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ScreenHunter_02 Jul. 07 10.40

It started out with mild curiosity sparked by a SHTFPlan.com headlineWith Knife Murders Spiking After Gun Ban, UK Urges ‘Save a Life–Surrender Your Knife. After all, this is the country that developed blunted “anti-stab knives,” after “doctors … lobbied … for kitchen knives to be redesigned [because] it could help to save lives.” What new foolishness were they up to in Piers Morgan Paradise? Why not follow some links, pull some threads and find out?

First stop: the Lancashire Constabular. It advises subjects in mortal peril to run away (assuming they can), to make noise (let the howling in agony like a terrorized animal begin!), to carry an alarm instead of a weapon, and most importantly of all, “Don’t fight back.” Not exactly Churchillian advice.

Even the Illinois State Police sanctioned using rat-tail combs and vomiting. “Lancashire Constabulary has joined forces with the ground-breaking national anti-knife crime campaign ‘Save a Life, Surrender Your Knife,’ a national initiative designed to raise awareness of knife crime and encourage the surrender of dangerous weapons,” their web page advises.

That leads to a website urging Her Majesty’s subjects to do just that, replete with what looks like a sword-wielding (!) angel logo. It also features a pair of Demanding Mums, both grinning like blissful ignoramuses, and neither one looking like they’d be any use at all defending themselves, let alone any young ones left to their protection and care.

No matter. Their anti-knife blog keep us up to date on activities and efforts to shelter everyone from technology that’s thousands of years old, with knife banks, amnesty bins, and more.  And they also claim affiliations with some interesting partners, among them a group declaring “Only Cowards Carry.”

The first thing noticeable from that registered charity’s website is a logo centered around the Sesame Street Cookie Monster character.  And it’s not just that it looks the same — public event appearances by their mascot are labeled “Cookie Monster Photos.”

That raises the question of whether the use of a valuable trademarked property is authorized. Cookie Monster is owned by Sesame Workshop, and a media inquiry sent via contact form last week remains unanswered at this writing. If the use of the registered character continues, the reasonable assumption is that it, and the message it bears, must be approved.

Before being too hard on the Brits, the same attitude — only cowards carry weapons — is being directed against Americans who believe in possessing the means of self-defense. Admittedly, we generally think in terms of guns, although the essential group Knife Rights reminds us the Second Amendment articulates a right to keep and bear all arms.

There’s a Guns Are for Cowards Facebook page, dedicated to the proposition that if you believe in owning one, you’re a gutless yellow-belly. And The Daily Kos insists “Only cowards carry guns.” No less an authority than “The Gunman” actor (and impossible-for-non-elites-to-get carry permit holder) Sean Penn dubbed guns “cowardly killing machines” (albeit in his case, you’d think a wife-beater would know).

We’ve all see the bloviators and the trolls, the same ones who seem to think they’re being original invoking Markley’s Law, insisting (generally anonymously) that anyone who won’t take on all comers with his fists is less than a man in terms of both fortitude and prowess.

The point of segueing from UK anti-knife activists to U.S. anti-gunners is to not lose sight that what we’re really dealing with are “progressives” on both sides of “the pond.” It’s instructive that a mother pushing knife control lost her son, an aspiring rapper, in an argument over a girl at a club while commemorating the anniversary of the stabbing death of another rapper  — and that her son’s father is in prison for murdering a man with a gun.

The Opposite Day truism that defines everything about “progressives” once more proves out in all respects.

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136 COMMENTS

  1. “Half of all the women that fire a gun trying to protect themselves shoot someone they do not want to, i.e. friend, neighbors, relatives, etc”

    I was not aware women were such inherently bad shots

    • “’Half of all the women that fire a gun trying to protect themselves shoot someone they do not want to, i.e. friend, neighbors, relatives, etc’

      I was not aware women were such inherently bad shots”

      I suspect most of those women were being attacked by the friend, neighbor or relative they shot.

      • Wow, that’s worth following up on.
        Could it be that obvious, after all, I wouldn’t want to shoot anybody either.

