Progressives Pander Pubertistas (updated 7apr18)

George Rebane

Yesterday was the day kids across the country were organized to walk out of their classes and protest ‘gun violence’.  Given what the little darlins are (not) taught in schools, they appeared to have no idea of what had happened in Parkland and what they were actually protesting with signs like ‘Choose me, not guns!’  They were simply pawns in the most recent progressives’ plan not to waste another tragedy to advance their agenda.  One of my favorite political observers put it this way –

If the kids doing the demonstrating/walking out were protesting massive failure at EVERY level of government and were protesting the dereliction of duty by the adults in their school, community, state, and federal government who are sworn to protect them and didn’t – great.  Call attention to the fact that every single warning sign was ignored, pushed under the rug.  Call attention to the fact that there was cowardice and incompetence.  Call attention to the school which failed to refer the shooter to the police, call attention to the social workers who didn’t do anything, call attention to the sheriff and to the FBI who didn’t do anything.

I am suspicious that the kids’ desire to be kept safe from harm was and has been hijacked by political activists for THEIR intent to disarm American citizens.  The response of the MSD HS students and elsewhere has been professionalized.  When entities like the Miami Herald, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Women’s March, Michael Bloomberg, MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood, and the Broward County American Federation of Teachers all provide instant organizing assistance, buses, money (from celebrities too), publicity… you know the kids didn’t do it alone. 

The president of the AFT told BuzzFeed that they are also behind the national school walkout.  Now that is inappropriate.  That is using children. 

I would add that had the kids not been professionally goaded, they may not have done anything of this nature or coordinated on a national scale.  Their reason-restricted and one-sided protest against the access and ownership of guns is prima facie evidence of their having once more been marshalled as the Left’s “useful idiots”.

The Left’s alarming increase in the use of ‘action’ instead of reason to advance their cause highlights their lack of the latter to support their arguments.  Agreeing with this observation we now have the voice of Michael Walzer, the long-heralded dean of the American Left and 30+ year editor of the leftwing magazine Dissent.  In his just published book Foreign Policy for the Left (2018), Mr Walzer explains why the Left has substituted action (e.g. the managed student demonstrations) for reason in their apologetics.  As a champion of the Left, Walzer has been a longtime proponent of the moral argument for collectivism.  “He believes, a priori, in practicing human decency: a moral sensibility toward other people and their existences. He thinks that capitalism’s inequality has coarsened this sensibility but that capital’s productive capacity can be harnessed, through political action, to transcend the capitalist system: to create societies where people can live more equally and so be more decent to one another.”

Walzer sees the danger in the Left’s “vanguardism, under which acolytes of an ideal believe that the ideal is more important than how they reach it.” – in short, the end does justify any available means.  We see that every day, especially in the Left’s rabid efforts to ruin Trump’s presidency, and in their longer term opposition to anything American as a force for good in the world.  Walzer advises the Left adopt a “politics of sympathy and distinction”, but concludes his anguished analysis with a fear that today America’s Left is too far gone in their ingrained practice of public “indecency”.

Martin Peretz, the former editor of the leftwing New Republic, reviews Walzer’s book (here) and asks "can there be a 'decent' Left?".  He adds his own “explanation of the Left’s indecency” that originated with the teachings of Herbert Marcuse, “the intellectual influence behind the New Left of the 1960s”, who “urged his followers to practice varieties of extreme experience”.  Echoing Marcuse, today’s leftists claim that reason “is a scrim for forces that want to oppress (the people) - their identities, their economic interests, their self-regard.  So words no longer matter, only actions.”  That is their “explanation for why other viewpoints are not worthy of attention”.  We have seen a profusion of such sentiment expressed in these pages.

[7apr18 update]  The much celebrated community cartoonist, thought leader, and RR reader RL 'Bob' Crabb takes a bit of a swing at this little conservetarian trumpet.  Bringing us again to the attention of the county’s cognoscenti is much appreciated.  However, a careful perusal of Bob’s artful commentary – filched from the pages of the 7apr18 Union - did not reveal the whereabouts of the well-organized and funded handlers of the pubertistas.  Their omission must have been an oversight, for it’s hard to imagine that such an oft-declared center roader would just continue parroting the lamestream’s line that the kids did it all by themselves. 

