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Mark Steyn: Let's be realistic about reality
Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 22, 2007 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 04/22/2007 3:16:32 AM PDT by Puzzleman

Within hours of the Virginia Tech massacre, the New York Times had identified the problem: ''What is needed, urgently, is stronger controls over the lethal weapons that cause such wasteful carnage and such unbearable loss.''

--snip--

The "gun-free zone" fraud isn't just about banning firearms or even a symptom of academia's distaste for an entire sensibility of which the Second Amendment is part and parcel but part of a deeper reluctance of critical segments of our culture to engage with reality. Michelle Malkin wrote a column a few days ago connecting the prohibition against physical self-defense with "the erosion of intellectual self-defense," and the retreat of college campuses into a smothering security blanket of speech codes and "safe spaces" that's the very opposite of the principles of honest enquiry and vigorous debate on which university life was founded. And so we "fear guns," and "verbal violence," and excessively realistic swashbuckling in the varsity production of ''The Three Musketeers.'' What kind of functioning society can emerge from such a cocoon?

(Excerpt) Read more at suntimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: banglist; guns; liberalism; marksteyn; vatech; virginia; vt
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To: UltraKonservativen
...calling a spade a spade

Hey! I think I heard that you can't say that anymore. We all know that spade cards are black. Further, spade shovels are sort of phallic if you really use your imagination. Further, spades are in the same category of garden implement as a ho(e).

What exactly are you implying about the sexual proclivities of half of Barak Obama's heritage? God you racist, sexist right-wingers are, like, totally offensive.

41 posted on 04/22/2007 6:23:13 AM PDT by Minn (Here is a realistic picture of the prophet: ----> ([: {()
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To: Lord Basil
Gun grabbers believe that a woman who has been raped and murdered is morally superior to a pistol-packing mama standing over the body of her attacker.

Yep, and they're only one step better than the savages who would have stoned her to death for "adultery". Maybe that's why they side with the savages against Americans.

42 posted on 04/22/2007 6:29:09 AM PDT by Sal (It's EVIL to SLOW BLEED our troops and our country.)
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To: Pokey78

BTTT


43 posted on 04/22/2007 6:35:31 AM PDT by aculeus
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To: Fury

He is stupid and a coward. Don’t bother arguing with him. Just shout “BOOOO!” in his face when you walk by. That will keep him at bay.


44 posted on 04/22/2007 6:42:33 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: goldstategop
An entire culture exists that wants to avoid any sort of violence - or confrontation with it.

The situation is so absurd and getting worse. When I was in high school during the late 1970s, it was already getting bad. I got bullied around a bit and the only way to stop it was to fight back. Only problem was my school had a zero tolerance policy for fighting. The bullies were allowed to taunt me, spit on me, trip me up in the hallways, etc. One day, I had enough and smashed one of them in the mouth right in the school hallway. I got a suspension for five days and the kid I hit got a lovey-dovey "counseling session" from the school psychiatrist, evidently to help him deal with the trauma. At least he never messed with me again (though his buddies worked me over pretty good after school one day as revenge).

It's even worse now. My sons are in high school and if they ever deal with a bully like I did, they will not only be expelled but likely brought up on criminal charges as well. Meanwhile, bullies continue doing what they have always done - taunting and tormenting other kids. Only now they operate under the security that they will likely never get a sock in the jaw from their victims.

45 posted on 04/22/2007 6:42:43 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 94 days away from outliving Curt Hennig (whoever he is))
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To: ml/nj
I’ve lived in VT. The native Vermonters are good, hardworking and industrious people. Unfortunately, they are outnumbered by trust fund baby transplants from NYC, NJ, and Mass.
46 posted on 04/22/2007 6:45:05 AM PDT by ItisaReligionofPeace
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To: goldstategop
Liberals have successfully created a society or rather, a sub-culture that can’t defend itself from danger. Danger overwhelms it.
‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’

Worse yet, this attitude pervades our government and institutions.It's legitimated and enforced at the highest levels. New Orleans citizens can’t even prepare for a hurricane and deal with its aftermath. Citizens can give up the struggle to feed, house, and clothe themselves and sign up for government welfare. Naturally these “dependent” individuals would also look to the government for protection and defense. “Big brother” will take care of all needs. Just give up your freedom and self respect, turn on American Idol and “enjoy life”.

