A time to mourn, a time to blame
One of the many wonderful things about living in Minnesota is the Minneapolis Star Tribune (aka Prairie Pravda). Today's Op-Ed page gives us yet another reason to be thankful for the paper of record in Minnesota. Today they give us an editorial entitled "A time to mourn, not to point fingers" and then turn around and point fingers!
"Mourning today is fitting and proper. Frustrations and recriminations will rise soon enough. That's because Americans are tired to the bone of gunmen, rampages, swat teams -- and of needing grief counselors. We are weary to death of the "healing process," and want simply an end to the violence, or, more realistically, a receding to some explainable level.
But unstable people can do unpredictable things, and we've made a decision in this country that guns can be easily obtained. And so we must live with greater risks than those tolerated by other "civilized" societies." (emphasis mine)
Easily obtained huh? As the days go by and we learn about the methodical planning that went in to Monday's rampage, the more we find out that this was not "easy" by any stretch of the imagination.
"Given the risks we have chosen it is unfair to heap blame on the university administration and police for not anticipating this extraordinary two-step mass murder. Hindsight comes too glibly from the sidelines. Cho Seung-Hui could easily have concealed his handguns and ammo clips and slipped in among his fellow students in the two hours between the dormitory slayings and the carnage that followed.
Turning campuses into stockades cannot be the answer. Unless we decide to clamp down on guns and the culture of violence, or to more aggressively intercept dangerous, unstable people, America must expect that Blacksburg won't be its last killing field. " (emphasis again mine)
So the Pretentious Philosophers of Portland Avenue want to crack down on violence? Do they call to clamp down on violent rap music - the kind of music that encourages and glamorizes just this kind of violent behavior? Do they call for a clamp down on "first person shooters" - the games where the player walks through all kinds of "normal" scenarios with the goal of shooting as many people as possible as quickly as possible? OF COURSE NOT!!!! The ONLY thing that the Pretentious Philosophers of Portland Avenue want us to crack down on is GUN USE!
Monday afternoon, I told a discussion group that I belong to that the DFL lead legislature in St Paul was already writing the legislation to repeal our conceal carry legislation based on the VTech shooting. At the time, I was being quite facetious. Based on this editorial, I fear that I was more than a bit prescient.
"Mourning today is fitting and proper. Frustrations and recriminations will rise soon enough. That's because Americans are tired to the bone of gunmen, rampages, swat teams -- and of needing grief counselors. We are weary to death of the "healing process," and want simply an end to the violence, or, more realistically, a receding to some explainable level.
But unstable people can do unpredictable things, and we've made a decision in this country that guns can be easily obtained. And so we must live with greater risks than those tolerated by other "civilized" societies." (emphasis mine)
Easily obtained huh? As the days go by and we learn about the methodical planning that went in to Monday's rampage, the more we find out that this was not "easy" by any stretch of the imagination.
"Given the risks we have chosen it is unfair to heap blame on the university administration and police for not anticipating this extraordinary two-step mass murder. Hindsight comes too glibly from the sidelines. Cho Seung-Hui could easily have concealed his handguns and ammo clips and slipped in among his fellow students in the two hours between the dormitory slayings and the carnage that followed.
Turning campuses into stockades cannot be the answer. Unless we decide to clamp down on guns and the culture of violence, or to more aggressively intercept dangerous, unstable people, America must expect that Blacksburg won't be its last killing field. " (emphasis again mine)
So the Pretentious Philosophers of Portland Avenue want to crack down on violence? Do they call to clamp down on violent rap music - the kind of music that encourages and glamorizes just this kind of violent behavior? Do they call for a clamp down on "first person shooters" - the games where the player walks through all kinds of "normal" scenarios with the goal of shooting as many people as possible as quickly as possible? OF COURSE NOT!!!! The ONLY thing that the Pretentious Philosophers of Portland Avenue want us to crack down on is GUN USE!
Monday afternoon, I told a discussion group that I belong to that the DFL lead legislature in St Paul was already writing the legislation to repeal our conceal carry legislation based on the VTech shooting. At the time, I was being quite facetious. Based on this editorial, I fear that I was more than a bit prescient.
Labels: Gun Control, Prairia Pravda
posted by The Lady Logician at
1:51 PM
2 Comments:
If I may be philisophical for a moment: This is the classic liberal mindset. They believe that government can make everything wonderful, for everybody, all the time. They DENY that there is real evil in the world, and even deny that people aren't perfect. They really believe that if THEY were God, they could do a better job.
J. Ewing
By
Anonymous, at 5:11 PM
You are right, of course. However, they are NOT God and therefore they are no more infallible than you or I. The difference is that you and I admit our fallibility.
LL
By
The Lady Logician, at 6:49 PM
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