Comments

[fish]

.....can there be a 'decent' Left?".

Nope!

[Account Deleted]

Some mayors and school officials were for the school walk outs. The ACLU is trying to defend the kids under 1st A grounds. You just have to hold your head over such massive stupidity and hypocrisy. Since when would these same mayors and school officials be in favor of 'brave kids' walking out for a conservative cause? Equal treatment under the law? Not even close. The left have got the bit in their teeth and it's off to the races.

[Gregory]

The AFT chiming in for credit where credit (or blame) is due for the orchestrated walk out, led me to check and... yes, they filed an amicus curiae brief in the Janus case that was recently argued at the SCOTUS.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/16/16-1466/28409/20180119110627861_16-1466%20bsac%20AFT.pdf

The very last paragraph is telling... in short, if the court decides in favor of Janus (and a'gin the union they'd been forced to support), that the court should think about splitting teachers away from other public employees 'cause "the balance of state and individual interests may be different".

It's hard not to get excited ahead of the ruling. I will try harder.

The two local Exploratory Learning schools (the wretched SAEL and it's younger counterpart, the Grass Valley Charter) and the even more Progreessively Whacky Waldorf went all out. I thought it was touching, watching the video of the GV Charter posted on The Union, a touching vision of a teacher leading her tiny charges with their handmade signs, showing them how to lift the sign over their heads and smiling, and marching on.

That was at about the 3:30 mark. It was all about indoctrination.

[George Rebane]

Re leftwing reason - I draw your attention to the 'all or nothing' attribution of Stephen Hawking's beliefs and statements seen in the 'Stephen Hawking, RIP' post's comment stream. You can't make this stuff up.

[Paul Emery]

So George what would be an appropriate response for young people who are concerned about their safety? Is it not a reasonable argument that had the Florida shooter been unable to purchase an assault type rifle if he had to be 21, he just might not have perused one in the black market and the shooting could have been prevented?

[Gregory]

Paul...he wouldn't have been able to buy a peashooter had even one the 39 police contacts, some for what could have been violent felonies, resulted in him being put into the "school to prison pipeline" that he was trying so hard to get into.

The kids are pawns in this. Yes, they're scared. The adults in their lives after the shooting are mostly telling them the NRA wants them dead and doesn't care about anything else but money.

It's almost enough to get me to send the NRA some money.

[Don Bessee]

The shooting should have been prevented by the FBI and Broward Sheriffs given the volume of specific threat warnings. ;-)

[Scenes]

re: Gregory@1:24PM

Wow, you aren't a kiddin' about the video. There a bunch of really little kids out there with their placards.

I guess it's a natural side effect of the politicization of schools. I can't even imagine something like that happening in decades past, aside from the odd march-to-end-world-poverty kind of thing. Back when I was a whipper snapper, I would imagine that a teacher would have been fired that day for dragging the class out for domestic politics. The fact that you could fire a teacher in that era shows the dinosaur thinking I bring to this.

Seriously, did they even drag out 8 year olds in the Deep South for parade duty during the fights over desegregation?

[Scenes]

re: Me@3:00PM

OK, I get it now. Nothing to see here. I didn't realize that this whole march deal was organized by EMPOWER aka Women's March. DNC astroturf.

[Gregory]

scenes 300pm

From The Union piece with the embedded video
"At Yuba River Charter School, middle school students Jaia Aginsky and Annika Casey Welch organized approximately 40 seventh- and eighth graders to march to City Hall in Nevada City with a list of demands — for the city to prohibit assault rifles and weapons of war, to raise the age limit to purchases of any firearm to 21, to "make a clear and unequivocal statement against teachers or anyone carrying firearms into our schools," and "to commit to not financially supporting the National Rifle Association and furthermore to not financially supporting any organization that invests into the NRA."

As a non-profit charity, it may surprise the kiddies at the Waldorf Brain Salad school that no one "invests into the NRA". And, silly me... aren't there only approximately 40 kids in the seventh and eighth grades there in total? How many kids were left behind in those two upper grades?

