Wednesday Morning Blood-Boiler

Ah liberals, what do they use for brains?

I've mentioned Jim Spencer, the DENVER POST's Official Bleeding Heart, and I generally try to avoid his columns, which usually exhibit the keen insight and incisivie intelligence of a Kristy Swanson movie. This morning, in a fit of weakness, I slipped up. Since it gave me indigestion, I thought I'd give you all indigestion as well. Here's today's column...paging the Pulitzer Prize Committee!

Law allows readin', writin' and rifle
By Jim Spencer

According to the Jan. 23 report, the student's pickup held a 7mm rifle, a 7mm bullet, hundreds of rounds of .22-caliber ammunition and eight cans of beer.

Holyoke school Superintendent Stephen Bohrer said the truck was parked 150 feet from the front door of Holyoke Junior-Senior High and 50 feet from two side doors.

That, Bohrer said, was why a drug-sniffing dog from a private security firm stopped at the truck.

To signal something wrong.

More wrong than you might think.

The truck full of bullets and beer broke no laws because it was not parked on school property and because the student who drove it was 18, said Holyoke police Sgt. Doug Bergstrom, who investigated.

Bergstrom claimed there were no more than 20 .22-caliber bullets in the car. A report by Joe DiSalvo, president of Interquest Detection Canines, says he found six full or partially full boxes of bullets under the front seat.

"I stand by my report," DiSalvo said.

Legally, it doesn't matter. The way Colorado law works, the student, a senior at Holyoke, could have had 1,000 bullets.

"This student was 18," Bergstrom said. "He's parked on public property. He's 18, so he's allowed to have a rifle. We couldn't place him with the beer. I did contact a deputy district attorney. She said there was nothing we could charge."

Bohrer suspended the student for five days. That, Bohrer said, prompted the parents of the 18-year-old to come in and yell at Bohrer and a school administrator to mind their own business.

Oh, read the whole thing! Her's my favorite part, though:

When rifle-toting freaks can lawfully park a short sprint from school doors, you have a recipe for tragedy.

A troubled student or outsider "could be out to the car and back in seconds," Bohrer said of Holyoke's layout. That's because the public street is actually closer to the school than the official student parking lot, where weapons-at-school laws can be enforced.

The dog that found the rifle and beer did its job. Now, it's time for everybody else to do theirs.

That's right...a man with a public forum, Jim Spencer, is able to libel an unnamed 18-year-old student [not named because the DENVER POST is "concerned" about our youth; apparently less concerned about libel] who broke no law, committed no crime, did nothing that I (in my youth) and quite literally millions of other young people do on a regular basis...have a deer rifle and some .22s in the car on public property!

At 18, this young man can enlist, become part of a cadre of trained "rifle-toting freaks" and be in Fallujah by the end of the year.

Here's the DENVER POST contact information. I suggest a courteous note to Gregory Moore, the POST's editor. Don't even bother contacting Spencer...I've done that before, and it's like trying to explain trigonometry to a cat...it may pay attention, but don't bother buying it a protractor! You might want to send a note to the POST's token conservative columnist, David Harsanyl, who hasn't libeled anybody and seems a pretty sharp guy.

And to that pinnacle of public service, Joe DiSalvo, "private security contractor" — ie, an unsworn, non-law enforcement, member of the public with no authority to do anything — working public streets, hey dude...I park on public streets, too! Want to have your doggie sniff my truck?