Sometimes, when someone asks me why otherwise intelligent people hate and fear guns, I find myself talking about psychological defense mechanisms, such as  displacement, denial, and reaction formation, among others.  While these processes, in my opinion, play a definite role, I believe it is dangerous to overlook the active propaganda campaigns promulgated by TV and movie producers, directors, and others in the media to promote a fear of weapons.  This fear is known in some circles as hoplophobia.  (See my post, “Displacement as a defense mechanism in the irrational fear of guns, (08-17-08) tagged, “hoplophobia.”)

We must remember the role that the North Vietnamese Dich Van propaganda program, along with left-wing professors and college students, media pundits, and TV and movie producers played in destroying America’s will to resist the Communist aggression in Southeast Asia that resulted in the deaths of over two million people. (Read the book, Unheralded Victory, the defeat of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army, 1961-1973, by Mark W. Woodruff, Presidio Press/Random House, NY,NY, 2005, pages 231-235.

MASH, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, and Apocalypse Now are examples of the Vietnam Era propaganda war and the revisionist historical view of that battle for the hearts and minds of the American People that the Communists ultimately won.  The fight for the hearts and minds of the American People continues with regard to liberty in this country.

It’s not as though we haven’t seen anti-gun messages embedded in TV and movies.  Spielberg took the guns out of ET and didn’t mention in Schindler’s List that Schindler armed “his” Jewish workers near the end of the war to give them a last ditch chance to defend themselves from the Final Solution.  Heinlein’s Starship Troopers was morphed from a story about human self-defense against alien aggression to an anti-war parable about human aggression directed toward an apparently otherwise peaceful race of beings that just happened to be naturally well-equipped for mayhem.

Picket Fences, Alf, MASH, All in the Family, and Carole Burnett’s Little Murders to a greater or lesser degree decried the “evil” of guns on TV.  Even Chuck Norris’ Walker, Texas Ranger often made a keen distinction between “anointed” law enforcement officers versus bumbling, common citizen “vigilantes.”

In the movie, Clear and Present Danger, Harrison Ford’s character, Jack Ryan, refuses to pick up a weapon to defend himself on at least three occasions, choosing a piece of firewood over a submachine gun in the climactic fight scene with the antagonist.  In the book, Jack Ryan operates a mini-gun from a helicopter, spraying hundreds of rounds of death and destruction at the minions of the drug cartel that had captured US special operations soldiers.

In the movie, Signs, we have aliens who can’t get out of locked pantries defeated worldwide by baseball bats and clubs.  Given the number of shotguns and hunting rifles in farmhouses, how long do you think that these aliens would terrorize the Midwest depicted in the movie?  “Hi! I’m an alien. I want to kill you. No I don’t have any weapons.  Yeah, I have to get really close to hurt you.  What’s that tube in your hands?”  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  Bang!  End of Alien. End of story.

And, who can forget Leslie Neilson’s Agent WD 40, who explicitly delivers a vitriolic diatribe against handguns during the climactic fight scene of the movie, Spy Hard?  Not that the lines had much to do with the plot, but you know, those handguns “kill” people.  (See my post, “Has your gun caused ‘personal injuries or property damage?’  (11-19-08) tagged, “Irrational fear of guns.”

I believe that it is useful to remember that everything in a movie or TV show is under the control of the director and producer.  If they don’t want it in the finished product, it isn’t there.  If something is in the show or movie, the people who produced and directed made it so.

Keep in mind that it is legal (and moral in the minds of the media folk) to bring out productions that promote civilian disarmament.  Look at the plethora of TV shows and movies that portray properly “blessed” police officials using guns to take out bad guys?”  How often do you see a movie that promotes the idea that ordinary citizens have a right to use armed force to defend themselves and their families without being horribly scarred by the soul searing knowledge that they had to kill or wound another human being in order to do so?

How often have you seen a portrayal of a family in a movie or on TV that goes to a range and spends an enjoyable afternoon punching holes in paper?  Not often, I’ll wager.  More often, we see a bias against guns and the people who own them.

