Patterico's Pontifications

4/22/2021

Remembering the Good Old Days When Teens Could While Away the Afternoon Hours with Harmless Knife Fighting

Filed under: General — JVW @ 3:17 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Charles C. W. Cooke, one of the sharpest wits in conservative journalism these days, counters the reactionary tendencies of our host by leaping to the defense of Valerie Jarrett, Bree Newsome, Sherrod Brown, and all the other stellar intellects who have argued that attacking another teenage girl with a knife was no reason for a cop to get all antsy and shoot Ma’Khia Bryant. With due respect to the memory of the late Miss Bryant, the estimable Mr. Cooke deploys a Swiftian sense of satire that is worth reading in its entirety. But to whet your appetite, here are some great paragraphs:

Just when I thought that America couldn’t possibly get any softer, people start suggesting that there’s a role for the police in preventing knife murders. The snowflake generation strikes once again.

Is there any tradition that the radicals won’t ruin? As the brilliant Bree Newsome pointed out on Twitter, “Teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons.” And now people are calling the cops on them? I ask: Is this a self-governing country or not? When Newsome says, “We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene & using a weapon,” she may be expressing a view that is unfashionable these days. But she’s right.

[. . .]

In all honesty, I worry that this sort of helicopter policing is making us weak. Back in my day, the people who survived a good stabbing came out stronger for it. I learned a lot of lessons from my time in the ring: self-reliance, how to overcome fear, the importance of agility, the basics of military field dressing. And, given the turnover, I also learned how to make new friends.

When the world has become so frustratingly obtuse, about the only way to cope is through relentless mockery of the lunatic voices who are unfortunately given prominence. One last exhortation: go read the entire piece: Charlie Cooke and NRO deserve the pageview.

– JVW

22 Responses to “Remembering the Good Old Days When Teens Could While Away the Afternoon Hours with Harmless Knife Fighting”

  1. I was never a big Twitter presence, but I am undergoing the process of weaning myself away from that cataclysmically stupid venue. A curse on every person who brought us that God-awful platform.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  2. ‘The Good Old Days’…

    Had to chuckle reading this, JVW. As by coincidence, recently discovered several boxes of Kodak Ektachrome slides from more decades ago than I’d care to share- chiefly of family events and gatherings. They are in amazingly pristine condition– ripe for scanning. And amongst them were images of my late mother and a very young DCSCA, both of us in full Cub Scouts of America regalia; she, the Den Mother, me with the den flag, the official cap, official scarf, assorted badges and patches, the official blue uniform and treasured official Cub Scout knife on the official Cub Scout belt with the official Cub Scout buckle. We could even wear that outfit proudly to school then.

    Today, I’d be arrested– just for having the pocket knife.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  3. This is all a distraction while Biden and the Democrats revert to “tax & spend.” First up, doubling capital gains taxes on “the rich”, where this includes the not-rich who cash some stock options after 12 years of 80-hour weeks in a successful startup.

    It would kill Silicon Valley for starters. It would hit no actual rich, as they’d just borrow against their stock holdings until Trump gets back in.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  4. You had mentioned your mother in previous comments some months back, DCSCA, and I knew you were dealing with end-of-life issues then, but I don’t believe I had been made aware until now that she had passed on. My condolences to you.

    I remember bringing a pocket knife to school as a kid too in the late 1970s. I don’t recall ever hearing that one had been used in a fight.

    JVW (ee64e4)

  5. Who among us hasn’t come within a second or two of murdering someone else with a steak knife?

    Not me. An ashtray, perhaps.

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  6. Well, sometimes you gotta cut a mother_____er.

    It’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand.

    nk (1d9030)

  7. Off topic: Remember “The Mao Tse Tung Hour” ?

    Now we have The Osama bin Laden Hour

    Kevin M (ab1c11)

  8. 1.I was never a big Twitter presence, but I am undergoing the process of weaning myself away from that cataclysmically stupid venue.

    Good for you.

    Speaking as an ol’media professional, most ‘folks’ don’t realize how much power they truly have as individuals to influence or simply yank the chain of Big Media. Certainly it is a decentralized power, but it is the secret Kryptonite media fears most. For example, back in the day at CBS, there was a formula the suits in audience research had to calculate and extrapolate reactions and feedback from letters and phone calls on various programming. For every one or two rec’d, the calculus was X% either agreed but didn’t call or write or didn’t agree and followed suit. They know very quickly when something is happening an act accordingly. Unless it was Gunsmoke; Mrs. Paley liked the show and insisted it not be cancelled– even w/declining ratings.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  9. @4. Thanks, JVW. Nearly a year ago. Miss her greatly. It’s a long process to deal with.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  10. Who among us hasn’t come within a second or two of murdering someone else with a steak knife?

