by publius
Ana Marie Cox has gone too far this time. Just a few weeks ago, she criticized John Derbyshire (a more Brit-friendly version of William Wallace) over at NRO for ridiculing the captured British troops for not being brave enough. Now, he's calling out the Virginia Tech students getting shot at for not fighting back. Cox writes:
The last time we checked in with NRO's John Derbyshire, he was expounding on his own hypothetical bravery regarding Iranian hostage-takers. Today, we learn that he also is completely fearless in imaginary domestic scenarios as well.
That's a slanderous lie. There is nothing imaginary about Rambo Derbyshire's fearlessness. I've seen it. I was actually at a party a while back and a fire broke out. As luck would have it, some one got Derbyshire's courageous reaction on video (though maybe it was Glenn Reynolds, the video is scratchy):
Well, he has gone up against Bruce Lee#Trivia.
Posted by: Matthew B. | April 18, 2007 at 04:13 AM
Well, that didn't work right.
Anyway. I looked for his Way of the Dragon scene on YouTube, but it's not there. I'm mildly surprised.
Posted by: Matthew B. | April 18, 2007 at 04:16 AM
He doesn’t seem to regret the remark anyway:
My wondering aloud yesterday about how one guy with two handguns controlled a building full of people got me the "Worst Person in the World" slot on Kevin Olderman's MSNBC program last night. First place! Last time I was on Ken's list, Bill O'Reilly took the top spot, and I was only trailing at third place. Now the Big Mick's nowhere in sight. Ha! I'm still not too clear about who this Keith Omdurman character is. He's plainly a leftie, though—one of that legion who pine for the days when they could tongue-polish Stalin's boots—so I am proud to be top of his Worst list.
I had a tiny bit of sympathy for him last night - mostly because I had briefly wondered the same thing. But I thought about it and decided that with some practice you should be able to replace a spent magazine in a semi-automatic in about 3-4 seconds, maybe less. Given the now obvious pre-meditation that went into this, I have little doubt that he practiced, possibly a lot. Given the time to figure out what was going on, then the state of panic, trying to find cover of any kind – I decided no, no one was going to be able to get their wits about them and act in one of those 3 second gaps in the shooting. All this IMO only.
So last night I assumed he was running his mouth without thinking it through.
But this follow up is truly disgusting. Having slept on it, and undoubtedly gotten hundreds of emails on it, at least a few likely making a point similar to mine above – this morning he is proud of it. What a disgusting cretin.
Posted by: OCSteve | April 18, 2007 at 09:41 AM
OCSteve, don't forget also that the 30-some people were not all in one room. It was a dorm, several classrooms, a stairwell. It's not like all those killed had the opportunity to observe the guy for the whole period of the rampage.
Posted by: KCinDC | April 18, 2007 at 09:55 AM
Fine utilization of Wu lyrics Mssr. Publius.
Aside from the fact that shock, fear and panic are normal reactions, some people did behave heroically. John Cole has a nice post on the subject:
http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8095
Posted by: Eric Martin | April 18, 2007 at 09:58 AM
in the post today, they talk about the professor (a holocaust survivor to boot) who barricaded the door to let students out. that qualifies as hero in my book.
derbyshire qualifies a demented sicko -- the sheer gall. i actually had a much bigger parody ready but thought it might be disrespectful. but i may come back later and do it.
Posted by: publius | April 18, 2007 at 10:13 AM
publius: thanks. I needed this ;)
Posted by: hilzoy | April 18, 2007 at 10:16 AM
that guy got killed by the way in the process
Posted by: publius | April 18, 2007 at 10:16 AM
Publius: in the post today, they talk about the professor (a holocaust survivor to boot) who barricaded the door to let students out. that qualifies as hero in my book.
Yeah, I read about that and that's exactly what I thought: that's heroism. He was 74 and they all heard shooting and he headed for the door and held it shut with his own body so his students could get out through the windows safely. A hero.
Posted by: Jesurgislac | April 18, 2007 at 10:43 AM
as opposed to say john derbyshire, who would have just pulled his johnson out and swung it at the shooter, while leaping in the air (cue matrix circular camera moment), walking across the ceiling like in the Matrix 3, and shooting bullets of out eyes.
or rising from a swampy Vietnamese bog and shooting everyone.
or setting booby traps in the forest before breaking down and saying "back in nam i could drive a tank".
