Nah, Don't Fire Bob Costas

Last weekend the wife, reading the paper, told me about another murder-suicide.

Every time I hear about one of them, I always think they got it backwards.   If life is really that bad and they're bent on offing themselves, they should just start with themselves and they'll never know the difference.  This way the people they thought it would be cool to take out with them are free to decide for themselves what they'd like to do with the rest of their lives.

I know, they've typically got some deep seeded mind parasite, as Gagdad Bob calls them.  I get that, too. But tragic death of innocents always gets under my skin.

The space shuttle tragedies, 9/11, Lockerbie ... even the Titanic.... all of these things have caused real sleepless nights for me at various points in my life.

I saw the headlines about some Costas on-air anti-gun rant and didn't connect it to the KC murder-sucicide until after I finally went and read the rant.  I saw calls for his firing.  My position is, let's not be them.   They're the ones who always want people fired for saying things they disagree with.   To the point that there is a double-standard on the left, I get that.  But if that's your point, make sure you say that.   Whether or not Costas keeps his job is completely up to his employer.  And I think his employer generally agrees with him.  May have even encouraged him.  That's their call.  Free country.  Free press.

But that doesn't mean I can't criticize.  ( Personally, I wish he'd stop coloring his hair. He looks ridiculous.)

The meat of Costas' rant wasn't actually written by Costas ... he was quoting another sports journalist, a Jason Whitlock who wrote:

"Our current gun culture ensures that more and more domestic disputes will end in the ultimate tragedy and that more convenience-store confrontations over loud music coming from a car will leave more teenage boys bloodied and dead."

Now I don't know what "gun culture" Whitlock was talking about for sure.  I'm pretty sure I know what Costas and NBC mean.

But in our "multicultural culture" (see things I know #5) ... there's more than one culture.  And there's more than one gun culture.

Severian pointed out in his last post, while making an unrelated point to mine, said:

I’ll actually grant Costas his precious “gun culture” as a way of piling on Ace’s second point.  Unlike Bob Costas, who probably doesn’t know a single person who has ever seen a gun except on tv, I grew up in the South and am comfortable asserting that yes, there is a “gun culture,” full of “gun nuts” who want an AK-47 in exactly the same way I want a vintage ’65 Mustang convertible, and for the same reason — in the social circles we travel in, these things carry cachet far beyond their dubious practical value.

And yes, that sometimes leads to people saying  –and doing– stupid things in defense of their preferences. And yes, that occasionally has bad consequences.

There is another gun culture, and it’s not the same one that wants an AK like they want a ’65 Mustang. Because those boys? Those boys don’t talk about bus’in’ caps and then go out and do it. They’re not the ones leaving teenagers bloodied and dead.

No, the culture those boys live in teach that killing outside of self-defense. Not all of them live up to that teaching (murders occur in every culture, guns or no guns), but the vast, vast majority of them do live up to it and would never consider doing otherwise. They certainly don’t have a genre of music practically dedicated to violence, murder, and mayhem.(murders occur in every culture, guns or no guns), but the vast, vast majority of them do live up to it and would never consider doing otherwise. They certainly don’t have a genre of music practically dedicated to violence, murder, and mayhem.

I don’t follow professional sports these days outside of the Baseball Cardinals, and even then just barely. I’d never heard of Jovon Belcher until … well, until I read about Costas’ rant. I did hear about the murder when my wife read about it in the paper. Point is, I don’t think he’s a part of the “gun culture” gun control advocates speak of when they give their disparaging speals. You know, the kind that go to gun shows, rifle ranges, like to blow up milk cartons full of water or knock cans off of fenceposts.

That culture is the heir to the culture that forged this nation. It is a culture that values self-reliance and personal responsibility.

I know. A lefty reads this, and they’re going to go all “you mean WHITE culture. Dead White Men!”

But unlike them, I do not conflate race with culture, biology with ideas and ideals.
And I do not think all cultures are equal.

They are all imperfect, but that doesn’t mean that some aren’t superior to others. No, I don’t think one should be forced upon others. But there are merits and demerits, and by their fruits you will know them.

There is probably no better response to Costas' rant ... than Bill Whittle's essay, FREEDOM.

To see basically the same thing in video form, see "What We Believe - Gun Rights".