Section B, top story: "How New, Deadly Pocketknives Became a $1 Billion Business."
Not flattering, and disappointing from the Journal.
First draft of my letter to the Editor:
"Ok, now I am worried.
When the Wall Street Journal, one of the last enclaves of common sense, begins to fan the flames of safety paranoia, it is time to worry. Regarding your article on new and "deadly" pocket knives, I am saddened that it was never once mentioned that much of what earns a pocket knife the foolish “tactical” label are the things that make it user-friendly. Pocket clips replacing belt sheaths, one-hand-opening replacing microscopic nail-nicks, and high-tech composites replacing fragile, heavy, and possibly in-humane natural materials (bone and antler, for example) are all evolutions the have helped make humankind’s oldest tool into a better tool. Ask my co-workers who are rendered helpless in the presence of a simple sealed box if a knife is ever helpful.
The fact is, rarely is a folding knife used for premeditated offense, at least no more than a hammer or bare hands. Frankly, if you were raised wrong and want to live a life of crime, you use something a little bigger, a little more menacing, and something that is a little less intimate.
There’s a wagon going around of people who wish to eliminate every possible way for us to hurt ourselves or each other, even if that means making life harder than it once was. If they get their way, the citizenry will be eating smashed tomatoes on their salads and everything will be held together with glue. It certainly saddens me to see the Journal hop that bus.
This pervasive fear of everything and each other is suffocating our dignity."
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Originally Posted by markg
