The rush of politicians, pundits, and bloggers trying to blame Sarah Palin and “inflammatory” speech for the shooter who killed six and wounded many more while trying to murder Congresswoman Giffords is just plain stupid.
Jared Loughner was batshit crazy. The more facts come out, the crazier he gets. And you can’t blame politicians for crazy. You can’t blame anyone for crazy but the crazy guy. I know this from personal experience.
When I was in my twenties, my then-best friend was five months pregnant and newly married. Her sister S. was starting to act oddly. We both noticed it, but there wasn’t much we could do, or even thought about doing, because we are not mental health professionals and we didn’t recognize her symptoms as evidence of bipolar illness. One day, MJ and I were over her father’s house, and S. came into the room. She was staring at us. Then, with no warning whatsoever, she suddenly grabbbed hold of my hair with a death-grip and would not let go, babbling about how I and all the rest of the world’s Jews have been ruining her life and trying to kill her. She mentioned her ex-boyfriend (Jewish), ex-husband (Jewish, and living in South America at the time), and went on and on while MJ and I tried to get her to let go of me. Words didn’t work. It took several minutes of physical effort (and by “physical effort” I mean “punching”), and even then, it was unbelievably difficult to get me free of her, and yes, I lost quite a hunk of hair in the process. The most eerie thing is that after I was free, she just stood there, staring at us, not saying a word.
After the incident, her sister went into contractions, her husband wanted to kill S., and when we approached their father and told him she was nuts and he needed to have her committed, he wouldn’t hear of it and did everything he could to stop us from getting official help to have her hospitalized. She wasn’t committed, and months later, she tried to kill herself by stabbing herself in the chest 17 times with a steak knife. Since it happened outside of her father’s jurisdiction (he was ex-mayor and current councilman of the city where they lived), she was hospitalized and diagnosed with bipolar disease. She went on lithium, and ultimately came to lead a normal life (and got back to the person I liked before she attacked me).
But she was batshit crazy before she went on lithium, and Jared Loughner is batshit crazy. That’s why he shot Giffords and all those others. Occam’s Razor stands as the explanation here: The guy was nuts.
Read the column about this issue in Tablet and then tell me that Loughner shot Giffords because he was crazy. His obsession was excessive government control, a theme that the Tea Party is also obsessed with. When politicians invite people to rally aginst opposing politicians by shooting automatic weapons, is it not unreasonable to think that some unbalanced idiot might transform the invitation to a more lethal level. What gets me is that all the right wing bloggers are trying to protect Sarah Palin instead of holding her to account for putting crosshairs on people that by any standard is dangerously provocative.
“Lorenzo” should take a look at the map published by the Democratic Congressional Committee before the elections, in which Republican candidates are targeted with bull’s eyes.
Hypocrisy rears its ugly head.
Not just the map. Daily Kos targeted her among other Blue Dogs in 2008:
If you’re going to insist that saying you want to “target” somebody is an impetus for somebody to kill them…
I did read the column in the Tablet, and now I think that columnist is an idiot, too. Shall we blame Martin Scorcese for instigating Mark David Chapman into killing John Lennon? Oh, wait. He was batshit crazy and obsessed with Jodie Foster.
The guy was effing. Batshit. Crazy.
Go ahead and pretend that the right is violent, crazy, and willing to call for the death of politicians, but the left is noble, peaceful, and never, ever use murderous language. Or you can click on this link and see exactly what you’re complaining about: Violent rhetoric, hate speech, calls to murder politicians—from the left.
You have the right to your own opinion, but you do not have the right to your own facts. The facts are not what you claim they are.
“Or you can click on this link and see exactly what you’re complaining about: Violent rhetoric, hate speech, calls to murder politicians—from the left.”
Let’s not forget thta the only document violence to occur at a Tea Party event was when SEIU union thugs beat up a tea party demonstrator so severly that he was forced to use a wheel chair. And they called him racial epithets (he is black) while they beat him. Hi crime? Holding a “Don’t Tread on Me” Gadsden flag on a public street outside a hall where a Democract was speaking. Then they can tell me again how the Tea Party is violent and racist.
Beginning in the late 1960s, US law has made it harder and harder to commit someone involuntarily. In the name of being more humane, we simply emptied our mental wards onto our streets and into our prisons.
Loughner is batshit crazy… and we should treat him the way we treat mad dogs. A speedy trial (is there any Reasonable Doubt here?) followed by a swift execution. This man does not need to be walking the planet with the rest of us.
I don’t care whether he was mentally ill, either. The cause of his actions matters not one whit to the people he murdered or the families whose hearts he has broken.
Elisson, I don’t have a problem at all with executing him, regardless of how batshit crazy he is. There’s a difference between crazy and brain-damaged. I have a problem with executing retarded people. But not the Loughners of the world.
A crazy person. That did something crazy. No more. No less. HE is responsible for his actions. No one else. To even attempt to say political ads, talk shows, or famous talking heads are part of the reason this happened is like saying spoons made Rosie O’ fat.
ANYTHING can be taken the wrong way. To blame what a person said, or believes on a murderous rampage is a knee jerk, and STUPID reaction.
Unless of course the person in question says, “Hey listeners, -X- politician needs to die. You need to go to this place, and kill him. As soon as possible.” THEN he is culpable. I’ve watched a lot of Beck, and never heard him say anything but to be peaceful towards others. Never heard him tell anyone to attack another person.
Sorry, this is a bad topic for me. Had a suck as-….. Had a hard headed person try to tell me why “beck” was responsible for this guy, and it took 45 minutes to get him to admit that his idea of limiting the freedom of speech would kill ALL news shows, political shows, and even most presidential speeches. (his idea was that anything that could inflame people should be banned) Hello! Everything inflames SOMEBODY! Tell me it’s going to snow tonight and I’m going to get “inflamed”!
Good luck guys!
I guess I’m the last person in America to have seen the mug shot of the Shooter. Look like anybody famous? All he’s missing is a light bulb in the mouth.
Scattered details about the rambling note discovered in his pocket. Something along the lines of: “I am an obviously insane person who acted alone. If you had come to see my band, none of this would’ve happened. Sincerely, the Grammar King.”
.. and where it stops nobody knows !