From the WSJ Opinion Archives

by JAMES TARANTO
Friday, January 18, 2002 3:13 P.M. EST

Gun Stops Gunman
There was a shooting Wednesday at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va. Peter Odighizuwa, a 43-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Nigeria who'd flunked out of school allegedly went on a rampage and killed a dean, a professor and a fellow student with a .380-caliber pistol. Three other students were injured.

But the presence of another gun on campus almost certainly saved lives. MSNBC reports:

Students ended the rampage by confronting and then tackling the gunman, officials said.

"We saw the shooter, stopped at my vehicle and got out my handgun and started to approach Peter," Tracy Bridges, who helped subdue the shooter with other students, said Thursday on NBC's "Today" show. "At that time, Peter threw up his hands and threw his weapon down. Ted was the first person to have contact with Peter, and Peter hit him one time in the face, so there was a little bit of a struggle there."

The Salt Lake Tribune reports the Utah Legislature is considering repealing a rule that bans guns from the campuses of the Beehive State's nine state colleges and universities. In light of the Appalachian experience, allowing Utahns to carry legal, licensed concealed weapons on campus would seem an obviously good idea--but not to Bernie Machen, president of the University of Utah:

"Classrooms, libraries, dormitories and cafeterias are no place for lethal weapons," Machen told the panel of mostly pro-gun legislators. "Their very presence would interfere with the essential functions of a university."

Machen said the fear of guns could chill the open debate that is at the core of academic freedom, and he said the constitutional guarantee of free speech superseded any statute by the Legislature that could interfere with it.

The Founding Fathers somehow didn't notice the threat the Second Amendment poses to the First. Guess Machen is just smarter than James Madison.

Bin Dyin'?
Pervez Musharraf is an amazing guy. Not only is he a general and the Pakistani president, he's also a doctor. Or at least he seems to think he's qualified to render a medical diagnosis. CNN reports:

Pakistan's president says he thinks Osama bin Laden is most likely dead because he has been unable to get treatment for his kidney disease.

"I think now, frankly, he is dead for the reason he is a patient, he is a kidney patient," Gen. Pervez Musharraf said on Friday in an interview with CNN.

Snopes.com has an item, dated Nov. 20, on rumors of Osama's kidney problems (which we noted Nov. 1). It deems the veracity of the reports "undetermined." We'd have to agree--unless, of course, Dr. Musharraf has personally examined him.

Saudi Sayonara
"Saudi Arabia's rulers are increasingly uncomfortable with the U.S. military presence in their country and may soon ask that it end," the Washington Post reports, citing "several Saudi sources." The Saudis fret that "the American presence has become a political liability in domestic politics and in the Arab world"--the Osama bin Laden position. Also, they're "increasingly uncomfortable with a role in U.S. efforts to contain Saddam Hussein, and earlier ruled out use of Saudi territory as a base for bombing raids on Iraq."

Well, that's OK. If the Saudis kick us out now, later we can use Iraq as a base for raids on Saudi Arabia. Or, as InstaPundit.com puts it: "Miserable cowards. Let's kick 'em out and give Arabia to Turkey."

Abdullah Vents
Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi crown price, "has vented his fury against Qatar's al-Jazeera satellite TV in front of fellow leaders of the Gulf Arab monarchies," Agence France-Presse reports, picking up a story from a Lebanese newspaper. "He focused the attack on Al-Jazeera's coverage of the arrest of a Saudi princess in the United States for alleged 'enslavement' of an Indonesian maid, saying the TV station relied solely on the US media's version of events."

Abdullah also accused al-Jazeera of serving as "a platform" for al Qaeda--an accurate charge, to be sure, but one that'd have more moral force if the Saudis were more helpful in fighting al Qaeda.

Karzai to Riyadh
Interim Afghan president Hamid Karzai is visiting Saudi Arabia in search of foreign aid, the BBC reports. This is a bit troubling; the Saudis have, after all, used subsidies to places like Pakistan as a way of spreading their fundamentalist Wahhabi brand of Islam.

Arab Attacks Young Jewish Girls
A member of the Al Aqsa Brigades, a militia linked to Nobel Peace Prize laureate Yasser Arafat's Fatah organization, shot up a wedding hall in Israel where a girl was celebrating her bat mitzvah. Six people were killed, as was the gunman. The Associated Press reports the gunman was subdued when guest Moti Hasson threw a chair at him.

