Flash* US Congress Woman Shot

[Davidnic]

Yet the examples you keep referring to are from the right are they not?

It isn't as though the right or the left has a lock on lunatic fringe members or extreme rhetoric from some members but the tea party does seem to have a near lock on having the leaders of the movement competing with one another to be the most extreme.

That's what it looks like from the outside.

Loose Change conspiracy theorists and those who advocated violence against Bush were not from the right.

It's on both sides. People don't want to see that. When John Stewart pointed that out Olberman and Maddow attacked him.

You can go back to the anger after the Florida debacle in 2000 and follow it. And all sides are guilty. People slashing tires at voting places in 2004 were from the left. People with violent and racist signs in 2008 were from the right. And there are dozens of examples if we wanted to go through news reports.

It's shameful all around. But there is no evidence that it inspired this man man. And any evidence actually puts him far away from the tea party.

 

[Davidnic]

But we're NOT saying that he was a tea party member - he may have been incapable of joining any movement without being spotted as unbalanced. The issue isn't being in the tea party or any other party. The issue is that the rhetoric has raised the political temperature so high that lunatic members of society will be energised by all the violent buzz.

It's the over the top misrepresentations, hyperbole, and violence oriented rhetoric & imagery that's got to stop.

Well yes I agree. But it needed to stop before this and for a long time. And there is no evidence at the moment that this is connected to the rhetoric.

It may or may not be. And that is my point. This mad man was obsessed with the congresswoman but that was only one of his issues. Responsibly we should wait before making connections that are not there.

What happened should not have a bearing on rational people looking at the rhetoric and saying it is out of place. This does not have to be connected to it for the rhetoric to be wrong.

And if we tie it to it and this man's "Dream Journal" shows that he was doing this for his own unconnected reasons...then many will take that as a way to further excuse the vitriol.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Davidnic, you're posts more interesting to engage in discussion than were the posts from bene.....

Thanks for the reasonable and reasoned input.

I am going to make some breakfast now

 

[Davidnic]

Cool, I just fed the 19 month old and now we are going to dance.

 

[tadoflamb]

I am going to make some breakfast now

Crumpets?

 

[MoreCoffee]

Crumpets?

No

Eggs and lovely Australian Bacon.

 

[tadoflamb]

G'day.

 

[MoreCoffee]

G'day.

Hello ...

 

[SolomonVII]

The pyschopath's rant was about the meaningless of language, and grammar being used by the government to control the people.
And he wanted to crap on God.

It sound more like the post-modernists garble that is taught at the modern university than anything that might be found on Sarah Palin.

And his anarchic acting out was inspired by some joker in a Batman movie. That was his fantasy reality that he was acting out.

So I guess if the call is to control the rhetoric, maybe we ought to start with the nonsense being taught in our universities, and tell Hollywood to tone its fiction down a bit too.

 

[Satt]

Down with spell check!!! LOL

 

[MoreCoffee]

...
So I guess if the call is to control the rhetoric, maybe we ought to start with the nonsense being taught in our universities, and tell Hollywood to tone its fiction down a bit too.

Not a bad idea. Hollywood has been escalating the violence and horror in films for decades. It can't be a good thing to do.

USA Universities are a mystery to me. Are they really that bad?

 

[SolomonVII]

Down with spell check!!! LOL

Daughn with spael cheque, more like. Da's wot the mann wantchoo to theinc.

 

[MoreCoffee]

Daughn with spael cheque, more like. Da's wot the mann wantchoo to theinc.

Neyuk neyuk neyuk ....

Back to more serious issues.

 

[SolomonVII]

Not a bad idea. Hollywood has been escalating the violence and horror in films for decades. It can't be a good thing to do.

USA Universities are a mystery to me. Are they really that bad?

Ban it all!

Great plan.
Enough of this dam American experiment in exceptionalism. Totalitarianism was good enough for my great-granddaddy, and his great-ganddady, and it is good enough for the my kids and grandkids too.


And shut down the schools too!

 

[MoreCoffee]

Ban it all!

