Saturday, January 26, 2013

I don't know how I missed it...

...but Biden's comment regarding a driving reason behind gun control is too revealing to not note it:
We will not be able to stop every act of senseless gun violence or any other gun violence, we know that, in the future. That’s no excuse to do nothing. It is not an excuse to do nothing. As the president said, if we can save even one it’s worth it. And I think we can begin, again, not because of guns alone, but I think we can begin an endeavor that stops the coarsity of American culture and society.
Guns are icky and coarse. You know where they don't have guns? Europe*. And part and parcel of modern liberalism is to have a sort of fawning, leg-humping infatuation with western Europe.

Not only do they have socialised medicine and workers' pension programmes to die for, and paternity leave and, and, and well, everything, but on top of it, they're just so... European! Everything Europeans eat is artisanal and all their beer and wine is imported! And their accents make them sound so smart!

And if you can't be arsed to learn a foreign language so that you can move to someplace civilised like Amsterdam or Copenhagen, then you can try to bring the mountain to Mohammed, as it were.

Believe me, I live among them. If they were riding their city bike on the bridge over the canal in Broad Ripple and looked down and saw a real gondolier among the ducks, they'd decorate their cupcakes right there.

I know, I know, you're going to tell me something about the Second Amendment in the Constitution, like it's quoting holy scripture or something. Don't you realize it's just a tool written by rich old white men to keep rich old white men in power?

Look at all the more modern constitutions, like they have in Europe! They all include important rights, like the right to housing, food, a job, and health care, and don't include atavistic throwbacks about the right to hunt deer with muskets. What importance does any sane person in modern society place on the right to hunt ducks compared to the right to a job and a roof over your head?


(If you're going to beat these people, you have to know how they think. Not cartoon assumptions that they're all Junior Pol Pots who lie awake at night dreaming of death camps; that's just the flip side of the cousin-humping redneck stereotype they have of you.)


*Bear with me here, I'm trying to help you get in his headspace and facts would only be a distraction.

36 comments:

Bubblehead Les. said...

And let's not forget all those Wonderful European Statesmen who did so much to Advance Western Civilization and Enlightenment! You know, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Kruschev, Milosovic, Chamberlain....why, Obama is so much like Chamberlain that it's Uncanny!

the pawnbroker said...

Apropos, as it were:

http://gunowners.org/a01212013.htm

It's like they talked to T.Stahl.

Oh, and GOA followed that with this:

http://gunowners.org/a01222013.htm

Lalalalalacanyouhearmenow? ;b

Alan J. said...

"...begin an endeavor that stops the coarsity of American culture and society." Interesting...didn't the Republicans try to do that back in the 50s?

I'll believe he's serious about that idea when he goes to Hollywood and gives this same speech. Perhaps he can convince them that they should stop showing guns and shootouts in all of their TV shows and movies.

TBeck said...

Europe's problem is that they have been bringing Mohammed to the mountain for a bit too long.

Ajdshootist said...

It may intrest you to know that in
most of europe you can have handguns
and rifles and shotguns,the only
country that has a ban on handguns is
the UK we here in the UK cannot own a semi auto rifle bigger than .22WRM
But we may have most calibers in bolt
action or lever action also we have a
a fair number of companys making both
straight pull AR15 and AK47s etc.

Josh said...

I think it's even more simple than that. It's not about Europe, although they'll drop in meaningless or misleading statistics because those numbers float around their culture. It's about John Stewart, saying that Martin Luther King's murder would have been prevented, if only there were gun control, and of course that great pacifist never benefited from it. It's about how the US has gun murders (why would you care about non-gun murders) and so many guns, and don't you want to change that?! It's about murderer culture -- the only thing they experience, as it's forced on them -- contrasted against an alien gun culture that's simple and stupid and wrong. And probably is just mislead by NRA hoopla, everyone knows assault weaponsrifleshandguns are all we need to get rid of, and no one actually uses them for anything but murder.

Mention self-defense and they'll scoff: murderers must be better at shooting folk. If you mention Pink Pistols, they'll think Matthew Sheppard, or that you're lying or it's some fraud. If you mention Condaleeza Rice's father defending the house, it's just some story. Numbers on self-defense? The story must be wrong, and look at how many women/racial or sexual minorities get hurt every day.

