Giffords Shooting: Don’t Just Do Something — Stand There
So, once again, shots ring out, people are wounded and killed, and like falling dominoes, within hours, the usual events play out in the media and on the Intertubes.
The loony left in the media (i.e., most of them) blames “right-wing” haters, the Tea Party, and particularly Sarah Palin (as though no one else has ever used a cross-hair list in a political campaign). The “right” points out that the left was angry at her for voting against Queen Nancy last week. The Brady bunch can’t wait to wallow in the still-warm blood to demand that the citizenry be disarmed. Fans of Jonah Goldberg will point out that the shooter’s choice of reading material, including both Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto, is in no way incongruent, and, as with Timothy McVeigh, many will declare him a Christian (with an implication that this explains his acts) in the face of not only no evidence, but in the face of counterevidence.
As usual, the event will be used as an excuse for everyone to saddle up their political hobby horses. In the coming days, we can count on renewed demands to do things that either wouldn’t have prevented this, or would so restrict our freedom and way of life as to have allowed this particular terrorist to win. The gun grabbers will demand that the guns be grabbed. There will be proposals for armed guards at all political events and for all politicians who ever have the temerity to go out in public. There will be calls for policing the Internet and talk radio to prevent the “hate speech” that allegedly caused it (though only “right-wing” hate speech, of course). We’ve been through all of this before.
But suppose that, instead of being hit by a bullet, Representative Giffords had been struck by a rock falling from space. It does happen occasionally, after all. And you know what? It happens about as often as an American politician is shot by a crazy person.
I am saddened but not surprised by the reation I have seen in the Media and on the net. The comments by far too many posters are vile and opportunistic.
What is so sad is that I am not surprised by any of this.
The rhetoric of ‘lock and load’ hate and fear mongering political opportunists, hiding behind the veil of wholesomeness and ‘American values,’ and ‘the Second Amendment rights,’ while simultaneously bending over and acting against their own interests as shills for the most predatory among the corporations who would despoil the environment without blinking an eye, sell a gun to a teenager via wink and nod middlemen, who have time and again been proven to use violence to ‘get their oil or sell their guns’ in third world countries, deserves a CLOSE UP investigation right here in the U.S. of A. Especially, as we are now, educationally, and in terms of human rights or housing, no better than your average upper tier third world nation. Even being a ‘centrist’ and pro-gun rights politician’ won’t save you against the disquieting drift to tea bagging fascism in this country right now.
Wow, praetorian… Can you show me the advocacy of constitutionally limited government and fiscal rssponsibility and personal liberty anywhere in this guys internet trail? Me neither.
He was a longterm dope smoker. He had been hospitalized for alcohol poisoning three years ago. The former classmates who have spoken all say he was left or radical left. he listed Karl Marx and Hitler as favorite authors. (for the record, hitler was an authoritarian socialist, not an advocate of limited government.) He called for a new currency for some reason. He thought Giffords was responsible for the low level of literacy in that district. He has ZERO similarities to any constitutional conservative, social conservative or fiscal conservative. His parents were advised that he needed mental health attention. He got none. A sicko. His problems coul not be LESS related to american conservatives.
Sorry, you don’t see the reality. You will soon. Don’t spit on us and tell us it’s rain. Palin’s crosshairs map will get the scrutiny it deserves. What ever she had in mind, what it actually is – is what a person sees. I’ve seen those bullseye symbols a lot .. in games .. on maps and they were usually targeted places, depending on the game .. subject .. places to bomb or shoot at. I don’t think it is intentional on Palin’s part for these people to be shot at.. but people who aren’t wrapped too tight to begin with can take it that way.
I mean really, Crosshairs on the maps? Palin had all but proven her guilt when she had your web page removed within hours after the tragic shooting. Face it, Palin came in with all guns blazing, shot from the hip, and now she has shot herself in the foot. Banish and vanish, you vile woman!
That said, Palin isn’t the only culprit here. Limbaugh, Beck and a host of other fascist loony tunes with their Kool Aid drinking followers have blood on their hands too.
Daddy finally agreed to co-sign for your student loans for another semester, eh?
Simply follow thew link in this article and you will find two maps used by Democrat Party groups that use the “hateful” target graphics thus making the Democrat Party at least twice as responsible as Sarah Palin for causing this shooting.
It appears that the koolaid is very blue indeed.
Praetorian, I truly hope some rational adult in your life has taken it upon themselves to ensure you’re kept away from all political gatherings in light of recent events.
You are so full of bullshit.
Kos had a bullseye on Giffords too. And the Democrats had maps targeting Republican districts and states long before Palin did. Everybody on all sides of politics, as well as neutral commentators, has used terms borrowed from the shooting sports, such as “target”, “cross-hairs”, “aiming at”, “sights”, “gunning for”, “keeping powder dry”, etc., for decades if not longer. It’s part of the language, and nobody thought anything of it until the insane and dishonest attack on Palin.
Palin did not wipe her web page; you are simply lying about that. Kos, however, did remove the diary from just days ago saying that Giffords was “DEAD to me”, and repeating the word “DEAD” over and over in the comments. By your own logic, what does that tell you about the relative guilt of Palin and Kos?
So it’s only Conservatives, eh?? Nice try.
Oh please Dave in Dallas, just shut up. You’re a hypocrite!!! If this mass murderer were Black, Hispanic or Muslim, you and your kind would be screaming bloody murder from the top of your lungs. You would be calling it an act of terrorism and demanding answering from President Obama. I am yet to hear any right wing nut call this an act of terrorism. You must think you are important, as if someone really cares what your phony, hypocritical a*s says.
This white supremacist favorite book was Mein Kampf and Hitler was a hero to him. Of course, he was fond of palin and her kind. He was a dyed in the wool fascist teabagger.
My, my, my. Such hate and vitriol. Perhaps the Secret Service should pay you a visit. You sound as if you could ‘go off’ at a moments notice. Get help. You can do it.
I used to love to take good aim at those who go off half cocked and flashing in the pan with their sophomoric political correctness that usually resulted in their shooting themselves in the foot if not shot through the heart.
I suppose by aiming well with the bulls eye of truth squarely in the cross hairs it would inevitably have to go the way of gun control and anthological global warming among straight shooters who aim for a higher goal without shooting your eye out.
Yes, those who aim for a higher trajectory are answering the call to arms and discovering the desire to hit your target is more important than an incompetent western sheriff’s hair trigger mouth full of rapid fire invective by a long shot.
So if we all aim to a higher than a kindergarten level, shot through with political rhetoric, we might begin to realize political correctness has shot it’s wad and we won’t have to bring a gun if you bring a knife like our president.
This guy is a nut-ball plain and simple, but to deny his anti-government radicalism, his ramblings about the monetary system and disposition to use a gun to correct behavior he sees as unconstitutional is pure nut-ball conservatism that the tea-puppet’s mainstream is all about. I have yet to read a pajama media comment thread that hasn’t had some yokel bragging about how he’s ready to do his 2nd Amendment duty when the time comes.
These tea-puppet nuts drive around shooting out campaign HQ’s windows, kill abortion providers, and security guards at national museums. Their intent is to terrorize mainstream and liberal opponents because their logical arguments are lacking logic.
And by the way, the Nazi party was indeed socialistic, but Hitler hated communism more than capitalism and fascism is defined as an ultra-conservative, nationalistic form of government that hates multiculturalism and sees war and the threat of war as the only way of advancing their agenda. Sounds like the GOP in a nutshell(pun intended).
Wait a minute…..
You actually think YOU are mainstream?
Gee, if you want to consider a nut ball, you only need to look in a mirror.
Fascism stems from the Italian word fascismo, which stems from fascio meaning grouped or bundled together.
Hitler was opposed to communism because he considered it the most direct competition to his National Socialist Workers Party.
In fact, the red on the Nazi flag was chosen to attract Communists.
