Post-Orlando
My June 14th post had lots of good things to say about the American people's reaction to the massacre in Orlando.
I do not retract a single word, for my thoughts and observations have not changed, but I do want to clarify something: Just because I think America's citizens have acted with unifying grace does not mean I believe America's left wing pundits and politicians have acted that way.
On the contrary, journalists, Democrat politicians, and all the other movers and shakers of the Left have been their usual selves, which is to say they have been divisive and dishonest and dishonorable. The man who committed the massacre was a Koran-reading, avowedly Muslim Democrat steeped in Islamist culture -- yet the movers and shakers of the Left blame the massacre on the culture of Bible-reading, avowedly Christian Republicans.
I won't say any more about that sadly typical phenomenon because David French and Jonah Goldberg have already penned masterful pieces on the topic. Go here and here to check them out.
On a similar note...
...somebody attempted to assassinate the presumptive Republican presidential nominee at a campaign rally last Saturday, and not a single jounalist, Dem pol, or other member of the Left's movers and shakers bothered to even criticize it, much less suggest that the Left's long history of hatred and violence might have created a culture that incubates hatred and violence.
If someone tried to assassinate Hillary Clinton, you know damn well that every journalist and Democrat politician from sea to shining sea would be all over the airwaves denouncing "right wing hatred" and blaming the assassination attempt on every conservative from milquetoast Mitt Romney to 85-year-old Thomas Sowell.
If you doubt that the Left has a history of hatred and violence, here, for your consideration, are the names of just a few of history's leftists: Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Benito Mussolini, Bull Connor, the Castro brothers, Che Guevara, Elijah Muhammad, the Earth Liberation Front, the Weather Underground... and etc... and etc.
And for anyone who still believes the college pothead fantasy that Che Guevara was a "man of the people" and not a cold-blooded murderer, here you go.
And there's this: The late Fred Phelps (founder and leader of Kansas's notorious Westboro Baptist Church, whose web site is actually called godhatesfags.com) was a lifelong Democrat who ran for governor as a Democrat as recently as 1998. Look it up.
On another similar note...
A French editorial cartoon has recently started making the rounds on Facebook. It shows a child standing on a step stool struggling to reach a shelf where books are kept, while five guns hang at a lower and easily accessible level and an American flag sits nearby. The caption translates, albeit roughly, to: "We can judge a society by what it makes easily accessible."
How does one even start to comment on the cartoonist's colossal ignorance?
Obviously, he or she knows nothing about the accessibility of guns in the United States. The implication that they are easier to obtain than books would be laughable if it weren't so libelous. Everywhere you go in this country, books are easily and quickly available, often for free (ever heard of libraries?). On the other hand, acquiring guns requires major investments of time and money even in states with the most lenient gun laws (by the way, those lenient states include such hotbeds of right wing extremism as Vermont and Maine).
Plus, I find it interesting that the cartoonist chooses to criticize our country, where gun ownership is permitted on a voluntary basis, while not criticizing Switzerland, where gun ownership is mandated regardless of your personal beliefs about guns.
And for my American liberal friends, almost all of whom are certain to think of this cartoon as a wise critique on American society: If you believe it is good to judge a society by what it makes easily accessible, and if you believe (as most of you do) that European society is more enlightened that ours, then what do you say about the fact that European nations make abortions much, much, much harder to get than they are here? Does that make you rethink your lockstep devotion to abortion on demand at any time for any reason?
Mr. Hockey
On a similar note...
...somebody attempted to assassinate the presumptive Republican presidential nominee at a campaign rally last Saturday, and not a single jounalist, Dem pol, or other member of the Left's movers and shakers bothered to even criticize it, much less suggest that the Left's long history of hatred and violence might have created a culture that incubates hatred and violence.
If someone tried to assassinate Hillary Clinton, you know damn well that every journalist and Democrat politician from sea to shining sea would be all over the airwaves denouncing "right wing hatred" and blaming the assassination attempt on every conservative from milquetoast Mitt Romney to 85-year-old Thomas Sowell.
If you doubt that the Left has a history of hatred and violence, here, for your consideration, are the names of just a few of history's leftists: Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Tse-tung, Benito Mussolini, Bull Connor, the Castro brothers, Che Guevara, Elijah Muhammad, the Earth Liberation Front, the Weather Underground... and etc... and etc.