It's worse, in a number of ways. If it were just about Europe, someone could point out the differences in causes for murder rates, or the vast black market for firearms, or the EU countries that don't have the same level of gun control. It's about experiences that everyone knows are true at a gut level.

joethefatman said...

This little gem was hidden about halfway through a report from ABC on the 25th.
"Biden also said convicted felons and those found guilty of domestic abuse should be denied the ability to own firearms."

Tam said...

Pwndbroker,

Since you obviously don't speak internet, what I said before when I said "TL;DR Pwndbroker: "LalalalalaIcan'thearyou!" is, in non-internet-speak "For those of you who found Pwndbroker's comment too long and tedious to read, what he said was "Lalalalaetc.""

Everybody else here, including me, has been saying "A ban on FtF sales would be a bad thing," to which you keep retorting "Nuh-Uh! A ban on FtF sales would be a bad thing!" and then we say "But that's what we just said!" and then you go "LalalalalalalaIcan'thearyou!"

Either start contributing to the discussion like an adult, or go play in traffic. You're about to hit the NeoNietzsche list. (Except, since you don't have the manners of a Nazi, if I do ask you to leave, you won't, and I'm sure I'll have to go through the tedium of deleting your non-contributions manually.)

Bram said...

Joe Biden? The guy who said "I Guarantee You Barack Obama Ain’t Taking My Shotguns... if he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem..."

You must be talking about a different Joe, Biden wouldn't fib.

Tam said...

Ajdshootist,

See my asterisked footnote. ;)

Anonymous said...

So if a single person dies because they don't have a firearm, is that a good or bad thing?

Gerry

the pawnbroker said...

Tams,

"Everybody else here, including me", knows exactly what you said...and what I said.

Revisionist commentary notwithstanding, what you said (just you, not some ephemeral "we") paralleled those two GOA articles -which were published post our prior exchange- not at all.

If your definition of "contributing to the discussion like an adult" means middle-aged people couching it in childish 'netspeak and gutterspeak, that's just way too cool for me.

But if you feel the need to delete or banish me for saying that you are wrong for diminishing the impact of universal background checks or otherwise failing to engage in a circlediddle, do what you gotta do. That too will speak for itself.

Farm.Dad said...

I just want to know ... Is Pawnbroker Joe Bidens conservative cousin?

Kristophr said...

Tam:

I suggest you just ban his ass.

He is impervious to clues. Most folks would either figure out what the problem is and fix it, or post on someone else's blog.

He's just trolling for the b@hammer at this point, IMO. He wants to be banned so he can claim you are somehow stupid and evil.

When dealing with a troll, you don't talk to them, as that is what they want, you just haul out the hammer and make them go away.

Kristophr said...

The other option, which I used when I still had a blog, was to copy their comments, delete them, and put up parodies of their posts under similar names.

Anonymous said...

...but...but...they would *never* have death camps. And how *DARE* anyone even suggest that their Democratic Education And Temporary Housing camps are death camps. They would *never* do such a thing. That is *so* insensitive. Why, that's like...like...suggesting that the new National Healthcare System (PBUI) has Death Panels.

BSR :-)

Scott J said...

Not trying to detract from you essay at all, Tam, but the best analysis of the two belief systems currently at war was laid out a couple years back by Sultan Knish http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2011/06/leave-me-alones-vs-make-it-betters.html?m=1

Unfortunately the last election cycle seemed to indicate the LMAs are badly outnumbered.

I fear it may just be a matter of time before we are erased from existence.

Kip Condor said...

Although it's somewhat tangential to the idea of the post, Gerry's comment is an important point.

People in general tend to vastly underestimate the importance of ce qu'on ne voit pas, but most of those on the left seem incapable of understanding that it exists at all. Not just as regards this issue, but also as to economics, etc. Too bad Bastiat is not walking through that door.

Also, "decorate their cupcakes".

Kip Condor said...

Oh, and, dang, I had to throw in a French phrase in a response to a post mocking europhilia. Sierra Tango Bravo Mike.

Bram said...

Ironically - When I joined the club where I now shoot, one of the guys in the mandatory orientation / safety riot act reading was German. He had actually gone through the entire bureaucratic paperwork process on both sides of the Atlantic of importing a very nice revolver (forgot the exact make) and an HK rifle (not an evil banned one).

