'They’re lefty-defenders, not liberty-defenders...'

This is great.

From David Henderson, at Econlog, "Free Speech for Me but Not for Thee: The Case of Erik Loomis." Read it all at the link. Henderson hammers the anti-free speech dorks at Crooked Timber.

And Glenn Reynolds adds: "They’re lefty-defenders, not liberty-defenders..."

That's key. The idiot progressives I've battled online for years don't a shit about free speech unless it's for their own ASFL* partisan allies.

PREVIOUSLY: "Smirking Spectator? Guilty as Charged."

* "Adult sick-fuck losers" (cf. Amy Alkon).

Gun Nut! NRA's Wayne LaPierre Misses Opportunity After Newtown Massacre

High drama at the New York Post, "NRA aims at foes, but shoots itself in the foot with LaPierre's statements."

LaPierre's been with the NRA as long as I've been a political junkie. I don't know. Facts are truly on the side of gun rights activists, but this guy's rant was lacking all the appropriate optics. My earlier comments, with video are here, "NRA Calls for Armed Officers in Schools."

National Review's Newtown Symposium

For some reason NRO's editors thought it smart to put Charlotte Allen's not-enough-men essay first in its recent symposium on the massacre. I don't know. As the father of a husky 11-year-old boy, I doubt I'm the best advocate for a bunch of husky (11 or) 12-year-old boys "gang rushing" a grown man wielding a semi-automatic rifle shooting fragmenting bullets. Megan McArdle made the "gang rush" argument as well (about which here). There may be some circumstances during a mass shooting that such virtual human sacrifice defense methods succeed in dragging down the shooter, or bowling him over, or whatever, but it defies common sense for a rational-thinking child to summon up that much foolish bravado. If anything, I suspect someone would sooner jump between the line of fire to save a dear friend, as what happened during the Aurora shooting. That "gang rush" thing sounds more like a bum rush at this point.

That said, this was actually an excellent symposium: "Newtown Answers."

A couple I like especially, for example, from Jim Daly:

As parents, we must help our children navigate a corrosive culture. We can do this by encouraging and championing a strong moral foundation. Morals help to maintain order in the culture. It’s become en vogue in some circles to consider that morality is relative, that good and bad are subjective. But as we were reminded this past Friday, nothing could be further from the truth.

The best news in the darkest of times is that God has not given up on us. He is in the middle of the mayhem. He now holds these precious little children in His arms. And as we mourn we must hold tightly to the hope and promises of His Word, that He truly is “Our Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.”

From David French:

Thousands of years ago, a man named Job faced the horrible, violent death of his children. He begged God for reasons for his calamity. He pled his case at great length and with great eloquence. Yet when God finally answered, the response was not what Job hoped. The God of the universe answered Job by essentially declaring that He was God, and Job was not. So Job literally placed his hand over his mouth and trusted in the God who he could not fully understand.

Our lives are full of the inexplicable — virtuous men die at evil hands, good men fail while bad men succeed, and justice is forever elusive — but like Job, we must trust our Creator, the God who gave us life and loved us enough to send a Savior. When all words fail, we trust, we pray, and we rely on a promise:

“Blessed are those who mourn; for they shall be comforted.”

May God fulfill that promise for the victims and families of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

From Father Gerald Murray:

The Feast of the Holy Innocents on December 28 is a reminder that violence and mass murder have been part of the human condition since the Fall of Man. Innocent boys were slaughtered by the evil Herod. The senseless act of violence at Sandy Hook Elementary School is a shocking instance of the ever-present possibility that a man will choose to do unimaginable crimes. We are stunned by such murderous hatred, which is diabolical in nature and gravely offends our natural instincts and our religious convictions. What can console us and reassure us?

Sympathy and kindness towards the grieving are important and necessary, but man cannot restore what has been destroyed. The only true and lasting consolation that the Church can offer to those who mourn the untimely death of their loved ones is the Divinely revealed truth that this life is but a preparation for life eternal in Heaven. Those who die are in the hands of a Good God.

May the knowledge of God’s goodness console those who now live in such great sorrow, yet are sustained by the hope of being reunited one day with their loved ones in Heaven.

And the essay by Emily Stimson stands alone, so I'd rather not block quote it. Go read it all at the symposium.

