Regarding today's events in Arizona

[asimovberlioz]

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has routinely used insane rhetoric with language evoking shooting and reloading and killing. Whether or not she intended this to be merely symbolic, it has had horrific consequences. She must not be allowed to dodge responsibility for the consequences of her words.

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer]

The main thing is to make sure that the world knows she inspired this little genius.

By the way, welcome back.

[fritters]

I have heard nothing about this guy following Palin in any way whatsoever. Please substantiate your accusation with a link or two.

[asimovberlioz]

See here for starters. I'd have given a link to the original but it has mysteriously disappeared ... or was it ever really there? We have always been at war with Eurasia.

[fritters]

Considering even the New York Times admits that he's a democrat and just had a problem with her for years, how does him hating her for years translate into him doing Palin's bidding as of last year? Since when do democrats pay attention to what Palin wants them to do?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/politics/09shooter.html&OQ=_rQ3D1

[thudpucker]

Let's see... he's an atheist, his favorite book list includes The Communist Manifesto and his favorite video at You Tube is of someone burning an American flag. He also apparently believes the US Government is trying to control us through the use of, um, grammar, somehow.

This says Sarah Palin... how, exactly?

No, nothing remotely connects this nutjob fuckstick with her, or Glen Beck, or Rush Limbaugh, but I've seen all three blamed not because there's any connection but because there are folk who hate them so much that they desperately want that connection to exist - and who instantly and automatically assume that it does, evidence be damned.

As Jennifer Rubins puts it: "You can almost hear the disappointment from the left that he was a pothead rather than a Tea Partyer."You know what disturbs me? People who see in a senseless tragedy like this only an opportunity to attack those they disagree with, and to shut down political discourse

[barondave]

While we don't know specifically this guy's political motivations except that it was a planned assassination of Giffords, there seems no question that the harsh political climate is a contributing factor. I'm pleased that people like new Speaker of the House Boehner and fellow Arizonian John McCain has spoken out so forcefully and that Sarah Palin has taken down her graphic targeting Giffords (among others).

Still, the right keeps talking about "personal responsibility" for other people, and are moral relativists when it comes to their own hate speech. You can't have an adult conversation with children. When Fox "News" fires Beck/Hannity/O'Reilly/etc and when the teabaggers stop bringing guns to political rallies, they might have some credibility.

[thudpucker]

You must mean this harsh political climate.

Both sides play this dirty, but there's a double standard on how people talk about it and report it. It gets tiresome, after a while, and less and less believable.

[barondave]

Ah, the right can dish it out, but it can't take it. Indeed.

And the graphic is simply wrong; conservatives have lost their moral compass... if they ever had one.

[thudpucker]

Huh. Interesting.

Okay, let's see if I have this straight.

Still, the right keeps talking about "personal responsibility" for other people, and are moral relativists when it comes to their own hate speech.

You can't have an adult conversation with children.

Ah, the right can dish it out, but it can't take it.

... conservatives have lost their moral compass... if they ever had one.Okay, so that's opinion, pointlessly judgmental opinion, opinion, and snarky opinion