Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Ridicule No Substitute for Reality

Monday night on his show, [Stephen] Colbert aired a clip of Bellevue Republican Rep. Frank Lasee saying that Wisconsin should arm teachers in schools. Colbert concurred and took it a step further, arguing that teachers could also deal quality illegal drugs to students from their desks to make sure dealers don't sell on playgrounds. All with a straight face. Best of all, Colbert helped out Lasee by coming up with a winning name for his armed teacher plan: Chalk and Awe.

Ha ha. Armed adults protecting their young charges is a joke. Ha ha.

Or how about this:
The concept is almost as dumb as one coming from a Wisconsin state legislator over the weekend who suggested -- in the wake of the Amish school tragedy, no less -- that public school teachers and administrators be armed.

Belittle the idea. Tell people it's "dumb."

Stephen Colbert--now there's a guy who looks like he'd know what to do when the shooting starts. And I'll bet the anonymous York Dispatch editorialist would be equally competent. They offer nothing other than sanctimonious prejudice and smug, emotion-based opinion. They disregard the established fact that everywhere it's been tried, it's worked.

Thing is, with most Americans, the strategy of opinion shaping via emotionally-charged sound bites is effective. And elections are won by majorities.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If I'm not mistaken, and I seldom am, all those teachers, school employees and administrators in every school that has had a shooting were already armed with ridicule. How'd that work out?

Oh yeah, the killers kept killing till they got tired of it. The one exception being in Pearl, Ms. where the principal was armed with a pistol, the killer in that had to cut short his intended run.

Then there was the Appalachian School of Law, where two students armed themselves with pistols to stop a killer there. While those armed only with ridicule could only run and scream in terror.

I think I will skip my trip to ridicule armory, they can issue mine to somebody who approves of innocent people being killed by monsters. There is no shortage of those kinds of people, though a great many of them hire bodyguards sans ridicule, but lots of firearms capability. Peculiar that, don't you think?

Anonymous said...

"Colbert concurred and took it a step further, arguing that teachers could also deal quality illegal drugs to students from their desks to make sure dealers don't sell on playgrounds."

Apparently Colbert hasn't been paying attention to all the stories about teachers pushing kids onto Prozac and Ritalin.

E. David Quammen said...

The sad part about all of this. Is that the answer has been around for well over 200 hundred years.

ACTIVATE THE UNORGANIZED MILITIA AND FORCE THE TEACHERS TO TRAIN, BE REGULATED AND ARMED. The stipulation concerning females will need amended:

UNITED STATES CODE

Title 10, Subtitle A, Part I, Chapter 13, § 311

Militia: composition and classes

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are -

(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and

(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

It IS the law, and the DUTY of an American citizen. You want Freedom? EARN IT. (What, did you actually think it was FREE?)

E. David Quammen said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Fletch said...

His statements were so funny I almost forgot that all those children died.

Better luck next time.

Anonymous said...

I've found the same attitudes in student editorials this week. Lots of CWAP (Crying, Whining, And Pouting) flying over that one--they either stamp their feet in a tantrum, or suggest more counseling in the schools.

I'll be posting my findings on my blog tomorrow evening. Campus RKBA Roundup #3: The Cheesehead edition.