And again, why the editors placed Charlotte Allen's up front is a mystery. She's written response to her critics, for what it's worth: "Newtown & My Critics." (via Memeorandum).

NRA Calls for Armed Officers in Schools

It's the news of the day, and folks on Twitter couldn't resist hammering away at how bizarre this press conference was. I tuned in late, but watching the video, I thought somebody hacked this clip when that first Code Pink protester put up his banner. And then you get the obligatory Medea Benjamin scream-fest. It's unreal. LaPierre just stands there dumbstruck. It was a metaphor for the NRA's response to the outrage. I'm personally disgusted by the left's despicable demonization and rank opportunism, but I doubt the press conference changed many minds. Jonathan Tobin has more on that: "The NRA Should Have Stayed Silent."

And here's this, from the Wall Street Journal:

WASHINGTON—The nation's most powerful gun-rights lobby called Friday for armed security guards in schools, saying that children had been left vulnerable in their classrooms.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said that "the monsters and the predators of the world" have exploited the fact that schools are gun-free zones. Other important institutions—from banks to airports to sports stadiums—are protected with armed security, he said, but this country has left students defenseless.

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," Mr. LaPierre said at a news conference Friday morning.

The comments were the most extensive statements the NRA has made since the Dec. 14 killings at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 children and six adults dead. The gunman also killed his mother and himself. The organization issued a statement earlier this week expressing shock and sadness over the shootings.

In the aftermath of the attack at Sandy Hook Elementary School, much of the national conversation has focused on gun-control measures. But on Friday, Mr. LaPierre said that time should not be wasted on legislation that won't work.

Mr. LaPierre said that the media rewards monsters who would shoot school children by giving them the attention that they crave, and he suggested that some other deranged individual already is planning the next attack.

"The truth is that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters, people that are so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons that no sane person can ever possibly comprehend them," Mr. LaPierre said.

The shootings have led to calls for a variety of new gun laws, including the reinstatement of an assault-weapons ban similar to one that was in effect from 1994 to 2004. The White House also has urged Congress to pass a ban on high-capacity magazines and to require background checks for all gun purchases.

Continue reading.

My immediate impression was doubtful that a nationalized armed schoolhouse security regime would be effective. On Twitter Melissa Clouthier made a number of stinging critiques, but she was especially acute on the need for local school districts, with parents, deciding what's best for their own children and their own circumstances:

BTW, the @nra asking for Department of Education version of the TSA is absurd. JUST NO. Let districts decide, i.e. parents.
— Melissa Clouthier (@MelissaTweets) December 21, 2012

And from Joshua Treviño:

Still, what LaPierre proposes is a TSA-style solution. Far better to let school districts simply adopt their own policies as they see fit.
— Joshua Treviño (@jstrevino) December 21, 2012

I'll have more later, as always...

Althouse Not Down With the Left's 'Civility Bullshit'

I expect the Loomis meltdown is winding down by now (he's back on Twitter, hilariously), but folks are still getting in a few good laughs.

It turns out Althouse had some concise yet excellent comments the other day:

As for Loomis, I lean heavily toward academic freedom, freedom of speech, and the comprehension of metaphor, but against the hypocrisy that for purposes of this blog goes under the tag "civility bullshit" and against the appropriation of a child massacre for diversion and propaganda.

Well, they're double-talking neanderthals, but what else is new? Robert Stacy McCain reacts to Althouse, "Occupy Althouse? (The Zero-Sum Error)."

Hmm. "Occupy Althouse"? An interesting thing.

More later...

Invincible Ignorance

One of the best essays I've read all week, from Thomas Sowell, at the American Spectator:

Must every tragic mass shooting bring out the shrill ignorance of “gun control” advocates?

The key fallacy of so-called gun control laws is that such laws do not in fact control guns. They simply disarm law-abiding citizens, while people bent on violence find firearms readily available.

If gun control zealots had any respect for facts, they would have discovered this long ago, because there have been too many factual studies over the years to leave any serious doubt about gun control laws being not merely futile but counterproductive.

Places and times with the strongest gun control laws have often been places and times with high murder rates. Washington, D.C., is a classic example, but just one among many.

When it comes to the rate of gun ownership, that is higher in rural areas than in urban areas, but the murder rate is higher in urban areas.