Read a book, educate yourself before you foul up the Internet with your ignorant ramblings…
I find it fascinating that everything related to the congresswomen and her assailant has been removed except for this bit which is linked to on her website, here’s the link to his message to her linked from her website
http://www.youtube.com/user/Classitup10 And here’s the Congresswomens website which if you go to the lower left of her page the above link the one with no pic is the assailants page here http://www.youtube.com/user/Classitup10 I find it to be fascinating bit of info IMO !!! As for the reactionary’s who what to jump on the band wagon to remove our rights to bear Arms Screw You and stop using this tragedy as nothing more than a Tool to further your Agendas against those of use who are responsible Gun Owners, infact you should have a much harder time furthering your Agendas today because the ACLU has now made statements to the contrary where they now believe Americans should have the right to Carry, own Firearm’s !!!
Who sold a gun to a teenager? Legally?
He was 22 and passed an FBI instant background test.
From reports, it sounds like the guy was clearly crazy, probably schizophrenic, and shouldn’t have been allowed on those ground — but he hadn’t previously been violent, and he wasn’t on the record as mentally ill.
All I can say is Praetorian obviously doesn’t know what a true fascist believes. I shake my head and laugh.
I shake my head too and laugh at you my man. Glen Beck’s definition of fascism is perhaps what your Kool Aid drinking brain has wrapped itself around. Fascism is a RIGHT WING ideology.
“Fascists seek to organize a nation according to corporatist perspectives, values, and systems, including the political system and the economy. Fascism was originally founded by Italian national syndicalists in World War I who combined extreme Sorelian syndicalist political views along with nationalism. Though normally described as being on the far right, there is a scholarly consensus that fascism was also influenced by the left, but with a focus on solutions from the right.”
This took 2 seconds to google from Wikipedia but you can look in any 6th grade history book and find a comparable definition (or did you get that far?). Take off your bunny slippers, turn off Fox, wipe the dew off your spectacles. Big changes are a coming for you people.
Praetorian,
You reveal your ignorance when you mistakenly identify national socialism as a right wing movement. It is a branch of marxism where nationalist ideals and racism are coupled with corporations that are command driven by the dictator and the regime. The means of production are not controled by the people as in communism, but the regime sets the rules of production for corporate enterprise and corporations can survive only if they do the bidding of the state.
A right wing movement would embrace free enterprise which is not something national socialism can tolerate.
Please remember that the progressive movement in our country near the turn of the last century inspired Hitler and embraced the racist elements that Hitler eventually appropriated for the purposes of the Nazism. Teddy Roosevelt, Margaret Sanger, Woodrow Wilson and many others were all progressives who identified with eugenics and racial purity that Hitler embedded into the Nazi movement in Germany.
I know that it is difficult for you to accept these facts, but they never the less are foundational to the left wing off shoot of Marxism that is national socialism.
Good luck trying to clean it off, its a pretty bad stain. I would be ashamed too, if I was a lefty like you.
Oh, dear. More cut ‘n paste Wikipedia ‘scholarship’ from a narcissistic nitwit. Guys like you are dogs in a museum – you have no real comprehension of what you’re looking at. All you can do is bark and poop on the floor.
Perhaps if you hadn’t been out in the parking lot smoking a doob during your history class, you might – you just might have learned that fascism, communism, socialism and all the related ‘isms’ come from a common well of poisonous ideas. You just happen to like a particular subset of them – that’s your dirty little secret.
Get some help. Then get yourself a real education.
Okay, my fault. I replied too soon. Now that I’ve read all of your comments, praetorian, I get it.
This is parody, right? I mean, you are really a conservative writing as a parody of a leftist school child.
You aren’t REALLY that immune to simple facts, and you aren’t REALLY so ignorant that you think Hitler represented the right wing of the political spectrum, right? I mean, he’s not exactly the sine qua non of small government and personal liberty, now, is he?
So, this is a put-up job, just for kicks, right?
I mean, nobody outside of a mental institution is REALLY so far removed from reality, are they???
Are they?
Yeah, they are. By the thousands.
What took me by surprise for about 10 seconds is…the MSM is making a big deal of blaming Sarah Palin for this man’s actions.
Prediction: Palin will soon be box office poison, and deservedly so. The house of card built on a “lock and load” philosophy has finally imploded. Innocent people died, including a nine-year-old girl and your kind could apparently care less. Truly sickening.
Just got your monthly check from lil georgie soreass, eh? I find it amusing that you blot out all the violence inciting rhetoric mouthed by your Fraud -in-Chief- Barry Obama. If you will look at history, political assassinations (and attempted assassinations) in this country have been committed overwhelmingly by those on the left. . . from the tone of some of your posts, it sounds like YOU are threatening violence against those on the Right. You might want to be careful about that. . . we will protect ourselves.
“But suppose that, instead of being hit by a bullet, Representative Giffords had been struck by a rock falling from space.”
I’m just worried that this could be the start of a disturbing trend. Passions on BOTH SIDES of the political spectrum are so bad now, that more shootings could take place. The shooter here seems like a nut. But similar nuts on both the far left and the far right could now declare open season on politicians for their fifteen minutes of fame. And I blame Obama for this massive polarization of our society now. By acting like a dictator rather than a president during his first two years in office, he has poisoned the political atmosphere in this country. If there are any more political shootings in the near future, I place the blame on him, Reid, and especially Pelosi, who used the House of Representatives like her own little kingdom, regardless of what the American people said or wanted. The next few months will tell the tale on how badly American society has been damaged by the very people who denounced this shooting.
I was thinking the same thing. The Democratic Party and the leftist in the country have pushed and pushed the political climate towards violence for 20 years. They regularly lie and distort and use inflamatory language. Most adults can filter this “vitriol” and keep it in context, but there are those that can’t.
I was thinking, this guy was 22. His whole conscious adult life, the last 10 years, he’s gone through 9/11 as a little kid and seen the response, the political harping, the blaming Bush, the war, and blaming the government and big oil, the wrangling. All in the press and surely posited in school. Total lack of context in the media. I can see where a kid, not well grounded, could pick up on all the anti-government fervor and easily add that to normal adolescent anti-authority-ism.
I’m not making excuses. Clearly this man was at fault. Clearly he was not living in reality as we know it. But as I think about what this culture has been exposed to as the left has pushed and lied since the 70′s I’m not surprised. I fear too this isn’t the last time someone on the left snaps.
The left blames the right, but it’s the lefties who are annarchists and usually so emotional they lash out. The left are not rational and they aren’t grounded in anything except ruining the United States as she existed in the 1950′s. It’s been deconstruct ever since.
You’ve made an excellent argument for meteor helmets being mandatory throughout the 57 states. In other words you’ve ruined America and empowered the helmet lobby.
On a serious note, as much as everyone is surely saddened by this event, not all bad things can be prevented but we in America seem to act as if they can. I have to have my things gone through at something once as innocent as a baseball game and you all know the rest. The TSA is another loony example of crossing every single T and dotting every I there is and the feeling is that it will just get worse until we’re constrained to the point of madness.
We cannot operate on the principle that everything can be prevented. Life by default means collateral damage and we have to fight where we reasonably can but not everywhere.
“But suppose that, instead of being hit by a bullet, Representative Giffords had been struck by a rock falling from space. It does happen occasionally, after all. And you know what? It happens about as often as an American politician is shot by a crazy person.”
show me a link to the last time you posted this line of argument in response to a (probably) political assassination attempt, or any other murder, and you’ll still have some dignity.
Did anyone say “hey, he might have been hit by a rock from space” when JFK was shot?
Did anyone say “hey, he might have been hit by a rock from space” when Lincoln was shot?
Did anyone say “hey, he might have been hit by a rock from space” when Bobby Kennedy was shot?
Did anyone say “hey, he might have been hit by a rock from space” when Reagan was shot?
