Tag Archive for 'john-derbyshire'

Good for him

Published
by
Jake
on April 20, 2007
in News
. 0 Comments

Like Oliver Willis I can’t believe I’m saying this either but congrats to John Podhoretz for rippinghis colleague at the Corner John Derbyshire’s comments regarding the Virginia Tech shooting:

I have to dissent, in the strongest possible terms, from John Derbyshire’s shocking posts on Virginia Tech. The notion that a human being or group of human beings holding no weapon whatever should somehow “fight back” against someone calmly executing other people right in front of their eyes is ludicrous beyond belief, irrational beyond bounds, and tasteless beyond the limits of reason.

“Why didn’t anyone rush the guy?” Derb asks. Gee, I don’t know. Because he was executing people? Because if you rush a guy with a gun, he shoots you in the head the way he executed the teachers in each classroom?

Derb claims proudly to be touching a “third rail” by raising something no one wants to talk about. The third rail is a metaphor for electrocution. What happened in those classrooms was no metaphor. It was a psychotic with a gun and a lot of people with no weaponry at their disposal. A few were astonishingly brave, and deserve to be considered heroes. Everybody else was just a person either in danger of being murdered, being mortally wounded, or being murdered.

In the name of old-fashioned and time-honored forms of human behavior, Derb has trampled on one of the oldest: Judge not, lest ye be judged.

Couldn’t have said it better myself (though i tried to here)

(also found via Think Progress)

Despicable

Published
by
Jake
on April 18, 2007
in News
. 0 Comments

I haven’t written anything about the tragic and sickening events at Virginia Tech because I haven’t really had anything intelligent or insightful to add. Its an unimaginable horror, plan and simple. Having said that, I did want to note one piece of commentary that I feel deserves special attention. Here’s is John Derbyshire at The Corner talking about the victims at Virginia Tech:

As NRO’s designated chickenhawk, let me be the one to ask: Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn’t anyone rush the guy? It’s not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness’ sake—one of them reportedly a .22.

At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren’t very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can’t hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage—your chances aren’t bad.

Yes, yes, I know it’s easy to say these things: but didn’t the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything? As the cliche goes—and like most cliches. It’s true—none of us knows what he’d do in a dire situation like that. I hope, however, that if I thought I was going to die anyway, I’d at least take a run at the guy.

Mr. Derbyshire is correct in identifying himself as a chickenhawk but worse, he is a despicable human being. To attack the victims of this unspeakable tragedy for not acting, forget the fact that the complete story has yet to be told, is so distasteful that I struggle to come up with the proper words to express my contempt. Is Mr. Derbyshire implying the victims are some how culpable in their own deaths?

And having not been in the terrifying situation, how can Mr.Derbyshire even begin to guess how he would have acted? Who’s to say he wouldn’t have been in the corner crying? He cites the heroism of those on Flight 93 but HE wasn’t on Flight 93, that heroism isn’t his to claim.

(via Ezra Klein, among others)