BANG !

[Wise One]

It turns out that not all gun enthusiasts are gun nuts.

It other words, the NRA doesn't shoot straight when it comes to representing the views and interests of even its own members.

[Anonymoose]

I'm enjoying all the informed debate on guns as I read backward and try to catch up. Not to bore anyone by going too retro, but this caught my eye:

The uniformed professors of VMI, who are not regular military, are a Unit of the Virginia Militia !

A recent conversation I had informed me of the requirement that VMI faculty and (some/all?) administrators hired as civilians are required to join the Virginia Militia so that they can "legitimately" wear military uniforms on campus (for conformity I guess.) If true, this is odd to me. It sort of has the effect of devaluing the true enlisted and commissioned members of the military to try to put everyone on the same level. Why shouldn't those who took the oath of service and actually served stand out from the rest? And, why can't military and civilian faculty co-exist and be respected for what they bring to the table? Both have a valuable place in education. If this really is the policy, it just doesn't make sense to me. Does anyone else have insight on this? Maybe it's just rumor, but I'd like to know.

[Wise One]

Good questions!

I look at it this way:

• It is basically impossible to take VMI seriously.
• So have fun with it.
• The instructors are just actors, playing military parts
• Like civil war buffs, re-enactors, but slightly more zany
• They wear make-believe uniforms
• In a make-believe army
• Trying earnestly to teach in a make-believe "college"
• To kids who mean well but are too exhausted most of the time to learn much, spending most of their time and energy just fighting to stay awake in class.

It's great sport for all involved, now that VMI has finally (mostly) given up trying to ram god down everybody's throat.

[lexingtonrick]

In 2009 VMI ranked third, after the United States Naval Academy and the United States Military Academy, in the US News and World Report rankings of the 27 top public liberal arts colleges in the United States.

Forbes' 2008 Special Report on America's Best Colleges ranked VMI in the top 10 Public Universities in the Nation. VMI was ranked 9th in the "Top 25 Publics" section, just behind the United States Military Academy, the Air Force Academy, and the Naval Academy, but ahead of such schools as UCLA, the University of Michigan, the University of Florida, Overall, VMI ranked 108th out of the 569 colleges and universities evaluated.

The VMI faculty, 96% of whom hold Ph.D.s, are renowned for its teaching excellence.

VMI has produced more Rhodes Scholars per graduate than any state college or university in the United States and more than all other Senior Military Colleges combined.

VMI's alumni include a Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Nobel Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners, Rhodes Scholars, Medal of Honor recipients, US Senators and Representatives, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, college and university presidents, and many business leaders.

Your right......... you can't take this place seriously!

[Wise One]

For broader perspective, I checked the USnews rankings for 2010 all liberal arts colleges, of which 120 are rated, to supplement your listing of public liberal arts colleges. (There appear to be very few ranked public colleges/universities that are classified as "liberal arts", most offering broader and perhaps better menus.)

• Rank College
• 14 USMA
• 19 USNA
• 62 VMI
• strangely Air Force Academy is absent, maybe because its religious fanaticism cost their ranking, or because it's not classified "liberal arts."

From Forbes all colleges and universities, VMI is placed at 79 out of 600, amazingly high.

But I still think the VMI instructors' uniforms and Virginia Militia Unorganized things are silly.

[Anonymoose]

WO, I'm L'ing MAO at your response and don't have a darned thing to add to that. But, I do think that both public and liberal arts educations have their merits. About the rankings, they are so subjective and commercialized, I don't know that they are much of a gauge of quality, except for how well and how timely the institutions answer the questions and pay the fees. I imagine each year, institutions just hope for the best.

Now, back to topic at hand....guns.

Our Appomattox shooter had his concealed weapons permit approved/renewed three times, despite mental issues that were apparent to acquaintances, family, an attorney, and possibly others. It seems not only do we need to start profiling, screening, and deterring at our airports, but in our local communities as well.

[Wise One]

Thanks, and yours is an interesting point about rankings. I don't know enough about them to have an opinion about their reliability or whether they are often "gamed", but have puzzled from time to time over results that look a bit odd. Are these systems fair and useful, or biased and of marginal utility? I just don't know.

[Anonymoose]

Are these systems fair and useful, or biased and of marginal utility?

My personal opinion, they are of marginal utility, designed to make money from the universities, by selling magazines, or drawing prospective students to web sites. The reason I think this is that, although all the schools answer the same questions, we don't really know the criteria used to determine who is #1. I don't think they divulge that, and obviously each polling entity uses different criteria (to appeal to a different audience I'm guessing, and to keep the universities coming back year after year to try to "rank" higher.)

On the gun topic, reading through your links, just shaking my head at how we reached the point that so many with a grudge, mental illness, drug or alcohol problem, and access to a gun, think it is okay to use them for any reason except self-defense. The gun history in our country has made it just too commonplace. I have thought many many times about purchasing a personal firearm, with my only reservation being that I would actually USE it. I keep resisting, BUT, the complication is, so many nut cases now own them or have access to them, it seems necessary to have one to protect oneself from THEM: our neighbors, relatives, co-workers, "friends."

