One Last Point on Guns
I argued here that any leftist who wants to help the poor ought to be in favor of guns, but I’d like to add further that being against guns seems like the sort of thing that comes from the rich people who I believe control the left. Rich leftists seldom have any need for guns (though they may have bodyguards who have them) because they make enough money that they don’t need to supplement their income by hunting; their neighborhoods are peaceful, so they don't need them for security; they either live in urban areas where there are no deer to run into or even though they live in rural areas and running into a deer is an annoyance, they can afford the hassle; and they are extremely unlikely to end up in the military, so becoming familiar with guns doesn’t help them at all. There is no reason for them to have guns, so they can afford to be affronted by the people who do have them.
The Dilemma of the Muslim World’s Liberals
Throughout the Muslim world, dictators rule. And liberals living in that world hate them, but getting rid of them means, not replacing them with liberal rulers, but replacing them with Islamist rulers. This is what the world saw after the Shah was evicted from Iran, and this is what many of us worried about when the Arab spring began in Egypt. Among Westerners, only clueless liberals and leftists didn’t worry but rejoiced. Now that it seems that Islamists will rule in Egypt, can we suggest something that might have been done differently? One possibility was to simply put up with the dictator one had, despite the odiousness of it.
But a second is for these liberals and leftists to come here to the West and tell our liberals and leftists how wrong they are. First, they should tell them never in any way, shape or form to support the Islamists. Next, they should tell them that multiculturalism does nothing but empower the reactionaries in the Muslim world and that they (the liberals and leftists) need help combating them; accordingly, the liberals and leftists in the West need to talk about the superiority of Western culture and to stop being such idiots. During the period when Westerners did this, the Muslim world was slowly Westernizing, but then we stopped, and it is slowly turning away from the West and into something that is about as anti-leftist as can be.
It might we worthwhile for some conservatives to spend money bringing such people to our college campuses.
STEM Majors
This post (here; hat tip: Keith Burgess-Jackson) is honest enough to admit that even people who major in science, technology, engineering, and math are having a tough time these days getting a job. The suggestion here is that the way to get a job is to get some useful skill at a for-profit institution, which are better at placing their graduates. I don't know if this is true or not, but he then adds that traditional schools will have to change; somehow, I don’t see philosophy changing. I do see them reducing their numbers, probably by simply failing to replace those who retire. I also don’t see colleges dropping language studies since learning a foreign language can be pretty practical.
Ok, I Blew It
Recently, I saw someone who posted something in Greek in connection with the gun debate: MOΛΩN ΛΑΒΕ. But what did it mean? I knew that the second word was the imperative for “to take,” but what was the first word? I’m a bit rusty on Greek these days, but I looked it up in my Greek dictionary and found an adverb that meant "utterly" and which differed only in the ending. Well, not only did this meaning not fit, but I was pretty sure that adverbs didn’t change their endings. So, perusing any words remotely like that first word, I noticed that it might be some form of the verb ΒΛΩΣΚΩ meaning “to go or come.” This didn’t make a lot of sense, and so I didn’t bother working on it further. When I saw it a second time, I simply looked it up on Wikipedia (here), and it turns out that ΒΛΩΣΚΩ was right; it’s just that it ends up as a participle, so the literal meaning is “coming, take.” It’s the Greek version of “come and take them from me.”
Apparently, this phrase has been used by a lot of gun rights people, though I managed to miss it until just recently.
I argued here that any leftist who wants to help the poor ought to be in favor of guns, but I’d like to add further that being against guns seems like the sort of thing that comes from the rich people who I believe control the left. Rich leftists seldom have any need for guns (though they may have bodyguards who have them) because they make enough money that they don’t need to supplement their income by hunting; their neighborhoods are peaceful, so they don't need them for security; they either live in urban areas where there are no deer to run into or even though they live in rural areas and running into a deer is an annoyance, they can afford the hassle; and they are extremely unlikely to end up in the military, so becoming familiar with guns doesn’t help them at all. There is no reason for them to have guns, so they can afford to be affronted by the people who do have them.