Great plan.
Enough of this dam American experiment in exceptionalism. Totalitarianism was good enough for my great-granddaddy, and his great-ganddady, and it is good enough for the my kids and grandkids too.


And shut down the schools too!

Oh dear

Had a bad day or something?

 

[Blackwater Babe]

Because you are now messing with our right to own them if we so choose. What's tricky is keeping them out of the crazy person's hand while not taking away the RIGHT to own a gun from everyone else.

Having to obtain a license and letting some judge decided if you get one or not is a violation of the 2nd amendment.

They are plenty of crazy people who are not dangerous who would never shoot themselves or anyone else.

We need to just pay better attention to people who make threats like this, get them into treatment and make sure they go into a network all over the country, where he will never be allowed to purchase guns.

How the heck am I messing with anyone's rights? With rights come responsibilities, surely? Is it really so unreasonable to make people have a basic competency test? The "right" to own firearms is already limited, for example, no one suggests minors should be able to buy firearms unsupervised, is asking people to qualify similarly to driving a car that unreasonable?

 

[MoreCoffee]

How the heck am I messing with anyone's rights? With rights come responsibilities, surely? Is it really so unreasonable to make people have a basic competency test? The "right" to own firearms is already limited, for example, no one suggests minors should be able to buy firearms unsupervised, is asking people to qualify similarly to driving a car that unreasonable?

You're not messing with anybody's rights. Some posts by some posters are kind of trolling I reckon.

 

[AMDG]

The news reporting in Australia (and we're hardly a left wing nation) has consistently shown the most egregious examples as coming from tea party leaders and candidates.

Really? It must have something to do with what the media wants to spin because the TEA Party is simply about needing to stop the obscene spending that is robbing our children and grandchildren of the American Dream. The people are of "all stripes"--young, old, colored, asian, white, Repubs, Dems, Independents; their meetings they are peaceful (not the riots of "Prop 8" fame); and they even pick up after themselves leaving an area where they've been cleaner than they found it (unlike some protestors and rioters)!

As to rhetoric, Obama himself has said the "you bring a knife and we'll bring a gun", has wanted Hispanic Dems to "punish their enemies" and has spoken about Repubs "sitting in the back". Two years ago Dems have put targets on certain states that they wanted to win, and just last election one Dem had an ad about shooting Cap 'n Trade.

Making this tragedy about a political point (of one side) is just wrong. It's simply about a deranged individual--nothing more. And we need to address that issue (how about not turning the mentally deranged lose on our streets and allowing those deranged to purchase guns) instead of trying to stop free speech--which is guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

 

[2WhomShallWeGo]

some points
1 The guy was a irrational nut (most people I'm sure already know that.)
2 irrational people are heard to predict because they don't act rationally.
3 irrational people and phsycotic people can be set off by innoccuos behavior; like delivery of the male bad grammar and misspelling boring politics.
4 he didn't like bad grammar he really didn't like bad grammar
5 because of points 1,2,3, and 4 it easily possible that had he been in Alaska he might of had a thing against Sarah Palin. He probably hates her slang, given how much he hates bad grammar.
6 what may be appropriate rhetoric can set off a nut because they're nuts.
7 we can't stop discussing controversial issues passionately just because some body acts inappropriately. Passion is an important part of our human nature, as God gave us passions to drive us.

 

[Fantine]

So I guess if the call is to control the rhetoric, maybe we ought to start with the nonsense being taught in our universities, and tell Hollywood to tone its fiction down a bit too.

On the other hand, if you are wondering about motives, I heard a story about a college incident on the radio.

A classmate wrote a deeply personal essay about the pain she endured after undergoing an abortion. Loughner started snickering, and then he called her a "terrorist" for killing her baby.

Congresswoman Giffords has received a 100% rating from NARAL.

So perhaps he's a pro-lifer.

Which is just as possible as the idea that the community college corrupted his ideas.

He is mentally ill. He doesn't react to ANY informational input the way a normal person would, so stop trying to blame academia--or anything else--for his bizarre reactions.