'They Are Not Nice People'
Several of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have "have threatened in both English and Arabic 'to kill an American before they leave Guantanamo Bay,' " the Miami Herald quotes the camp commander as saying. "They are not nice people," adds the commander, Marine Brig. Gen. Michael Lehnert.

A BBC report carries the headline "US Public Unmoved by Camp Conditions." Can they blame us? The British home secretary, Robin Cook, however, is moved. Expressing tender concern for the three prisoners who claim to be British citizens--which, if true, would make them traitors--the softhearted Cook disputes Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's assurances that conditions are adequate. "I am not sure I take Mr Rumsfeld's views as independent corroboration. He is a man of robust views," the Telegraph quotes him as saying. He adds that Rumsfeld is "not an independent voice. . . . He is not in the same category as the International Red Cross, which is independent."

Clinton in Reuterville
The Washington Times reports (third item) that a "force penetration" video guide, produced by the Army in 1998, "lectured soldiers that terrorism was a relative term." The Clinton-era video "puts forth the notion that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter, pointing out that French resistance fighters in World War II were terrorists because they blew up bridges during Nazi occupation."

The report adds: "The Army video is not just politically damaging. It is expected to cause legal problems for the Pentagon and Justice Department in their efforts to prosecute terrorists involved in the Pentagon and World Trade Center attacks."

Leicester Busts
Seventeen people are now in custody in a British antiterror crackdown in Leicester and London, the BBC reports. Nine of them are being held on suspicion of terror-related activity, the others on immigration charges. They include the first two men to be charged in Britian of being al Qaeda members.

The Bosnian Connection
"In an operation coordinated with the Bosnian government, U.S. troops today seized and removed to an undisclosed location six Arab terror suspects who were released from a Bosnian prison," the Washington Post reports. "The arrests are the first known case of U.S. soldiers in the war on terrorism apprehending suspects outside the Afghan war theater." The men, five Algerians and a Yemeni, allegedly plotted to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo.

Al Qaeda Drag Queens
Pakistani police have arrested five suspected al Qaeda members disguised in burkhas. Lucky for them they weren't in Malaysia. Agence France-Presse reports that "a man who turned up in an Islamic court in a miniskirt and high heeled sandals" was jailed for a week after pleading guilty to "cross-dressing and behaving like a woman at a public place." AFP adds: "Mohamad Ade was told by the Shariah court that it was forbidden for a Muslim man to cross-dress and act immorally."

Yuck!
Here's one of the most revolting terror-related stories we've read: The Times of London reports Flight 63 may have been saved by alleged shoe bomber Richard Reid's "sweaty feet." He "had trouble igniting his explosive-packed trainers because his feet were sweating and had dampened the non-metal fuse, said US officials."

Statue of Limitations
That politically correct fireman statue won't be built after all, the New York Post reports. "After talks with Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, developer Bruce Ratner abandoned efforts to erect the statue, which was to be based on a photo that made the front pages of newspapers nationwide." We noted and criticized the plan last week, and our Tunku Varadarajan defended it earlier this week.

Dumb Criminal of the Week
"An Egyptian man who raised suspicion one week after the terrorist attacks when he was found carrying a fake pilot's uniform and license has been found guilty of lying about his plans to attend flight school," the Associated Press reports.

Wael Abdel Rahman Kishk arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport Sept. 19, and immigration agents found the "crude forgery" of a Federal Aviation Administration license, which he had apparently made in order to impress his girlfriend. The FBI repeatedly asked him if he planned to attend flight school in America; "over and over again, he denied it." In fact, he planned to attend aviation classes at Big Bend Community College in Moses Lake, Wash.

Kishk faces six months to five years in prison, plus deportation. He was acquitted of impersonating a pilot.

Stupidity Watch
Have you ever made an illegal copy of a movie video? If so, Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America thinks you're scarcely different from Osama bin Laden. "We're fighting our own terrorist war," he tells the New York Times (link requires registration) of the MPAA's antipiracy efforts.

Columnist Paul Campos refers to "the Tofu Taliban, many of whose members feel no compunction about offering strangers unsolicited advice ('You know, that's really not good for you') regarding the moral character of their dietary habits." We find health nuts obnoxious and tedious too, but until they start stoning people to death, the Taliban analogy is preposterously overwrought.