[Wise One]

... it seems necessary to have one to protect oneself from THEM: our neighbors, relatives, co-workers, "friends."

My problem with this proposition, so widely accepted in America, is that the public health facts belie it.

Statistically, a gun at home is more likely to cause death or injury to family and friends, than to prevent death or injury to family and friends.

[Anonymoose]

Statistically, a gun at home is more likely to cause death or injury to family and friends, than to prevent death or injury to family and friends.

Exactly, that's why I've resisted the impulse (so far.) It's a heavy commitment. But, I think about the pioneers, and am pretty sure that every frontier household had a rifle or shotgun, and granny knew how to use it. Difference was, they weren't so danged angry and prone to go postal on innocents, despite what the movies portray.

[Neck-aint-red]

[Wise One]

Not the best choice, but there may ultimately be no other alternative. WO, my apologies in advance, but God helps us all if they succeed in barring the right to bear arms.

By coincidence in today's cartoon,Tom Toles has a retort for you, Fangz, that pretty much nails it. Well, except that the numbers on the right hand side of the ledger grossly under-represent the real total, space being limited in a tiny cartoon.

[fangz1956]

Point taken, WO. Thanks for yanking me back to reality.

Let's look at this, not from a public health angle, but from a fear and corporate profit angle. I've done a revisit to Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbinethis afternoon. Whether or not one agrees with Moore's tactics, he does make some excellent points in this film regarding increasing corporate profits as the fear card is played over and over again by our government and by the news media. A large part of this deals with racism at its most basic roots.........anybody who is not white is a dangerous evil-doer to be feared and hated........and shot on sight.

Maybe it's time to get really vocal on this issue with Congress while we boycott the MSM. As long as we watch what they air and read what they print, they will keep right on feeding us fear at every whipstitch. This amounts to nothing more than manipulation of the masses fueled by corporate greed..................that goes way beyond a public health issue. It's a human rights issue. This manipulation of the public by the powers is what is keeping this nation divided. this is not a time that the people can afford to be or remain divided.

Don Henley did a great tune a few years back called Workin It. There is a line in it that is so fitting to the America of today....the America ruled by corporate pirates. It goes......

The Barons in the balconies are laughing
and pointing to the pit
Oh, the people love that shit
We're workin' it

[Wise One]

Right on, Fangz. But what is a "MSM"?

[Anonymoose]

Mainstream Media? Ding ding ding! I dunno, we'll have to let Fangz weigh in...

[Wise One]

OMG, so the phrase "mainstream media" has now reached such common usage that it is an acronym.

The public has totally bought into this Rush Limbaugh invention, echoed by the Sarah Palin types, "mainstream media" being defined as anybody who dares to print or cover opinion or subjects that do not align perfectly with their totally crazy view of the world.

Those two are the king and queen of persecution complexes.

[fangz1956]

Wise One wrote:

The public has totally bought into this Rush Limbaugh invention, echoed by the Sarah Palin types, "mainstream media" being defined as anybody who dares to print or cover opinion or subjects that do not align perfectly with their totally crazy view of the world.

Hmmmmm.........that is not exactly my definition of mainstream media. Mainstream Media defines news outlets and sources who notoriously distort facts and, quite often, are deemed to have lap dog status with major corporations and the government. These are media outlets who fail to act as responsible watchdogs.......who take dictation rather than dig for the truth.........who climb on the bandwagon for the story of the hour, day, week, month, year, election cycle. Lots of guilty parties fall into this category......NYT, WSJ, BBC, CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, TIME, Newsweek, Slate, Salon, WaPo, ad infinitum. I no longer watch the news on television......local, national, or international. I rarely read a major newspaper anymore..........the majority of "journalists" (and i use that term very loosely) are all reporting the same things, in the same ways.....without ever digging for the real truth. This is what happens when the major news outlets in a nation are owned by a select handful of wealthy men hungry for more power.

Someone sent me a link to story from the Huffington Post that illustrates this "method of reporting the news' in most excellent fashion....and how the media make complete and utter fools of themselves in the process of attempting to dupe, manipulate, inflame, and divide the American public. The link for this excellent story is below.

Quran Burning Story: How the Media Embarrass Themselves



P.S. Take two weeks and just scan the stories from the news sources above. Then come back and tell me how many of them appear to be like the old children's joke about Pete and Repeat sitting on a fence. Pete fell off. Who was left?

[fangz1956]

Hitting a whole lot closer to home, we have this from today's Roanoke Times:

Vinton Couple Found Dead In Likely Murder/Suicide

Yes indeed.............an unstable, kicked to the curb sleazebag with a concealed carry permit!

[nudgewink]

The gun nut lobby has made things really, really bad. Worse than I realized.

[ParkerLongbaugh]

The gun nut lobby has made things really, really bad. Worse than I realized.

Nudgewink, I'm curious- have you ever had any dealings with the ATF, in either an official or personal/unofficial capacity?