Nice Summation of Liberalism

From Lorna Gunter of the National Post in Canada:

Still, despite the hype, gun crime is not statistically a serious problem in Canada. Banning guns, or even restricting their use more closely, will have no appreciable impact on rates of violent crime. Knives are used in nearly three times as many violent crimes as guns, yet no one calls for a knife registry. Even blunt instruments are used more often than guns without demands that government licences be required before one may buy baseball bats and lead pipes. So why do liberal-left politicians expend so much energy trying to restrict gun ownership or even ban guns outright?

The principal reason, of course, is that modern liberalism is the victory of symbolism over substance. A public policy or law is seldom designed mostly to solve an identified problem. Its primary purpose is to reflect well on the good intentions of the person or group proposing it.

So what if laws and social programs produce no tangible benefits? They remain on the statute books and retain full funding -- complete with massive bureaucracies -- because they enable liberals to convince themselves something is being done. Activity is confused with achievement.

On a lighter note, from the VPC blog satire, here's the "VPC Drinking Game!"

We gun controllers like to let loose sometimes just like anybody else. Whenever you’re taking a break from the tough work of denying Constitutional rights, and if you’re reading a VPC.org report, break out a case of your favorite alcoholic beverage. Here’s what you do:

Drink 1 shot whenever “deadly” appears.
Drink 2 shots whenever “more deadly” appears.
Drink 3 shots whenever “even more deadly” appears.
Eat* pretzels/peanuts whenever one of these phrases appears: “Ronnie Barrett,” “national security,” “purpose [designed/built],” and “assault weapon.”
It’s just that simple! We can’t tell you how many times we’ve become drunk as skunks playing this game.

*You need to eat snacks in order to avoid becoming sloshed too quickly. Trust us.