A Lesson From Casey Heynes: Steven Crowder on Bullying

I have been away from blogging for a while for a number of reasons, one of which being how frustrating the news has been lately. The one story that made me smile was Casey Heynes’ act of self-defense.

We all have our stories of bullying. Stories of the humiliation we suffered at the hands of someone like Ritchard Gale who isn’t afraid of ill-conceived and ineffective punishments handed down by teachers, but many of us also have stories of the day that bullying ended. For me, it was one incident in high school gym class that ended with me leaving a welt the size of a softball on the side of my bully’s face. I didn’t have Casey’s size advantage, but three well-placed punches were enough to send a message to him and others like him who saw me as an easy target; torment at your own risk. It doesn’t happen overnight, and Casey might just have to body slam another would-be bully, but he sent a very strong message about how vulnerable he wasn’t, a message that has made him an internet icon.

The problem is that in a society that is obsessed with non-violence and ‘zero tolerance’, the lessons learned by Casey and Ritchard aren’t being taught. On a recent episode of ‘The Michael Coren Show’, Marianne Meed Ward demonstrated just how out of touch she was when she bragged about how she was able to deal with her child’s bully through a parent-teacher conference. How does that help? Not only is this twit encouraging her children to not stand up for themselves, but, in my experience, such actions only encourage more bully. The bully in question might not continue to torment Marianne’s child, but she has pretty much advertised to the other bullies in the school where to find an easy target. If parent-teacher conferences worked, I wouldn’t have been on a first-name basis with the school’s office staff.

I could spend a few blog posts discussing how out of touch those like Marianne are with reality, but Steven Crowder sums it up nicely in his latest video (hat-tip Ed Morrissey at Hot Air).

One of the key points raised by Crowder is that these lessons need to be learned at a young age. Such violent behaviour in adults leads to criminal records, if not far worse consequence. As Crowder said, Ritchard literally had some sense knocked into him. I doubt that he will be bullying any student after this event, especially after the humiliation he has endured after this incident. That isn’t something that is taught in the classroom or a parent-teacher conference.

In the end, I am not saying that violence is the only answer, but it definitely is an answer. Marianne and others who obviously haven’t had to deal with the reality of such situations need to understand that words and the threat of a minor punishment is useless. Even if the punishment was harsher, it wouldn’t deter the vast majority of these bullies who couldn’t care whether or not they are allowed to attend school. These ‘zero tolerance’ policies actually punish victims for defending themselves. These are students who, for the most part, actually want to attend class, have been forced to endure bullying for the sake of their education. How twisted is that? Self-defense and standing up for one’s self should be encouraged, not punished.

Casey Heynes should be held up as an example of how students should behave if they are being bullied. Those like Marianne Meed Ward are out of touch with reality, and their cries for a non-violent approach to bullying are being drowned out by millions of people around the world who have nothing but praise for the 16-year-old boy who regained his self-esteem with a well-deserved body slam.

A Coren Clip: Coren on the Kennedys

Here’s a clip from yesterday’s episode of ‘The Michael Coren Show’ via SDAMatt2. If you haven’t already subscribed, I recommend doing so as ‘Mississauga Matt’ has a variety of videos of this nature, not just clips of this show. This clip is actually about two stories, both of which I will address later.

The first story refers to a column put out by The National Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin concerning a column written by Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. about Fox News and Canada’s political environment. Kennedy’s column is here, and suffice to say, it isn’t coherent, let alone well researched. It is simply a collection of rhetoric, misinformation and outright lies, typical fare for a Huffington Post columns. I have serious trouble taking this man seriously, especially considering his lengthy history with substance abuse and his support of radical environmental policies. I could go on to discuss all that is wrong with this column, but Tasha, who I’m not particularly a fan of (she’s too much like David Frum), already did an excellent job.