I guess no one at the Yuba River Charter taught the kiddies that none of what they were demanding of their City is within the powers of the city to accomplish. Oooops.
https://www.theunion.com/news/local-news/nevada-county-students-join-in-national-school-walkout/

[George Rebane]

PaulE 222pm - Not at all Paul. Had they their wits about them and a basic knowledge of what went down, they would be going for the authorities who failed at every level, instead of attacking what is the holy-of-holies for more than half the country. They should know that first enforce existing laws and execute established procedures before attempting to layer on something else that has no chance of working. But since they are progressives' puppets, they knew none of this, nor will they be enlightened about it in their classrooms. As Lenin said ...

[Scenes]

Lenin? How about Beria?

"If we can effectively kill the national pride and patriotism of just one generation, we will have won that country. Therefore we must continue propaganda abroad to undermine the loyalty of citizens in general and of teenagers in particular."

[Paul Emery]

George

I still contend that a 21 age limit for purchasing these type of firearms could have prevented this terrible tragedy but that's just my view. Why is it you have you be 21 to drink alcohol or smoke (in many states) and why doesn't the same criteria apply to purchasing dangerous weapons?

[Walt]

And your too old to drive Paul. Age restrictions are a two way street.

[Account Deleted]

"I still contend that a 21 age limit for purchasing these type of firearms could have prevented this terrible tragedy but that's just my view." Yes Paul - we know about your 'views'. They are not based on reason or facts. You pull them out of your belly button.
Maybe Paul can explain why it is that sub-18 year old kids can easily obtain fire arms in this country yet a person between the age of 18 and 21 would not be able to?
And also maybe Paul can tell us what 'type' of firearms 18 year olds should be able to buy.

[Scenes]

We live in such wondrous times.

California High School Teacher On Leave After Questioning School Shooting Walkout

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/03/14/rocklin-teacher-questions-walkout/

My favorite part is not just that the administration punished her, but that they found out from students who ran home to tell their parents who ran down to bitch about it. More Green Libertarian tricks.

[Gregory]

Paul 501pm

"Dangerous weapons"? What kind of weapons aren't dangerous?

It probably has something to do with the fact that adults 18 or over have rights, too, and one of those are a right to having a gun for self defense, not to mention a right to kill Bambi's mom and dad in season, with a deer tag granted by the King (after all, they are the king's deer) if they want to put venison (i.e. deer meat) on the table.

[Walt]

Yup it's time for a PRO 2ND Amend. school walkout.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/03/15/pollak-school-walkout-gun-control-likely-violated-constitution/

I'm sure the kids would love to... Anything to get out of class.

[Gregory]

Hmmmm... the link to The Union story no longer includes the video with the monkey see/monkey do instruction, with the progressive teachers showing the kiddies how to protest for the cameras!

[Account Deleted]

Adam Lanza was 20 when he obtained a 'scary rifle' and killed a bunch of kids.
No back ground check - no fingerprints - didn't need any money.
Paul Emery is apparently unaware that some folks in this world don't give a shit about his rules.

[Account Deleted]

Scenes 5:20 - Paid leave? For what? Not surprised she's lawyering up. Whoever was behind punishing her should be canned.

[fish]

Posted by: Scenes | 15 March 2018 at 05:20 PM

”Benzel says she never discouraged her students from participating in the national school walk out, but she did question whether it’s appropriate for a school to support a protest against gun violence if they’re not willing to support all protests.

“And so I just kind of used the example which I know it’s really controversial, but I know it was the best example I thought of at the time—a group of students nationwide, or even locally, decided ‘I want to walk out of school for 17 minutes’ and go in the quad area and protest abortion, would that be allowed by our administration?” she said.

The educational left....if it weren’t for double standards they would have no standards at all.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 501pm - No one is contending your right and ability to contend about gun purchase age limits. But you use very diluted arguments. One can ask why it's OK for 18-year-olds to join the military and be trained to kill with all kinds of weapons. When my generation could go to the store and buy a 30-30 at the age of 16 and the country was no more in danger for it, brings up some interesting questions of what has happened since the progressives took over the management of public mores so that now selling such a firearm to a 16-year-old would be a major crime.