The rate of gun ownership is higher among whites than among blacks, but the murder rate is higher among blacks. For the country as a whole, handgun ownership doubled in the late 20th century, while the murder rate went down.

The few counterexamples offered by gun control zealots do not stand up under scrutiny.

Continue reading.

We Know How to Stop School Shootings

From Ann Coulter:

In the wake of a monstrous crime like a madman's mass murder of defenseless women and children at the Newtown, Conn., elementary school, the nation's attention is riveted on what could have been done to prevent such a massacre.

Luckily, some years ago, two famed economists, William Landes at the University of Chicago and John Lott at Yale, conducted a massive study of multiple victim public shootings in the United States between 1977 and 1995 to see how various legal changes affected their frequency and death toll.

Landes and Lott examined many of the very policies being proposed right now in response to the Connecticut massacre: waiting periods and background checks for guns, the death penalty and increased penalties for committing a crime with a gun.

None of these policies had any effect on the frequency of, or carnage from, multiple-victim shootings. (I note that they did not look at reforming our lax mental health laws, presumably because the ACLU is working to keep dangerous nuts on the street in all 50 states.)

Only one public policy has ever been shown to reduce the death rate from such crimes: concealed-carry laws.

Their study controlled for age, sex, race, unemployment, retirement, poverty rates, state population, murder arrest rates, violent crime rates, and on and on.

The effect of concealed-carry laws in deterring mass public shootings was even greater than the impact of such laws on the murder rate generally.

Someone planning to commit a single murder in a concealed-carry state only has to weigh the odds of one person being armed. But a criminal planning to commit murder in a public place has to worry that anyone in the entire area might have a gun.

You will notice that most multiple-victim shootings occur in "gun-free zones" -- even within states that have concealed-carry laws: public schools, churches, Sikh temples, post offices, the movie theater where James Holmes committed mass murder, and the Portland, Ore., mall where a nut starting gunning down shoppers a few weeks ago.

Guns were banned in all these places. Mass killers may be crazy, but they're not stupid.

She nails it.

Continue reading.

Evil Exists in This World

Michelle Malkin discusses the Obama administration's responsibility for increasing gun violence, as well as the partisan reaction --- and overreaction --- to the massacre in Newtown:

I'll have more later...

Smirking Spectator? Guilty as Charged

Folks must be sure to read this piece at Popehat, "Professor Loomis and the NRA: A Story In Which EVERYONE Annoys Me." (At Memeorandum.)

What defenders of Erik Loomis conveniently overlook is his long history of violent death-wish rhetoric spewed at his political opponents. Should he be fired for this? Of course not. But that's not to say I'm not amused by the whole thing, a fascinating spectacle, to be sure. Here's the quote I'm referencing:

I support, without qualification, people writing about Professor Loomis. I find his expression contemptible. But I also find the efforts to get him fired or arrested contemptible, and I find it highly regrettable that some blogs are, at the most charitable interpretation, acting as smirking spectators to that effort. The effort is not without cost, even if neither the police nor the University take action. Trying to get a professor fired for clearly protected speech promotes and contributes to the culture of censorship in higher education that FIRE fights and that Greg Lukianoff exposed persuasively in his recent book "Unlearning Liberty."

Perhaps I'd be more bothered by efforts to get Loomis fired if I hadn't been on the receiving end of identical efforts by his co-bloggers at Lawyers, Guns and Money and by his ideological allies in the progressive ASFL fever swamps. Indeed, I almost fell off my chair laughing at this mewling piece of "free-speech" grandstanding at Crooked Timber, "Statement on Erik Loomis." You'll notice in the comments that Scott Eric Kaufman "signs" the statement in solidarity, which is about as hypocritical as one can be ---- considering that the f-ker tried to get me fired, not for threatening him, but for simply pointing out that he loves using profanity in his teaching. There was some history of flame wars before that, but my post nailing Kaufman bragging about dropping f-bombs during lectures really must have hit a nerve. The next thing you know the guy was libeling me at my college (smearing me as a pornographer and sexual harasser), posing as a concern troll with the most demonic intentions imaginable. None of these same academic and progressive idiots said a word in my defense at the time, because they all hate me with the passion of the 1000 burning suns. But when one of their own idiots gets caught in the crossfire (metaphor) ---- and Popehat does indeed slam Loomis as an anti-free speech lunkhead --- they get all stiffer than a black-stallion steroid-pumped homosexual erection. These people are the epitome of double-standards and partisan posturing --- an example of hypocrisy also hammered at the Popehat post.