Did anyone say “hey, he might have been hit by a rock from space” when Rebecca Schaeffer was shot?
I tell you what, though – you should have pointed this out to johnnie cochran: “Hey, your honour, nicole simpson MIGHT have been hit by a rock from outer space … from above she hit, you MUST acquit”
Reality says it’s time to stop joking and be serious.
Show us some evidence that the Web was in existence when any of those figures were shot and you still won’t have any dignity.
Sure, but they DID write things down on paper.
Bobbie Kennedy was ventilated indoors…for that to have been a rock it would’ve prolly had to take out the building…
Well said, and sympathetically.
All cogent points…well done. I would, however like to see the meme, ” just snapped” go away. Implied in the meme is that the crazy was just normal and suddenly became crazed. This is pretty much never true. In these cases there is usually a long history of crazy that finally ends up being expressed in violence and murder.
This act is about lunacy – not politics.
There are deranged folks on all sides of the political spectrum. If your political ideology needs a tragedy of this sad magnitude to bolster it’s stature, examine your ideology – quietly. Let the rest of us mourn for the victims, their families and our Country. All are changed in unhappy ways.
I see that the Tuscon sheriff is shrieking “bigotry” and “hate” and pointing a finger at society at large rather than at the sick bastard who is entirely to blame for this atrocity. And I’m sure that it would never occur to this sheriff that HE is stoking division and demagoguery with his wild-eyed speculations.
I followed this story from the fist moment it popped up, and I would not be the least bit surprised if it was this very sheriff who first leaked the shooter’s identity to the press. And of course the very first thing we “learned” about him is that he was an Afghan war vet. Which, we now know, could not be further from the truth.
But anyway, the media clowns are in full parade. If it weren’t so damn sad, the rest of us could all have a good laugh out of it
With liberals, the more debauched people are, the less it is their own fault and somebody else’s. That is how a nation of normal people become racists or heartless enablers and criminals become irresponsible people devoid of a proper childhood or worse, political prisoners.
Unless the deranged person happens to lean to the right, in which case it’s talk radio’s fault.
Dr. Frank
The sheriff blames this tragic act on bigotry, hate, racism, vitriol and heated rhetoric because of AZ SB 1070 and his stance on same. The sheriff came out against SB 1070 and said he would not comply with the new law. (SB 1070 is the law that requires persons stopped by police to “show their papers” if thought to be here illegally). He was interviewed on the local morning radio talk show and was kinda grilled by the host, who asked pertinent and logical questions. The good sheriff is still upset over this and used this press conference to continue his feud. I think he was totally out of line to politicize the press conference. He should have stayed with the facts and answered the questions that he was able to. He was visibly upset because of the tragedy and most likely knows Gabby and her family. He should have had someone else from his office be the spokesperson.
Is this tragedy politically motivated? Is it a result of our polarized society? Is the shooter just a mentally disturbed or medicine-deprived individual? Until we know what his motives were it is irresponsible to place the blame anywhere but on him.
this is a good article, thank you
There is only one logical conslusion from this unspeakable tragedy.
Taxes will have to be raised.
No, the logical solution would be to require everyone to be armed. If he/she weren’t armed, it would be their own fault if he/she were killed in a gunfight. A thirty round clip seems like a great idea when the government tries to come take your civil rights away (no if’s about it).
Another lesson to be learned is that white, non-muslim terrorists exists.
Funny that.
Gabrielle Giffords is a Jew isn’t she? Ouch.
You cannot leave your home these days expecting to come home safely. Shame.
“Another lesson to be learned is that white, non-muslim terrorists exists.
Funny that.”
I don’t think anyone denied they did. But note what a sensation just one of them makes, while the reports of the daily carnage by Islam are now yawnsville (shocking to say but true). Dog bites man vs. man bites dog.
“Gabrielle Giffords is a Jew isn’t she? Ouch.”
All of the sudden the Left, spearhead and ideological fount of the New Antisemitism (=Jew-hatred with a shiny, brand new covering of “understandable grievances causing it”), remembers it loves the Jews.
You sickening opportunists, you don’t fool anyone who’s managed to get weaned off your lapdog media.
No, actually, she is not a Jew. Her father was, and she is reported to attend a reform temple, but the definition of a Jew is someone whose mother was a Jew or who converted. Neither of these criteria apply to Giffords, so she’s not.
Hmmm, interesting. However, for the sake of Leftist propaganda, she’ll be a Jew regardless. After all, they don’t need any FACTS to link the shooting to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, do they?
Let the American Right not expect a fair hearing from a media owned by those who want it gone. I’ve been watching this development with great interest because it looks like being the Mohammed Al Dura Affair of the Tea Party. Paliwood, Leftimedia, same framing, different naming.
Yes, they do, and anyone who has half a brain knows that. Those who don’t can just ask the British.
But lone nutcases are not terrorists. Terrorism is a political act, engaged in for a political purpose. Nutcases may spout political rhetoric, but their reasons for acting are not political.
My sister, daughter and I were hit by a drunk driver who was going over 50 while we were stopped at a stop-light in the early 90s. My car was crushed from behind by him and shoved under the truck in front of us. He had had his license revoked after three other drunk-driving incidents and ‘borrowed’ his friend’s truck. I don’t know if any ‘law’ could have prevented that and making alcohol illegal is obviously a joke (anyone can make their own hooch).
Yes, sometimes bad things happen to good people and if my sister, daughter and I hadn’t been wearing our seat-belts we would have just been another ugly statistic.
If I were a politician I would definitely try and tighten security and have people armed who could intervene in a case such as this but, other than that, there isn’t a whole lot you can do to prevent a nut job from being…well, a nut job.
You forgot to blame Bush.
Or Clinton.
Uh. Maybe Arizona should be doing more for the mentally ill.
http://www.classicalvalues.com/archives/2011/01/they_dont_have.html
Arizona issues concealed carry permits to its citizens. Too bad somebody in that crowd didn’t have a weapon handy.
I suppose many of you have seen this particular email I’ve posted below but it bears repeating when tragic occurrences like this happen.
Here it is:
THIS IS THE BEST WORDED PRO-GUN ARGUMENT THAT I HAVE EVER READ. Very good article, of course from a Marine!
As the Supreme Court hears arguments for and against the Chicago, IL, Gun Ban, I offer you another stellar example of a letter (written by a Marine), that places the proper perspective on what a gun means to a civilized society.
Interesting take and one you don’t hear much… Read this eloquent and profound letter and pay close attention to the last paragraph of the letter…..
“The Gun Is Civilization”
By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret)
Human beings only have two ways to deal with one another: reason and force. If you want me to do something for you, you have a choice of either convincing me via argument, or force me to do your bidding under threat of force. Every human interaction falls into one of those two categories, without exception. Reason or force, that’s it.
In a truly moral and civilized society, people exclusively interact through persuasion. Force has no place as a valid method of social interaction, and the only thing that removes force from the menu is the personal firearm, as paradoxical as it may sound to some.
When I carry a gun, you cannot deal with me by force. You have to use reason and try to persuade me, because I have a way to negate your threat or employment of force.
The gun is the only personal weapon that puts a 100-pound woman on equal footing with a 220-pound mugger, a 75-year old retiree on equal footing with a 19-year old gang banger, and a single guy on equal footing with a carload of drunk guys with baseball bats. The gun removes the disparity in physical strength, size, or numbers between a potential attacker and a defender.
There are plenty of people who consider the gun as the source of bad force equations. These are the people who think that we’d be more civilized if all guns were removed from society, because a firearm makes it easier for a [armed] mugger to do his job. That, of course, is only true if the mugger’s potential victims are mostly disarmed either by choice or by legislative fiat – it has no validity when most of a mugger’s potential marks are armed.