The opening quotation by Rudyard Kipling seems somehow appropriate as we discuss the new series on the Sy Fy Channel, which supposedly changed its name to appeal to females, instead of its usual male “geek” audience. (See The Denver Post article, “New ‘Warehouse 13’ has promising twists in store,” by Joanne Ostrow in the 07-07-09 issue on page 4D.

Let’s discuss Kipling!  Of course, “There is nothing new under the Sun,” not even this Biblical adage.  There is no sin in paying homage to previous successful movies and TV series.  But, come on!

In my opinion, Warehouse 13 pretty shamelessly knocks off The Librarian, Raiders of the Lost Arc, National Treasure, Men in Black, and The X Files.  The idea of a national repository, a national “attic,” of valuable/magical objects smacks of The Librarian, Men in Black, and National Treasure.  Warehouse 13 is the Library.  As pointed out in the Post article, the agents are Mulder and Scully reprised.  The balcony scene, when the agents first see the warehouse is a ringer for the National Treasure balcony scene in the Treasure Room.  The warehouse is the Treasure Room or the government warehouse in Raiders…  The character of the “curator” of the warehouse, Artie, owes a lot to Zed in Men in Black and probably more to Newhart’s character in The Librarian.

The special effects, when the bad vibes, psychic energy, or whatever, are sucked into the containment vessel hark back to the scene in Raiders, when the Nazis open the Ark.  Come to think of it, the “neutralizer” in the containment vessel could be slime borrowed from Ghostbusters or possibly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Anti-gun propaganda in Warehouse 13 doesn’t take long to rear its head.  In about the first scene of the first show of the series, a little girl sees a gun in the waistband of the female agent protagonist.  Not understanding that the agent is chosen, anointed, special, and otherwise authorized by the proper authorities to be armed, the little girl glares angrily at the adult, because why?  Well, you know, because, guns are bad!  Anyone carrying a gun must be a bad person. We must hate and fear them and the guns they carry.

In the climax of the series opener, the male agent (Think Mulder.) takes his gun into a party dominated by the antagonist, a woman pretty much channeling Lucretia Borgia.  The agent is disarmed by one of her brainwashed minions and threatened with his own gun.  The magically deranged young man pulls the trigger of the semi-auto pistol. “Click!”

The agent (Think Mulder.) pulls the magazine of the empty pistol out of his pocket and says, “No one dies here tonight,” or words to that effect.

Sarcasm Alert!

For those of you recently educated in public schools dominated by teachers’ unions, the conscious explication of the message here is that even chosen, anointed, special, people authorized by the government to carry guns may have those guns taken away by bad people.  You see, bad people are so much faster, more dexterous, and more competent than the rest of us.  There is no use trying to defend yourself, because they will just take your gun.  (They probably wouldn’t try to hurt you, in the first place, if you didn’t threaten them with a gun.)

Sarcasm All Clear! (For now.)

Martial arts are OK, however, especially when practiced by women.  The female agent (Think Scully.) has some nifty moves, including a leg sweep take down that is almost literally to die for.  She also throws a mean punch.

Martial Arts Students, don’t get cocky! Most authoritarian regimes eventually get around to banning the civilian practice of effective unarmed methods of self-defense, once they have disarmed their populations.  The Japanese occupation of Korea comes to mind.

(Disclaimer!  The following statement is an example of hyperbole, sarcasm, exaggeration, and over-the-top humor.  Do not under any circumstances actually try to do this.  I assume no responsibility, if you get stopped by the police, arrested, maced, tasered, or shot.  It’s a joke.  Get it!  A joke!  Ha! Ha!  I just put it in here to make a point.  Excuse me. I have to call my lawyer.)

 If you don’t think that TV and movie propaganda is effective, try open carry in a major city in most states.  (No! Don’t! Don’t even think about it.  You will be fingered by an “alert” civilian, stopped by the police, and probably arrested.)  (We won’t even discuss taking a picture of a gun to a public school or university.  Zero Tolerance, you know!)

Having said all that.  I may actually tune into Warehouse 13 from time to time, even though that probably puts me in the male “geek” demographic apparently now despised by the Sy Fy Channel.  The danger inherent in propaganda embedded in “entertainment” is that the actors, directors, and producers are generally pretty good at creating a “willing suspension of disbelief” and getting the public involved with the characters and the plot lines.

