- 9:12 am - Fri, Aug 19, 2011
- 6 notes
Britain’s Moral Rot
Astounding:
Burglars who injured themselves breaking into houses have successfully sued homeowners for damages. In February, police in Surrey told gardeners not to put wire mesh on the windows of their garden sheds as burglars might hurt themselves when they break in.
If a homeowner protecting himself and his family injures an intruder beyond what the law considers “reasonable,” he will be prosecuted for assault. Tony Martin, an English farmer, was sentenced to life in prison for killing one burglar and wounding another with a shotgun during the seventh break-in at his rural home in 1999. While his sentence was later reduced to five years, he was refused parole in 2003 because he was judged a danger to burglars.…
In 1991, American tourist Dina Letarte of Tempe, Ariz., used a penknife to protect herself from a violent attack by three men in a London subway. She was convicted of carrying an offensive weapon, fined, and given a two-year suspended sentence.
Read the whole thing. A society that treats violent aggressors with more leniency than peaceful citizens who defend themselves against violent aggressors should not be surprised by the recent orgy of violent aggression in its streets.
- 1:15 pm - Thu, Aug 11, 2011
- 3 notes
London v. Washington
Friday’s column: Hey, conservatives — look what you made the rioters do!
Sneak peek:
When conservatives wave signs, it’s not “unrest” caused by a “sense of disenchantment.” It’s because they’re bigots. Society as a whole is not to blame; they are, individually. They need an attitude adjustment. When violent mobs of young people burn down a city, though, they are not individually responsible – society as a whole is (or at least that part of society that ostensibly ticked them off). They don’t need an attitude adjustment: conservatives do.
…
Here in the U.S. we’ve just been through a budget showdown in which the side that wanted government spending to grow at a slightly less rapid pace than the other side wanted was denounced as terrorists in the literal sense. So far, none of those who called peaceful tea-party activists terrorists have flung the same accusation at the British rioters who have inflicted genuine terror. Interesting.
- 12:23 pm
- 3 notes
The riots are the apotheosis of the welfare state and popular culture in their British form. A population thinks (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class) that it is entitled to a high standard of consumption, irrespective of its personal efforts; and therefore it regards the fact that it does not receive that high standard, by comparison with the rest of society, as a sign of injustice. It believes itself deprived (because it has often been told so by intellectuals and the political class), even though each member of it has received an education costing $80,000, toward which neither he nor—quite likely—any member of his family has made much of a contribution; indeed, he may well have lived his entire life at others’ expense, such that every mouthful of food he has ever eaten, every shirt he has ever worn, every television he has ever watched, has been provided by others. Even if he were to recognize this, he would not be grateful, for dependency does not promote gratitude. On the contrary, he would simply feel that the subventions were not sufficient to allow him to live as he would have liked.
- 3:14 pm - Wed, Aug 10, 2011
- 1 note
Photoshopping the rioters.* More here.
(* Or at least people present at scenes of rioting. Wouldn’t want to cast blame unfairly when there’s so much to be fairly cast!)
- 10:18 am
- 21 notes
Somebody’s Gotta Do It
(Via this tumblr and a bunch of others….)
- 8:40 am - Tue, Jul 5, 2011
- 8 notes
Peaceful(Violent) Citizens(Thugs)
Today’s column explores how and explains why the media term left-wing demonstrations peaceful, even when they’re not, while bashing right-wing demonstrations that are even MORE peaceful as violent insurrections.