        As in, “The last thing I want to do is shoot you, but I’m leaving it on the list.”

      • I doubt that is true. There is a study that found armed citizens when discharging their guns in self defense hit bystanders far less (by percentage, I believe) then the police do.

        • Ah, but as a coward, wouldn’t their hands be shaking, and thus be a worse shot?

          Without looking any deeper into this campaign (like, why bother?) if a 250lb 6’+ male is coming at a 100lb female and she needs a ballistic equalizer to survive…she’s a coward?

          Oh yeah, that’s good stuff right there.

          An ex GF once told me that in a self defense class the female instructor, effectively, told here it would be better to have thing X (assault, rape, murder, etc) happen to you that “to stoop to using a gun.”

          Wow.

    • I would venture a guess that virtually ANY innocent, law abiding citizen, when defending him or herself from lethal threat, would prefer not to shoot another person, whether it be unknown crazy or violent ex-spouse. If you run around wanting to shoot someone else, you’d fall into another category entirely.

    • A VERY deliberate bit of misinformation.

      “He was beating the shit out of me, but I shot him even though I didn’t want to.”

      What fucking scum.

    • Did you look at the knife blog? The bins were full of junk – grossly ridiculous fantasy knives. If don’t if this was what was actually surrendered or if the police wanted the most over-the-top, hollywood prop shop idea of what a tactical knife looks like for the photos.

        • Michelle Obama put a stop to the cookies. After a brief stint in a re-education camp, Cookie Monster now likes Tabouli Salads and Quinoa.

          I liked Oscar the Grouch myself.

          An aside, methinks when the Crown faces its next global threat, brought on by their own doing of appeasement and complacent policies, the ghost of Chamberlin will rise, and the U.S. Won’t be there next time to save them.
          Aloha Snackbar my friends.

        • Since Oscar the Grouch lives in a trash can, he’s now community organizing recycling and snitching on people not sorting before recycling…

  2. Once the knives are all sorted, what’s next? A campaign to blunt all pointy objects? Will we be reduced to crayons and safety scissors and circles of paper (corners can poke!), wearing helmets everywhere we go?

    Pathetic.

    • After knives, I think the next step will be to require a professional license as a tradesman to possess or carry any of the other tools. Following that will be a program to glue down all loose rocks.

      • I recall hearing that in one of the Nordic countries a man was convicted for forgetting the box cutter he used for work in his pocket and walking home.

      • As a wise post on this once commented; “you can take my spork from my cold dead hands”.

        Have to tend to the unicorns now please excuse me,……

        • Sporks have a pointy end. For the good of society, our government masters will ban them. Nobody needs more than a spoon.

    • How long before they’re chaining people to walls inside a cave to be entertained by the shadows of passersby on the wall?

  3. In today’s environment of terrorism, home invasions, car jackings, rapes, mass shootings, murders, drug and gang wars, and race baiting only dumb asses don’t?!!!

  4. Call me a coward then. But I guarantee that if the shtf, and I’m around, you’re going to be cowering somewhere as I cowardly return fire to save my skin.

  5. The Alinsky is strong with this one, and so is the psychological projection.

    Brits are being de-pants in the middle of the street by muggers, because the average Brit is unable to defend himself. I think I’ll keep my own advice regarding self-defense.

  6. Name-calling, last resort of failure.

    Of course, advising someone to “run away” is not feasible when they’re disabled. Kinda able-ist, isn’t it?

  7. Hope I don’t sound out there for saying this. But guns are for cowards?

    I’d love it if the next time one of these hoplophobes are in my area; if they would like to put on some gloves/headgear and have a friendly throw down for a few rounds. I wouldn’t mind proving I’m not a coward. Hell afterwords we could have a few beers and shoot the breeze. Wouldn’t one of them refusing a friendly sparring match make them a coward? In all seriousness.

    Calling a person a coward because they rely on weapons is lame. Also that being said, there is no honor on the streets. It isn’t like the ring where there are rules. It’s worth cheating, and being a coward if it means coming back home to your family.