47 posted on 04/22/2007 7:19:18 AM PDT by photodawg (It's not about how hard you can hit. It's about how hard you can get hit ......Rocky Balboa)
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To: Puzzleman

What is the most difficult job in the world? Choosing the “best” of Mark Steyn. Just when you think you have it found, along comes the next column ...


48 posted on 04/22/2007 7:26:22 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("One if by land, two if by sea, three if by legislation")
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To: livius; Puzzleman; Yardstick; oldglory; MinuteGal; mcmuffin; gonzo; sheikdetailfeather; ...

“Excellent summary - that’s really what liberalism does, it makes a moral virtue out of vulnerability and the lack of will to defend oneself or others...” ~ livius

That is merely one of the evils Leftist/Progressives are responsible for.

Saturday, April 21, 2007
http://www.onecosmos.blogspot.com/

“....Now, what does the nihilist say about all this? What can he say? Since his first three commandments already condemn him to a godless and meaningless existence, what does it matter what you do — or when you it — ...

The only alternative to meaning is either chaos or enforced order. As such, these two extremes represent the two poles of the Democratic party. One pole is the enraged and infantile base, the primitive dailykos and moveonon.org types: the chaoticians, nihilists, barbarians, and infrahumans, while the other pole is the elites whom they empower in order to control themselves and everyone else — the Clintons, Edwards, Gores, and Obamas.

(I say “infrahuman” because leftists do not recognize humans as fundamentally distinct from animals, and therefore do not make the effort to actualize this uniquely quasi-divine station. They are anything but humanists, because theirs’ is the explicit philosophy of the animalization of the human, and all the consequences that flow from that. You may not think it is fair or illustrative, but Alec Baldwin’s abuse of his daughter is a case in point.

The leftist foregoes the task of mastering himself in favor of ceding his power to the collective, which he hopes will control him — in particular, his greed, his envy, and his paranoia and malevolence toward his fellow man. Obviously, Alec Baldwin is “out of control,” as are the majority of narcissistic Hollywoodenheads. It is rare that you would ever say of one, “ah, now here is a man who has mastered himself!” No. It is almost always the opposite. The less mastery, the further left; the list is endless.)

For the classical liberal [[ AKA today’s conservatives - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_to_Serfdom ]], the very task of this life is to transcend and perfect oneself by first mastering oneself. To say that there is not a trace of this attitude in leftism is an understatement, for it is rooted in the opposite premise: that there is no such thing as self-mastery (only “repression”), so you must be controlled by the state, by a powerful collective. A nation of virtuous people living in the light of their own awakened conscience would not even require laws.

Obviously, fallen humans being what they are, such an ideal state is not feasible, because it takes only a few irresponsible jerks to upset the whole balance. It’s like the freeways — you can have thousands of responsible drivers spontaneously interacting in a harmonious manner, but just one accident by some idiot will snarl the traffic and inconvenience everyone else.

Thus, leftism inevitably redounds to a situation in which inferior men rule the superior men, in part because the superior man has no desire to, or interest in, dominating others.

This is the real reason why there are so very few conservatives in politics, because politics draws from people who wish to control others, and a conservative has no desire to exercise this kind of power as a replacement for self-mastery.

And this is why virtually every professional group has been taken over by leftist activists, whether it is the educational establishment, the state department, the American Bar Association, the MSMistry of Truth, academia, or my idiotic group, the American Psychological Association — it doesn’t matter, for the principle is the same: the authorization of a kind of external power to control others as a substitute for the liberal doctrine of self-mastery. ..” [snip]~ Robert W.Godwin, Ph.D - Blogs as “Gagdad Bob”. (He is a clinical psychologist whose interdisciplinary work has focused on the relationship between contemporary psychoanalysis, chaos theory, and quantum physics.)

Continue here: http://www.onecosmos.blogspot.com/


49 posted on 04/22/2007 7:41:39 AM PDT by Matchett-PI (To have no voice in the Party that always sides with America's enemies is a badge of honor.)
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To: Puzzleman

Bump!


50 posted on 04/22/2007 7:52:10 AM PDT by F-117A (Mr. Ahtisaari, give S?pmi it's independence! Free the Sami!!!)
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To: Puzzleman

You will hear a lefty criticizing Obama’s dumb speech about the same time you hear one of them compliment George Bush.


