The reason I've gone with the above title is twofold. First, it's based on the meme that some fools on the left continue to perpetuate: The level of rancor in political discourse (specifically from the right) is unprecedented and is the reason that people are getting shot. And second, I know it will elicit some comment from some idiot who will read the title and respond to that, not even reading the disclaimer or paragraph; it makes me giggle a bit thinking abut the stupidity.
Obviously we're going to talk about the first reason (as the second is self explanatory and every other subject is tabled in Washington).
First, let's put the things on the table we agree on, or have clear facts:
The murderer is a kookburger, with no clearly defined ideology. While he lists left-leaning books as his favorites, he's mostly a set of disjointed paranoia and delusion, which has been festering a while.
We are all hoping and praying for a recovery for Rep Giffords and the other still-living victims of the shooting. And for Giffords, the news is good so far.
The bipartisan support for a funeral protection zone to keep the Phelps freaks out is a good thing. Because turning a tragedy into an idiotic reason to ram home a political agenda is a bad thing.
Wait, we don't all agree on that last point. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been hearing, before the bodies of the victims were cold, that it must have been Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, talk radio, the Tea Party Movement, and so on (which I guess would include me), that led to this shooting. And the fact that this is still being debated days later is appalling.
To build on what i said on my Saturday post, in the wake of the shooting (and began reading the shit coming from some parts of the Left):
WE SHOULD BE BETTER THAN THIS!
9 comments:
Imagine if a Democratic pundit, say, Rachel Maddow, had put up on her website an image of Palin's hometown with a crosshairs gunsight over it, and then some deranged shooter from Palin's hometown put a bullet through her head.
Let's be honest about what you and others would think about Maddow's responsibility.
Oh, and what I find extremely hypocritical in what Palin said in her unfortunate and tone-deaf video is this:
"President Reagan said we must reject the idea that every time a law is broken society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions. Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them. Not collectively, with all the citizens of the state."
This from the woman who tried to pin guilt by association on then candidate Obama for knowing William Ayers forty years after his crimes.
She can't have it both ways--and neither can her follwers who blame all Muslims for the monsterous criminality of those who attacked us on 9/11.
Palin, in her speech, proclaims only those who commit the crime are responsible for it and no one else has culpability--even by association.
That was a cynical speech, IMHO, because she doesn't believe in her own words.
She reminded Americans' all through the 2008 campaign that Mr. Obama "palled around with terrorists." And then when Muslims wanted to exercise their 1st amendment rights to build their community center, she condemned their action because OTHER MUSLIMS committed a monsterous act.
When will people understand that this woman has no core values except promoting herself?
Wow. Missing from this rant, at least, was bashing her for allowing her adult daughter to make her own decisions about going on TV shows. Or your bashing her for being a woman, for her accent (ever listen to a Kennedy? Come on!), for her looks, or her boots. Or the commenter(s) on your blog who bash her for being a mother.
A slight improvement.
"She reminded Americans' all through the 2008 campaign that Mr. Obama "palled around with terrorists."
Which is factual, even if she made too big of a deal of it.
"When will people understand that this woman has no core values except promoting herself?"
Well that makes her a politician, just like the President.
dmarks,
What about Palin's palling around with secessonists--her husband's association with the Alaskan Independence Party until 2002.
Those who promote secession from the US are traitors.
How did Palin get away with labeling Obama as palling around with terrorists when her own husband belonged to an organization that promoted secession? And when she was governor, she gave a video welcoming introduction to one of their conventions.
Palin aligned herself with traitors.
"In 1973 Joe Vogler began arguing about the validity of the Alaskan statehood vote. Early in that year, he began circulating a petition seeking support for secession of Alaska from the United States. Alaska magazine published a piece at that time in which Vogler claimed to have gathered 15,000 signatures in 3 weeks.
Vogler has been quoted as stating "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions."
Interesting, eh? Especially when we remember how Mr Obama was excoriated for the words of his pastor, Rev. Wright, who NEVER talked about treasonous separation from America as did the Alaskan secessionists that Palin endorsed and Todd Palin associated with.
Palin and her husband got a pass on traitorous secessionist ideas, but Mr. Obama was unAmerican?
The hypocrisy is disgusting.
