I often think of Iraq as NRA-land. In Iraq, every male over 10 has at least one automatic rifle. (Who makes all the money from that?) Therefore, according to the NRA, Iraq is a paradise on earth, where each man is his own master and personally responsible for his own defense. In Iraq, men do not cower under desks — they shoot!

Curiously, the NRA doesn’t crow in public about this paradise. As strangely, they say nothing about how Iraq also shows the other face of the NRA: the government wants your weapons. There is no question that in Iraq, the government has tried to confiscate weapons. Worse, US soldiers play a major role in this round-up of a freedom-loving people’s last defense against a tyrannical government. How can the NRA remain silent and look the other way? How does the NRA know those soldiers won’t come home and take your weapons next? mjh

Gunmen kill 43 in northern Iraq by Thomas Wagner, The Associated Press

BAGHDAD – Gunmen shot and killed 23 members of an ancient religious sect in northern Iraq on Sunday after stopping their bus and separating out followers of other faiths, while car bombings in the capital killed at least another 20 people.

Think Progress » Gingrich Blames Virginia Tech Tragedy On Liberalism

In the wake of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich laid the blame for the tragedy at the feet of liberals. Here’s what he said:

“I want to say to the elite of this country – the elite news media, the liberal academic elite, the liberal political elite: I accuse you in Littleton…of being afraid to talk about the mess you have made, and being afraid to take responsibility for things you have done, and instead foisting upon the rest of us pathetic banalities because you don’t have the courage to look at the world you have created.”

On ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos asked Gingrich if he would apply those same words to the Virginia Tech tragedy. “Yes,” Gingrich said, offering a rambling, nonsensical response that segued into Don Imus and McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform.

Gingrich has a history of spinning tragedy for ideological and partisan gain.

– In 1994, after Susan Smith confessed to drowning her two children in South Carolina, Gingrich quickly blamed liberals, saying the only way to avoid similar future incidents was “to vote Republican.”

– After former Rep. Mark Foley (R-FL) was forced to resign over his sexually inappropriate behavior towards House pages, Gingrich declared that conservatives didn’t act to stop Foley because they “would have been accused of gay bashing” by liberals.

– At the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year, Gingrich blamed the residents of New Orleans’ 9th ward for “a failure of citizenship,” by being “so uneducated and so unprepared, they literally couldn’t get out of the way of a hurricane.”

In Gingrich’s mind, anything bad that happens can always be traced back to the culture created by liberals.

Watch the video at: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/22/gingrich-liberalism-vatech/

I’m intrigued by the notion held by some that the situation at Virginia Tech would have been idyllic if everyone had a gun. (This is the microcosm of the perfect world in which all of us are armed. You know, like in Iraq.) Oh, I know, they really mean “the right person” — the hero — but let’s take it to the logical extreme where everyone at VPI carried a gun.

How does this fantasy play out? Cho approaches the first two people he killed and draws a gun. Now what? Does one or do both of those victims shoot him on the spot? Hooray! Do they hesitate until he shoots one of them first, then the other kills him? Let’s say he got the drop on them in spite of their weapons. On to the classrooms. Students hear gunfire and all draw their weapons and run to the hallway. When do these 30 students start shooting? When they see he’s dressed in black, armed, Asian?

I get the simple version: a guy points a gun at you and you shoot him first. But in a classroom in chaos, when and whom do you shoot? When the guy next to you draws a gun and starts shooting, how do you know he’s a good guy and not another psycho? Thirty-three people start shooting. How many die? mjh

PS: I wonder if Cho watch Saturday Night Live last Saturday. One sketch involved one roommate shooting another. Third person enters the room and is shot. Then a fourth. Then a couple of cops. Everyone ends up dead. Now that’s comedy.

The vandalism at the BioPark is very sad. The vandals and their parents must receive some punishment, though I don’t think it should haunt them the rest of their lives.

I wonder why this story wasn’t reported when it happened. A full week passed before the BioPark banned the school and that’s when it became news. How did the story remain uncovered until then? mjh

ABQjournal: City Sues Over BioPark Damage By Andrea Schoellkopf, Journal Staff Writer

The lawsuit names Charles Aragon and his mother, Tina Aragon; Desiree Gallegos and her aunt, Elene Marquez; Randy Kowalchuck [whose mother is in prison] and his grandmother, Helen Aragon; and Veronica Rodriguez and her stepfather, Joe Ramos. [mjh: I don’t idolize the “Father Knows Best” model of 50’s families with 2.5 well-behaved kids. But you don’t have to be a social scientist to notice those families are non-nuclear.]

“I asked him, ‘Why did you do it?’ ” [Helen Aragon] said. “You know what he told me? ‘Everybody else was doing it.’ ”

Since then, she said, her grandson has been very depressed and quiet “as if he’s so worried about something.”

She said her grandson, who will turn 13 next month, spends most of his time at home with her watching movies or playing games. Recently, he has begun playing basketball and football with other children.

“That little boy has had a rough life and he keeps more to himself,” she said. [mjh: the next Cho?>]

The Duke Lacrosse players have been exonerated, at last. Now the last great wrong in the world has been righted and these unfortunate rich, young, white preppies can try to pick up the crystal shards of their privileged lives. God bless America.

As for Don Imus, he’s an old goat who has been spewing crap for years. But, in a ‘profession’ that includes pill-popper Lush Dimbulb and the execrable Howard Stern, Imus is a pissant. And his offense — truly sexist and racist and so-last-century — seems almost charming compared to 30 seconds of any hip-hop video. Is Snoop-Dawg a champion of women’s rights or the dignity of any people? It’s like comparing your senile uncle’s farting to the stench of a pig farm. This is a coarse age in which awful people demand our attention and we happily give it, sinking to their level every time. It’s hard to believe Imus’ well-deserved public flogging represents the turning point and the line in the sand. I don’t doubt we’ll get uglier. mjh