Democratic Congresswoman Among 12 Shot in Arizona

What crusade is that?

 

The asshole had some sort of shrine to the occult in his backyard. But I'm not going to blame the devil or Sarah Palin or Marilyn Manson or Chris Matthews or Joy Behar for his behavior. I'm gonna blame the asshole. And perhaps his parents.

 

Mainly the ones who want to instigate violent rebellion against the government.

 

Scrub scrub scrub

 

No, spnited, because almost instantly, a tragic event became fodder for any number of people to grind political axes. What happened and why became secondary to using the event as a means of scoring political points. The shooting and the deaths and whatever the fallout may be don't matter. What matters is one-upping your political opponents. And it's one thing for the POOs of the world to embarrass themselves on a thread like this, but when other posters who, despite their well-known political leanings are generally respected by everyone, can't help but jump in and start playing the blame game, it's a sad commentary not only for journalists, but for the country in general. You've got elected officials (a sheriff, congressmen) jumping on the bandwagon and exploiting tragedy for political gain. Not that that's a new concept, but it seems the number of people who can rise above it, across all walks and stations of life in this country, dwindles by the minute.

 

Here's some educational reading.

http://michellemalkin.com/2011/01/10/the-progressive-climate-of-hate-an-illustrated-primer-2000-2010/

Here's one of those "tone-down-the-rhetoric" liberals pointing a gun at a cardboard cutout of Sarah Palin.

http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/83137110.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF19303D83A05122D2369E79C6F9065C2DCA0E30A760B0D811297

 

I'm assuming you're including people on both sides of the aisle, such as YankeeFan, old_tony and printdust, in addition to the lefties. And I guess I'm on that list for using the f-word.

 

Michelle sure is spunky.

 

See? It's OK to do it, because everyone does it!

Carry on.

 

Of course it's both sides. One side saw an opportunity to begin the ax-grinding and the other can't let it go. And ultimately, as is the American way, the tragedy got lost in the bullshit.

 

With all due respect, YGBFKM, I think many of us on here are concerned with the fact that few people can rise above the level we're at lately and that's precisely why we're discussing this. Why do you automatically assume someone who expresses concern about some of these things is merely trying to score political points?

For the most part, what the sheriff said was not political at all. He said he thought the country needed to tone down its rhetoric and get back to a point where we could have a discussion and a disagreement without demonizing each other. Why does that have to be considered on one side of the fence or the other? (I will admit he overstepped in one or two comments in an interview I saw and did stray into partisanship, but overall his message was about political peace, not politics.)

I've explained my reasons for seeing rhetoric and images as part of the story here. To me, all the other factors that are legit -- gun control, mental health (which includes health care) are hard to even bring up because it can instantly lead to a political debate.

I will agree that during a time of tragedy, we shouldn't use this as an excuse to play tit-for-tat, offer snark and/or sarcasm. But the fact of the matter is, this tragedy once would have united us. It is not doing that right now for the most part -- and I don't mean just on this message board.

I think we all owe it to ourselves to try to make that better. To me, that means not screaming that someone was completely at fault for the acts of a mentally ill man. But it also means considering the images and tone put out by people with great followings and recognizing leadership includes self-reflection and humility at times of crisis.

 

As opposed to your view that it's totally OK when done by the left, but a federal crime when done only one-tenth as bad by someone on the right.