    A firearm, or blade can even the odds. Especially if a scumbag has buddies with him. You think a street fighter is going to fight fair? He’s going to use weapons, bricks, and cheap shots to sensitive areas.

    Also not everyone is good at fighting, or in shape for it. What about the elderly, and disabled? What hope can a 120lb woman have against 2 or 3 225lb men (who also have bad intentions.)

    A gun is the perfect equalizer with the right training.

    Also by their logic, police are also cowards. When shots are fired by criminals, the brave men and women running toward said shots; are also cowards?

    I guess our Marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors are also cowards according to their logic.

    • I would wager there is a dramatically higher percentage of the pro gun crowd who can fight with their bare hands than on the gun banning side. That is part of what those of us who can fight understand – some illiterate teenager with a handgun can negate years of boxing or wrestling learned skill.

    • I recently remarked to my kids (it was somehow apropos to a movie we were watching): “If you find yourself in a fair fight, you’re doing it wrong.”

  8. Let’s keep in mind the Brits sent Scottish bagpipers marching into mustard gas, machine gun and mortar fire with nothing more than a kilt and the pipes. Be brave, die for naught.

    It’s tragically ironic, they’re training the subjects (not citizens) not to defend or help through punishment drills, and yet when something horrible happens like a pair of teenage girls strangling a neighboring senior lady to death, all the British media ask why nobody came to her aid?

    Idiots.

    • One might theorize that the courageous ones all died in the war, and only the cowards were left to breed, but I couldn’t possibly comment on that.

      • One might further theorize that the seeming need for nations to engage in pointless wars is to further thin the brave from the population.

        Does amazon carry tin foil hats?

        • Howard Zinn was an ahole who supported gun control and the fascist police state that goes with it, and so are people who post his BS.

  9. Sure, I’m a coward, especially when it comes to my children. I’m deathly afraid of losing them, and I’ve dedicated my life to providing for them.

    So if carrying a weapon gives me a better chance to survive a worst-case scenario and continue protecting and providing for my wife and children, then that’s what I’ll do. Guns, knives, blunt objects; I’m willing to carry and use them all. Even if it’s cowardly.

  10. Well David, you have far more patients than I.
    At the thought of all this, I just have to smirk. The more defenseless you become the more people will take advantage of you.
    The progressive agenda knows no bounds..

  11. Understanding, and facing, the realities of life doesn’t make you a coward.

    But, denying them sure does.

    Stay armed.

  12. The very man who coined the word “holophobia” said some thing to the effect of, “One cannot defeat evil by running from it.”
    I hate to even consider what the fate of this world would have been had the same people who are in power today in England and the US been in charge back in the late 1930s and early 40s.
    [W3]

    • Actually, there was in Great Britain. His name was Neville Chamberlain. The only thing that can be said in his favor is that he bought them two more years to build up their defenses. Had the Battle of Britain occurred in 1938 instead of 1940, I don’t know if the British would have survived.

      • The Battle Of Britain couldn’t start until 1940 when the Germans defeated France and the British were evacuated from Dunkirk.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France#Armistice

        It was also only after that point that the Germans established their bomber bases in France, across the Channel from England

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain#/media/File:Battle_of_Britain_map.svg

        Chamberlain can still roast in hell.

        And if England had been ruled by the politically correct marxist scum running the country today, they would either be speaking German, Russian or both. (As it is now they might as well learn arabic).

      • The French and Brits together had MUCH better militaries than Germany in 1938. The Germans were masters of propaganda films showing how awesome their panzers were, but they were really not so hot at that point. Most of them were little better than thick tin cans (Panzer I and II), and they didn’t have very many Panzer IIIs and IVs. In fact, they used quite a few Czech 38 tanks when they invaded France because they didn’t have enough of their own. So, it is very possible that if France and England had fought in 1938, they could have beaten Hitler and made him tuck in his tail, at least in the West.