[Account Deleted]

To really get a view of how far down the road we are in this country in getting rid of the Bill Of Rights, check out the essays and articles in Daily Kos, Slate and Mother Jones.
Basically a bunch of would be helots down on their knees pleading for a despot to enslave them. Because - "if it saves one life, it will be worth it".
One essay openly touts total registration of fire arms as a stealth first step in total fire arm confiscation.
But of course most of the left wing writers make fun of anyone fearing gun confiscation as 'paranoid'.
Yep - just follow the 'grass roots' efforts of the wise teenagers marching around with all of the various left-wing slogans written on their signs.
And remember - that's your tax dollars at work.

[Account Deleted]

GR at 5:49 - "...brings up some interesting questions of what has happened since the progressives took over the management of public mores so that now selling such a firearm to a 16-year-old would be a major crime."
Careful George - look what happened to the teacher that simply asked questions.
Actually the left has the ready answer - "well, back then we didn't have these high powered weapons of war flooding the streets".
It's total BS, but the big lie is in full force and you just can't fix stupid.

[Paul Emery]

George

Are you contending that a 16 year old should be able to buy a 30-30?

[jon smith]

I'm not sure what bumping the age to 21 would do. So many of these guns are stolen, borrowed, etc. The only gun control measure I can see that would meaningfully reduce the lethality of these attacks is minimizing the number of rounds a gun can carry (6, 8, 10, name a number) and limit the use of pre loaded clips. If Lanzo, or Bozo the clown had to manually load his weapon between every 3 or 4 kids he killed, it would certainly slow things down. It would not impinge on the rights of hunters or legit target shooters or self protection. Yes, if you want to bounce a beer can down the gully with 60 continuous shots, it would ruin your day, but in the bigger scheme of things, like piles of dead people, live with it.

[fish]

Posted by: jon smith | 15 March 2018 at 06:25 PM

......and limit the use of pre loaded clips

By all means, enlighten us as to how you will accomplish this?

[Account Deleted]

So jon smith is upset about the current rate of kill.
"If Lanzo, or Bozo the clown had to manually load his weapon between every 3 or 4 kids he killed, it would certainly slow things down."
So, jonnie boy - what is the acceptable rate of kill in your world?
In the Florida shooting, they waited until he ran out of ammo. Your plan would have given the cops longer to dunk donuts, so there's that.
Personally, I favor shooting the guy dead as soon as he pulls the rifle out of the duffle bag, but apparently that doesn't allow for the proper horror to occur for the left to exploit, so we'll have to explore other means of keeping the kids alive.

[George Rebane]

PaulE 624pm - yes; but at that age he would at least need his parent's or guardians assent.

[Account Deleted]

Paul - notice that George responded. Maybe you might respond to our queries.
And not by asking more questions.

[Scenes]

re: ScottO@5:54PM

There's an easy solution here.

1. Build a society with no social capital. Mass immigration of widely varying ethnicity, disinterest in churches or fraternal organizations, destruction of founding myths.

2. Lack of reciprocity or trust results in poor behavior.

3. Crank up surveillance,regulations, policing.

4. Hilarity ensues.

[Gregory]

Paul 624pm

You can read, after a fashion. Did George write a 16 year old should be able to buy a 30-30 (which would probably have been a lever action repeater 70 years ago, or a bold action rifle)?

The 21 minimum age for handguns was in the Safe Streets Act of 1968.

MMMM, I love those safe streets, Chicago, Baltimore, No Olans, DC. Imagine how wild they were before the Act was passed.

[Gregory]

So Paul... do you think a relative (or someone entrusted by a parent or guardian) should be able to hand a 30-30 to a 13 year old kid to hunt?

What about an AR-10 in .308?

[Account Deleted]

Paul is out looking for a bumper sticker or a poll to be able to answer questions.

[Todd Juvinall]

A lot of kids die in auto accidents every year. I say raise the age to drive to 21.

[Bonnie McGuire]

Was it Ben Franklin who said the way a person thinks and believes is their religion? It's now considered illegal for the moral values of Christianity that inspired our Constitutional laws to not be appropriate for our schools? However, is it now okay that they follow the mafia union type mentality that motivated Russia, labeled "the motherland" in an article years ago? I always wondered about this so-called wonderful mass murderer motherland, since I had relatives who escaped its tyranny. I also understand that it's illegal for teachers to teach and encourage political activism in public schools. Why? Because everyone is taxed (regardless of political viewpoints) to pay for public schools, and their money, and children, shouldn't be used against what they believe in.

