The American Apologist

Central Illinois was shaken awake by a 5.2 magnitude earthquake at 4:37 am this morning.

I, however, remained asleep. When you only get 4 hours of sleep, you can’t let a silly little thing like an earthquake disturb you at night!

P.S. — for those of you who have known me (as ProphetJoe) from CvC (ChrisVsChris.com: the Battle of the Sexes), I just wanted you to know that, apparently, Christine and Christopher have parted ways. Personally, I think that sucks because CvC has been such a fun, vibrant site that I will miss the banter and interaction so much. Alas…

Three topics today:

1) Charlton Heston died last Saturday. The world lost a terrific actor and the nation lost a national treasure.

2) Last weekend was also notable because of Barack Hussein Obama’s comment about bitterness in middle America. I believe his quote was:

You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them,… And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Does he thinks most of middle America has been unemployed for the last 25 years, is a “gun nut” (in the derogatory sense of the term), and is a Bible-thumping fundamentalist who is against immigration?

Well, Mr. Candidate, you are mostly correct. The one part you got wrong was the unemployed part — we’re not unemployed, but we did lose many of our mining and manufacturing jobs 25-30 years ago when the politicians in power made it more profitable for firms to do business overseas.

We are bitter. We’re bitter because no matter who wins this general election, conservative American values will not inhabit the Oval Office. We’re bitter that you think gun ownership and religion are “low-brow” pursuits practiced only in “fly-over country” by blue-collar drones. We’re bitter that illegal aliens are eligible for tuition preferences and medical treatment that natural citizens aren’t entitled to receive.

Yeah, we’re bitter. We’re bitter that the Democratic and Republican parties haven’t been able to produce an honest, decent red-blooded American to steer this country with integrity and conservative values since Ronald Reagan. We’re bitter that the press, the politicians and academia look down their up-turned noses at the men and women who do the “heavy lifting” in this country — how else can you explain the idiocy of rewarding a professor with tenure while an Army Corporal needs food stamps to get by?

We’re bitter, but in reality, we are practical and fiercely proud. We are America.

3) In a related story, there’s now an active debate about allowing guns on college campuses. CNN had this story on Monday and it immediately stirred some controversy on my listservs. One of the respondents, who I’ll identify as Casey (not his real name) said this:

I think it is a bad idea. Police on my campus (Wisconsin Madison) responding to a campus shooting incident in progress say they would have a hard time telling the difference between the bad guys (initial shooter) and the good guys (students with guns responding). They go to a shooting incident all amped up and see someone with a gun, that person is immediately a target. Just my .02 worth.

To which I respond:

With all due respect, Casey, I disagree on several points:

1. The innocents (targets) are faced with a fight-or-flight scenario and arming them (and we’re talking about responsible students, staff, and faculty who have concealed carry permits) gives them a way to fight and for some, that’s a chance at life.
2. Using your argument, the next logical step would be to outlaw all private guns so police aren’t confused about who’s the criminal and who’s the victim. After all, police arriving at a business or a home don’t usually have advanced warning as to who has a firearm.
3. Frankly, I don’t think it’s an insurmountable problem – I don’t hear of homeowners being shot by arriving police very often (and trust me, if it happened frequently, it would be ALL OVER THE NEWS).
4. I would much rather take my chances facing a trained police officer (even an amped up officer) when I’m armed than facing a homicidal sociopath when I’m unarmed.

No offense to any law enforcement personnel, but I don’t believe their mission is to provide personal protection to each and every one of us – that’s simply not feasible. Most gun owners I know own a gun (at least partially) for personal protection reasons. Why should college campuses strip that option away?

Well, that’s all for today. Let me know what you think!

Joe