  13. A law-abiding individual who is armed and able to defend himelf/herself is a CITIZEN. A law-abiding individual whose government forces him/her to be an unarmed sheep, ready prey for the wolves who ignore the laws, are SUBJECTS. Funny, you seldom if ever hear about “British citizens”…

  14. Those stiff upper lips will be quivering like jello when some dasterdly techo-anarchist publishes a YouTube video of a 3d printed knife! Pearls will be clutched en masse.

  15. I have carried at least 1 knife every day since 1974. I was in grade school at that time. To this day, the only person to be injured by my knife is me because I did something stupid.

    • Same here. Many of my friends carried some sort of knife from elementary school on. It was useful. Cub Scouts reinforced the idea of always carrying one. I was an older student sitting in a college classroom and took out my knife to open a pack of paper. I thought the young lady sitting in front of me was going to faint. I explained to her that this was common in school when I was growing up. We spoke some over the rest of the term and she began realizing how much indoctrination against individual liberty has been going. As far as I know, she continued in her own personal education regarding individual rights and resisting tyranny.

      • I had a small folder in my passenger seat, and it fell to the ground when some people from work were getting into my vehicle for lunch. If it were a live grenade, their reaction would be the same. It was as if it were the devil’s head sitting there on the ground.
        These are the same people, who when power was lost in the building, and we were in a conference room with no windows, and I took out my flashlight so people could find their way to the door, couldn’t understand why I was carrying a flashlight. The questions were “Why do you have that?” and “How did you know the power was going to fail?”
        Some thought my carrying the flashlight caused the power to fail.
        Mind you, power was lost about twice a year, and naturally, I carry a flashlight every day.
        Oddly, same group of people in a meeting broke out laughing and “heil Hitlering” each other while doing imitations of the NAZI salute. The only way I could get them to stop as tell them that if people saw them doing that they’d all be fired.
        All people from India.

    • I feel naked without my knife and flashlight. I carry them every day and use them regularly.

      When people react (and they do) and ask me why I carry them I stay nonchalant and tell them that it’s because I use them.

  16. Give up one thing and when does it stop? F that, haha, I’m not a badass by any means but they can kiss my ass. I’m not going to give them a damn thing. Ever.

  17. Lets try some other slogans on:

    Only cowards wear motorcycle helmets
    Only cowards wear seatbelts
    Only cowards have first-aid kits
    Only cowards have fire extinguishers
    Only cowards tell their children to not talk to strangers
    Only cowards use protection during sex

  18. And to think they actually fought us a few hundred years ago. Then tried again in 1812. Would have been a much shorter revolution if we could have just said “BOO!!” and they ran away.

    • It’s even more incredible to think that, just a couple generations ago, this was a people who stood up to the Nazi war machine at its zenith, and came through the other side. Sure, we helped with supplies and such, but they took a ferocious beating for a while there and stood, staring grimly, until Hitler blinked. And now they piss themselves at the sight of a pocket knife and tremble in fear of anyone wearing a chef’s hat?

      What the f— went wrong?

  19. “Only attention whoring asshats open carry.” Progressives don’t have a monopoly on this shtick. Some anti-RBA POTG (an oxymoron, no?) use the same tactic in reference to other gun owners who choose to exercise the right of openly bearing arms. The next time one of you blowhard anti-OC asshats start to go down that road, please reconsider the tactic.

    • I don’t like the attention I get when OCing, but I tolerate the verbal assaults of the degenerates because it demonstrates the truth of things… Doing the Right Thing, The Truth… Concepts with which these crotch stains are in no way associated.

      It’s easy to Do the Right Thing when nobody is looking.

      Will you still Do the Right Thing even when human trash like these might spit on you in public?

      I don’t want to OC for any reason other than convenience and comfort; All of That Which is Good and Decent needs me to. So I do it for that, too.

  20. Did I miss something or are the people saying guns are for cowards the same people telling people to run away in the face of danger?

  21. OK, let’s run the checklist. … Dalton OTF in my boot, monkey’s fist in my pocket, Glock 21sf concealed. …. Ok, I’m good to go.