[Paul Emery]

I contend that if the age were 21 there is a reasonable chance the Florida shooter would not have had the gumption to seek out an illegal rifle and the shooting would be averted. That's A question answered Scott. Next question?

[Paul Emery]

Where did that question come from Gregory? 7:10

[Scenes]

re: ToddJ@7:31

Why not 22?

I think we should raise the drinking age to 22 also.

We could make cigarettes illegal.

Crush all cars older than 4 or 5 years. That one change would likely save thousands of lives per year.

Aside from provable alleviation of pain or nausea, make marijuana completely illegal. It certainly doesn't improve the death rate.

Maybe the next stage would be to force modern building code on all buildings. Tear it down if it doesn't pass. Mobile homes, of course, all disappear.

Eliminate bath tubs.

Hey, I'm likin' being a progressive.

[Walt]

Why is Paul allowed to drive at his age? They forget which peddle is which. Reaction time is compromised. Failing vision. And plent more excuses to remove one's privilege to drive.(Yes,, privilege, not a right. ) I'm sure Paul has plenty of excuses in defense.

[Account Deleted]

Paul at 7:42 - you are way behind on answering questions. Why don't we go way, way back to the top of the page and start from there. I know anything more than 1 hour ago is hard for you, Paul, but the rest of us cope and so I think you might be able to do the same. Please be an adult and respond to our responses to your posts.
I have pointed out that there is no evidence for your 'contention' in real life.
I realize that you have a vast and abiding faith that anything you dream up must have a deep truth behind it due solely to the fact that you are its author.
I have offered real facts from actual reality - you only rebut with your personal dreams from your deeply held beliefs. Religion is not in play here, only hard cold reality.

[Scenes]

re: Walt@8:42PM

Little old men have fairly low accident rates I think, although I expect it's because of a lack of miles driven.

Just to draw this back to the original post, what I'd love to see is some hard data on lives saved by different laws or regulations. People need to think more like actuaries and less like emotional wrecks.

Cars are a good one, but just imagine the fuss if you implemented European style safety inspection on them. Half the cars in the county would get crushed. Best to stick with firearms.

In 1989, the Roberti-Roos Act was passed in California (I imagine that Mr. Emery has never heard of it, but people can surprise you). It would be interesting to be shown the drop in long gun murders that can be attributed to it.

[Account Deleted]

Scenes at 8:13 - Emergency room statistics show ladders to be one of, if not the most common causes of serious injury. Ban them!
Looky here folks - Among all types of murder, the AR15 type rifle accounts for a piddling percentage - probably the lowest of all types of fire arms. It is as if the left were to lower car deaths by only outlawing Studebakers.
This has nothing to do with dead students - it has solely to do with undoing the 2nd A.
The other amendments are next.
Heck - the 1st amendment has even been under fire lately by the left.
Well - I must admit the mostest important human right ever, ever, will never be doubted by the left. You'll always have the right to slaughter an innocent human being you don't like if it's inside a woman.

[Paul Emery]

RR contributers: What doesn't make sense to me is why it's illegal for an 18 year old to drink a beer and legal for one to buy an AR15? Can you explain the logic in that? Perhaps you believe an 18 year old should be able to legally drink as well. That would make sense and be consistent.

[Todd Juvinall]

Yes a 18 YO should be able to drink.

[Scenes]

re: Paul Emery (as usual)

Because the drinking age makes a measurable difference.

http://economics.nd.edu/assets/31978/

Please find a study showing how rifle age restrictions change the death rate in some real way.

I'll happily read it.

Honestly, if you want to cut the murder rate in the country, merely disallow black males from handgun ownership. How do you feel about that?

[Scenes]

re: Drinking age, another one.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02742.x/full

Robot cars might make this less of a problem.

You can argue that adulthood = 21 for all things (driving, alcohol, firearms, voting), but you run into the problem of people who have graduated from high school and need to be fully operational adults.

