Leah McLaren has written an article on why knuckle-dragging conservatives prevent gun control in the US.  Ms McLaren ‘once attempted to breastfeed the infant child of Conservative leadership candidate Michael Chong without his or his wife’s consent, and while she was not lactating.’  She was subsequently suspended from the Mop and Pail (for non-Canadians, the Globe and Mail) for a week, during which time they presumably sold more papers.  The article is her usual drivel, albeit this time in The Spectator.  Good Lord.  What were they thinking? She doesn’t understand the basics of the argument and so resorts to labeling and condescension.  She writes of the following of her uncle, no less:

Especially when it comes to the emotional issue of gun control, Republicans like Uncle Bill are as startlingly fact-resistant and reason-impervious as a mutt who will always follow his instinct over rational sense.

Yet she never does introduce any facts.  She does relate a funny joke, however.   Alas, her uncle seems to have a better understanding of Ontari-owe than she does about gun control.  Nevertheless, the joke is not enough to save the article.

The premier of Ontario is jogging with her dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks the premier’s dog, then bites the premier. She calls animal control. Animal control captures the coyote and bills the province $200 testing it for diseases and $500 for relocating it. She calls a veterinarian. The vet collects the dead dog and bills the province $200 testing it for diseases. The Liberal party spends $2 million to study how to better treat rabies… etc., etc.

Meanwhile, the governor of Texas is jogging with his dog along a nature trail. A coyote jumps out and attacks his dog. The governor shoots it with his state-issued pistol and keeps jogging. The governor has spent 50 cents on a .45 ACP hollow-point cartridge. The buzzards eat the dead coyote.

And that, my friends, is why Ontario is broke and Texas is not.

But then she goes and ruins the joke with her snide and shallow comment “Or it could be oil, I think.”  Venezuela has lots of oil, too, so maybe it’s the politics.    Finally, as though to add weight to her piece, she quotes the entirely unquotable Bill Maher.  Sigh.

Don’t forget to read the comments.  Most are more measured than the article.