Saturday, May 01, 2010

It's like a cliché stew!

At the WSJ, Nacy Dewolf Smith churned out an opinion piece on Open Carry that could be used to play Stereotype Bingo:
That the majority of people who could walk around outfitted for the OK Corral choose not to do so ought to be a hint that the minority who are most eager to force open carry on the rest of us might belong in a special category of bozos.
From "Some of my best friends are gun owners, but the normal kind, and they say...", to the Wild West, to bad taste in camouflage, nearly every condescending antigun media trope receives a nod.

Well, except for one. If you're playing along at home and your bingo card has "penis compensation joke" on it, you'll have to wait for her next try, because she missed it this time 'round.


(H/T to Unc.)

24 comments:

Keith said...

She may be on to something with the line about firearms as a fashion accessory to get men's attention. How many guys have a crush on Jessie Abbate? On the other hand, that probably has less to do with simply wearing the gun and more to do with ability.

Keith said...

I hit post too soon. The point I was trying to make was that "guns as fashion accessories" doesn't work as a reverse compensation joke.

TJP said...

Another pissant attempt to divide and conquer, courtesy of the pro-defenseless-death, anti-liberty crowd. The anti-liberty crowd is still paying for Jim Zumbo. (In retrospect we should probably thank him.) Three years after being broad-stroked as terrorists, the wagons are still circled.

Be sure to try and dodge the diarrheal hyperbole spraying out of that piece. Yeah, they're trying to "force" open carry on all of us. Why, just last week I was strolling down the street when two burly gentlemen jumped out of a gun-racked Ford F-150, tackled me, and forced me to wear a holster. They even carved a backwards "N" on my face, (for "NRA".)

They were all like, "Ay! We don' take kindleh to yor type 'round he-ah."

Disarmer please.

Dave_H said...

Guys liking Jessie probably has a lot to do with the fact that Jessie Abbate is really hot.
The gun skills and interest in the same is extra gravy.

Well, there is a coolness factor to a gal that can flat out kick your ass at something you thought you were good at.

jimbob86 said...

I fail to see where Open Carry is being forced on anyone: If you don't want to carry openly or otherwise, DON'T. It ain't like anybody said you MUST Carry!

I understand her stripe of twit, though: it's the same deal with the religion thing: It is "Freedom OF", as opposed to "Freedom FROM"... she does not care if (at least publicly) if you have guns or are a Jesus Freak or worship your Flying Spaghetti Monster- she just does not want to SEE it in public, because if she does not see it, it's not really there....

rickn8or said...

More of the Brady Bunch's "employers/colleges being FORCED to allow employees/students to have weapons" in their locked cars drivel.

Completely ignores the employees/students being FORCED to travel to and from work/school unarmed side of the argument.

The sort of thing that happens when you work from emotion, rather than logic.

Ed Foster said...

Remember that Freud said it was an unhealthy fear of weapons, rather than fear of misuse of weapons, that heralded the insecure and envious personality. I believe it was in "On Narcissism".

Dixie said...

Tam, you missed the fact that the article's title is a rip on one of the best Westerns ever. Shame on you. (chuckle)

atlharp said...

Mee thinks this dumb broad has watched too much Lifetime, regardless, how does being a TV Critic warrant a knowledge of gun culture?
Maybe she can do an expose on high speed car chases or Brangelina's new digs in Maui after she solves the age old problem of somebody going to Starbucks with their heater.

Noah D said...

"penis compensation joke"

As I tend to answer that one now: Of course I'm compensating! If I could kill someone across the room with my penis, I wouldn't need a pistol, would I?

Ed Rasimus said...

I heard about the column in another blog, but then read it fully in the WSJ and had to nod in agreement. The author is most assuredly NOT anti-gun nor hoplophobic. She is, however, pointing out that the cause of defense of the Second Amendment is not enhanced by the open carry displays. I can't disagree.

There is much threatened with regard to gun rights, but we're up to 39 "shall issue" CCW states right now because gun owners have demonstrated responsibility and maturity. Strapping the hogleg on and dampening the panties of the libs might be momentarily rewarding but it gives them ammunition (no pun intended) for their oppression.

At some point open carry might be significant, but as long as I can carry concealed, defend myself and buy both guns and ammo in this country I feel no need to flaunt. The fight is better waged on another front.

staghounds said...

Tactically, have to agree with Ed.

But the money quote reveals her outlook-

"...if open carrying were to become more common, even those of us who are uneasy now in the presence of public firearms would get used to seeing them around.

...Which is why they called it the Wild West and we are lucky not to have been born then. "

And isn't it fun to play "change the activity" with her words?