  22. “The maximum prison sentence for carrying a knife is four years, but if you use the knife in a crime or to injure someone the penalties are a lot worse. Under ‘joint enterprise’ rules, prosecutors also have the power to bring before the courts people who were present when a crime was committed so that all face the same serious charges.”

    Sheeple instructions. Enough said.

  23. We shall vomit on them at the beaches, urinate ourselves in the air, and blow our rape whistles on the sea. We shall not defend our our island…whatever the cost may be. We shall always surrender!
    How far they have fallen!

  24. Might makes right. Only big tough guys with fists are allowed. Sorry I’m not as tough as I used to be…

  25. The Gun are for Cowards Facebook page hasn’t banned me yet! Stop on by and have some fun. One of the best pro-gun comments so far is a dare to call our military friends cowards for using guns. Good stuff.

    • They make fools of themselves quite well enough without my help. Tools, and having brains enough to know what they’re for and use them, is bad! Look at that logo again… It’s so transparent you can’t even laugh at how stupid it is. They out themselves and don’t even realize it. They want a ban on being useful and intelligent….

  26. How pathetic. These are the same people who once had the greatest empire in the world only a few decades ago?!?!?!

    Speaking of that, mass immigration from third world nations to Britain has helped contribute greatly to this embarrassment. It will here too if mass immigration is not stopped.

    • You know, while you waste your time trying to troll us, I’d like to point out that there’s a perfectly good electric fence somewhere you could be pissing on.

    • This from the same tough talking keyboard warrior who said in another post that he was going to kill all the “ammosexuals”. Hypocrite much?

  27. Having a gun doesn’t make me a Real Man.

    However, being a Real Man is why I understand it’s value, and people who have to resort to name-calling and baseless slander, NOT Real Men, don’t.

    Higher Intellect is what separates humanity from the baser animals. Or, it’s supposed to, anyway. It doesn’t always happen, as this guy clearly demonstrates for us.

    Why does he pick on women as being exceptionally incompetent?

    If I’m such a coward, how is it I’m fine with tolerating this BS in order to set a higher example? Yeah, losing makes people desperate, call me a coward again, go ahead. Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.

  28. Ban all the guns and knife murders eclipse the gun murders… Weird, nobody could have ever predicted that taking guns away from the good guys would result in an increase of murder by other means. No, nobody could have ever guessed such a thing…… So, we need to ban all forms of tools and getting work done. We’ve never done work or used a tool in our lives, so we see no reason why those who provide our comfortable lives to us with work and tools should be allowed to have those tools to do their work…

    Why have these crotch stains been showcased here?

    • @ Dustin: I think to show where the progressives are heading with all this disarmament. They will not be satisfied until we are all wrapped in blankets without any means to hurt ourselves or others. Even then, I suspect they would find something that upsets them and try to control us. It shows the mindset of the liberal progressives of the world on this subject. It isn’t pretty but we all need to know where they are headed so we can work to stop them.

      • No, you completely misunderstand. The “true believer” types might think that, but those leading the charge know it’s all a bunch of malarkey. They want a disarmed population that can be easily pushed around and made to comply no matter how egregious the demands. This is one way of reducing their future workload of disarming people at gunpoint (which in the USA is currently impossible, and they know it).

  29. The anti-knife campaign in the UK should be a reminder to all of us in the USA that the anti-gunners WILL NOT STOP, regardless of what restrictions they get passed on firearms.

  30. I’m 56 years old. I’ve had three heart attacks, four stents, vestibular neuropathy, I have peripheral neuropathy.

    I’m too old to fight.

    I’m too sick to run.

    But I can still carry a Glock Model 20, and I can hit the X ring every time at 25 yards.

    I can’t fight you, but I can still kill you, and your three friends, in under 5 seconds.

    THAT is why I carry a gun.

  31. The take away is the only people left standing when an event occurs will be the people armed with guns. The attitude is an event will never occur.

  32. Including Cookie Monster in this? Are they trying to sway children under 5 to read and understand an abstract message? These people are really dumb.

    • Like Joe Camel is making the chillins’ smoke the whacky weed, cause tobacky is strictly controlled by the dot-gov.

