No arms, no legs...

 

Yet another example of how broadly insidious (if that's not an oxymoron) PC MC is.  To adduce one example out of thousands we could pluck from a powdered wig:  The theater and film critic John Simon, known for decades for being politically incorrect about many sociocultural issues -- and in certain ways his career was, if not ruined, at least stymied in irretrievable ways, by his refusal to sacrifice honesty for correctness.  While Simon may wrinkle his nose at being called "conservative" or "right wing", in many ways he has been, and his politically and socially incorrect instincts would be unthinkable in a Leftist.

After a lifetime of publishing his reviews and essays in various magazines over the decades (National Review, New York, Hudson Review, etc.) -- and he continues to publish in various non-virtual venues -- Simon started his own blog about a year or so ago, titled "Uncensored Simon".  While he has continued to poke politically (or socially) incorrect jabs at this, that and the other thing in society, not one essay there, of course, has ever been devoted to, nor has one even adverted to, the problem of Islam. 

Then out of the blue, this past January he published a long rumination on the shooting atrocity in Connecticut, "Murder of Innocents", and in it effectively flirts with, if he does not call for, gun control; with pointed if oblique jabs at Americans who like guns.

One reader in a comment there summed up the problem nicely (though, of course, leaving the problem of Islam unmentioned):

Mr. Simon is an expert on the arts; that does not make him brighter than anyone else on political and social issues.

It's safe to assume that he semi-retired with a great deal of money and is living in midtown Manhattan in a building with a doorman and perhaps a security guard. Under his own circumstances, not keeping a gun for defense may be a reasonable choice. What is not reasonable is generalizing his own situation to everyone else and demanding that they follow his choice.

Mr. Simon was once a fairly non-politically-correct critic who often got into hot water for noticing things about blacks that he wasn't supposed to notice, or admit to noticing. Now, though, he seems blissfully unaware of the tidal wave of violent black-on-white crime. Maybe his ignorance stems from getting his news from the New York Times and his old host, New York magazine.

This posting symbolizes part of our national pathology: comfortable liberals, safe in their high-rises or gated communities, living in mostly-white environments, scold the less fortunate who are not insulated against predators and want to protect themselves and their families.

I also had to weigh in with my two cents in the comments section there -- mostly with the help of Diana West, who in a report on her own blog provided sufficient firepower to blast his handwringing about American guns out of the water:

"Well, maybe Mr. Simon won't have to worry long about armed Americans (nor those armed politicians who want to arm Americans), as now the Americans who want to disarm Americans are bristling with arms themselves.

"One would have to read Diana West and a precious few other real journalists out there to know what I'm talking about.

"Here's a lengthy excerpt from her recent report:

During the last 10 months, the Department of Homeland Security has purchased 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, including millions of hollow-point bullets. The department also has purchased 7,000 fully automatic assault rifles, and it has overseen the retrofitting of more than 2,000 light tanks, which, of course, were originally designed to resist the mines and ambushes of the battlefield. Why does DHS need such offensive and defensive firepower?

Remember, DHS stands for Department of Homeland Security, and “homeland,” just to be extremely clear, means the USA. Obama must be asked against which domestic enemy he is arming nonmilitary forces. It sounds incredible, to be sure, but are we watching administration battle plans take shape against American citizens on the streets of Your Town, USA?

...

Government spokesmen, when they’re not trying to make 1.6 billion bullets sound like a frugal, Costco-style bulk purchase, will tell you it’s all about target practice. Really? I hear that U.S. Army newbies soon to deploy to Afghanistan are training with blank cartridges. Why the priority for arming domestic forces, not military ones?

Even the liberal-minded “debunking” site Snopes.com confirms that the Social Security Administration has procured 174,000 hollow-point bullets for 300 special agents. Meanwhile, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is tasked with “protecting fish stocks from depletion,” has procured 46,000 hollow-point bullets. Spokesman Scott Smullen explained, straight-faced, I am guessing, that 63 fisheries service “enforcement agents” will be using the so-called cop-killer bullets for “target qualifications.”

And that’s nothing. Last month, Paul Joseph Watson of Infowars.com reported that DHS purchased 21.6 million more rounds of ammunition, including 10 million hollow-point bullets. The latter, of course, are prohibited by the rules of war.

Commentators who have done the math tell us the feds’ ammo dump includes enough bullets to fight the war in Iraq for 27 years, or enough bullets to shoot every American citizen five times over.

...the mainstream media, can restore balance with attention and exposure.

[They] might start with Watson’s coverage last month for Infowars.com of Law Enforcement Targets Inc. (LET), a Minnesota-based manufacturer that has received $2 million in unspecified contracts from DHS in the last three years. Recently, Watson writes, the company began selling cardboard cutout targets designed to “desensitize police” to “nontraditional threat targets,” as the online catalog called them. These targets included very pregnant women, children and other civilians in home, playground or other neighborhood settings. All hold guns.

...

In its apology, LET insisted these heinous civilian targets weren’t the company’s idea. “This product line was originally requested and designed by the law enforcement community. …”

I asked a friend with a long career in state and local law enforcement if he’d ever seen the like. He replied: “No. Hell, no. The targets I was trained to fire upon depicted people who really looked like armed criminals. No pregnant women. No kids. No old people. … I could have shot three armed men during my career and been justified. Right or wrong, I didn’t shoot them. These no-hesitation targets are disgusting.”

What branch of law enforcement requested and designed them? DHS? Fisheries? Social Security? Who exactly is planning for the kind of action that requires all those bullets? Is the government, as some suggest, depleting ammunition stocks as a means of gun control? Then why light tanks, too? We don’t know the answers to any of these questions.