The American Spectator

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Waiting for Obama

4.7.08 @ 12:01AM

(Page 6 of 6)

I'm quite sure Franco and Stalin would have welcomed a gay brigade from San Francisco. But of course!
-- Jim Woodward
Midvale, Utah

A "memorial" to the Abraham Lincoln brigade? To Marxist terrorists? Unbelievable.

General Franco is and was a hero to all freedom loving, thinking people. The Last Crusade documents what really happened during the Spanish Civil War.

"The total number of priests and religious martyred was 6832 -- in other words 12% of all the clergy in Spain were killed, and about a quarter of those who were trapped in Republican zones. And yet there were almost no apostasies -- no clergy or religious did so under torture -- and the crusade was successful."

Marxists tortured and murdered over 6,000 defenseless, unarmed clergymen and nuns, most of them who died while praying for their communist murderers. Marxists destroyed half of the churches in Spain.

Only in San Francisco (a city named after a Catholic friar, by the way), could a morally and intellectually bankrupt population, honor such terrorist scum as the murderers who left America to go overseas to murder people who only wanted the freedom that the American communists left behind.
-- Brian Schafer
Arlington, Virginia

Interesting half-truths in Daniel J. Flynn's article on the new monument to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in San Francisco. Flynn tellingly quotes from Orwell, a common reference point for anti-communism. Yet Orwell's anti-stalinism was nevertheless leftist, as every decent biography of him has concluded. One symptom of this article's propaganda function is how it describes Orwell's having been shot in the neck while fighting for the Spanish Republicans, followed immediately by an unexplained reference to Communist firing squads -- thus associating his bullet wound with a Communist rifle. This is deliberate obfuscation and clearly attempts to avoid the obvious awkwardness of admitting that Orwell was shot in the neck by one of Franco's fascist snipers. More to the point, which Flynn would like us to forget, is that Orwell continued to support the Spanish Republic despite his dismay with the communist infighting there. Amnesia? Yes, we are still warding off these symptoms of historical senility.
-- Erick Heroux

The curse of amnesia has stricken overseas also. In England and Ireland there are 52 memorials to the Communists who fought for Stalin in the Spanish Civil War. However, there is not a single memorial to any of the 640 Irishmen who fought for the Catholic faith against Stalin, not even in their own Irish homeland where it was the only country where more troops fought for Franco then against him. Perhaps, someday, there will be one.
-- Michael Skaggs
Murray, Kentucky

BOOK BAG ARMS
Re: Emily L. Mullins' Self-Defense 101:

I read with interest the article "Self Defense 101" by Emily Mullin, who makes some good points in advocating for the right of properly licensed college students with to carry concealed weapons on campus. But I suggest some of the arguments advanced are weak or unsupportable, and advocates should develop better ones. Leaving aside the general question of whether or not responsible adults ought to be able to carry concealed weapons on campus or elsewhere, there is no empirical or other evidence that more guns on campus would reduce episodes such as those at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University. It has a nice romance to it, the idea that at the moment of truth, some young man or woman, or the philosophy professor down the all, would dispense with the villain with a well-placed shot to the head.

But that is the stuff of Hollywood movies, often not very good ones. Likewise, the deterrent argument -- the idea that would-be troublemakers would think twice about mass murder knowing some students and professors might have a pocket pistol -- has little merit.

There is strong evidence that criminals, and even angry non-criminals of sound mind, are reluctant to commit mayhem if there is a possibility that their intended victims might be armed. But there is no reason to believe and no evidence to support the idea that crazed-killers ala Mr. Cho at Virginia Tech, bent on their own self destruction as well as the destruction of others, would be bothered by the possibility. They might even welcome the challenge. Likewise, it borders on wishful thinking to believe that these terrible campus episodes might have been nipped in the bud if only some of the students had been armed. Even among well-trained soldiers and police (perhaps with the exception of special elite units), a large percentage are ineffective in returning fire when the shooting starts, and a minority, albeit the minority that makes the difference, does most of the work. And while some active or retired law officers or ex-soldiers might do well enough in situations like that at Northern Illinois University, it is too much to think that young men and women with no prior police or military training would be cool and effective the first time in their lives they came under direct fire, regardless of how well they might shoot paper targets at the range. This would be especially so when everyone around them were panicking, screaming, and running in circles.

As an aside, the article incorrectly asserts that acquiring a concealed carry permit "isn't an easy process" and is costly. In the great majority of states, it is neither difficult nor expensive to do so. Nor do most states require the applicant to demonstrate any proficiency with firearms. Two states, Vermont and Alaska, require nothing more than a minimum age and an ID -- no training, no background check and your ID is your permit. In Virginia, and in many other states, one may obtain the permit without even owning a gun, or having any experience with firearms. The required gun safety course in Virginia is classroom only, and there is no requirement for any time at the firing range.

This is not to say the process is not rigorous in other aspects. One applies for the permit at one's local circuit court, which is the issuing agency, and a careful background check is conducted by the State Police to weed out criminals, illegal immigrants, wife beaters, and assorted crazies. And the State Police keep permanent records on all permit holders. Nor are the fees steep -- the cost in Virginia is $50 as I recall. Thus, by and large, the holding of a concealed carry permit tells one nothing about the holder's competence with firearms or suitability for using them.

We should keep in mind that these permits are issued for self-protection and protection of family and home, and not for the protection of the general public. Many people who might have the motivation and willpower to protect themselves, their families, or their homes in a tight situation would nevertheless lack the ability, motivation and training needed to engage in a firefight with a mass murderer threatening strangers in a public place. Effective prevention of incidents of mass murder must and should look elsewhere for solutions.
-- David Sciacchitano
McLean, Virginia

HELMS MAN
Re: David Weigel's Van Helmsing:

Let's give credit where credit is due. I will be eternally grateful to Jesse Helms for his opposition to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. There is quite enough opinion on child-rearing right here in the US of A without our recruiting and empowering a panel of international eggheads to add theirs.
-- Bill Grimes
Corpus Christi, Texas

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