People who argue for the banning of arms ask for automatic rule by the young, the strong, and the many, and that’s the exact opposite of a civilized society. A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.
Then there’s the argument that the gun makes confrontations lethal that otherwise would only result in injury. This argument is fallacious in several ways. Without guns involved, confrontations are won by the physically superior party inflicting overwhelming injury on the loser.
People who think that fists, bats, sticks, or stones don’t constitute lethal force watch too much TV, where people take beatings and come out of it with a bloody lip at worst. The fact that the gun makes lethal force easier works solely in favor of the weaker defender, not the stronger attacker. If both are armed, the field is level.
The gun is the only weapon that’s as lethal in the hands of an octogenarian as it is in the hands of a weight lifter. It simply wouldn’t work as well as a force equalizer if it wasn’t both lethal and easily employable.
When I carry a gun, I don’t do so because I am looking for a fight, but because I’m looking to be left alone. The gun at my side means that I cannot be forced, only persuaded. I don’t carry it because I’m afraid, but because it enables me to be unafraid. It doesn’t limit the actions of those who would interact with me through reason, only the actions of those who would do so by force. It removes force from the equation… And that’s why carrying a gun is a civilized act.
By Maj. L. Caudill USMC (Ret.)
What nonsense. What civilized country exists where its citizens are all packing heat? Somalia and Afghanistan come to mind but they fail the civilized part. Does this Glock with a 30-round clip equal a .22? Doesn’t intent or surprise throw things off a little? How fast can an 80-year old pull and fire his weapon when a 20-something sticks him with a knife so they can steal his .357 magnum? Should we all walk around with our hands suspended 3 inches from our weapon waiting for a surprise attack? Maybe a live grenade with the pin already pulled, its trigger depressed by your grip, that would prevent people from messing with you. We could all carry it it plain view so we could all feel safe. Equalized. Civilized.
Guns don’t make people uncivilized. Decisions do.
What civilized country? This one. An armed society is a polite society. If you don’t like it, move to Canada.
Mystercy please head north, And while your at it take 10 “friends” with you.
Those countries also lack any meaningful government which is able and willing to maintain order. Obviously (to any sensible person), Major Caudill comments were couched in that setting. Of course that is a pre-requisite, so obvious that it need not be spelled out in kindergarten terms.
Well, not for reasonable people, of course.
I note with fascination the left’s almost universal inability to comprehend simple English. It’s evidenced in many ways, not the least of which is their inability to grasp obvious context, separate hyperbole and metaphor from reality, and, generally, to discourse as intelligent persons.
Wasn’t it Barry 0bama who said something about bringing a gun to a knife fight?
*crickets*
Totally agree with you, Rand. There is no solution to this, short of a mass cure for paranoid schizophrenia (not about to happen anytime soon).
And I would go further. We are fortunate such incidents don’t happen more often when we have a population of over 300 million. It’s statistically probable with that many people that there are a decent number of real whack jobs out there. We are fortunate that they don’t do more of such acts.
Furthermore, this has nothing whatever to do with America and its politics. It is about human variability. This could happen anywhere – and does.
“we also have to accept that in a free society, occasionally someone will snap, pick up a weapon, and use it.”
No, we don’t have to “accept it”. That’s a ghastly thing to say. When something like this happens, it’s telling us about ourselves as a society, and not about lightning and meteorites. No, instead of accepting it, we should take some time to examine ourselves and give some thought to how we managed to allow something like this to happen. No, it wasn’t what the insurance folks call an act of god.
Your “Geez, bad things happen, guys” attitude is snide and shallow.
I’m eager to hear how you would have prevented this tragedy. Would you simply lock all the eccentrics in institutions as a preventative measure? Would you “take all the guns away” from everyone? Would you forbid elected representatives from meeting with the public in the flesh?
It may seem snide and shallow to you for someone to suggest that not all bad things can be prevented but I suggest that it is the truth. Actually, let me amend that slightly: I think most bad things *can* be prevented; however the COST of doing so for some bad things is so high that virtually NO ONE would be willing to pay it.
For example, I think we’d all agree that motor vehicle accidents are tragic and should be stopped. We could accomplish that very simply and effectively by abolishing cars or lowering the speed limit to 5 mph. But who would agree with that solution? The price is too high for most people.
A lunatic goes on a murderous rampage and you believe our response should be to examine ourselves and give some thought to how we failed? I’ll take snide and shallow over your absurd prescription. Just curious, were you one of those folks wringing their hands and asking “Why do they hate us?” when we were attacked on 9/11? Meh….
Perhaps there’s a middle ground? Many willful acts by humans are often preventable. Meteorite strikes are not. There is no meaningful comparison between the two.
Since willful acts by humans are often preventable, it is incumbent on us to examine such horrific acts to see if THIS one could have been prevented, and from that analysis determine if there are things that can REASONABLY be done to prevent a re-occurrence.
To simply dismiss tragedy as, “Well, things happen.” is every bit as wrong as to assume that all such willful acts CAN and MUST be prevented by ANY means necessary.
So that’s a reasonable reaction and I agree. From the accounts given, this guy’s behavior was sending a signal as clear as a fog horn; unstable, dangerous, suffering from dementia, help me before I snap. Maybe it’s still too early to ask WTF is wrong with the parents who lived with this ticking bomb; but that question is coming fast. There were also reports the kid was investigated by police for murder threats. If true, I would be very interested to understand the details of how he slipped under the radar of people who are trained and paid to spot this and address the problem. This case sounds as though it was very much preventable; I’m with you there.
My response was prompted by the asinine comments from Heinrich Monroe. Suggesting the violent actions of a lunatic are somehow the result of “society” and requires that we all examine ourselves is only slightly less ignorant than blaming Palin, Beck, Ronald McDonald, Bigfoot, or any other being having nothing at all to do with the actions of a disturbed and dangerous man.
One thing more to add; Rand is absolutely correct in pointing out that bad things happen, life is risk, and the price of 100% security (an impossible goal) would cause any normal person to recoil in horror at the realization of where that road leads. Rand pretty clearly was not suggesting we should never take prudent steps to avoid danger when possible.
I also find the clowns who are eager to exploit this violence through attempts to impose ever greater restriction on personal liberties, to be far more dangerous than the threat of the occasional mad man on a rampage. The damage the insane individual will inflict is localized and mercifully infrequent. The damage that a group of self-righteous political demagogues will inflict will touch us all and is ever-present.
It is beyond sad that these poor people were killed and injured by a madman.
It is beyond decent that even some Fox news commentators have seen fit to blame Sarah Palin for this. It would be equally plausible (meaning not at all!) to blame Obama given his unfortunate remarks about “punishing our enemies” in reference immigration/borders since Rep. Giffords could be classified at least partially as an enemy.
It seems that the news that the guy is apparently insane has not stopped the assault on “America’s punching bag”.
Yes, that evil Sarah Palin had the nerve and the insensitivity to use a bull’s eye and the word “reload” in her twitter last spring. The real culprit here is the god-awful metaphor. Kill all metaphors! Apparently, people no longer understand (thanks to our crap education system) that literary devices are colorful ways to communicate ideas. Are our kids no longer taught about metaphors, similes, satire, sarcasm, allegory, allusion, hyperbole, puns, etc.? It seems as if people no longer can discern when something said or written is real or not. We are really going off into la-la land in this country when people actually think Sarah Palin (or Rush or Glenn) had anything to do with inspiring this terrible event. As one commenter already mentioned, Obama himself talked about “bringing a gun to a knife fight” (another metaphor) and “punishing our enemies.” Maybe he inspired this shooting.
This shooting is a tragic event, but it also highlights what pathetic people we’ve become. We allow ourselves to be bossed around and told what to think by the liberal media, whose hypocrisy is stunning. In November 2009, we were told by the left-wing media and Obama himself “not to jump to conclusions” about the Fort Hood shooter. Now, the left, and Obama himself, are “jumping to conclusions” about the vitriolic political rhetoric that supposedly caused this nut job Loughner to “snap.”