I was stunned, no American I know could tolerate that level of bureaucracy.

Anonymous said...

Shades of 1985 and the PMRC?

Is he going to take my guns or my speed metal?

Joe, here is my cultural response, eat a dick.

Shootin' Buddy

Anonymous said...

Bram,

That's because we were born in serfdom ...

The sh*tload of paperwork is designed to deter people. Hey, no, I won't let them win and I'll bring them the exact forms (and help other fill them) and complain to their management if they pull new rules out of their asses.

But it sucks nonetheless. :-/

If I were in the US, I would probably file (or help file) NFA papers every other month. I'm used to an f-ing level of paperwork (cops from 3 countries, Secretary of State of 2 countries, Prefecture, Customs ...). I would gladly contribute to jamming the ATF. Just because.

Calimero,
France

Buzz said...

Freedom is "icky and coarse" to those that want to have a nanny state protect and care for them.

Old NFO said...

I can't help but think of the pointing finger analogy... One pointed at us, THREE pointing back at them...

Stan said...

WHYYY Why would you try to get me inside Joe Biden's headspace? I don't want to know what goes through that mans mind EVER.

Ed said...

When will Joe Biden figure out that he is only Obama's piss boy (think of Mel Brooks "History of the World, Part 1"), doing the tasks that Obama does not care to do, such as meeting with people who may disagree with Obama's point of view?

http://washingtonexaminer.com/michael-barone-ivory-tower-obama-cant-abide-views-he-doesnt-share/article/2518686#.UQRgDb_hr9Y

staghounds said...



Gosh, I hope the Vice President's brave championing of this legislation gets him nominated in 2016!

Anonymous said...

Stan: "Why would you try to get me inside Joe Biden's headspace?"

There's bound to be a pony in there somewhere.

Anonymous said...

"important rights, like the right to housing, food, a job, and health care"

A JOB? How did THAT get in there? Try free perpetual education instead.

"they'd decorate their cupcakes right there."

That's beautiful, man.

James

Wraith said...

If you're going to beat these people, you have to know how they think.

I call BS on the notion that they think at all. Repeating talking points and running on blind emotion, do not constitute 'thought.'

Able said...

I find it funny. Your politicians want to be more 'European', whilst ours want to be 'American'. Trouble is in each case they seem to have the amazing knack of picking the worst points of each 'system' to gush over.

Whilst you have a pile of European wannabes, we (myself included) have a queue of 'please can we come to Americans'. Tell you what, you pack them up in a few Jiffy-bags and we'll swap?

DJ said...

"... if we can save even one [life] it's worth it."

The flip side of that is:

"... if it costs even one [life] it's not worth it."

To ignore the defensive use of weapons is to ignore that flip side.

Stranger said...

Here in the real world - excepting homicide - both England and Western Europe's violent crime rates are far above the US rate. (383.6 US vs 1,072.6 for WE and 4,156.6 for adults in England.)

Western Europe keeps their murder rates low by the simple expedient of failing to count murders (and violent crime victimizations) in the high crime populations.

If the FBI ignored our largely disarmed black community, our murder rates would be far below any country in Continental Europe.

England is another problem. I have offered to ship a lightly used amateur radio rig in return for the actual British body count from 2000 to 2008 and been refused. Job security is important!

The Brit's game is to "count homicides" after trial, conviction, and the end of the appeals process. Between the never solved, never tried, acquitted, and "reversed on appeal" that filter catches the majority of murderers. And keeps the murder rates absurdly low.

Bottom line? We have nothing at all to be ashamed of with our crime rates. The US came in 102nd in the UN's Global Homicide Survey, and that should be good enough.

Stranger

Geodkyt said...

Able,

Do we have to put airholes in teh bags, first?

Without them, they are so much quieter and easier to ship after five minutes or so. . .

Justthisguy said...

Umm, Pawnbroker? Tam has slapped me down a time or two, and it was educational. I think I have learned the rules of discourse on this here blog, which is hers, and I do try to stay within them these days. I suggest that you do the same.

Justthisguy said...

Umm, Pawnbroker? Tam has slapped me down a time or two, and it was educational. I think I have learned the rules of discourse on this here blog, which is hers, and I do try to stay within them these days. I suggest that you do the same.