And for anyone who still believes the college pothead fantasy that Che Guevara was a "man of the people" and not a cold-blooded murderer, here you go.
And there's this: The late Fred Phelps (founder and leader of Kansas's notorious Westboro Baptist Church, whose web site is actually called godhatesfags.com) was a lifelong Democrat who ran for governor as a Democrat as recently as 1998. Look it up.
On another similar note...
A French editorial cartoon has recently started making the rounds on Facebook. It shows a child standing on a step stool struggling to reach a shelf where books are kept, while five guns hang at a lower and easily accessible level and an American flag sits nearby. The caption translates, albeit roughly, to: "We can judge a society by what it makes easily accessible."
How does one even start to comment on the cartoonist's colossal ignorance?
Obviously, he or she knows nothing about the accessibility of guns in the United States. The implication that they are easier to obtain than books would be laughable if it weren't so libelous. Everywhere you go in this country, books are easily and quickly available, often for free (ever heard of libraries?). On the other hand, acquiring guns requires major investments of time and money even in states with the most lenient gun laws (by the way, those lenient states include such hotbeds of right wing extremism as Vermont and Maine).
Plus, I find it interesting that the cartoonist chooses to criticize our country, where gun ownership is permitted on a voluntary basis, while not criticizing Switzerland, where gun ownership is mandated regardless of your personal beliefs about guns.
And for my American liberal friends, almost all of whom are certain to think of this cartoon as a wise critique on American society: If you believe it is good to judge a society by what it makes easily accessible, and if you believe (as most of you do) that European society is more enlightened that ours, then what do you say about the fact that European nations make abortions much, much, much harder to get than they are here? Does that make you rethink your lockstep devotion to abortion on demand at any time for any reason?
Mr. Hockey
I spend a lot of time writing about hockey, so it seems like I should chime in about Gordie Howe in the wake of his death, but I don't feel like I have anything to add to the conversation.
The first time I watched a hockey game was February 22, 1980 -- 'twas the Miracle On Ice -- and Howe's finale took place 46 days later on April 9th. As a 9-year old in pre-Reagan Florida, I did not have an opportunity to watch any Hartford Whalers games during that brief period so I never saw Mr. Hockey play. Therefore I will limit my remarks to mentioning two of my favorite Howe factoids.
In 1957 -- his eleventh season in the NHL -- Detroit was playing Toronto when defenseman Bob Baun leveled him with malicious intent. A full decade later, in 1967, Howe drilled Baun in open ice and his stick hit him in the throat; then he stood over him and declared: "Now we're even."
The other factoid is this: That Gordie Howe jersey worn by Ferris Bueller's friend Cameron was a gift Howe had given to Director John Hughes -- so now you know why a Chicago teen was walking around Chicago wearing Detroit garb on that famous "day off."
More hockey
It says a lot about the game's proliferation that two of the top five prospects in tomorrow's draft -- including the projected number one overall pick -- are from Arizona. It proves that the NHL staking itself in the desert is bearing big time fruit, even though I believe Winnipeg got screwed by the staking.
Also, I believe the NHL expanding to Las Vegas is very good for the game, even though I believe Quebec City deserves (and is owed) a team.
In 1957 -- his eleventh season in the NHL -- Detroit was playing Toronto when defenseman Bob Baun leveled him with malicious intent. A full decade later, in 1967, Howe drilled Baun in open ice and his stick hit him in the throat; then he stood over him and declared: "Now we're even."
The other factoid is this: That Gordie Howe jersey worn by Ferris Bueller's friend Cameron was a gift Howe had given to Director John Hughes -- so now you know why a Chicago teen was walking around Chicago wearing Detroit garb on that famous "day off."
More hockey
It says a lot about the game's proliferation that two of the top five prospects in tomorrow's draft -- including the projected number one overall pick -- are from Arizona. It proves that the NHL staking itself in the desert is bearing big time fruit, even though I believe Winnipeg got screwed by the staking.
Also, I believe the NHL expanding to Las Vegas is very good for the game, even though I believe Quebec City deserves (and is owed) a team.
But for now I am tired, so I am signing off. Have a good one.
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