Our ancestors would look at us with scorn and disgust if they were here to see what is going on now.
Good article.
One point, what if someone in the crowd was armed, then what would have happened to this piece of human debris?
Without exception the people I know who are licensed to carry are all superior at firearms saftey and accuracy. My bet is this punk would be dead and many innocent citizens would be alive and unharmed.
My prayers go out to the Congress person and all of the other victims.
Exactly …..but the liberal left media will never look at this side of the truth.
Blame the gun because the gun is “evil”. Apparently the left cannot figure out that metal and plastic have no feelings and are neither god or evil they are just a tool and the person using the tool is ether the problem or the solution.
Mayhem in Tucson I: Liberals Attack, Conservatives Pray
Before the dust had settled in the Tucson, Arizona parking lot, the professional leftists were hard at work trying to pin responsibility for the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on everyone from the Tea Party to Sarah Palan to defenders of the Second Amendment to anyone who even vaguely supported conservative principles.
Giffords was severely wounded by a pistol shot through the brain. U.S. District Court Judge John Roll and five others, including a 9 year old girl, Christina Taylor Green, were senselessly murdered and 12 others were injured in the mayhem, allegedly by 22 year old Jared Loughner.
Americans’ prayers should go out to the families of the dead and for the prompt recovery of the wounded, including Rep. Giffords who initially was believed to have died in the shootings and now seems to have a fighting chance to survive.
Leftists aren’t much into prayer or anything else positive and, as in the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which they ignorantly blamed on Rush Limbaugh, all but literally fell all over themselves to get, not to their knees but to their keyboards to launch anticipated but nevertheless despicable attacks.
An Arizona blogger on DailyKos.com had perhaps presciently commented on that notoriously liberal website two days earlier that his congresswoman, Giffords, was “dead to me.” Her crime? He had worked tirelessly for his “Gabby” in the past but she died to him because he discovered she must be a conservative Democrat since she had voted against Nancy Pelosi for House Minority Leader.
DailyKos quickly took down “BoyBlue’s” death notice following the shootings: http://tiny.cc/votv2
Leftists may not be into prayer but they’re expert at blind recrimination.
Highly acclaimed economist, Paul Krugman, long deceived, like Al Gore, into believing that if he gets a Nobel Prize he’s not still a nitwit, is the left wing’s star when it comes to cockeyed societal observations. He lived up to that rep even as the Tucson scene was still being cleaned up because, of course, he had it all figured out. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3359)
Legal Insurrection has figured out what is going on with the insane rhetoric form the liberal’s media:
http://legalinsurrection.blogspot.com/2011/01/two-sicknesses-on-display-in-arizona.html
The left has been hungry for Obama’s Oklahoma City Massacre moment. This is it.
Interesting how the left will quickly blame this on conservatism, the tea party, talk radio and Palin, but when Major Hasan perpetrated the worse terrorist act on the American homeland since 9/11, we were warned by the leftwing media and their elitist, America-apologist establishment including Sotoro, himself, to not jump to conclusions and blame it on Islamic fascism or even use the word terrorist to describe Hasan. The same happened after the Christmas Day bomber and Time Square bomber attempted to do their calling (i.e., Islamic terrorism).
This guy in Tucson was driven by hatred – bottom line. But so were Hasan, the Christmas Day bomber and the Times Square bomber — the difference being specifically Islamic terrorism controlling the minds of the latter 3 individuals, and depravity and lunacy controlling the Tucson murderer.
In this case, lawfully-armed citizens probably couldn’t have prevented the shootings. From what I’ve read, it happened in a crowded room and was over in a matter of seconds. Even if an armed citizen in the crowd had been able to react in time, he probably would have hesitated if he didn’t have a clear shot at the gunman. No responsible gun owner wants to open fire in a situation where there is a high probability of hitting innocent bystanders. Even most police officers would probably hold their fire in such a situation.
Having law-abiding armed citizens will help in most cases, but it’s not a panacea.
From what I’ve heard, the incident happened not in a crowded room but a scantily occupied parking lot. That would obviously give someone a slightly better chance to bring down Laughner if that person were armed themselves.
This happened in Arizona for God’s sake. Its legal to pack a weapon so where were they? Why didn’t some gun-loving nut carry his/her weapon to the Safeway? They carried them to Obama rallies. They carried them to town-hall meetings to discuss healthcare. Real Americans pack heat!
I guess we should just blame the gun-control freaks for this mess-up.
The “why was no one at the event packing heat at the event” question is a good one.
My guess is that those there were Democrats.
That’s why I don’t carry a 10mm. Overpenetration limits one’s options.
What I find interesting about the reaction to the Arizona shootings is how EVERYone immediately leaped to the conclusion it was one of us, rather than one of them. By that I mean, the Democrats immediately started pointing the finger at the Tea Party and/or Sarah Palin as being responsible, and conservatives immediately started poo-poohing the liberals’ gun- and shark-jumping.
NO ONE HAS BLAMED THE MUSLIMS / AL-QUEDA. At all. Ever. Any place, that I can see.
As I remember it, the initial instant reaction after the Oklahoma City bombing was to start looking around suspiciously for any and all Arab-looking terrorists. No one thought initially it might be a white American responsible. Ditto after 9/11 – everyone at once started looking around at swarthy-looking people and phoning their local FBI office with Arab/terrorist sightings. It took the government-conspiracy freaks at least six months to come up with an alternative to Muslim terrorists being responsible.
But now, we have another white shooter – like Lee Harvey Oswald and Timothy McVeigh – and we are evidently so concerned about scoring internal political points against each other, that no one has even broached whether or not this fruitcake might have Al-Queda leanings.
I think it must say something how things have changed since 2001 and now, that we are evidently more afraid of each other today, than we are of them.
Actually, if my memory serves correctly, when Oklahoma happened, the instinct was to do what was done this time: blame the Right. Sarah Palin wasn’t on the scene at the time, so she wasn’t blamed, but Rush Limbaugh was, as were some of the other popular talk show hosts of the day.
For the Left, it’s all about doing everything possible to silence opposing opinion. I’ve got a new post tracking violent Leftist rhetoric back through some earlier controversies on my blog, http://www.granitesentry.com. Love to hear everybody’s view.
Has any politician anywhere ever been hit by a rock from space???
Dunno, but I remember wishing for a Tunguska-type event over DC on 1/20/09.
The shooting in Arizona is but the tip of the hate iceberg. This deranged young man joins Tim McVeigh and other conservative extremists that have wrecked havoc upon innocent citizens exercising their right of assembly. The fundamentalist constitutionalists applaud the assembly and applaud the right of those assembling to bear arms. They have some explaining to do. They wont. They will gin up their propaganda machine and spew rhetoric written by the legions of National Riffle Association staffers or Fox News hacks.
You don’t seem to be keeping up with this story too well chief. This kid is clearly bat-sh&t crazy so trying to attach blame to your political opponents is as pathetic as it is futile. But if you want to be a douche anyway and try to play politics with this in an attempt to assign blame based on politics, you’ll find the attacker more at home with you ideologically than any conservative. Live with it.
This is, of course, a complete lie. Jim, you should be ashamed of yourself, trying to score political points over the tragic action of a deranged individual. If anything, he was closer to your thinking than to ours. But we’re not trying to use this event to demand that all leftists be hunted down.
On second thought, there is something in your post that isn’t a lie. You say, “The shooting in Arizona is but the tip of the hate iceberg.” This is true, in that it exposes the limitless depths of hate coming from the left.
Jimmy,
Nice try, you definitely have a future on the editorial board of the New York Times and will be able to moonlite at Daily Kos.
