Mark Steyn: Let's be realistic about reality

Chicago Sun-Times ^ | April 22, 2007 | Mark Steyn

[beaversmom]

Good idea. This must be a recent pic—haven’t seen this one before. He really looks handsome in it.

[BlackVeil]

Flag to my post above.

[Star Traveler]

ahhh..., yes. That’s interesting. It would be interesting to find out if Cho had some information on his computer about that day and if that day was picked out and not just a day “he snapped”...

[Pagey]

bttt

[xjcsa]

As far as I'm concerned there is only one real choice in a College anymore and that is Hillsdale.

I believe they are one of only two institutions in America which refuse all forms of Federal aid.

Therefore they are not bound by all those silly Federal rules.

Hillsdale's definitely a solid choice, but there are other good ones. I went to Liberty; they do allow students to take federal aid (Pell grants, student loans, etc.) but have not really watered anything down in the process. They do not have tenure for professors; they openly teach what they want. Professors are all evangelical conservative Christians and they keep it that way. There are a few other really good ones as well, but they're definitely in the minority.

[Nailbiter]

If the criminal is dead, he will never hurt anyone again.

above is best outcome

[Cinnamon Girl]

I don’t even need to read this. I already know I like it from the title.

[GOPJ]

bump

[Joe Brower]

BlackVeil,

Thanks for the info -- I had not heard the details of these two events as you describe them (it sure wasn't covered in "the news"), and It's a good bet Mark Steyn was not aware of these points either.

[gridlock]

Overseas, meanwhile, the German network NTV was first to identify the perpetrator: To accompany their report on the shootings, they flashed up a picture of Charlton Heston touting his rifle at an NRA confab.

When we reach 10 Million murdered over a 10 year period by "gun violence", I will be willing to listen to lectures from my German betters.

[proud American in Canada]

Nobody but nobody does it like Steyn.

That's for sure.

[Rummyfan]

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.

I believe that was written by Ann Coulter....

[VoiceOfBruck]

Tnx. The WOB and I greatly enjoy Steyn’s columns.

[EdReform]

read later

[Ancesthntr]

President Ronald Reagan:

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free."

I miss him terribly.

I hope that Fred Thompson can fill one of his shoes - and if he does, he'll be head and shoulders above the wussified RINOs that currently have all the media attention.

[Redcloak]

But you can't do that at Virginia Tech. Instead, the administration has created a "Gun-Free School Zone." Or, to be more accurate, they've created a sign that says "Gun-Free School Zone." And, like a loopy medieval sultan, they thought that simply declaring it to be so would make it so. The "gun-free zone" turned out to be a fraud -- not just because there were at least two guns on the campus last Monday, but in the more important sense that the college was promoting to its students a profoundly deluded view of the world.

This sums up so much of liberal political belief. "If we say it, then it must be real." And when they are confronted with failure after failure, liberals plead that just one more attempt is needed to get it right; as though they simply got the magical incantation a little wrong. All they need is another chance to get the inflection just right and the spell will work. After a certain point, however, they drop even this acknowledgment of cause and effect. They stop telling us that there's a slight flaw in the magic and just ignore reality altogether. The failures stop being failures and pass into non-existence; the events simply didn't transpire. Thus we will be told that there are not failed gun laws on the books, but no gun laws on the books. Seventy years of failure will pass into non-existence as the left screams for gun control laws. (Note that I didn't say "new" laws; just laws.) They will utterly disregard reality. If you try to drag them back to reality and point out their failures, they will stare at you as though you're the witchdoctor insisting that chicken entrails and bones will solve the problem.