Attribute to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

A terrible tragedy took place a week ago in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue—a well known icon of the regional Jewish community in Squirrel Hill. The story broke late morning while I was at work and I followed it through the day picking up the details of the casualties and the perpetrator who I won’t mention by name because he really doesn’t deserve the publicity he has already gotten. It was a disturbing act—though I find some of the reactions of people to the situation even more disturbing.

First of all the anti-gun lobby—vultures that they are—great surprise. It was yet another shameful attempt to capitalize on the fear and outrage to manipulate public sentiment at such a convenient time with an election little more than a week away. It began to feel a whole lot like Oklahoma City all over again. And not only in the way of trying to jinn up the anti-gun hysteria but also a very vile attempt to slander not only pro-gun people—but also Libertarians by accusing them as bedfellows of neo Nazis and white supremacists—aka the alternative right that supported Donald Trump in the 2016 election. For shame. Obviously these people have no idea what a libertarian is and the Left is more akin to Nazis than anyone else since it’s always their way or the highway and they would not hesitate to crush the Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness of anyone else who ever gets in their way or would even dare talk back to them if they were in power. And they demonstrate the same in the niches where they do rule—like in the prog media and academia.

Then there were the Jewish leaders themselves who got pretty reactionary about the suggestion that maybe things might have gone better if someone in the congregation had been armed and able to stop the shooter before he got as far as killing eleven people and wounding several others including four police officers who were called in to deal with this nut. It would also have saved us all the circus trial that will now have to be endured because that piece of crap survived.

It was said that the emergency responders and the hospitals Thad dealt with the casualties performed their duties commendably and my heart goes out them. In part because I do the same thing and could be on the reviving end of a mass casualty someday myself. Through the day I could not help but wonder what it would be like to be the doctors and nurses taking care of that despicable being—even though the creed of the profession—a character in Michael Crichton’s ER said it best: “Helping them is more important than how we feel”. Probably a lot harder than dealing with the run of the mill dregs of humanity; the assholes idiots and drug addicts we do our best to take care of without prejudice.

As for the Jewish community of the region and America and western nations in general—I find it disturbing that many of them put their ideological sentiments ahead of their own well-being as a people. Is Jewish identity that wrapped up in the progressivist cause that being a Jew is contingent upon towing the line no matter what—even if it’s for a political party that for the most part takes them for granted—even when prominent leaders of that party often support policies that are detrimental to Jewish interests and have even openly voiced anti-Semitic opinions.

There is the reaction of people in general to the idea of encouraging members of a synagogue or church to come armed that is hauntingly similar to the reaction to the idea of arming teachers as a measure to combat the problem of school shootings. The vibe I get from what I’ve read and the opinions of some I know—is an underlaying fear that persons without adequate training might do collateral damage. It’s almost as if there is a prevailing sentiment that only government sponsored expertise can do it right. The problem with that is requiring everything be left to professionals has a cost to society in the way of higher taxes that some of us already living on the edge can ill afford to pay or it doesn’t get done and people must depend on existing police resources and the cops often don’t make it there in time; like last Saturday in Squirrel Hill.

In a way I understand how people in that congregation and community feel as they do after such a terrible and traumatic event. And the nation in general. It seems awful that people attending a religious service, or school teachers should have to arm themselves—yet the Jews at the Tree of Life could take a lesson from their fellows in Israel who are surrounded by people who hate them with every fiber of their existence; who are even more determined to destroy them than a random nutjob like the one who shot up their place of worship last weekend. In Israel, the threat of terrorism is ever present and they have to deal with it effectively and cannot afford the luxury of the kind of politically correct nonsense that seems to pervade American life. They actually armed their teachers and probably a lot of other people in civilian life as a measure to stop mass shootings and they are also quite serious about securing their borders to keep terrorists from sneaking in and attacking them. I have not heard much about said problems coming from there lately—which either means their policies are working or our media has just found more interesting issues elsewhere to harp about. And I guess they could ill afford to highlight a successful border wall or armed teachers preventing school shootings in Israel least it give credibly to people in America who are recommending the same or similar policies.

God forbid that people be able to defend themselves from evil. It might undermine the merchants of fear who hope to con the Peole into trading away their Liberties in the name of transient causes for the promise of security that can’t and won’t be delivered on.