This complete scum bag and ultimate coward predictably was a fan of Hitler and Marx, not Paine and Jefferson. As I am sure you are not aware, Hitler was a garden variety violent leftist as the national socialist movement is a hard core left wing movement, not a conservative, free market enlightened philosophy.
Your disconection from reality is alarming, but not at all surprising. I recomend studying a little history.
Good luck.
Hitler was definitely Right Wing.
A true neo conservative who could not stand for any diversity.
It was all blond hair blue eyed Aryans for him.
Don’t forget Hitler justified his anti-semitic massacre based on the Bible and on how the Son of God was mistreated by his own peers. Sounds Like the Family Research Council, that bastion of good conservative values.
And Hitler also rounded up the gays (together with the old, handicapped, coloured and gypsies) and performed atrocities on them before shoveling them into furnaces. Sounds very right-wing to me. But it isn’t surprising your kind tries to rewrite history on terms that are favorable to what you already want to believe (or what Glenn Beck has brainwashed you into believing)>
Evidently the “socialist” and “workers” parts of “National Socialist German Workers Party” escaped your notice.
Bull. The fascists and nazis were left-wing, and during the 20′s and early 30′s Mussolini was the darling of the American left. You clowns have been moderately successful with your lie that they were far-right, but that is increasingly seen as the lie it is, today.
Praetorian,
I have read your multiple posts regarding this topic. Seriously, you are misinformed in your perception of what constitutes right and left wing ideology. Nazism, national socialism, is a left wing movement, an offshoot of marxism. Political behavior you attribute to right wing philosophy is actually a direct product of left wing thought. You can criticise Palin all you want, but she is a free enterprise, liberty oriented politician and about as far as you can get from a national socialist or marxist. You are confused as to what attributes are associated with these diverse political philosophys.
If you want to condemn right wing thought you can criticise it for over reliance on the independence of the individual, liberty, free markets and religion that leaves individuals less able to compete and potentially without a saftey net. When you mix left wing ideology into a supposed condemnation of right wing thought you expose your ignorance and weaken the intellectual force of your argument.
As a prime example of a horse’s ass, you should be able to take a little history from the horses’ mouth. So to speak.
Class dismissed. Oh, by the way – you get an ‘F’.
You are absolutely right Jim. Prediction: Palin will soon be box office poison, and deservedly so. The house of card built on a “lock and load” philosophy has finally imploded. Innocent people died, including a nine-year-old girl and your kind could apparently care less. Truly sickening.
The marching moron crowd loves to predict the downfall of Palin. Yet her popularity rises steadily and continually no matter how many episodes of the vapors and hissy fits over her the left treats itself to.
One would think that such self-identified wicked smart, I mean really wicked wicked smart people, (so much smarter than conservatives, just ask them), would eventually realize that Palin doesn’t give a hoot about their perpetual tantrums. Or perhaps they think that if they just drum their heels on the floor a bit harder…
No, truly sickening is how you lot are trying to capitalize politically on this tragedy.
i am truly saddened by this political assassination, my first reaction to hear of a congresswoman in Arizona shot point blank was it’s cartels, or some gangbanger. now we want to assign blame to someone or something other then the monster who did it. personal accountability goes out the window because we have been told to do something ,like we are all Manchurian candidates. my condolences to all the victims and their families.
An impartial comment from the GREAT WHITE NORTH……
Damian Penny, a lawyer here in the Halifax area just had the quote of the day on this,
“When the last Che Guevara T-shirt has been thrown out, *then* the left can start lecturing us about violent political imagery.”
Perfect!
Piven has recently called for violence. It appears that one of her lefty fellow travelers took her at her word.
Piven has recently called for violence. It appears that one of her lefty fellow travelers took her at her word. Seehttp://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/01/05/marxist-frances-fox-piven-calls-for-a-violent-uprising-against-the-american-system/
Do we really have to keep referring to the mentally ill as “bat shit” “loonies”, and whatever. My father was a decorated veteran of two wars, an educated man, a loving father and a paranoid schizophrenic. Back in the sixties it sufficed to refer to him as “crazy”. Can we come up with some more names?
He died at the hand of a real criminal.
Our society has long ignored these people. So it should come as no surprise to anyone that this young person turned the way he did. Do crazy people scare you? Then look in the mirror.
Many people (especially the left) ignore mentally ill people because they are too scared to accept that they could at some point in their life have the same or similar problems…The more liberal the less true attention they pay, but give lots of “lip service” to helping or “fixing” the broken system that “deals” with people that have problems like “this”.It seems that Liberals cannot except that to be human is to be imperfect.
Let this be the end of it
Like most of you, I watched with growing horror as the events of yesterday
unfolded. If you’ve been living under a rock, a shooter visited a town hall
meeting in Tucson and shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head, as well
as several others. Giffords survived, although her long term prognosis is
unknown at this point. Six others did not survive, including a federal judge who
had stopped by to greet her, and a 9-year-old girl who had just won the
presidency of her student council and was interested in politics. The young girl
was one of the “faces of hope,” a child born on 9/11.
I cannot begin to convey the feeling of disgust, sadness, and outrage that I
feel about this. I do not want to overly politicize this tragedy, and my heart
goes out to every family member involved, and anyone who called these victims
friends. But a few things need to be said.
By all accounts, the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was not right in the head.
They have been unable to determine what his motivation was, or what his
political philosophy might be. He’s not talking to the authorities. It really
doesn’t matter. He’s got problems, and he is going to be prosecuted for what he
did.
What does matter is that the level of angry rhetoric and hatred has grown so
great in the past couple of years that I and others felt that something like
this was inevitable. I am not going to place all of the blame on Sarah Palin;
there is no evidence that he was an ardent follower of her or others of her ilk,
like Beck and Limbaugh. However, she and her special friends bear some
responsibility in this, and it absolutely needs to be said.
I remember during the campaign when Palin would speak at McCain-Palin rallies,
talking about how Obama was “pallin’ around with terrorists,” and angry crowd
members would shout “Treason!” and “Kill him!” Palin laughed it off, continued
to fuel the anger of these ignorant cretins. Even McCain (who will have to live
the rest of his life knowing that he is the one who thrust Palin onto the
national stage) had the presence of mind to tell one of the aforementioned
cretins that Obama was not an Arab or any other such silly accusations. “He’s a
decent family man and citizen,” said McCain. Palin had no such compunctions
about stopping the angry mob, and in fact, has continued to egg them on since
Obama took office. Even during the campaign, I remember thinking and saying,
“Nothing good can come from this.”
Well, now that has come true, and I am not happy at all about being the
Cassandra in this particular case. It looks as though 18 people in all were
shot, and six are dead.
Although I cannot place the blame directly on Palin, it appears as though she
seems to comprehend on at least some sort of reptilian brain level that she does
bear some culpability. Her handlers have been busy little beavers, scrubbing her
online sites to remove things like this graphic. Thanks to the wonders of the
Interwebz, such things never really die, and this picture is
every-freakin’-where. Remember the races she was targeting? How those gun sight
cross-hairs appeared on those particular races? Giffords was one of them, and
expressed her concerns about this tactic. It’s chilling to listen to the
Congresswoman say “There are consequences.” Indeed.
Also missing is Palin’s tweet in which she urged “commonsense conservatives” and
“lovers of America”: “Don’t retreat…instead, RELOAD!”
Although Loughner may not have been a direct follower of Palin, there is no
doubt that Palin’s violent rhetoric has contributed to what one Congressman
described as a “toxic atmosphere” in our country as of late. It happens on both
sides, but you’ll find that the vast majority of violent, inciting speech comes
from the far right. You won’t find Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow pitching
dehydrated food for the coming Apocalypse. There is no place in our national
discourse for such shoot-em-up imagery, and we need to get back to the place
where we all understand that disagreements do not need to be violent. It’s one
thing to feel passionate about our political views; it’s quite another to
continually use violent metaphors and talk about revolution and “2nd Amendment
solutions.” (That one belongs to bugshit crazy Sharron Angle.)