  33. And I can hear echos of Bernie Sanders “No one wants to take away your guns, except for those evil….”

    The stateists still don’t understand why we won’t compromise, or maybe they really do.

  34. You can’t make this stuff up. This is from the Daily Kos:

    “People don’t kill people guns do.”

    I fully confess that I am weird in that wild stupidity fascinates the heck out of me.

  35. +200yrs the French might want to request a do over on that Waterloo deal. Sad how far the Brits have fallen. Once the greatest power on the earth.

  36. God, up until this point I was able to just turn my back on the antis, saying “agree to disagree. Everyone has an opinion” and go on my merry way, but this…. this is a line in the sand. It’s this of disgusting stupidity that makes me completely hate their side. They are what pure cowardice looks like. They are a mutant subspecies that will be wiped out by evolution, and they damn well should be.

  37. “Only cowards carry guns” say the ones who demand that we, who mean them no harm (and would likely stand to their defence if needed), must disarm ourselves to mollify their irrational fear of inanimate objects.

  38. Interestingly when you challenge these liberal weenies to prove their manhood in a boxing ring or on the street, they are no where to be found. So much for Markley`s Law. Leftists are all mouth and no substance.

    • Don’t be so silly, if you challenged them to a fistfight they would be there. Long pause and whistling. But only if they were sure they would win. Seriously common UK culture is all about being a “hard man” essentially a child with strong criminal tendencies and a lack of adult awareness.ie esponsibility. Its not a culture based on reality but image. Narcissism in a nutshell and all the poison that follows.

  39. Funny how they think that calling an adult a childish name for making a well thought out, reasoned and responsible decision will actually bother the adult.

  40. Off topic: the illegal immigrant who murdered the young lady in San Fran apparently killed her with a firearm he stole from an FBI agent. At least that is what the Daily Mail is reporting. How the hell did that happen?!?!?

    Also, her husband is a far left Hillary supporter who criticized anyone opposing mass third world immigration. No irony there, eh?

  41. Looking at three graphic again, the next target for take away will obviously be hammers and screw drivers. We just can’t trust carpenters to be trained well enough to carry the tools of their trade openly.

  42. “Run away”??????? Seriously? All I can think about is Monty Python.

    Maybe no one told them it was really humor.

    • “First, you eat the banana, thus disarming him. Questions?”

      “Yes, what if he’s got a pointed stick?”

  43. So English trolls expect an American to get bent out of shape because he was called a coward by an asshole?

    Yawn.

  44. It takes a brave soul to live in a free country – all encompassing with risks included. It takes a coward to want to disarm everyone to satisfy their feelings of safety.

    According to them, one prudent enough to make preparations for the known and unknown are cowards?

    The promotion of helplessness. Cowardice or courage? They actually think it’s courageous. Courage = accepting your fate as a victim?

  45. I looked up “England’s” firearm laws. I could not get thru them. Decided I would just stay out of that part of the world. (yes, skits by Monty Python came to mind.)

  46. Don’t blame the knives; blame the knaves!

    Honestly, even if we could somehow eliminate all projectile and pointed weapons in the entire world, as well as all objects that could be adapted for use in such a way, these rapscallions would still have cudgels to use, so long as trees still grew.

  47. They “need” you to be a coward to preempt their guilt of not adequately providing for the protection of their loved ones and themselves. Makes it macho to be reckless and ignorant to personal responsibility. “Only a coward wears a condom!”

  48. Marine for 17 years and shot in battle. 35 years martal arts and won many tournments. i have should ground in hand ot hand in combat. i fear no one or nothing. and i carry 2 guns daily everytime i go out door. cause real coward sare asshole thug and criminals that have tto roam in groups. nthey are to chicken shit to stand alone.

  49. Wait so I’m a coward for wanting to carry a proper tool properly, but you’re NOT a coward because you cannot even face the possibility that using a firearm could be a good thing. You foist that responsibility onto others, knowingly or blindly.