Even though Warehouse 13 may be a kind of “Frankenstein’s Monster” made up of parts from other movies and series, who doesn’t empathize with Curator Artie, portly, middle-aged and woefully out of shape, when he zip lines down the rows of weird and dangerous treasures stored in the cavernous vault?  Who can’t relate to the female agent (Think Scully.) when she eats comfort food (No sugar!) to relieve stress? Details like these help flesh out characters and make us care about what happens to them as they expose themselves to danger to protect the public (us) in their fictional world.

The sad fact is, in my opinion, that these fictional characters are more real for most of us than our neighbors.  If you run into someone who hates guns and the people who own them, consider the possibility that the person has been brainwashed by, among other things, anti-gun messages carefully embedded in “entertainment.”

You can enjoy the shows.  Just be aware of the propaganda that is sent through the media of TV and movies.  Think about the backers who sponsor these shows and movies.  Do they sponsor them to make money in what’s left of the free market, or do they sponsor them, because hidden messages promote a Hard Left agenda.

“Eternal Vigilance…”

Def Mech

It also came out in the Fox News report that Newsweek Magazine reporters with the Obama Campaign were embargoed from telling anything about the Campaign’s operations until after the election. You see, they made a deal. We won’t mention the tingling feeling in the leg that some female TV personalities seem to get in the presence of “The Chosen One.”

It’s typical of the Left-wing media to slant their coverage. It’s also typical of the Left to shaft you, then tell you how stupid you were to fall for their lies and omissions after it is too late to do anything about them.

The press covered up FDR’s paralysis. The Left-wing press covered up Joe Stalin’s political murders. The Left-wing press covered up John Kennedy’s bad back and his philandering. The Left-wing press covered up Saddam Hussein’s murderous tyranny. They made a deal!

The Left-wing press sat on Clinton’s affair with Lewinski. Now the Left-wing press has covered up for Barack Hussein Obama, “The Chosen One,” the Leader “We have been waiting for,” or shall we just call him Il Duce or Der Fuhrer? Don’t forget who “made the deal” with the press!

Those of us concerned with the fundamental individual right to armed self-defense against crime and tyranny have been all too aware of the Marxist Mainstream Media bias for several decades. We have seen the same anti-American, Left-wing slant in coverage of the Vietnam War and the War against Islamofascist Terror. Some other people are just finding out.

Before ChucK Schumer and his “inclusive, tolerant of diversity” comrades drive a stake through the heart of Conservative talk radio with “The Fairness Doctrine,” Here’s the Defense Mechanism version of a real Fairness Doctrine.

For every story that you read in the Mainstream Media on guns, you have to visit the NRA Website to get the other side of the story. For every hour that you watch MSM news programs, you must watch one hour of Fox News or listen to an hour of Conservative talk radio. (While you still can.) Every time you read a book by a liberal author, you have to read a book from the last two decades by David Horowitz, or a book by Sean Hannity, Hugh Hewitt, David Kopel, Ann Coulter, Bernie Goldberg, Dick Morris, Bill O’Reilly, or other Conservative writer. This is a “Fairness Doctrine” that just might save the country.

Def Mech

Obama benefactor Tony Rezko’s sentencing is being delayed until after the election. Obama’s Campaign refuses to disclose their highly suspect small donor list. That matter will be investigated after the election.

The truth is, if Obama wins and the Democrats control Congress, there will probably be no investigations. What Obama calls “smears,” including his dismal record on the Second Amendment, will fade into the shadows of history.

Remember the great admission by the North Vietnamese after they had deceived the American People into thinking that the Viet Cong were poor oppressed peasants staging a home-grown insurgency? Very few Americans do! Very few ever heard of it in the first place, thanks to the bias of the Mainstream Media.