Funny. I never read your condemnation of Palin's anti-American secessionist support of the Alaskan Independence Party.
Shaw:Imagine if a Democratic pundit, say, Rachel Maddow, had put up on her website an image of Palin's hometown with a crosshairs gunsight over it, and then some deranged shooter from Palin's hometown put a bullet through her head.
How about this map from Democratic Leadership Committee back in 2004, or this map from the website of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about a year ago. Stragely, those look like bullseyes (also something you shoot). And on the first one, they are using target language.
Now I illustrate those two maps, not because I think they were trying to promote violence. Far from it. And Democrat Joe Manchin's target shooting at Obamacare from his 2010 ad? Also fine by me.
The point is that your continuation of this bullshit meme is, in fact, bullshit for three reasons.
First, you have an unreasoned hatred of Sarah Palin. I don't think you could find a way to say a damned nice thing about her if you tried (based on the fact you start chewing no matter what she says. (And I did mention Rush Limbaugh, so I'm surprised you didn't launch a shot across his bow too).
Second, the point of this meme is to silence conservatives by painting them as accessories to murder. This shit was being done before the bodies were cold, as I pointed out. And with no evidence it was due to Sarah Palin's map. Or anything Rush or Beck said. Or any statement on any site. And you don't hear this shit start if some kook pops a Republican or some raghead terrorist shoots some people. We get to hear calls for restraint and to not jump to judgment. Not this time.
And third (and here, even if everything above you can refute), the evidence all points to the fact that this kid is an unhinged kook that didn't really pay attention to political discourse and was obsessed with the "evils" of Gabrielle Giffords BEFORE Sara Palin put out that map!
So at this point, there's no logical reason to continue harping on this shit, and all you're doing is using 14 people with bullet holes and 6 dead people to make fucking political points.
Read the last sentence of the post and memorize it.
I like your deft title. You know this thing about free speech and calls to curb it even more reminds me of so many things. Used to be fashionable in theological circles to speculate on who the Antichrist will be, let's say somebody goes with Henry Kissinger and somebody else goes with Glenn Beck would that be allowed today? I really don't care if free speech is bizarre at times or just downright offensive it's still free speech and that's really all that matters.
You've become unhinged, Patrick. What a shame.
Those examples you gave are NOT the same as putting crosshair gunsights over a politician's name--especially when that politician, Rep. Gifford, made public her concerns about those images and specifically the gunsight on her.
You know exactly what this controversy is about.
Nowhere on my blog do I blame Palin for anything. No one blamed Palin for the tragedy.
But Palin chose to ignore Rep. Gifford's concerns about the gun graphic and now people are associating the tragedy with those images.
There's an old saying that is apt for this tragedy: "When you play with fire, chances are you'll get burned."
Palin played with gun images, the person she targeted with those gun images was shot in the head. A horrible tragedy, but when one plays with fire, one gets burned.
Maybe people will learn from this horror that words and images DO have consequences.
There's no assignment of blame in that, just goddamn common sense.
I'd say line up Toadbat and Socialist Shaw but no one would really care if they were off'd.
[AND HERE'S THE DISCLAIMER: MIKE'S AMERICA DOES NOT ADVOCATE VIOLENCE IN ANY FORM BUT ESPECIALLY POLITICAL VIOLENCE.
TOO BAD THE LEFTIES CAN"T SAY THE SAME THING. (SEE CLOWARD PIVEN FOR MORE)
MIKES AMERICA: "I'd say line up Toadbat and Socialist Shaw but no one would really care if they were off'd."
Mike, like all cowards, runs away from his vitriolic statement that Toadbat and I should be "off'd," (which, everyone knows, is a euphemism for killed) by cravenly stating a feeble disclaimer.
Mike has always resorted to calling me names, and as you can see, he's still at it. He's a one-trick pony, or, more accurately, jackass.
That's because people, like Mike, who are intellectually vacuous, have no other abilities in what passes as their mental acuity except threats and invective.
But, finally, we should thank Mike for showing rational people why, in the end, he and his ilk will always be considered fatuous and objects of derision and pity.
Shaw:
Mike is one of the guys who Walmart wouldn't sell ammunition to...Enough said.
When they let him out of the home, he has to be monitored.
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