"That the majority of people who could __________

choose not to do so ought to be a hint that the minority who are most eager to force _________

on the rest of us might belong in a special category of bozos."

I like "vote in local elections", "engage in homosexuality", "move from one state to another", and "marry someone of a different race" to start with.

On, considering her newspaper, "buy stocks".

SiGraybeard said...

Staghounds - exactly! The problem with her argument is that it's saying "the way I say to exercise a right is the only allowable way". That may not be outright tyranny, but it sure isn't liberty.

Just mentally apply her standard to free speech, or freedom from unreasonable search and seizure - or the rest of the Bill of Rights.

staghounds said...

Oh, and Ms. Smith?

"in a world where every girl can have a gun"??

First, as far as the parts of the U. S. you're referring to, sorry, even girls can have guns.

Second, maybe some parts of the world would be better if every girl DID have a gun. I'm thinking particularly of the honor killing, slave trading, and prostitute trafficking bits.

And every single place where a woman is going to be murdered, raped, or beaten into the hospital today.

There are three or four hundred of those places right in your own country. JUST TODAY.

But then, most of those are places where poor and dark people go. Very few of them are the Chili's or Starbucks or Whole Foods you frequent, at least during working hours.

Sure, a waitress or shelf stocker gets raped by an assistant manager every now and then. But it's in the back room. So it's not YOUR problem.

If she had a gun, it might be! The bullet might go through him and hit you!

Funny how you expert journalists never go to the E. R. and ask women with broken jaws or beaten children about this issue. But making jokes about pink guns is lots easier and more amusing than thinking about that, isn't it?

If you thought about the blood on your own sidewalks, you might have to face it that you allow predators to continue to prey. Not many little cocktail party bons mots there.


Yes, good thing every girl doesn't have a gun!

Ed Rasimus said...

Thank you Staghounds for a slant I overlooked. But with regard to the "change the activity..." exercise. It is a reasonable approach to take. Let's look at free speech for example. I can pepper my dialogue vividly with crude four letter obscenity. In fact, I can emulate the typical American high school student and resort almost exclusively to one Anglo-Saxon word that serves as noun, verb, adjective, conjunction and all the other parts of speech. I can, under the First Amendment, but I rationally choose not to. I can also freely yell "fire" in a crowded theater despite that familiar but incorrect caution, but I choose wisely not to.

staghounds said...

They hate "change the activity".

"Why does anyone need a hundred books?"

"What's wrong with having to wait a week to get your ticket to cross the state line?"

"Why should a person be allowed to have a church within a mile of a school?"

staghounds said...

"Penis compensation joke" is the free space on the Brady Stereotype Bingo card.

And coming from a woman who is a reporter, the "every girl" comment IS a penis envy crack.

I wonder if she (or her paper) ever talks about girls hedge fund managers, or girl judges, or girl screenwriters.

Mark said...

She needs to research the Wild West she thinks she knows so much about. Her impression is based on entirely manufactured by Hollywood fiction, rather than reality.

Gregg said...

So Ed, I'm guessing that the reason that teh gays got where they are today was by staying in the closet, right?

Oh wait, no it was by getting in peoples faces, something about "we're here, we're queer, get used to it" as I recall.

Your way turns a right into a privilege. Thankfully I live in the third state to go to a semblance of Constitutional Carry and likely not in the same state that you reside in.

Anonymous said...

Paladin said:

Darnit Gregg you beat me to it!

Ed is perfectly content jumping through governmental, unconstitutional requirements and paying a "poll" er, I mean, "permission" tax/fee to exercise his constitutionally enumerated right.

I say continue to support and encourage open carry rallies and to open carry while going about daily activities until the sight of a firearm on someone's hip or slung over their shoulder is no bigger a deal than it was when I took my hunting rifles, shotguns and Ruger pistol to school with me every day in the 70"s. Even when forced integration was instituted, nobody ran out to their vehicles (at least in our area), retrieved their firearms and started shooting. Give me a break!

Matt G said...

I didn't see "blood in the streets" mentioned. But I didn't look very hard. I have my limits.

Crotalus (Don't Tread on Me) said...

Strange disconnect in her thinking. If she really thinks we're some kind of dangerous Bozos, is it wise to antagonize us by calling us such? I guess she's brave. Stupid, but brave.

Anonymous said...

I see someone gets their critical thinking skills from Sunday's Doonesbury. Smith needs to pay Garry Trudeau a royalty.

Anonymous said...

Why are these types always so worried about the Wild Wild West? Crime was so rare then that we still remembwer the names of individuals gang members. Can't even do that in Chicago now.

And then?.... Everyone was armed. Openly.

Hmmmmmmmm