The Dilemma of the Muslim World’s Liberals
Throughout the Muslim world, dictators rule. And liberals living in that world hate them, but getting rid of them means, not replacing them with liberal rulers, but replacing them with Islamist rulers. This is what the world saw after the Shah was evicted from Iran, and this is what many of us worried about when the Arab spring began in Egypt. Among Westerners, only clueless liberals and leftists didn’t worry but rejoiced. Now that it seems that Islamists will rule in Egypt, can we suggest something that might have been done differently? One possibility was to simply put up with the dictator one had, despite the odiousness of it.
But a second is for these liberals and leftists to come here to the West and tell our liberals and leftists how wrong they are. First, they should tell them never in any way, shape or form to support the Islamists. Next, they should tell them that multiculturalism does nothing but empower the reactionaries in the Muslim world and that they (the liberals and leftists) need help combating them; accordingly, the liberals and leftists in the West need to talk about the superiority of Western culture and to stop being such idiots. During the period when Westerners did this, the Muslim world was slowly Westernizing, but then we stopped, and it is slowly turning away from the West and into something that is about as anti-leftist as can be.
It might we worthwhile for some conservatives to spend money bringing such people to our college campuses.
STEM Majors
This post (here; hat tip: Keith Burgess-Jackson) is honest enough to admit that even people who major in science, technology, engineering, and math are having a tough time these days getting a job. The suggestion here is that the way to get a job is to get some useful skill at a for-profit institution, which are better at placing their graduates. I don't know if this is true or not, but he then adds that traditional schools will have to change; somehow, I don’t see philosophy changing. I do see them reducing their numbers, probably by simply failing to replace those who retire. I also don’t see colleges dropping language studies since learning a foreign language can be pretty practical.
Ok, I Blew It
Recently, I saw someone who posted something in Greek in connection with the gun debate: MOΛΩN ΛΑΒΕ. But what did it mean? I knew that the second word was the imperative for “to take,” but what was the first word? I’m a bit rusty on Greek these days, but I looked it up in my Greek dictionary and found an adverb that meant "utterly" and which differed only in the ending. Well, not only did this meaning not fit, but I was pretty sure that adverbs didn’t change their endings. So, perusing any words remotely like that first word, I noticed that it might be some form of the verb ΒΛΩΣΚΩ meaning “to go or come.” This didn’t make a lot of sense, and so I didn’t bother working on it further. When I saw it a second time, I simply looked it up on Wikipedia (here), and it turns out that ΒΛΩΣΚΩ was right; it’s just that it ends up as a participle, so the literal meaning is “coming, take.” It’s the Greek version of “come and take them from me.”
Apparently, this phrase has been used by a lot of gun rights people, though I managed to miss it until just recently.
MOΛΩN ΛΑΒΕ is said to be from the battle of Thermopolae. The Spartans were told to surrender their weapons, and this was their response.
It's been picked up by the anti gun control folks.
Posted by: Borepatch | 12/25/2012 at 12:45 PM
more than you may have wanted to know:
http://larrycorreia.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/an-opinion-on-gun-control/
those on the right/libertarian "side" tend to comment positively.
those on the left tend to comment along the lines of: tl;dr you gun rights people are all the same, ad hominim, some interesting contortions of argument from authority, or you didn't cite or you used the wrong stats or your interpretation of the stats is wrong, though a thoughtful few have stated that the post did give them much to think about.
Posted by: deadcenter | 12/25/2012 at 03:46 PM
Thanks to both of you.
I think the biggest argument against the gun control they want is that guns will be manufactured in illegal factories or else slipped in across the border. Laws don't mean anything to the criminals, so there will still be plenty of guns around.
This is similar to what the pro-choice people say about abortions, that they're going to happen anyway, so why not make them legal and protect people?
Heh.
Posted by: John Pepple | 12/26/2012 at 06:57 AM