Before going any other direction with this, I would like to say that I feel badly for Gabrielle Gifford and her family. This kind of thing is always tragic and I abhor violence.
This kind of thing is sick, but what is worse is the way people rush to place blame on the other party or group or whomever they can as fast as they can. I consider myself a realist, so I don’t actually blame Sarah Palin in this case, because judging from all the rest of the information it appears he wasn’t as much of a right-wing nut as he was an almost 1960′s style Weather Underground-ish nut, at least according to his reading material.*
(*And for a quick aside – people that think books don’t matter should consider that what people are reading is one of the first things investigators look at when someone does something off the wall. So next time someone judges you for being thirty-seven and reading Harry Potter or Twilight, realize that professionals would be taking that into consideration too. It’s not that shallow.)
Here are things that can’t be denied, Gifford had taken a lot of heat for voting for the health care bill. Sarah Palin did put cross-hairs on her state and listed her by name as someone to be take a stand against. It doesn’t take a dummy to understand what that means, and Sarah Palin should have been noted a classless moron long before now. Fox News should apologize for intentionally trying to scare the hell out of people, which everyone but my grandmother seems to be aware that is their modus operandi. Neither of them will apologize unless public outcry makes them feel obligated to, but who cares if they do? Anyone forced to apologize doesn’t feel bad.
Things I think we should remember:
1. Sarah Palin was in the wrong, no matter what caused the attack. You can have a following of people that ignorant and expect them to metaphorically comprehend that message.
2. Remember that there is such a thing as crazy people. They’ve existed throughout eternity. ”That’s just what they want you to think,” they might tell you. Are we so divided by party lines, that even crazies have to choose a side?
3. You might hear that this is a conspiracy to take your guns. Let me assure you, this is not true. I watched first hand over the holidays as two men bought handguns and ammo legally in less than five minutes. Tighter gun control is a good thing, but it scares people to hear it said. I’m not anti-gun. I have owned many guns during my lifetime, but I have never enjoyed the arguments of the NRA. I don’t understand the connection, but most of the time those really into guns really have issues with taxes.
4. If a Muslim American were to have made that same art work as Sarah Palin, they would be chained wrist to ankle, drinking a little board water in Guantanamo Bay right now. I don’t support that course of action, but Sarah Palin does.
I think it was Joe Rogan who said watching politics is like watching pro-wrestling.
He’s not far off, but these loons don’t hit with chairs.
Sarah Palin doesn’t design her webpage. You’re not even mentioning the dems who had a similar target picture, and it’s now come out he was a regular commented on politico, so it had nothing to do with Palin. And I’m not a palin follower.
http://www.lutheranzephyr.com/.a/6a00d8341c422a53ef0148c76cf6d1970c-500wi
One of the first things I notice is that no one who was targeted on the Politico ad was shot. Second, although the image I have doesn’t show the names, Palins didn’t target battleground states but people in particular, with a list of names to go with the cross-hairs. And I’m not blaming Palin for anything other than having poor judgment and bad taste.