    Dying.

    Thanks for pointing us to Cooke’s smart tour de force. It’s both hilarious and sad at the same time.

    Dana (fd537d)

  11. Knives…not just for whittlin’ anymore

    Hoi Polloi (b28058)

  12. @7. Of course.

    Remember Walter Cronkite? That’s his daughter, Kathy Cronkite, in the black beret.

    DCSCA (f4c5e5)

  13. They hate America and want to replace it with something else.

    NJRob (eb56c3)

  14. The people making this argument are nuts.

    Time123 (235fc4)

  15. When they’re not looking for an excuse for their enemies, they’re looking for an excuse not to fight:

    “I was never a big Twitter presence, but I am undergoing the process of weaning myself away from that cataclysmically stupid venue. A curse on every person who brought us that God-awful platform.”

    Bad attitude. Irresponsible attitude. Lazy attitude. Losing attitude.

    Social media has its faults, but don’t blame technology for bringing you into contact with members of the public you probably studiously avoided dealing with in real life (and that people like police have to deal with every day, and then for some reason have to submit to the judgment of a jury of ‘peers’ who also avoid dealing with those people every day except via televised propaganda segments.)

    You may not be interested in social media, but social media is definitely interested in you, much more so if you’re disconnected from its waves and therefore an easy target.

    Skimworm (2ae401)

  16. In Cincinnati, ” A 13-year-old girl has been charged with murder after police say she stabbed another 13-year-old to death during a fight.” The killing happened this past Monday.

    Radegunda (aea52f)

  17. The 13-year-old killer apparently used a pocket knife.

    Radegunda (aea52f)

  18. (and that people like police have to deal with every day, and then for some reason have to submit to the judgment of a jury of ‘peers’ who also avoid dealing with those people every day except via televised propaganda segments.)

    This was better when Aaron Sorkin wrote it, but he’s very good at this type of dialog.

    we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg? I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know, that Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives! You don’t want the truth, because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall. We use words like “honor”, “code”, “loyalty”. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it! I would rather you just said “thank you”, and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you are entitled to!

    Time123 (235fc4)

  19. Knife fights in real life don’t take place like this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPCGR9_GdhA (At about 3 minutes and 15 seconds, the knives come out)

    But this is stylized fiction, and everybody knew it.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  20. You would think that only in a Hollywood production do the police come and arrive right at the point when there’s no time left, and prevent a murder by shooting and killing the would-be killer, who was about to cut the victim’s throat and was not expecting to be interrupted: (it might be was only menacing her at the time and about to rape her, although we know, but the police so not, that he was also planning to kill her.)

    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103987/plotsummary

    A 1992 Columbo episode, based on an 87th Precinct novel by Ed McBain called “So Long As You Both Shall Live” originally published in 1976. (#31)

    It’s the one Colombo episode in which there is no murder (only a kidnapping) and the perpetrator is not arrested, nor does Columbo ever talk to him. It’s the only episode in which a relative of Columbo appears live on camera (although in another there a picture of him with his wife) and one of the few where he appears almost at the beginning of the movie or which does not follow the inverted detective story format.

    BTW, it’s not Lt. Columbo who fires the fatal shot(s) but other police whom he is with, leading them to the scene.

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)

  21. Some years ago I noticed that a hot subject of public concern in Britain was “knife violence,” which had become so epidemic that a young dance troupe did an act on the theme for Britain’s Got Talent. (It may have been in the Susan Boyle season, which is why I was paying attention.)

    “Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight” gives the impression that a knife isn’t awfully dangerous, and it’s true that guns have a big advantage in efficiency. But if a knife-wielder is close enough, a gun might not give another person an advantage. I recall reading something from police training on how close the officer can let the knife-wielder get before he’d better use his gun if he wants to live.

    If one person has a knife and the other has nothing, the other person is in big danger — as O.J. Simpson understands. (Yeah, it’s weird that he’s being a voice of reason.)

    Radegunda (aea52f)

  22. When O.J. Simpson got acquitted (which was strange as watching an episode of “Sliders” the next day Rush Limbaugh started his program with the song: (or the main part of it)

    Mac the Knife is Back in Town

    (which was, I think, the first time I heard that song)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8iPUK0AGRo (not this version)

    (nor this version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28ULUQgxJ5M

    I don’t think I saw the spelling of “Mack” till now. Or at least, so as to remember it.

    O.J> Simpson has been using Twtter now for a little bit. He aludes to, but does not mention clearly,

    Sammy Finkelman (51cd0c)


Powered by WordPress.

Page loaded in: 0.0912 secs.