It really needs to stop here. This tragedy is a national one. Not just one of
violence and death and bloodshed; it is a tragedy of our, if I may borrow one of
Palin’s favorite phrases, American exceptionalism. We value the freedom to speak
our minds, we value that we are guaranteed the right to peaceably assemble and
even protest. We value that our legislators are accessible enough that we can
meet them and speak with them at town hall meetings like the one in which
Giffords was participating. These are things that I value, and I know most, if
not all, of my fellow Americans do also.
Ms. Palin, I put it to you that YOU are the one that doesn’t understand American
exceptionalism, and that you don’t have the slightest grasp of how your words
are endangering that. YOU are the one who is putting at risk our legislators’
availability to their constituents. YOU are the one that will make people think
twice about running for public office because they fear the actions of people
like Loughner who are spurred on by your endless violent-speak and that of your
supporters and your fellow reactionaries. You need to acknowledge that you have
played a part in this current toxic atmosphere, but I doubt if you will ever
bring yourself to admit any sort of culpability. Nothing is ever your fault, and
you just don’t have the intelligence necessary to understand that words do
matter. YOUR words do matter. ALL of our words matter.
There is nothing good about this tragedy. But maybe, just maybe, it will put an
end to Palin’s time in the spotlight on the national political stage. That’s the
kind of hopey-changey thing that will work for me.
nutwoodjunction.blogspot.com
Why Sarah Palin is at the center of this faux outrage is beyond me. Long before Palin was a house-hold name, there were posters of GWB with a target on his forehead, a stage “play” (with Will Ferrel) that promoted GWB’s assasination, and *celebrities* such as Michael Moore, Bill Mahar and Alex Baldwin who called for shootings and stonings of public figures just because they didn’t like their politics. The Left needs to take a long, hard look at their actions before they begin condemning those on the right.
Furthermore, it is now public/published knowledge that acquaintance of Jared Loughner describe him as “a radical liberal” who is anti-government, and who frequently posted rants on The Daily Kos. It should also be noted that Kos of “The Daily Kos” had posted this past week of “targeting” Giffords for her backtracking on ObamaCare and not voting for Pelousi as Minority Leader. Kos even went as far as to post the statement “she is dead to me” (refering to Giffords). The Daily Kos has now scrubbed both Kos’ blog entry, and all posts that had previously been made by Loughner. (To claim Palin’s Twitter metaphor last spring is responsible for Loughner’s actions, and not “Kos’s” statements of this past week, is beyond absurd.)
However, what most good citizens of this country do not know about is what is happening in the Tucson United School District. When Raul Grijulva (recognize the name?) was president of the Board of Education he initiated a “history” curriculum that encouraged hatred of our government, and encouraged violence against it. The course design includes rhetoric much like Grijulva now uses as a US congressman representing an adjacent district. (Let’s face it, it wasn’t Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbauch, Glenn Beck, et. al. who encouraged Mr. Loughner to read “Mein Kamph” and “The Communist Manifesto” … which were *liberal* for their time … as gospel.)
This past fall, the AZ State Superintendent of Schools ordered the classes to be halted immediately. The TUSD, with Grijulva’s daughter holding a Board position, then brought legal action against the state to retain the classes. Until this case is resolved in court, the classes and current class presentation(s), remain in place.
As a Tucson resident and public school supporter, I am appalled by this hatemongering that has posed as “education” for far too long. Undoubtedly, Mr. Loughner, a troubled youth to begin with, spent far more hours listening to this hateful diatribe than he ever did listening to Palin. It’s time to stop this nonsense of blaming anyone other than those who were directly responsible in instructing (and encouraging) him in developing destructive thoughts and behavior. It’s time those in responsible positions regarding our children learn that “WORDS DO MATTER.” Jared Loughner is clearly a product of a young, impressionable mind being influenced by those with evil intent … and I’m talking about the TUSD, not talk radio personalities.
Perhaps posters like Praetorian and Lucy could lead civil political discourse by example and tone-down their hateful rhetoric and name-calling (“reptilian brain” … now was *that* really necessary?), and perhaps learn a little history along the way; most notably that political asassination attempts in the last half of the 20th century were committed by those who would today be defined as either “democrat” or “liberal” ~ Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan, and Squeaky Fromme. (Before Timothy McVeigh’s name is thrown around again, let’s remember he repeatedly stated his actions were in retribution for the Federal government’s massacre at Ruby Ridge and Waco, and not because of opposition to any particular ideology.)
Although I frequently lurk on this site, this is my first post. Hopefully all of you who have taken the time to read this post have learned something about what our children in Tucson are exposed to on a daily basis. Please pass it on.
Wrap your “reptilian brain” around this you mother effing sorry excuse for a jack-wagon crippled brain on zombie life-support:
10:10Name
From now on, every bomb that has been ‘splodin’ in the US mail should be blamed on this video alone.
Done.
Did.
Natch.
Fabulous post jane; well done. You have absolutely nailed every key point required to illustrate the meltdown now taking place in the minds of the morally and/or intellectually challenged.
You have to understand that there are countless knuckle-dragging right-wing nut jobs reading your post now and scratching their heads, totally incapable of absorbing words of wisdom bombarding them from a level of discourse this sophisticated. I can help translate your brilliance in a fashion where even the most benighted Limbaugh boot-licker is able to grasp. No need to thank me. I’m a giver.
1. By all accounts, the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was not right in the head. They have been unable to determine what his motivation was, or what his political philosophy might be.
Paraphrase – the shooter is most likely insane, not in touch with reality, we don’t know why he did this or what beliefs he holds. Most fair-minded people are together on these points given what’s known right now. So far so good. I am jane the ignorant slut, dawg, and I’m gonna rock this post.
2. I do not want to overly politicize this tragedy…
Paraphrase – But I do sure as hell intend to politicize this tragedy the “proper” amount. I don’t want people to think I’m overly prostituting the slaughter of human life. If I were to do this in an overly fashion, well, then some might think I don’t actually care all that much about the dead and maimed but that I’ve just been aching to scratch this particular political itch for awhile now (it got really really really bad just after Halloween) and now’s a great chance to let ‘er rip! …. So realize and recognize you right-wing jizz-heads, I am intentionally not overly politicizing up in here.
2. What does matter is that the level of angry rhetoric and hatred has grown so great in the past couple of years that I and others felt that something like this was inevitable. I am not going to place all of the blame on Sarah Palin; there is no evidence that he was an ardent follower of her or others of her ilk, like Beck and Limbaugh. However, she and her special friends bear some responsibility in this, and it absolutely needs to be said.
Paraphrase – Having previously demonstrated some ability to entertain and even express rational thought (if only for a couple sentences), I find myself suffering a low-grade headache. Time to sit back, relax my mind, and just let the crazy flow. I feel I owe it to myself to take a wicked deep bong-rip of chronic from the stash Mom & Dad try to hide in the Peter Paul & Mary “Have You Been to Jail for Justice” commemorative tube-sock they always stuff behind the Che bust… Che is so hot… also, it must be said, Sarah Palin, Beck and Limbaugh are just despicable people and I always knew that someday they would be to blame for an act of senseless murder (I just totally knew it!!) and now my ship has finally come in! Can I get a what what??
3. Although I cannot place the blame directly on Palin, it appears as though she seems to comprehend on at least some sort of reptilian brain level that she does bear some culpability.
Paraphrase – Even though I established earlier my clear understanding of the attacker’s diminished mental capacity and that his motives are completely unknown, I will choose to point a finger at Sarah Palin anyway. Thank jeebus all intelligent and sophisticated people are in total agreement with me so I won’t feel the need to actually think through and explain the glaring contradictions I intend to sling like so much Pez. I want to place the blame directly on Sarah right now but I won’t yet… nooooot yet. However (darn my mouth is dry) I have a firm grasp of how a reptilian brain operates at some level and I can easily imagine that (deep down where she is able to think awesomely like me) she knows what she did wrong.