Posted by: publius | April 18, 2007 at 10:47 AM
Wank-Or
Posted by: Eric Martin | April 18, 2007 at 10:55 AM
Just a couple commends in regards to what Derbyshire had to say, both yesterday and the comments that OCSteve pointed out.
First of all, Flight 93 and this situation had nothing in common except dead people.
Facing a box knife when you have a chance to make a coordinated assault and faciling a 9mm when you are basically soloing it are two very different things. And yes, the reload time for the gun he has is approximately 2-3 seconds if one is practiced enough. Figuring he probably took out the students closest to him first, doesn't give the others mich time.
Secondly, at least one of the victims was a member of the schools ROTC program. I guess Derbyshire is calling our military a bunch of wusses.
Thirdly, I would like him to speak to some of the parents of the dead and tell them that the reason their child is dead is because he or she was a coward. I don't think there would be enough of him left to fill a quart sized zip-lock bag.
Posted by: john miller | April 18, 2007 at 11:12 AM
Oh, and his comments about Olbermann were over the line. If I said he (derbyshire) longed for the days when he could tongue-polish Hitler's boots he would have a conniption fit.
Posted by: john miller | April 18, 2007 at 11:14 AM
Oh, and his comments about Olbermann were over the line. If I said he (derbyshire) longed for the days when he could tongue-polish Hitler's boots he would have a conniption fit.
Really though. Especially because it comes after Teh Derb admits that he doesn't really know Olbermann that well. But if he's a "leftie" of any stripe, well then, must be a Stalinist boot licker.
The Left is so uncivil.
Posted by: Eric Martin | April 18, 2007 at 12:02 PM
The Derb is disgusting to be sure.
But nearly as disgusting as the "magazine" that pays him dearly to opine on the subject of the day.
Geez, Buckley probably wishes he could join his wife right about now.
Posted by: Davebo | April 18, 2007 at 01:18 PM
"Secondly, at least one of the victims was a member of the schools ROTC program. I guess Derbyshire is calling our military a bunch of wusses."
That comparison does not equate.
Posted by: Stephen | April 18, 2007 at 01:50 PM
I take issue with the comparison of Derbyshire to George Costanza. Derbyshire isn't nearly as brave as George.
Posted by: Steve | April 18, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Note the subtlety of the humor.
First, it's Kevin Olderman! Then, it's Ken. Just Ken. And then...
wait for it...
Keith Omdurman!
Heh Indeedy.
Posted by: retsesivi | April 18, 2007 at 03:54 PM
I'm reluctant to pull a Krauthammer, but I gotta say -- Derbyshire's stunt doesn't really stand out all that much from contemporary right-wing discourse. I think these guys aren't advocating an ideology so much as a set of cognitive and emotional ailments.
Posted by: sglover | April 18, 2007 at 04:11 PM
Derb is the biggest coward on Earth. Every word of his is driven by him defecating himself at the slightest threat, and wanting to make up for it. The guy's named Derbyshire, and he's not even manly enough to live up to THAT.
Posted by: carpeicthus | April 18, 2007 at 05:05 PM
Some of the more lame pile-ons here would almost make me want to defend him again - IF I was not so disgusted with him. I am so I shut up now.
Posted by: OCSteve | April 18, 2007 at 09:32 PM
I agree with OCSteve on that the thread is clearly sub-par at the moment.
And the title of supreme coward is clearly mine, btw.:-(
Posted by: Hartmut | April 19, 2007 at 05:02 AM
VT prof writes the Corner:
You guys on The Corner have a choice to make. You can do some real research and enter a serious discussion, or you can toss off gratuitous insults at people who watched 32 of their colleagues die.
Which is it gonna be?
ouch. that's gotta sting.
Posted by: cleek | April 19, 2007 at 05:06 PM
What's with the Airwolf thing?
Posted by: Ugh | April 19, 2007 at 05:15 PM
What's with the Airwolf thing?
dunno. they have two posts with Airwolf clips today.
Posted by: cleek | April 19, 2007 at 05:28 PM
Too much even for another Cornerite it seems:
In a Classroom WIth a Gunman [John Podhoretz]
I have to dissent, in the strongest possible terms, from John Derbyshire's shocking posts on Virginia Tech. The notion that a human being or group of human beings holding no weapon whatever should somehow "fight back" against someone calmly executing other people right in front of their eyes is ludicrous beyond belief, irrational beyond bounds, and tasteless beyond the limits of reason.