The Nation Strikes Out
What can you say about a magazine that publishes a major factual error in the very first sentence of an article? Here's how Matt Bivens's piece in The Nation begins: "When George W. Bush co-owned the Houston Astros and construction began on a new stadium, Kenneth Lay agreed to spend $100 million over thirty years for rights to name the park after Enron." Of course, it was the Texas Rangers, not the Astros, that Bush co-owned. The Rangers' stadium, the Ballpark at Arlington, is one of the few holdouts from the trend toward corporate sponsorship.

Zero-Tolerance Watch
The Georgia Legislature is considering a bill that would restore sanity to school-discipline policies in the Peach State. "Partly in response to Cobb County's 'zero tolerance' nightmare of a year ago--the Tweety Bird key-chain case--a group of lawmakers has filed a bill reminding local boards they can take into account whether students intended to harm someone when deciding how to discipline them for bringing "weapons" to school," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

Stop Suing Us!
A federal jury has ordered Fulton County, Ga., to pay nearly $25 million for discriminating against five white librarians. "I am greatly disturbed and concerned at the outcome of this case, not only because of the enormity of the judgment, but because this is at least the fourth reverse discrimination case in recent memory that Fulton County has lost, costing the taxpayers literally tens of millions of dollars," Fulton County Commission chairman Mike Kenn tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Hey Mike, there's a simple solution to this problem: Stop discriminating!

Well, It's Easier Than Making the Teachers Smarter
Pennsylvania has a shortage of math teachers, partly because so many applicants for teaching jobs are failing the "pre-professional skills test." The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Frank Meehan, director of the state's Bureau of Teacher Certification and Preparation, "said that because the state has a shortage of math teachers, it may make the test easier to get a higher passing rate."

Correction
Because of our own arithmetic error, an item yesterday misstated the amount of time we estimate three-year-old Kira Kerkorian spends on the phone. We should have said five hours a day, not 12 1/2. The good news is that we're still qualified to teach math in Pennsylvania.

Homelessness Rediscovery Watch

"If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition's arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation."--Mark Helprin, Oct. 31, 2000

"Advocates for homeless people say that at a time when a bad economy and a tight housing market are creating record levels of homelessness, more and more cities are responding by cracking down on the consequences of homelessness--the sleeping, urinating and shopping-cart-hauling habits of homeless people--rather than by addressing the causes."--New York Times (link requires registration), Jan. 18, 2002

Win a Free Trip to Communist Hell!
North Korea is holding an essay contest in honor of "Great Leader" Kim Jong Il's 60th birthday, Feb. 16. (By coincidence, this is during President's Day weekend.) Or, as a Spanish-based North Korean Web site puts it:

We, reflecting the unanimous desire of the world progressive people organize the following prize contest on world-wide scale on the occasion of his 60th birthday.

Among the "themes of works" are "work praising the great ideological, theoretical activities and art of leadership of the respect Comrade KIM JONG IL," "work expressing the might of single-hearted unity and invincible vitality of the Korean Worker's Party," and "work about the superiority of the Korean-style socialist system centered on popular masses and the Korean people's struggle for building a socialist powerful nation."

The first prize is a trip to North Korea, but the site doesn't say what the second prize is. How about two trips to North Korea?

(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Michael Moynihan, Jim Swift, Anthony Brunsvold, S.E. Brenner, Jim Orheim, David Merrill, Damian Bennett, Nathan Sales, Drew Parkhill, Anthony Brunsvold, C.E. Dobkin, Napoleon Cole, Raghu Desikan, Michael Segal, Dawn Eden, Michiel Visser, Rosslyn Smith, Ed Boland, Robert LeChevalier, John Weisman, Jim Wirtz, Todd Ludeke, Gregory Brunt, James Crutcher, Joshua Sharf, Chris Fenwick, Jim Bruni, Dennis Campbell, Randy Bork, David Berish and Kevin Gillen. If you have a tip, write us at opinionjournal@wsj.com, and please include the URL.)

Today on OpinionJournal:

And on the Taste page:

Click to email this article EMAIL THIS Click to format this article for printing FORMAT FOR PRINTING
ARCHIVE