricia, created the day Andrew died, always seems fitting:
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Comments
One has to wonder … did he die of truly natural causes … or was nature given an “assist” … I don’t think we’ll ever know. He is sorely missed.
We have to start being more careful about how accepting we are regarding that “natural causes” diagnosis. During a discussion several years ago about a murder that was originally pronounced a “death by natural causes”, my younger son noted the possibility that literally any death could be written off that way. As he pointed out, it’s perfectly natural for a person to die after being shot in the head with a .357 magnum round at point-blank range, just as it is natural to die from stage 4 cancer, or a dose of cyanide your wife stirs into your coffee!
“Natural causes: Heart failure.”
“And the knife?”
“What about the knife?”
Coroners usually note both the cause of death and the manner of death.
In Breitbart’s case, the cause was heart failure due to heart disease, and the manner was natural.
In your example of a shooting, cause of death would have been gunshot wound to the head; the manner of death would have been homicide. The manner of death usually only gets listed as “natural” if there’s no evidence of outside forces having caused it.
One of the things I loved about Andrew was his boyish delight in what he was doing. He might gut you if you were a self-important Collectivist puke, but he didn’t really do it out of hate for you, just everything you stood for. If you reformed, he’d buy you dinner and have a nice glass of Scotch with you. It wasn’t personal, but it WAS deadly serious.
I get that. And, like I said, I loved that. A real world Peter Pan.
Boris Nemtsov. The Russians lack of finesse is readily apparent.
Its proving to be not
Damn it! I still miss this guy!
We lost a great man when we lost Andrew.
Rags, I would not describe him as a Peter Pan, but he was definitely a happy warrior (it fits better). I agree with your sentiments.
One of the things I truly regret is that I had a chance to meet him, and would have gotten a chance to speak with him for a moment or two, and I wasn’t able to go for personal reasons.
RIP Andrew.
P.S. One of my favorite quotes comes from Andrew, he once said; “The truth isn’t evil, it’s just the truth.”
So how is Mandy getting along?
Mandy’s mom keeps her supporters updated at Mandy’s GoFundMe page.
Andrew Breitbart, along with James O’Keefe, III, was a game-changer.
It is simply impossible to give enough accolades to Andrew Breitbart.
As to Shirley Sherrod, she should be utterly disgraced, for pursuing a widow with 4 children. The audience reacted as they did, and there can be no unringing of that bell. They were the litmus paper, and she was the liquid applied to it.