[Walt]

Well,, Paul's back to his "I ain't sayin' a thing" mode.
Questions too hard?
Answer your own question Paul. Booze is booze. A mind altering substance. Just like DOPE.
A gun is not booze.
I have had guns since I was 12. You LIBS love to say "kids are more grown up now".

[Scenes]

Just a quick couple of charts.

https://stream.org/wp-content/uploads/stream.hom_.21.jpg

http://prospect.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/gun_murders_by_type.jpg

OK Paul, perhaps you could help me understand how to fix this.

[Bill Tozer]

Why not make the age to buy a firearm 25 years old? 21 ain’t no magic number.

The nicest think I will say that the children were misguided.

The kindness thing I will say is, “Hey kids, Gun control ain’t going to happen in Congress.

Nice speeches. Good to see the old Occupy Wall Street crowd hopped on their grey mares and the Over the Hill Gangs rides again. Very organic. Naughty, naughty. Hiding behind the children is so Red Chinese, so North Vietnamese, so ISIS like. That’s not who we are. The ole lead with the children, again? Mercy.

Nice speeches and spirit, but not too many times the murderer’s name was mentioned. Odd, I already forgot his name. No loud demand for change aimed at the school shrink, the school administration, Sheriff, FBI........Didn’t hear a lot about those topics.

Hey, the kid reached out to the school shrink off al frighten things. He kicked classroom doors in, threw chairs , and they decided to keep sharp pointy things like scissors away from him and keep an eye on him.

Hey, the kid called the cops on himself. He called them. He was reaching out.

Hey, he talked to the FBI twice.

Those kids marching and getting their voices heard are not any safer when they return from their “No class!” fun in the streets than they were yesterday or last week.

On a lighter note, heard on great report from the street in Baltimore on NPR or some KVMR type little station. Great interviews with high school girls. Very articulate and passionate. They were saying how misguided the school district was. Spending $200,000 to bus them to the rally while there is no heat in the classroooms, they are scared shitless of getting shot walking home from school, scared at school, and they can’t walk anywhere without being afraid of getting shot walking down the street.

The fine young black female students were more concern with no heat in the classroom and making back therough the neighbor tonight than any stupid rally. And yes, the girls knew that the $200,000buck was donated and won’t cost the District a dime, but still, WTF is going on with no heat in the classrooms and them being afraid of getting shot walking home? That’s where the rubber meets the road.

[Bill Tozer]

Protests in Colorado

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1277498982384136/?type=3&theater

[Gregory]

Marcuse sounds like Jean-Paul Marat without Mme. Guillotine.

[Jaye Smith]

“Walzer sees the danger in the Left’s “vanguardism, under which acolytes of an ideal believe that the ideal is more important than how they reach it.” – in short, the end does justify any available means.”

Sounds like the Bunkerville Bundy Sagebrush Rebellion (slight reprise). Tourtisegate received its share of organized support and became a media circus.

The difference?

The Bundy Bunch believed they needed to wave guns around and wear cute camouflage clothing to make their point.
The trouble with their cause is that most Americans don’t think the Bundy Bunch should just be given a bunch of land and/or be allowed to refuse to pay rent for said dirt patch like a bunch of welfare cheats.

The Parkland Massacre is like the Rosa Parks incident, or other important moments in history that people can point to, that is the straw that broke the NRA’s back. The difference is the Parklanders show that you don’t need par force (in the shape of an AR-15) to make your point - you need par force publicity; because, as we all know, the social media pen is mightier than the sword..

[Scenes]

re: BillT@12:15AM

You got me momentarily interested in that bastion of conservative thought, Baltimore.

Spending per pupil: $15,200 / year. Nice. Third highest in the nation (for large districts) according to one place I looked.

The thing is, I don't doubt that the classroom is unheated or that they need books. You can bet your bottom dollar that the money goes elsewhere. There won't be many unfilled pockets.

My own opinion is that it's a great example of where Green Libertarians always go wrong in their utopias. No matter how many good deeds you feel like doing, what you end up with is a tiny governmental elite, a small and very corrupt government middle class, and a favela. It's simply the nature of centralized control and the niceties of the format don't seem to matter all that much.

