What We Would Do

First, the pretty commonplace assertion that there's been a negative change in society since (your favourite date here) really seems to unnerve them, and that's an odd position for self-declared conservatives to take (although why am I really surprised at this point?) Didn't the 70s, the decade in which they/we were "raised", bring us sex and drugs and rock and roll and all the other cool stuff that really matters and distinguishes us from those crazy uptight Muslims? If we don't get to hear Howard Stern talk about Janet Jackson's naked 40-year-old boob, the Taliban have won!

Second, a lot of them are misinterpreting me personally so of course I'm all huffy about it. Here's what I just wrote to Treacher (jeez, its not like I don't have a MS to edit today...), sans coffee number one:

When WE say 'WE don't know what WE would do, WE... [ I'm not talking about the students, I'm talking about OUR response to the situation]. You have to read all my posts and not just Steyn's [use of my ] quote which was actually taken from an older post about the Montreal Massacre.

I am concerned with the possibly dangerous cliches that we spout in times like this (I also had an earlier Vtech post about stupid memorials with teddy bears and cheap carnations, along the same lines). What we say and what we think ultimately determine how we act and how others act. Garbage in, garbage out.

"We don't know what we would do" accompanied by the obligatory helpless shrug, predisposes us to thoughtless fatalism. It is of a piece with "who are we to judge" and all the other mantras of submission we chant daily, without thinking.

I'm daring to suggest that we re-examine our cliched responses to situations in the vain hope that we might see that those cliched responses may even be part of a cycle that inspires repeats of the same situations. I'm also suggesting that our very real enemies take great delight in witnessing these responses.

Obviously, if the door has a lock it's locked by now, but that's not stopping this killer. There's a terrible clamor as rounds are fired at the handle and a tremendous crash as the door is kicked open.

You are not cowering under a desk hoping against hope that he will not notice you, or spare you if he sees you. You are behind cover, if there is any available, out of the line of fire through the door at a ninety degree angle to the side of the door that opens, and if the killer enters the room you are ready with your weapons, a chair a desk a backpack a telephone, anything big and heavy enough to look as if it would hurt, and as he takes the first step in that room you stay low and you start throwing things at his head like you're Nolan Freaking Ryan, or sliding a table right at his crotch like a freight train. You are taking the initiative, unbalancing the psycho bastard, who has so far encountered nothing like this, and whose scenario only includes a feeling of absolute power over his chosen victims. He may fire wildly as he tries to duck; he may not even get off a shot in his surprise as you close on his sorry form. His aim will be bad and his mind will be in turmoil, but you know what you're about; you're about to take him OUT.

Imus Runs Afoul of PC Police

"What could be funnier than watching a bunch of Yids gone wild, bejesus. What did they do, raise the price of bagels by a nickel or some damn thing?"

"She was blaaaack, as the night... the cop he was whiter than white..." (to the tune of Louie, louie, regarding congresswoman Cynthia McKinney)

"This bug-eyed dingbat should be arrested for sportin' that whacky buckwheat hairdo in public, Imus-in-the-morn..."

"In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, last rites for the I-man we want the most"

"Lord good riddence to the overrated dwarf from the today show and good luck to CBS gettin' viewers for this 50 year old ho, bejesus, Lord hear our prayer".

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