“civil”ity
Nutcases. That’s all.
The tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona over the weekend, which left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a coma and six others dead, has been universally condemned both by Democrats and Republicans, as you would expect in any civilized society where violence and assassination with semi-automatic weaponry are considered inappropriate responses to political differences. But while even Sarah Palin — a forceful opponent of Giffords who once published an infographic targeting Giffords through gun sights — was publicly calling for “peace and justice,” at least one member of the retail comics community had a different message: “1 down, 534 to go.”
You can go to the link from the story. There you will find two updates to offer some clarification.
UPDATE: You might be interested to read a long explanation of my thoughts on human rights, legitimate government, and when revolution is justified.
Not really. *
UPDATE: You should also read this quick flowchart to see exactly how you and I disagree politically. Despite the fact that you were drawn to this blog because of a tasteless subject line, I’ll bet that you agree with me on several big points, and perhaps all seven out of seven.
Surely he too was angry at the passage of HR 563. Surely that absolves the entire matter.
Unfortunately I wouldn’t be all that surprised if this boosted his sales. An annoying aspect of the news coverage of this story is seen by going over to the LA Times. There, focused on a topic of “civility” and speech, is a photograph showing a focus on some such talk radio host you and I have never heard of, undoubtedly eating up his media attention, readying for the radio to comment profusely on his media attention.
During the interview, authorities say he acknowledged having made the calls, and said that while he had consumed alcohol before doing so, he still felt he was functional enough that at the time he could have driven his car. And with that, I google up the McDermott story and see a talk radio guy’s website — who may or may not be the same guy but at least bears a resemblance — and his take on this story:
According to CBS News’ Political Hotsheet Habermann said he was trying to “scare” politicians “before they spent money that didn’t belong to them,” but added he had never intended to actually hurt them – particularly because he didn’t want to do anything that could jeopardize his access to a $3 million trust fund.
There was a slightly more realistic threat against Senator Cantwell. Â
But the talk radio host reacted to this story thusly:
Liberal media pundits, reporters, editors and the politicians that they love all owe conservatives an apology for their gross slander of their fellow Americans in their attempt to link conservative politics with the actions of a madman. […]
All of this is why many of these same people will be ecstatic that a man has been arrested for making drunken threats against Congressman Jim McDermott.
This is that immediate defensive stance of deflection — see also the Michelle Malkin video released piecing together any and all vitrolic material from “the Left” she could find. See too Sarah Palin and her “blood libel” comment – sure sign that Sarah Palin will never be president. To be honest, I have no concern about her “target” map (though am annoyed by her “surveyor symbols” retraction), but any number of other items.
Anecdotally, we can thrust up some items as the “You Lie” assault weapon, which I guess is the most disturbing item in the collection of news tidbits. To get a handle on something more concrete for this at times nebulous problem, you turn to these statistics: This impression is bolstered statistically by reports that the Secret Service has had to deal with a 400 percent increase in threats against the president, that U.S. Marshals are facing double the number of threats against judges and prosecutors, and that Capitol Police found that threats against congressmembers tripled in the first quarter of 2010
Policy wise, there is not much direction to go with “civility”. This is that “you are the change you have been waiting for”, which trips up due to searches for equivalencies to balance “right” and “left” in a political culture that takes on tribal characteristics. Policy-wise, you’re backed into mental health and gun access… which will go wherever they go.
* Update: Okay. I looked at it. Question one is whether you would or would not kill Hitler. No, seriously. Off of this we can launch a flow-chart toward “1 down, 534 to go.” ‘Cause… you see ?