Sometimes, Even Byrd Is Right

I came across the following Drudge headline this morning:

U.S. Senator calls American urban centers "jungles" that are more dangerous than 'the jungles of deepest Africa!'…

If you take the time to follow the link (which is worthwhile for other reasons than the one Drudge cites), you'll see that the Senator in question is Robert Byrd.

Urban centers are “jungles?” Robert Byrd, America's longest serving senatorial Klansman* is involved? I'm sure Democrats cringed, and some Republicans clacked with glee—but there isn't anything to the story.

The article reads:

Mr. Byrd embraced the same judicial philosophy as the president in his memoir, "Child of the Appalachian Coalfields," released earlier this summer. In the book, he repeatedly blamed "liberal judges" and "activist judges" for many of the nation's problems.

"One's life is probably in no greater danger in the jungles of deepest Africa than in the jungles of America's large cities," he writes. "In my judgment, much of the problem has been brought about by the mollycoddling of criminals by some of the liberal judges who have been placed on the nation's courts in recent years."

He's wrong... where?

"The jungles of deepest Africa" are not a nice place for an outsider. Ebola and Marburg are just some of the small things that can kill you there, but you don't have to worry about being eaten by lions or trampled by elephants, which are part of the circle of life in the plains, not in jungles. Your biggest danger in African jungles, other than your own ignorance, occurs on the microscopic level.

In the jungles of Africa, as in our urban cities, the greatest predatory threat to man, is man.

Sometimes, even a blind hog can find the acorn, and sometimes, even the Robert Byrd's of this world can be right.

* That is a fact, I think. Sorta.