Here's my post on SEK: "The Lies of Scott Eric Kaufman — Leftist Hate-Blogger Sought to Silence Criticism With Libelous Campaign of Workplace Harassment."

And as regular readers know full well, Walter James Casper III used his blog, with his co-bloggers, to post my contact information and exhort his readers to contact my college. See: "Intent to Annoy and the Fascist Hate-Blogging Campaign of Walter James Casper III." And don't miss: "Roundup on Progressive Campaign of Workplace Intimidation and Harassment."

When you see the idiot progs get all bent out of shape like a bunch of homos, be reminded of Michelle Malkin's comments:

So, it’s come to this: Advocating beheadings, beatings, and mass murder of peaceful Americans to pay for the sins of a soulless madman. But because the advocates of violence fashion themselves champions of non-violence and because they inhabit the hallowed worlds of Hollywood, academia, and the Democratic Party, it’s acceptable?

Blood-lusting hate speech must not get a pass just because it comes out of the mouths of the protected, anti-gun class.

No one is as vile as these people. Loomis is just roadkill in the partisan wars, and he won't be the last on either side. Is it decent or fair? Perhaps not, but not so many people are as stupid as Loomis the Lumberjack. No one's as stupid to violently rattle off the death chants while still an untenured assistant professor at a research university. "Dim bulb" is charitable.

Meanwhile, Robert Stacy McCain's having a field day with Loomis, to the hilarious benefit of the conservative 'sphere. See: "#Metaphor: Academics Sign Their Own Death Warrants by Defending Loomis."

Screw these people. They reap what they sow. When they start calling out the workplace harassers among their own partisans maybe I'll give a f-k about stooges like Loomis.

BONUS: From Glenn Reynolds:

I KNOW I HAVEN’T: Don’t get too excited about Professor Loomis. “Professor Loomis’ vivid tweets are not actionable threats. That is to say, they aren’t ‘true threats’ outside the protection of the First Amendment.”

That’s right. They’re just hate-filled “eliminationist rhetoric” of the sort that lefties are always accusing people on the right of, but seem to engage in rather a lot themselves. Not a firing offense, but certainly worthy of widespread mockery.

RTWT.

Do You Believe the NRA's 'Grip on Congress' is Threatened?

I got a pretty good laugh out of this front-page story at yesterday's Los Angeles Times, "Gun lobby's grip on Congress threatened":

WASHINGTON — The gun-control debate sharpened Tuesday as President Obama backed an effort to revive the assault weapons ban spearheaded by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is poised to have a powerful new role as the head of the Senate committee overseeing gun laws.

Calls for federal gun restrictions were mounting following last week's shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. — even from lawmakers who had rejected them in the past. The National Rifle Assn. and its allies have successfully kept such efforts at bay for years, but the slayings of 20 children have roiled the politics of gun control and now challenge the gun lobby's hold on Capitol Hill.

I doubt it. The president's task-force on firearms is supposedly designed to freeze the politics of gun control. But even if it doesn't I don't think there's much support for gun control beyond a couple of token measures to make the left's extremists happy. We'll see. A good indicator going forward will be the direction the NRA takes in its press conference on Friday. The group exists to protect the rights of gun owners. It's not going to take all these pathetic attacks lying down. Word has it that the group's going to hammer mental health failures and the pop culture's glorification of violence. This oughta be good.

Jedediah Bila on Red Eye

Via Ms. Bila on Twitter.

Ambassador John Bolton is a guest as well.

Megyn Kelly Broke Down in Tears During Monday's Fox News Coverage of Newtown Massacre

I think most people have broken down at some point. It's an emotional story.

At Gateway Pundit, "FOX News Host Megyn Kelly Breaks Down in Tears During Moving Sandy Hook Segment (Video)."

I don't know how well I would hold up if something happened to my family. But I know I'd need to be strong for my wife if anything happened to our boys. She wouldn't be able to hold up very long. In any case, the Rekos family story is at London's Daily Mail, "'The life was sucked out of us': Parents of first grader Jessica Rekos reveal moment they found out she was dead - and how they went home and lay in her bed for hours."