[Scenes]

re: Jaye Smith@7:22AM

Good heavens, a real post from someone. Believe me, it's a wonderful change from the incessant trolls from the virtue-signalling KVMR News Director. Welcome.

"that is the straw that broke the NRA’s back. "

I think that is something of a miscall. My own guess is that the main side effect will be increasing division between the two groups. The astroturf Children's Crusade will in turn cause an increase in both NRA membership and rifle sales. Underlying cause? Who knows. Maybe it's as simple as a cyclical ecosystem producing civil strife on a periodic basis.

Both sides have their villains and heroes, simplified (to the point of being meaningless) versions of events, quasi-religious belief systems (rugged individualism and deep ties to traditional Western culture vs. the primacy of diversity and a rejection of in-group loyalties). Luckily, they are fairly easy to tell apart. Geography and ethnicity serve as good proxies for belief systems.

As to "social media pen is mightier than the sword", I'd say that's true up to a point. Remember what Stalin said about the Pope.

[fish]

Posted by: Jaye Smith | 16 March 2018 at 07:22 AM

You’re not tall enough for this ride.....

[Account Deleted]

JS at 7:22 - "...because, as we all know, the social media pen is mightier than the sword."
Only if the people that have the pen also have the sword.
Maybe JS should go to China right now and start complaining about the new dictator for life. As they haul JS off to the hoosgow, he can quote them that little ditty. They'll be sooooo impressed.
Also see Scenes at 8:10 - Stalin and Mao would smile at the useful idiots out caterwauling in the streets after Parkland.
The problem is the shooter. Blaming the weapon is blaming technology. Like something out of the dark ages. That's what frightens me the most. The masses of ignorant rabble out shouting inanities about a subject they are completely ignorant of.
"Bad rock! Bad rock has bad magic - kill the bad rock!!!"
As a society, America is devolving into an illiterate, innumerate and immoral mess.
Trying to ban a type of firearm that is involved in a tiny percentage of firearm deaths is absurd on the face of it.

[Bill Tozer]

Ms Smith @ 7:22 in da morning.
“The Parkland Massacre is like the Rosa Parks incident, or other important moments in history that people can point to,p....”

Exactly! That is the point I have been making. Bravo. Rosa Parks did not need explain to anybody why she was exercising her guareenteed personal rights when said “no mas” to the back of the bus. Neither do those exercising their 2nd Amendment Rights have any need for explaining. Teaching, informing? Yes. Explaining? Never happen. The Great Divide kinda throws a kink in communication.
It’s the gun, not what’s his name shooter or the school shrink. If pointing a gun at the head of his mother, sibling, and later at the son of a custodial mom’s home don’t get him arrested, then go ahead and blame the NRA. Makes sense to me.

https://www.facebook.com/lastamericapatriots/photos/a.235087906641439.1073741826.235086849974878/1017103015106587/?type=3&theater

[Account Deleted]

BT at 9:08 - Yeah, there it is. Not only butt-stupid, but proud of it and willing to prove it to the rest of the world. And this is the crowd that Paul Emery and jon smith want to 'lead' us!

[Walt]

The day may come that Mzzzzz. "smith",,, may be in the middle of some shooting spree, or other "crime".(name your weapon of choice)
Good money says "she", would be praying for some civilian to have a gun to stop the other gun.(or at least try) OR,, would Mzzzzz "smith" prefer to wait for a cop to show up? (MANY minutes away)

For the sake of argument, say I was near, and just happen to have my weapon in the truck. ( on my way to the gun range) Somehow after the mass casualty incident Mzzzzz "smith" found out I had my weapon. BOY would she be looking to sue because I didn't intervene. I had the training. I had the knowledge, I had the means... That's assuming she lived through the ordeal.

Go ahead woman, sit back and say "it would never happen to me".
There are plenty who thought the same thing, who are now victims.

[Bill Tozer]

I never liked the truism, “If the Progressives did not have double standards, they would have no standards at all.” But, if the shoe fits........