Here it is from Northern Communist Party Historian Nguyen Khac-Vien: “The (Viet Cong) was always simply a group emanating from (Hanoi). If we (the North Vietnamese) had pretended otherwise for such a long period, it was only because we were not obligated to unveil our cards.” Interview from Vietnam Press, Foreign Language Publishing House, Hanoi, 1978, cited by Truong, Chanoff and Toai, A Viet Cong Memoir, Page 269. This quote came out in 1975, after the Communists had taken Saigon.

Vote GOP or watch the truth come out too late, or not at all!

Def Mech

It is pretty clear from the title and the text of this article that was originally published in the Los Angeles Times,that the sympathies of the writer are with the poor, war-torn residents of the town of Amarah, with little regard for the viewpoint that the legitimate government of Iraq, supported by the United States, was conducting operations to stabilize territory within the country of Iraq for the benefit of those citizens “bracing” for the “offensive.” (Denver Post, Denver Newspaper Agency, Denver, Colorado, 06-15-08, page 7A.)

This type of coverage reminds me of the Anti-American bias displayed during the Vietnam War by what we now know as the “mainstream,” or more optimistically, the “dinosaur” media.  The American People were told over and over again that the average South Vietnamese didn’t care who ran the country, as long as he or she was left alone.

We often forget, and many were never told, that the Viet Cong (communist guerrilla) method of operation was to move into a village, kill anyone who appeared guilty of sympathizing with the government of the Republic of Vietnam, and set up their own local government, including tax collection “services.”  Disagreement of any kind, at any time, was very bad for your health under Viet Cong rule.

I personally spoke with a refugee from North Vietnam, who came south after he was released from a three-year prison term in that bastion of socialist democracy.  His crime?  He had a college education.  That individual cared who governed South Vietnam.

During the Vietnam War, it was virtually impossible to tell if most news stories were published in North Vietnam, or by the U.S. “dinosaur” media.  Most “news” stories portrayed resolute communist fighters moving to battle, exhausted or wounded U.S. troops, or injured or traumatized South Vietnamese civilians.  No mention was made of successful civic action programs, and military successes were overlooked or denegrated.  Look and sound familiar?

The leftist media is using the same tried and true tactic to erode support for the War on Terror that they used to undermine the U.S. effort to stop communist expansion in Southeast Asia.  We should remember that the communists killed around 70,000 South Vietnamese and about 1.5 million Cambodians after the Democrats in Congress cut off funding in 1974-1975.

I knew some of those Vietnamese and Cambodians.  I can tell you that they cared who was running their countries.  But what the heck?  As Stalin, the “Man of Steel,” is reported to have said, “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.”

If the left-wing “dinosaur” media has its way, and the U.S. cuts and runs in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are going to be more “statistics.”  Those statistics are going to be the people in the region who were naive enough to believe that the U.S. actually had the intelligence, the will, the nerve, and the staying power to give them a chance to increase their control over their own lives.

We should stay the course and finish the mission in the Middle East.  We should do it, if not for the souls in the region who have had the courage to vote and fight for their freedom, then for the lost souls abandoned to their fates, when U.S. will and national purpose collapsed in Southeast Asia.

This election is about courage, national will, staying power and willingness to face and correct past mistakes.  In addition to gutting the Bill of Rights, a sweeping left-wing Democrat victory will morally and  psychologically cripple the U.S. Military and damage U.S. foreign policy for decades, as did the liberal sell-out in Southeast Asia.

By the way, our current enemy has already attacked American citizens on U.S. soil.  Relieved of the need to fight in Iraq, they will be free to turn their somewhat less-than-friendly attentions to places like St. Louis, Boston, and Denver.

Def Mech

“Otherwise well-adjusted women blast away at an orange stick of dynamite…” How does he know they are well-adjusted? This shooting thing could mask all sorts of mental problems and social deviation.

Our intrepid anthropologist comments that almost anyone who can qualify to own a gun, pay the $200 tax, and fill out the paperwork can make money by charging to let others shoot his or her firearm. What Mr. Booth doesn’t mention is that government restrictions limit the number of machine guns available to the public, and that they are consequently VERY expensive weapons.

Mr. Booth appears amazed that someone would actually spend money for a unique shooting experience. You can almost hear him whispering into his tiny tape recorder, “Burritos. These people eat burritos!”