51 posted on 04/22/2007 8:01:16 AM PDT by Democratshavenobrains
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To: Puzzleman

Bump


52 posted on 04/22/2007 8:03:08 AM PDT by AlaskaErik (Run, Fred, run!)
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To: Puzzleman
The "gun-free zone" fraud isn't just about banning firearms or even a symptom of academia's distaste for an entire sensibility of which the Second Amendment is part and parcel but part of a deeper reluctance of critical segments of our culture to engage with reality. Michelle Malkin wrote a column a few days ago connecting the prohibition against physical self-defense with "the erosion of intellectual self-defense," and the retreat of college campuses into a smothering security blanket of speech codes and "safe spaces" that's the very opposite of the principles of honest enquiry and vigorous debate on which university life was founded. And so we "fear guns," and "verbal violence," and excessively realistic swashbuckling in the varsity production of ''The Three Musketeers.''
What kind of functioning society can emerge from such a cocoon?

ANSWER: One ready for the plucking by a society better grounded in the reality that force does matter. A society of DHIMMI.
53 posted on 04/22/2007 8:40:02 AM PDT by SWO
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To: harpseal; TexasCowboy; AAABEST; Travis McGee; Squantos; Shooter 2.5; wku man; SLB; ...
A worthwhile read; as usual, Mark Steyn hits the nail right on the head.

Click the Gadsden flag for pro-gun resources!

54 posted on 04/22/2007 8:41:04 AM PDT by Joe Brower (Sheep have three speeds: "graze", "stampede" and "cower".)
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To: Puzzleman

Please forward this TRUE STORY to everyone you can. May Diane Feinstein, Rosy O’Donnell, Hillary Clinton and all other politico-celebrity types who work so sanctimoniously to disarm the average American, while they themselves maintain their armed guards, one day find themselves permanently ensconced in that special place in hell reserved for the hypocritical, self-serving elitists who denigrate personal
self-defense while they hire others to do their wet work for them.


http://www.guntruths.com/Houck/just_another_day_with_gun_contro.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73SsNFgBO4

Just another day with Gun Control, January 16, 2000
by Jim Houck
The movie I went to see today, at the request of my film managers, was Hurricane starring Denzel Washington. I write feature films. I write TV ads for the largest advertising agencies on earth for clients like Toyota, Ford, Sony and Coke. I am the “Hollywood crowd” that the liberal press lies about so often.

I arrived early at the Torrance, California AMC 20 Theaters, so I bought my ticket and sat on a bench just outside the front lobby under a palm tree for about half an hour, enjoying the many different faces, the playing kids, the adults.

A flood of Californians streamed out suddenly. A young girl had been attacked by a criminal who had just shot her.

“Is the shooter stopped?” I asked, reaching for my Heckler & Koch USP .45, running for the lobby with the intent to kill the criminal before he could injure or kill more of We the People.

“No, nobody can do anything! He’s just walking around like he owns the place!” a California woman cried, trembling like a mouse before the lion. And indeed, the criminal did.

I ripped up my leather jacket and found my holster missing. I didn’t have my .45 with me today. I’d opted not to take it just this one time at the advice of the local Californians, avoid the hassle of the California cops if they discover it, I thought, save the massive court costs of exercising my right. “Don’t get caught, the street officers will hook you and book you and let the judges sort it out,” a friend and local California police officer had told me repeatedly. Besides, it was three in the afternoon next door to Palos Verdes Estates, one of the most affluent and lowest crime areas in the United States.

My decision to leave my self defense at home very likely cost the young man who would be shot next his life. I have extensive, combat firearms training. I’ve been in three gun battles with criminals in New Orleans and Miami in the defense of myself twice and a Miami police officer once, and I’ve never missed nor have I lost. The criminals did.

Of course the criminal didn’t know these things. He didn’t know he was in a “low crime” area and he didn’t seem to care that it was three in the afternoon on a Sunday. All he knew was that he was operating in Senator Diane Feinstein¹s wet dream, a theater of perfect Gun Control. Not one citizen in the large crowd of moms, dads, young men or young women had a firearm with which to defend themselves. So they ran. But the funny thing is, they didn’t run very fast and the certainly didn’t run very far, in fact, many basically hurried and stood around and complained about not being able to finish their show. You see, criminals being in full control is nothing new in California. It’s not news. It didn’t excite these folks.