After Michael Coren set’s up the panel discussion, Laura Babcock begins it by demonstrating her ignorance and political bias. Fox News is problematic to the dialogue? This is typical liberal speak. The problem is that Fox News doesn’t echo her point of her and thus mustn’t be allowed to be part of the dialogue on any issue. Don’t we always hear from the left that more dialogue is better than less? She then goes to compare Fox News with Al Jazeera, a network that is, at the least, strongly connected to the Muslim Brotherhood. Last time I checked, neither Rupport Murdock nor Roger Ailes are connected with any terrorist organization. Also, unlike Al Jazeera which has a consistent anti-American/anti-Israel slant to its stories, Fox News does a far better job than most other news networks at providing balanced coverage. Even on their opinion shows like Bill O’Reilly’s ‘The Factor’, you hear from both sides of the political aisle. Laura should have taken her own advice on this and not commented on a news network that she has previously admitted she doesn’t watch.

Aside from tearing into Laura for her bias and ignorance, I would also like to point out something Michael Coren said. The reason why Al Jazeera has such “good” coverage of events in the Middle East is because they get their information from those carrying out terrorist attacks. Does this mean that we should ignore the network’s “news” reports? Of course not. At the very least, it provides us with a look into the minds of terrorists and their supporters. It is important, however, to understand that Al Jazeera is a support of Islamic extremism and that anything they report should be subjected to the harshest scrutiny.

The second story deals with the release previously redacted material from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file of the late Senator Edward “Ted” Kennedy. Judicial Watch broke this story, highlighting points of interest from the FBI files, with only one of them being discussed by the panel. Besides not discussion the whole story, which may or may not have been accidental, what irritated my about this discussion was that, knowing how misogynistic Ted was, something highlighted by his disgraceful, if not murderous actions at Chappaquiddick, July 18, 1969, which resulted in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, Laura still defends him, blaming his behaviour on Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr., the late Senator’s father. “Sins of the son”? Last time I checked Laura, it wasn’t Joe that left Mary Jo to suffocate in that submerged car, it was Ted. This act alone outweighs most, if not any sin committed by Ted’s father. Twit…

Aside from the Ted’s sexual escapades at a brothel in Santiago, Judicial Watch points to another disturbing trend. During these visits to Latin America, Ted insisted on talking with the “the angry young men” of the country, specifically the communists and others who held similar left-wing views. While in Bogota, Ted demanded to meet with Lauchlin Currie,the Canadian-born economist and former economic adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt who was suspected of being a Soviet spy. While in Mexico, Kennedy demanded that Ambassador Mann invite various left-wing radicals to the Embassy residence so he could conduct interviews. Mann strongly opposed this, stating that if Ted wanted to interview these people, he would have to make the arrangements himself.

As Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey stated in his post on Judicial Watch’s findings, taking into consideration the “Yuri Andropov incident” in 1983, this shows Ted Kennedy to be, at worst, “a malicious political opportunist willing to sell out anything for his own personal ambitions.” I would go further, stating that, when one considers his support for Irish Republican Army (IRA), a Irish nationalist terrorist group founded in 1916, it is easy to see that the late Senator wasn’t simply a malicious political opportunist, but a far-left ideologue who was dedicated to forwarding a variety of radical fringe causes. Instead of discussion his sexually deviant behaviour, the panel could have discussed these findings. It would have been interesting to hear Coren’s and David Menzies’ opinion of this issue.

In the end, the true Kennedy legacy is far darker than the ‘Camelot’ fiction the media clings to. While dedicated leftists like Laura Babcock will continue to defend the media fiction, their efforts can’t prevent the information on the sins of the “American Royal Family” from getting out. It will take time, but history won’t remember the Kennedys for there “political accomplishments.” Pathetic…

UPDATE: Forgot to add this to the original post, so I will put it in as an update. Doug Powers at Michelle Malkin’s blog also posted on this, but with a focus on the millions of taxpayer dollars being spent on the Edward Moore Kennedy Institute, a “shrine” built to honour the disgraced late Senator. In my opinion, the Kennedy family and their supporters should pay for this institute. If they want to honour Ted’s memory, as well as ignore his countless shortcomings, they should foot the bill.

This waste of taxpayer money of Ted Kennedy’s behalf should surprise anyone, especially when you that the man himself, as Powers put it, “spent his political life handing out somebody else’s money and taking personal credit for the philanthropy”? Pathetic…