    You keep using that word…

  50. “Joe Goebbels tagged the first rule of propaganda: Loudly declare that the evil you are doing is “really” being done by your opponent. Psychologists call this projection.” -Loki girl

    LokiGirl’s Most Frequent Tags:

    NRA (13)
    Guns (9)
    Fear (4)
    Recommended (3)
    Law (2)
    Washington (2)
    Sensible gun legislation (2)
    Initiative 594 (2)
    Republicans (2)
    Society (2)

    LG loves her some Command & Control collectivism. She should be a-feared of everything, because she lacks the mental or physical power to dominate it. A Masters Degree in debt from a decade of mental indoctrination in the very-soft-“social-sciences” enables her to use big counter-productive words and yammer endlessly about how unfair it is that MEN who took the hard STEM classes make 8x as much money, and have 5 job offers before graduation.

    “I know: let’s have Government destroy and control everything that bothers me, or could bother me!”

  51. Note the blatantly Aztec mindset of the campaign & its demand that others (but most assuredly NOT Mr. Penn/similarly hypocritical ‘valuable’ people) sacrifice themselves on the altar of the campaigner’s belief system, that’s why I long ago classed the anti-2A/pro-thug/pro-dictatorship crew as a cult. Note also that this pseudo-religious mindset isn’t limited to the anti-2A cult but is also common in other (primarily Leftist) neo-paganist cults like the Gaia & animal worshippers as well as ‘humanists’/”people are all basically the same”, another shared aspect of such cults is the decided tendency toward the monarchic &/or outright dictatorial. Many (e.g., Bolton, Lobaczewski, Minogue, Porretto, Revel, Rossiter) have written about this similitude but AFAIK there hasn’t been a comprehensive multi-disciplinary study (involving the aforementioned among others) of such outfits/their adherents. Imagine the truly hilarious (& QUITE revealing) consternation just the announcement of such a project would generate, & the post-publication dismay caused by its conclusions would be (IMO) delicious.

  52. I wrote to Sesame Workshop about this group about a year ago. I never heard back from them, either. I’m guessing they want nothing to do with this argument and are trying not to get involved. The message I sent follows:

    Dear Sesame Workshop:
    I was born in 1969, and I am a first-generation Sesame Street watcher. I went to kindergarten knowing how to read, and I credit that to Childrens’ Television Workshop, Jim Henson, Frank Oz and Caroll Spinney. The positive impact the Muppets have had on my life cannot be measured, and I am forever grateful for it.
    This morning, I discovered that an English advocacy group is using the name and likeness of Cookie Monster in a way that I cannot believe was authorized. He seems to be their main logo. The group is http://www.onlycowardscarry.org also found on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/OnlyCowardsCarry . “Only Cowards Carry” is apparently headed by a woman named Caroline Shearer. In addition to serving as their official mascot, the group has sponsored “Cookie Monster 24 Hour Tattoo Sessions” in which Cookie’s face is permanently tattooed onto participants’ skin. They also seem to be selling merchandise with this logo.
    I understand that many people at CTW and PBS may be sympathetic to this group’s goals and political affiliations. Violence prevention is a concern that many of us share. But this is a contentious political topic that needs to be discussed between grownups. Millions and millions of people legitimately own firearms, and those parents do not want their children to be told that they are “cowards” because of it. We don’t want to teach kids that police in the cities or soldiers, sailors, and marines abroad are “cowards,” either. I don’t want my daughter to refuse to carry pepper spray when she gets old enough. I don’t want her thinking less of her mother for doing so either. If Martin Luther King Jr. and Maya Angelou carried weapons for personal protection (they did), that’s not something to be ashamed of or sorry for.
    Regardless of where you or your company stands on this issue politically, we have no business dragging Cookie Monster into it. Keep him on the bedsheets and paper plates and mylar balloons. He’s welcome in my house as a plush dolly or a plastic toy. Let him teach our kids to read and count and enjoy eggplant and appreciate life, especially in the form of oatmeal cookies. But please, please keep him out of the hands of “Only Cowards Carry.”
    Thank you.

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