Seminole
Member
If only the British people would learn their place. . . .
This is the latest column from Vin Suprynowicz:
This is the latest column from Vin Suprynowicz:
Can't they shut these people up?
London's daily newspaper The Independent on Jan. 2 reported an interesting British radio stunt gone wrong ... or right, perhaps.
In what was promoted as a "unique chance to rewrite the law of the land," listeners to the government-controlled British Broadcasting Company's Radio 4 "Today" program were asked to suggest a piece of legislation to improve life in Great Britain, with the promise that a Member of Parliament would then actually attempt to get the proposed change onto the statute books.
"But yesterday, 26,000 votes later, the winning proposal was denounced as a `ludicrous, brutal, unworkable blood-stained piece of legislation' -- by Stephen Pound, the very MP whose job it is to try to push it through Parliament," reports Independent Media Editor Vincent Graff.
Mr. Pound's reaction was provoked by the news that the winner of Today's "Listeners' Law" poll was a plan to allow homeowners " 'to use any means to defend their home from intruders' -- a prospect that could see householders free to kill burglars, without question," Graff reports in a story The Independent headlined "MP calls Radio 4 listeners `bastards' over vigilante vote."
"The people have spoken," the Labour MP replied when advised of the vote, "... the bastards."
Having somewhat recovered his composure, Mr. Pound told The Independent: "We are going to have to re-evaluate the listenership of Radio 4. I would have expected this result if there had been a poll in The Sun. Do we really want a law that says you can slaughter anyone who climbs in your window?"
Gee, only in a nation where people have a right to defend their lives and property, I suppose. And to think we actually sent these dweebs some of our best hunting rifles, with which to "defend" themselves, when they put out the call for help after negligently leaving most of theirs sitting on some beach in Belgium (OK, France -- by about 15 miles) in the spring of 1940. Instead of bothering us, why on Earth didn't the Londoners just mail the keys to their city to Herr von Ribbentrop, c/o the Reichstag, General Delivery, Berlin?
"Observers had assumed that the winning suggestion might be a little more light-hearted -- and a little less illiberal," The Independent continues.
"Indeed, there were suspicions the vote may have been hijacked by supporters of Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer who was jailed for shooting a burglar. ...
"Mr. Pound will go through the motions of presenting the bill to Parliament but hoped he would fail. He said it was `the sort of idea somebody comes up with in a bar on a Saturday night between "string 'em all up" and "send 'em all home" '."
I'd feel more comfortable pointing out Mr. Pound is a dangerous lunatic who deserves to be sent into combat against the AK-wielding punks now terrorizing the newly disarmed citizens of Manchester (resultantly rechristened "Gunchester" by the puckish London tabloids) armed only with the gun nature gave him (however small that may be), if it weren't for the fact we have so many weenies in our own Washington City, these days, who would doubtless agree with him.
For the record, I wonder if MP Pound would include in the ranks of those redneck Saturday-night racists one Henry St. George Tucker, who wrote in Blackstone's 1768 "Commentaries on the Laws of England":
"The right of self-defense is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction."
Another member of this legion of besotted pub-crawlers, apparently, would have been the great Scots patriot Andrew Fletcher (1655-1716), who wrote in his 1698 "Discourse of Government with Relation to Militias":
"A good militia will always preserve the public liberty. But in the best constitution that ever was ... if the militia be not upon a right foot, the liberty of that people must perish. ... I cannot see why arms should be denied to any man who is not a slave, since they are the only true badges of liberty. ..."
One who was known to study quite diligently the teachings of the great Scots parliamentarian was our own Richard Henry Lee, widely regarded as the main author of the American Bill of Rights, who in 1788 declared: "To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
Searching through the pages of history, I look for any notable statesman -- even one -- who would agree with this repulsive fascist toady, member of Parliament Stephen Pound.
Yes, finally I have found one:
"The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms," says this well-known 20th century statesman and head of state. "History shows that all conquerors who have allowed the subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty."
Thus spake Adolf Hitler, in his edict of March 18, 1938, as quoted by Briton H.R. Trevor-Roper in his book "Hitler's Table Talks 1941-1944" (London: Widenfeld and Nicolson, 1953, pp. 425-426).
Nice to find you're not completely alone, isn't it, Mr. Pound?
