Posted on 01/09/2011 11:00:29 AM PST by kristinn
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For as long as I've been alive, crosshairs and bull's-eyes have been an accepted part of the graphical lexicon when it comes to political debates. Such "inflammatory" words as targeting, attacking, destroying, blasting, crushing, burying, knee-capping, and others have similarly guided political thought and action. Not once have the use of these images or words tempted me or anybody else I know to kill. I've listened to, read—and even written!—vicious attacks on government without reaching for my gun. I've even gotten angry, for goodness' sake, without coming close to assassinating a politician or a judge.
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The great miracle of American politics is that although it can tend toward the cutthroat and thuggish, it is almost devoid of genuine violence outside of a few scuffles and busted lips now and again.
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Any call to cool, "inflammatory" speech is a call to police all speech, and I can't think of anybody in government, politics, business, or the press that I would trust with that power. As Jonathan Rauch wrote brilliantly in Harper's in 1995, "The vocabulary of hate is potentially as rich as your dictionary, and all you do by banning language used by cretins is to let them decide what the rest of us may say." Rauch added, "Trap the racists and anti-Semites, and you lay a trap for me too. Hunt for them with eradication in your mind, and you have brought dissent itself within your sights."
Our spirited political discourse, complete with name-calling, vilification—and, yes, violent imagery—is a good thing. Better that angry people unload their fury in public than let it fester and turn septic in private. The wicked direction the American debate often takes is not a sign of danger but of freedom.
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(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
I wish there were more “old school liberals” speaking on the Left, these days.
They had a "war room" for ObamaCare and their tax increases.
Wahr is hell! Gonna knee-cap me some conservatives. ~~James Carvile.
Lucid analysis from Slate, unbelievable.
In complete agreement with him! The problem I see is when two opposing groups, angry at and mistrustful of each other, can’t even agree on the facts of their debates. How can one side talk to the other when they reject each other’s basic fact universes? (”Climate change” is a perfect example.)
Of course, when a schizophrenic - like Loughner - finds angry conspiracy theories that help to create his paranoid-fantasy world, he may take insane actions and claim his motivation was that particular set of opinions. Loughner seems to have developed late-adolescence schizophrenia ( a common form) and begun to create a fantasy world out of a bizarre combination of theories from both Left and Right.
Where were his family and friends? Why didn’t they intervene before he used an automatic weapon to attempt an assassination, and murder another 6 people in one fast burst of fire?
His family are the ones I *truly* hold responsible for this catastrophe.
Concerning superficial, political rhetoric, do stupid people kill? Because one would have to be stupid to interpret political grandiloquence as a call to violence.
Arguably, the perp was ‘stupid’ but not in the sense of having a low IQ or perpetual ignorance.
He realizes that the Radical Lefties will become dumbstruct if they can’t use their “hate speech”.
I have the impression that the left is realizing that this murderer is one of them. They are going to start ratcheting back the rhetoric they were pushing yesterday and start down this path.
I agree with the writer here, but I don’t trust his motives.
“If they bring a knife you bring a gun”
“I want you to get in thier faces” :
said by our President Obama
Justice denied and rule of law ignored is the well-spring of discontent. Obama’s actions have spurred the Tea Party into existence and we can all thank the internet for allowing discourse on issues.
If freedom of speech is repressed, none of us will ever know about the violations of our rights when they occur, OR the facts surrounding persons who commit the type of horrific political crimes that occurred yesterday.
The media is going crazy over the fact that Jared Loughter is a Democrat, an anarchist wannabe and progressive who is most likely gay (said on Facebook he is attracted to men) and appears to hate non-whites. He has said he hates Congresswoman Giffords because she didn’t vote recently for Nancy Pelosi as minority Democratic Leader.
The Democrats are exhibiting ‘reality’ derangement, as it is becoming apparent their members resort to violence as a political ploy. This is most damning to the biased media, when compared to the adults in the Tea Party who don’t display violence, though armed with weapons, and who pick up after themselves.
“”The DemocRATS have a ‘war room’ for everything but war.” - Dennis Miller
They had a “war room” for ObamaCare and their tax increases.”
It would seem that they now want to wage WAR on METAPHOR!
It’s not often I’ll agree with a Lib, but this article nails it.
The “progressive” movement is being unmasked for what it is...a howling mob of tyrants who try to silence their opponents with infamous slander, assign guilt without process and appeal to the basest, lowest fears and emotions with no shred of decency or shame.
They have become just like Democrat cretin Fred Phelps, with the only difference being that the vile Phelps and his followers wait for the actual funeral to vomit their bile.
>> Where were his family and friends?
>> His family are the ones I *truly* hold responsible for this catastrophe.
Based on your thorough understanding of the perp’s family life as a child...
Sometimes young adults turn into criminals through no reasonable fault of the parents.
The blame belongs solely at the feet of the perp.
Yes, where are his parents, and why haven’t the media said anything about them?
Elsewhere on FR someone compared this attack with the Hinckley assasination attempt against Ronald Reagan.
Hinckley’s parents where dragged through the mud over their son’s actions. They were wealthy and Republican so the biased media felt obligated to smear them.
So, are Loughtler’s parents Democratic Party activists? Is that why the media is silent about them?
Huh? There was no "automatic weapon" though it was initially reported as such. The nut used a Glock 19 with an extended magazine, a common handgun. I appreciate your sentiments, I really do, but the creep is not much different than a gangbanger, he used a weapon that you can guy at any sporting goods store or gun show.
Sorry about getting the name wrong.
Loughtler should read: Jared Lee Loughner
Sorry about getting the name wrong.
Loughtler should read: Jared Lee Loughner
bfl
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