4. Ms. Palin, I put it to you that YOU are the one that doesn’t understand American exceptionalism, and that you don’t have the slightest grasp of how your words are endangering that. YOU are the one who is putting at risk our legislators’ availability to their constituents. YOU are the one that will make people think twice about running for public office because they fear the actions of people like Loughner who are spurred on by your endless violent-speak and that of your supporters and your fellow reactionaries. You need to acknowledge that you have played a part in this current toxic atmosphere, but I doubt if you will ever bring yourself to admit any sort of culpability. Nothing is ever your fault, and you just don’t have the intelligence necessary to understand that words do matter. YOUR words do matter. ALL of our words matter.
Paraphrase – I’ve now managed to work myself into a medium-froth, bedazzling myself so completely with the searing, white-hot glow of my unassailable self-righteousness that I am set free to delve incoherently into topics that are not only completely unrelated to the subject I began this scold with but also happen to be things I know absolutely nothing about. Seriously scro, I know infinitley more about the taint on my cat’s dirt-hole than I do about “exceptionalism” of any kind whether it be American or even Amsterdamian. And I love the way corn nuts with my ice-cream sandwich taste; crunchy, salty and cold, mmmmmmmm . Oh hells yeah, suck it Sarah!!!
5. There is nothing good about this tragedy. But maybe, just maybe, it will put an end to Palin’s time in the spotlight on the national political stage. That’s the kind of hopey-changey thing that will work for me.
Paraphrase – Nope, I can’t find a single thing good about this tragedy whatsoever… or can I? Using this tragedy as a political club to try and pound into dust those people who don’t got the smarts to see things the same way I do, well hell, that’s a great thing! As a bonus, I will be helping to heal the “toxic atmosphere” these conservative jerks created by accusing them of being accomplices to murder (again, way to go jeebus! no actual link or evidence needed for me to carelessly throw those little bombs out into the world; have I told Sarah to suck it yet!!!… suck it Sarah!!), mocking their lack of intelligence (even though deep down where I got my reptilian brain groove going on, I seem to realize that each of the people I named in my harangue will accomplish more of substance in just the next week than I have my entire life to this point), and doing all this in the embarrassingly fatuous, condescending fashion that only a stoned moonbat calling herself jane the ignorant slut can. Holla daddy Soros!!!!!!
You seem to suffer from cranial rectal inversion….
Oh it is genetic ….right next to the “liberal gene”
Sorry Jane, we’re not drinking the kool aid. We won’t be silenced and we won’t let your attempt at guilt by association stick. Blood libel and slanderous lies are all the left has.
I think that Secret Service or other armed guards should be at all congressional town halls from now on and to prevent the threat of snipers all town halls should be inside. Attendees wouldn’t have be checked for weapons, because with armed guards nearby the members of congress, any potential assassin shouldn’t have a chance.
Federal (agent) protection is available to all federal representatives and office holders. Ms. Giffords was known to routinely decline hers.
The big question that I have yet to see asked is why no one at the meeting returned fire. There must have been at least a dozen people there; he could not have had his eye on all of them simultaneously. While he was shooting at one person, why didn’t someone else draw a gun and shoot him?
Do you mean to tell me that no one at that meeting was carrying a gun? This sounds like a massive case of irresponsible lack of preparation.
Yeah, I know — we shouldn’t _have_ to worry about the criminally insane as we go about our daily lives, but they’re out there nonetheless. We can either take our chances and accept our fate when it happens, or we can take the simple precaution of preparing for that contingency. Heck, if you can wear a seat belt without expecting to be in an auto accident, you can carry a gun without expecting to be in a gunfight.
There may not have been any one there with a gun….This was a democratic rally.
Wes, I’ve trained with lots of Federal Agents from many Agencies and I can tell you that most are less than proficient with the firearms that they carry. Sorry but bigger Gov’t won’t be the solution to this problem -the Perp, his friends, family and local law enforcements interactions with the Perp -BEFORE THE INCIDENT – were the only real possiblilities to prevent this tragedy.
You need to do some reading to sort out the orientation of the Nazis.
Try this
by Joseph Goebbels
Laugher was exercising his constitutional right to keep and bear arms. In Arizona he had the right-to-carry.
Gun control? There’s nothing in the constitution anticipating raving loonies with lethal weapons they have legally and constitutionally acquired. America really is exceptional.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://radioactiveliberty.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/Bush-Target.jpg&imgrefurl=http://radioactiveliberty.com/liberal-quiz-are-you-worthy-of-obama/&usg=__Wgw28KuAczc99u7RSk66FWvrmys=&h=338&w=307&sz=74&hl=en&start=32&zoom=1&tbnid=0BFHQ4-QM6YqZM:&tbnh=155&tbnw=139&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgeorge%2Bbush%2Bas%2Btarget%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1178%26bih%3D638%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=560&vpy=165&dur=7173&hovh=236&hovw=214&tx=125&ty=157&ei=sYUrTdSDKIH6lwf2h5SHAg&oei=qoUrTYOIIcX_lgfE_9W7Cw&esq=3&page=3&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:9,s:32
What must be understood in the liberal reaction to this event, as evidenced by Praetorian for example, is that it is impossible for a liberal to think and act the way this man has. The moment anyone resorts to violence, the moment anyone steps outside of the kum-ba-ya group-think they are no longer a liberal; they are conservative right-wing radicals. It’s a simple concept and formula and makes the world easy to understand without actually thinking. Liberalism IS indeed a mental disorder!
I apologize for any rhetoric I lashed out with that added to the fire that rages on these pages. I was angry. America lost citizens in their practice of being American by a madman, delusional for whatever reasons. I’m proud to live in a country where this kind of horror isn’t the norm.
We should all work in whatever ways we deem most appropriate to prevent and protect this country from sinking into a world where violence and fear rule. God bless America, god bless all.
“Giffords Shooting: Don’t Just Do Something — Stand There
The only lessons to be learned from the tragedy in Tucson are the age-old ones that life isn’t fair and sometimes bad things happen to good people.”
I think there are other lessons to be learned.
When you call it the “Giffords shooting”, you’re kind of saying that the important thing here isn’t that a little nine year old girl was murdered, you’re saying that the important thing is is that a politician was injured.
And, that attitude (the attitude that politicians are a lot more important than little girls) is also reflected by the acts of politicians who are, in the wake of the shooting, proposing that laws be passed that limit both free speech and the right to keep and bear arms, in order to specifically protect politicians…and not protect little girls.
“Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), one of the few pro-gun control Republicans in the House, wants to make it illegal for someone to knowingly carry a gun within 1,000 feet of certain high-ranking federal officials, including members of Congress.”–Politico
“PHILADELPHIA – Democratic Rep. Bob Brady’s office has announced he will be introducing legislation making it a federal crime to threaten or incite violence against a member of Congress”–Fox News
Get the idea? Nobody’s proposing a law aimed at protecting little girls, only laws that protect politicians and bureaucrats are being proposed.
Anyone who believes that the government exists to serve the people is, frankly, out of their minds.
They think we exist to serve them, and that they’re a lot more important than we are…and they make it perfectly clear that that’s what they think. If a little girl is murderered, they plain just don’t care that much, but if a politician gets wounded, boy, that is a big, big deal, and if there is a conflict between the rights of ordinary citizens and the precious skins of politicians…then the rights of ordinary citizens go right out the window.
That attitude is one of the reasons people like myself are right wing. The less government we have, and the less politicians we have, the better off we are.
And, if we’re going to pass any laws, they ought to be aimed at protecting little girls, because the life of one little girl is worth more than the life of a million ratbag politicians.