"Why didn't anyone rush the guy?" Derb asks. Gee, I don't know. Because he was executing people? Because if you rush a guy with a gun, he shoots you in the head the way he executed the teachers in each classroom?
Derb claims proudly to be touching a "third rail" by raising something no one wants to talk about. The third rail is a metaphor for electrocution. What happened in those classrooms was no metaphor. It was a psychotic with a gun and a lot of people with no weaponry at their disposal. A few were astonishingly brave, and deserve to be considered heroes. Everybody else was just a person either in danger of being murdered, being mortally wounded, or being murdered.
In the name of old-fashioned and time-honored forms of human behavior, Derb has trampled on one of the oldest: Judge not, lest ye be judged.
UPDATE: From my e-mails, I gather people have a strange idea of what went on during Cho's spree — that the victims were simply standing around waiting to be shot. Everyone who wants to know the actual facts of the matter should read David Maraniss's account of what happened inside the classrooms.
Posted by: OCSteve | April 19, 2007 at 06:51 PM
Coming in a little late to this one, but...
I wonder what the magic number is that would make this Derbyshire character conclude that there was not a noteworthy lack of heroism. Perhaps 50 or 60 people would have been killed were it not for the noteworthy heroism that was exhibited.
Posted by: hairshirthedonist | April 20, 2007 at 09:16 AM
J-Pod does toss out a rational thought every now and then. Didn't he call out some of his fellow cornerites on abortion a while back, calling them "creepy" or something?
Posted by: Ugh | April 20, 2007 at 09:23 AM
I'd add to Podhoretz' comments, this: it's not as if, in most situations of this kind, that one has the opportunity to take a sort of cortico-thalamic pause, lose the panic, and choose to take the offensive. I'd guess that trying to avoid being killed superceded most every other instinct.
Posted by: Slartibartfast | April 20, 2007 at 09:33 AM
Derbyshire's greatest error was trying to compare the situation to Flight 93. Of course in that case they actually had the time to take the pause Slarti refers to and able to act as a somewhat cohesive group. Kind of hard to hear each other in a classroom full of flying bullets in order to paln an assault on the shooter.
And as pointed out several times, there were several individual acts of heroism.
Posted by: john miller | April 20, 2007 at 10:09 AM
Slarti: "...it's not as if, in most situations of this kind, that one has the opportunity to take a sort of cortico-thalamic pause, lose the panic, and choose to take the offensive."
John Miller: "Of course in that case they actually had the time to take the pause Slarti refers to...."
That's "cortical-thalamic pause," to you, fellas. But I had no idea so many people were familiar with the Null-A pause.
(I did a college senior-only seminar in General Semantics when I was 16, myself, and got an A+. It wasn't a Null-A+, though. True story.)
publius's post: "...John Derbyshire (a more Brit-friendly version of William Wallace)...."
William Wallace? (I know who he is; I'm not following how Derbyshire relates, satirically or otherwise.)
Posted by: Gary Farber | April 20, 2007 at 07:59 PM
The only chance I would have seen of stopping the killer would have been by people in a room that the killer was going to enter by hiding in the dead angle of the door and jumping on him. I don't say that anyone should be blamed for not doing that or whether it was an option at all. I doubt that I would have the nerves to do that (the first one would have quite probably died) but it is the only thing I could come up with in that situation that would have eliminated the range advantage of the firearms.
Posted by: Hartmut | April 22, 2007 at 06:28 AM
(I did a college senior-only seminar in General Semantics when I was 16, myself, and got an A+. It wasn't a Null-A+, though. True story.)
Was it an Aleph-Null-A+?
Posted by: Anarch | April 22, 2007 at 07:37 AM
I never got to comment on this nonsense when the post was fresh but I have to add something that occured to me. The folks who bemoan the cowardice of the VT students and teachers are the same people who advocate more concealed guns as a method of preventing such a catastrophe. Think about that for a moment.
Posted by: heet | April 23, 2007 at 02:37 PM
See, I wouldn't even have a notion of what any part of that meant if it hadn't been all the science fiction I read when I was a kid. Hurray, Van Vogt! Hurray, Asimov!
Posted by: Slartibartfast | April 23, 2007 at 04:11 PM