“If the local and national reporting is correct, the human resources department sent her a letter telling her not to come to work because of a discussion she held with students about the danger of double standards in student protest.”

http://goodschoolhunting.org/2018/03/high-school-teacher-placed-leave-comments-student-walk-outs.html

[Scenes]

You do have to admire the American spirit. The 'activist' Parkland kids are well on their way towards making the shooting into a career for themselves.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/post/42814/

http://www.businessinsider.com/david-hogg-hung-up-on-white-house-invite-trump-listening-session-2018-3

Perhaps 'Professional Outragist' can be a new job title.

re: ScottO@10:10

When I read the mini-posts from the local Green Libertarians, I just see this face anymore in my mind's eye.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/151110115045-melissa-click-2-1024x576.jpg

Someday, somehow, someone will wander in here and type more than a sentence or two of gotcha questions or posting some decade-old Trump peccadillo while madly rubbing themselves. I'd truly love to read a paragraph or two outlining why national borders are a bad idea, tax law should be altered in some fashion, why it's a good idea to back Syrian rebels (or Assad). I'm sorely tired of 70 year old hippies baiting ToddJ, it's as if they're teenagers just discovering dial-up discussion boards.

[George Rebane]

Scenes 721am - Yes, it all does look like a purposeful effort to purvey tedium in these pages. What to do?

[Bill Tozer]

Boss Hogg from the Dukes of Hazzard County

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.254420818025296.63999.217926015008110/1278917368908964/?type=3&theater

Well, it makes sense that the indoctrination has sloushed out from the institutions of higher learned to the K-12 institutions of lower learned. Heck, they are teaching all about transgenders in California’s 4th, 5th, and 6th grades now.

If there is one reoccurring theme I hear from good men and women is: Pull your kids out of CA (among many states) public schools NOW! Good advice, but we all can’t home school or find available scholarships for private schools while humping it to pay the rent and save.

Looking to teenagers to lead on policy? That’s like telling kids they have a choice in deciding whether or not they can eat ice cream before dinner....or giving those with
undeveloped frontal lobes free rein to self regulate their social media time. Kids and teenagers demanding we let mi abeula in with her third husband’s family from Central America and now teenagers tell us all about the Consitution and rights and free speech (whatever free speech they decide is allowed).
Aha. I reminder that buzzphrase “Don’t Trust Anyone Other Thirty” mantra long ago many of our old hippies from liberal “happening” forward looking campuses spouted quite loudly. My tribe has given Bernie an honorary name. Man Who Yells At Sky.

Some to think about it, the entire left is exactly like one yuge sea of children tthrowing a group hissy fit. They get soooo bitchy, especially when the adults say, ”No.”

https://www.facebook.com/RowdyConservatives/photos/a.217983685002343.55586.217926015008110/1278824062251628/?type=3&theater

[Bill Tozer]

Follow up story to the high school history teacher (college prep courses) who was sent home for floating a question about (the school’s) double standards. Not advocating one way or another, but just posing a question. Critical thinking? Two students and one parent complained.

The background:

“Benzel says she never discouraged her students from participating in the national school walk out, but she did question whether it’s appropriate for a school to support a protest against gun violence if they’re not willing to support all protests.”

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/03/14/rocklin-teacher-questions-walkout/

The follow up: Violation of the 6th Amendment, right to due process. The high school and school district miracously did not put any disciplinary action or notes on her spotless 20 year teaching file. Sending her home was not even put in her file.

Bottomline: Because of the nation wide outrage defending the teacher who just asked a question before releasing the students to walk out to demonstrate......well, the Bottomline is it never happened as far as the school’s lawyers are concerned. No action, no investigation, nada. To repeat , the school board is acting like the whole thing never happened. They want it all just to go away. Teach on, teacher!

As a test, the teacher is asking anew if some celebrities and a few national organizations who support life were to organize a school walkout for life (pro-life), would her school allow the walkout? That is the double standards she referred to. If the school supports one walkout, would they also support school walkouts for other issues under the same conditions??? I think not.

[Bill Tozer]

Another school shooting, the gunman shot dead...dead as a doornai
by a school resource officer who just happens to be a member of LE’s swat team. Bang bang, you’re dead. And the officer knew his gun was loaded. :). Nothing to see here.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/03/20/gunman-dead-two-injured-after-shooting-at-great-mills-high-school-in-maryland.html