I stopped outside the lobby doors. No gun. No way to fight this criminal, I thought.

The shooter fired again, dropping a young man next. Well, the California people voted this idiocy through, they repeatedly elect servants like Diane Feinstein and Barbara Boxer as state senators, people who take away their rights to self defense and the defense of their families, I thought, let them deal with the consequences of their decisions. Of course the criminal walked out the back of the AMC 20 Theaters and vanished long before the local police could wade through the Sunday traffic and do the paperwork. At least they were nice enough to come. They didn’t have to. They responded as a “courtesy” according to the Supreme Court. They have no legal duty to protect the individual from criminal assault or murder. Something surprisingly few people know, especially in California.

I looked at the downed young man. He would die, judging from my own personal
experiences as a shooter of over 20 years and where the criminal had injured him. The girl, barring very unusual circumstances, she would live, judging from where the criminal had injured her and her loss of blood.

The police put pressure on the injuries to try and reduce the bleeding from the criminal attack. Another courtesy service.

I sat back down on the bench and watched the Californians as they angrily demanded their ticket money be refunded, the victims of the criminal lying ten yards from them, moaning, dying.

A man with his wife in the line of angry movie patrons turned to me and growled, “I’m surprised Feinstein isn’t here already. And the liberal mainstream press. You know, we carry our guns anyway and we didn’t bring them today because it’s such a hassle to have to hide them all the time from the local cops. What a bunch of shit. Just look at that guy. He’s probably going to die.”

Thanks, Senator Feinstein. As a resident of Florida, in Los Angeles working on feature film scripts with my L.A. based managers, it’s interesting to see how your Prohibition on self defense, “Gun Control” works. Of course, had you been there to see The Hurricane, your armed bodyguards would have used their semi-automatic, high capacity “assault weapons” to stop the criminal dead in his tracks, which is what the bastard richly deserved. Funny, Diane, with all your SB 23s and SB 15s and Prohibition on self defense, the criminal still badly hurt and perhaps killed two young kids who just went to see a movie on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Why call it “gun control?” Why not rename it “defenseless sheep” or the “citizen massacre laws?” Or maybe just simple “bullshit.”

Wish you could have been there Diane to see how your idiotic laws work in real life. It was memorable.

Jim Houck is the Creative Director of Citizens of America


55 posted on 04/22/2007 8:46:47 AM PDT by Dick Bachert
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To: Puzzleman
What kind of functioning society can emerge from such a cocoon?


56 posted on 04/22/2007 8:47:53 AM PDT by facedown (Armed in the Heartland)
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To: Puzzleman
According to the Canadian blogger Kate MacMillan, a caller to her local radio station went further and said she was teaching her children to ''fear guns.''

The mother intentionally transferring her irrational fears over to her children.

Hoplophobes in training.

57 posted on 04/22/2007 8:50:41 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Matchett-PI
The leftist foregoes the task of mastering himself in favor of ceding his power to the collective, which he hopes will control him

That's a very interesting observation. It also explains what leftists have such an attraction to Islam - which is a cult that on the one hand, has extreme control over trivial, daily matters (such as what hand the believer wipes himself with), while at the same time having no real morality, but being simply an exaltation of power. And as usual, the leftists think they are going to be the ones in power. At the same time, they like the idea themselves of being under an external control system. Very interesting.

58 posted on 04/22/2007 8:54:21 AM PDT by livius
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To: Mr. Mojo

” The mother intentionally transferring her irrational fears over to her children.”

Very disturbing. It reminds me of the parasites that live off birds. When hatchlings emerge, the parasites on the parents jump onto the newborns and perpetuate the infestation. Sort of like unloading religion onto our gullible offspring.


59 posted on 04/22/2007 9:19:46 AM PDT by gcruse
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To: Nailbiter

The criminals will avoid the high probability of getting shot. If they don’t, and end up getting shot, there is a good chance they will end up dying. It can be successfully argued: If the criminal is dead, he will never hurt anyone again.


60 posted on 04/22/2007 9:20:32 AM PDT by punster
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