It's time to "retreat and re-think"
Posted on Sunday, January 09, 2011 at 08:48 AM
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There's no connection between a culture of 24/7 paranoiac anti-government rhetoric and the decision of deranged individuals to attack its figureheads.
There's no connection between putting crosshairs on Congressional leaders heads and the decision of deranged individuals to shoot them.
There's no connection between words and deeds.
But in Arizona itself, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik disagrees:
"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous," the sheriff told the press.
"And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry."
Yesterday the sheriff lamented the vitriolic political rhetoric that has consumed America as he denounced the shooting that claimed several of his friends as victims, including U.S. District Judge John Roll.
It's probably worth remembering that Arizona governor Jan Brewer supported and signed legislation eliminating the legal need to have a permit for concealed weapons. Arizona is an "open carry" state, so it's becoming commonplace to see people at public gatherings with AR-15s or pistols strapped to them.
Jared Loughner, the deranged shooter could have easily walked right into this gathering with a weapon in plain sight and would have hardly been noticed.
But there's no connection between his ability to do so, or the overheated climate of anti-government intolerance, and his decision to act.
There’s no connection between tone and message received. There’s no connection between hate speech and the acts of violence that follow them. There's no connection between words and deeds.
64 comments
McNabb1966 | Jan 11, 2011, 05:59 PM EST
@hollabackgurl...Nice litany of nonsense. Regurgitating the tired fake talking points of the Left does not add any value to the discussion. Your remarks are as devoid of originality as they are substance.
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hollabackgurl | Jan 11, 2011, 04:57 PM EST
I think you should have attended a typical Tea Party rally, or will you need me to post a link to the documented sights and sounds of one?
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hancock | Jan 11, 2011, 03:01 PM EST
I think you should take your own advice.
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hancock | Jan 11, 2011, 03:00 PM EST
Gun toting clan rallies?
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hollabackgurl | Jan 11, 2011, 02:47 PM EST
What I just did was state the facts without calling anyone a communist, a homo, a racist, a socialist, a libtard, a libturd, a democrap, or a fake president.
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hancock | Jan 11, 2011, 02:05 PM EST
What do you call what you just did?
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hollabackgurl | Jan 11, 2011, 12:45 PM EST
The hysterical rhetoric of the right, from Genn Beck's paranoia to Limbaugh's 24/7 freakouts, to the Tea Party's gun toting clan rallies have poisoned America's political discourse with threats, birther smears and actual calls for assassination.
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hancock | Jan 11, 2011, 12:18 PM EST
Its OK to smear the Tea Party without evidence?
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Monsoonman | Jan 11, 2011, 12:12 PM EST
The only thing you keep harping and keying on erlimach is that the splc sued the ku klux klan into financial oblivion. Yet you keep ignoring the herd of elephants in the living room regarding the cayman island offshored banking, bernie madoff, the witch hunt against the Tea Party AND the non prosecution against selected US terrorist organizations, that are in line with the doctrine the left espouses. Sorry but until you see through your ideology you are blind. Wake up and smell the elephant turds.
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eiriamach | Jan 11, 2011, 10:07 AM EST
Monsoonman, throwing around charges like "subversive and dangerous organization" and NOT providing any evidence to support such charges is one definition of "smear campaign." My question to you is why you would want to smear an organization that has done as much over as many decades to bring justice to as many innocent people as the Southern Poverty Law Center has?
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Ajreaper | Jan 10, 2011, 10:44 PM EST
There are NO liberals who own semi automatic guns because hollabackgurl does not know any- OK I buy that. What more evidence need there be?
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hancock | Jan 10, 2011, 08:59 PM EST
Giffords herself owned guns. Next.
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hollabackgurl | Jan 10, 2011, 08:48 PM EST
I don't know a single liberal who owns a semi-automatic gun. So I don't think that you could argue that Jared Loughner was anything other than a typical right wing paranoiac nut (just look at Glenn Beck, there's no shortage of them).
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Monsoonman | Jan 10, 2011, 08:09 PM EST
hmmm, a quandry, who to believe: You do know a registered non profit group who takes money from the public and does not pay taxes, is required to let the public know it spends its money, it's the law. The non partisan Better Business Bureaus report on how the Southern Povertys Law center spends its money is correct, they fail the ethics bar, in spite of what you say. Also, if you'll pay attention, the splc only pays lip service to the left wing hate groups I listed, but has NEVER instigated any investigations or actions against them. They save their resources to now target the Tea party. You never answered what splc did with the Madoff money they received and why they would set up bank accts. on the grand caymans, if they are so above board.
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