Mr. Booth also seems astounded that the weapons at the shoot are actually legal, and that many of the patrons of the charitable event are current or retired law enforcement personnel. If he had asked around, he would have found many military veterans, as well.

Hope the kids mentioned in the article don’t get thrown out of school for violating “zero tolerance” policies. I pray that they will have the good sense not to mention their experience to their classmates. Whoops! Not politically correct!

Reading the article gives one the impression that Mr. Booth thinks that money spent on ammunition could be better used by the government for prison weight rooms and midnight basketball programs. If liberals could just figure out a way to get that cash, they could use it to make a much better society. Maybe more fees, higher taxes, eh?

The shoot’s sponsors might have gotten a less patronizing story, if they had labeled the event as street theater. Yeah! That’s it. It’s a symbolic protest against the military-industrial complex. The target junk car bodies represent global warming, or climate change, or whatever the cause du jour is at the salons. Should get rave reviews with that kind of promotion.

On the plus side, nobody got shot, no babies were sacrificed, and no virgins appear to have been blown up as offerings to the angry gods that drive these strange (bitter?) people to shoot guns. There was the issue of filthy lucre being exchanged for the experience of shooting historical weapons, many of which were instrumental in maintaining the freedom of the press enjoyed by Mr. Booth. Hey! No harm, no foul. A good time was had by all, even those “otherwise well-adjusted women.”

Def Mech

Assault weapons and “assault weapons” are seldom “high-powered” rifles as portrayed by the left wing media. The current thinking for most modern military caliber firearms is that it is better to wound than kill an enemy soldier. A dead enemy soldier is left where he falls. A wounded enemy is likely to be cared for by his comrades, ergo, one or two more enemy combatants are taken out of the fight.

Many hunting rifles pack more killing power than “assault weapons.” Because of the smaller round and usually jacketed bullet fired by most “assault weapons,” one could argue that an “assault weapon” is a more humane way to stop a felonious attack than say a hunting rifle, shotgun, or even a high powered revolver.

Contrary to myth, semi-automatic “assault weapons” have not been the guns of choice of gangsters and drug dealers. In New Jersey, a few years ago, a police department had to borrow an “assault weapon” from a gun store for a photo op on the “dangerous, drug dealer gun.” They had to borrow this firearm, because their property room didn’t contain an “assault weapon” that had been taken from a drug dealer. Why not, if the gun in question was supposed to be so common “on the street?”

However, since gangster movies and the left wing media have been advertising these weapons for years as “gangsta” chic, they seem to be showing up more in the hands of gang members. Check out Stephen King’s movie, The Stand. All the good guys have bolt action hunting rifles. Most of the bad guys carry evil, ugly “assault weapons.”

In most cops and robbers shows, even the ones put on by people who say they support individual rights, virtually all of the cops pop virtually all of the bad guys with law enforcement issue semi-auto handguns. The bad guys all spray full-auto lead from “real” assault weapons. This not so subtle TV/movie prejudice against “ugly” guns fuels an ignorant public’s dread of these weapons. A semi-auto version of the dreaded AK 47 operates exactly the same way as an expensive Browning self-loading hunting rifle or a semi-auto shotgun costing thousands of dollars.

“High capacity magazines” are defined by liberals as anything that can hold more than 6 or 10 rounds. Magazine size is not really a public safety issue, since a skilled shooter can change magazines fairly quickly, so three, 10 round magazines almost equal a 30 round magazine. However, the goal of the anti-gun left, I believe, is to establish government control of magazine capacity, as in the first “Assault Weapons” Ban, then reduce the allowable magazine size to nothing. (Most semi-auto self-defense weapons have a magazine size of over 6 rounds.)

If you don’t own an “assault weapon,” you can’t spare your own firearm of choice by sacrificing these guns to the Liberal God of Gun Control. The British Fabian model calls for banning or “controlling” one type of gun at a time until commoners are effectively disarmed. Remember, if you own a bolt action rifle with a telescopic sight, you are in possession of a dreaded “sniper rifle.” If semi-autos are banned, “Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.”

Def Mech