Journalism
The New York Times is not to be outdone. No doubts mortified that the Washington Post beat them to the punch in laying the Arizona disaster at the feet of conservatives, the Times now features a column to the same effect by the reliably far-left Paul Krugman.
Krugman blames Palin, Beck, Limbaugh and "the whole Tea Party" as he conjures images of the Oklahoma City bombing and warns that "violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate." In case you're wondering who he's talking about, Krugman lectures, "it's long past time for the GOP's leaders to take a stand against the hate-mongers." It will no doubt always elude Krugman that he is the creature he so despises.
Verum Serum graciously responds to Krugman (so the rest of us needn't do so). I'd simply add two observations: First, the gunman in Arizona has been described as a liberal by a friend, which, coupled with his obvious insanity, should quiet speculation that the tragedy is part of a vast right wing conspiracy. Second, readers should remember the trove of hateful malice spewed by the left toward President Bush - to pretend that the left has not potentially incited violence through aggressive language against Bush, Republicans, conservatives, Tea Partiers, etc. and that the right has a monopoly on invective is beyond silly, it is intentionally deceitful.
From the Pima County (AZ) Republican website - June 12, 2010:
"Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly."
Subtle, sophisticated, classy!!
See a screenshot here:
https://www.blogforarizona.com/blog/2010/06/jesse-kelly-event-is-this-wording-intentional.html
This is definitely worth a read, too:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/01/the-cloudy-logic-of-political-shootings/69147/
When children not understand and misinterpret metaphorical language as a rhetorical device we find it amusing. When adults don't, we draw different conclusions about them.
I lost a "do" there, possibly as a result of writing in a state of irritation. "When children do not understand...."
I just thought you were trying to avoid appearing elitist, with a folksy grammar flub, like the genius mutilators/manipulators of English, Dubya and Sarah.
Oh, no, I can only aspire to appear elitist. No, it was a real flub.
Plenty of people mangle language. I find those who do so accidentally more forgivable than those who do it with a will.
Let me guess. You're either an overweight middle-aged man who overindulges in porn in his basement, or a pimply-faced teenager who thinks he knows everything.
You're really something else, Craig. What did you do when "Death of a President" was released?
It really is all Bill Ayers (We did not do enough), the unrepentent terrorist and good friend of Barack Obama's fault. After all he teaches at a University had as undue influence on young people. He caused the shooting.
Or maybe it was the two Black Panthers wielding weapons at the voting booth - they were suppressing one's right to vote. And our illustitrous Attorney General who refuses to prosecute them.
Or how about the Earth Liberation Front - the left-wing organization that uses bombs to blow up buildings and people in order to "SAVE the planet"
Or how about Tom Hayden the left winger who cause riots and beatings in 1968 at the Democratic Convention
Or how about Kathy Boudin and The Black Panthers who shoot to death two Policmen, one the first black police officer on the Nyack New Jersey Police force.
Or how about Jesse Jackson, Anti-Seminte who supports dictators like Fidel Castro and Charles Johnson.
Or how about REVEREND Al Sharpton, another Anti-Seminite who caused the death of a Jewish man by inciting a needless riot.
Or how about Louis Farrakkan, Jew-hater, America-hater and a friend of Barack Obama
Or how about Lee Harvey Oswald, communist defector and admirer of Fidel Castro who murdered JFK
Or how about the Shirhan Shirhan, a Palestinian sympathizer who murdered RFK.
And you forget to included people like Barack Obama who think there are 57 states.....
Hey Scanlon - looks like one of the poster on the Daily Kos is responsible.
Read it and weep:
The headline read this way:
My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi! And is now DEAD to me!" There are also several references to "dead" in the comment thread.
here is the link, which the Daily Kos has removed:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/01/is_daily_kos_to_blame_for_giff.html
Let me repeat myself - this was posted on the Daily Kos - Left Wing Nutballs who continously incite hate and violence.
Well Scanlon, looks like you really lose this time:
Here is an excerpt from an article in none other than the mother of all Liberals - The New York Times:
Another former high school classmate said that Mr. Loughner may have met Representative Giffords, who was shot in the head outside the Safeway supermarket, several years ago.
“As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy,” the former classmate, Caitie Parker, wrote in a series of Twitter feeds Saturday. “I haven’t seen him since ’07 though. He became very reclusive.”
“He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in ’07, asked her a question & he told me she was ‘stupid & unintelligent,’ ” she wrote.
This took place in 07 - long before the Tea Party - you will need to find someone else to blame, but it was fun playing your silly game
Andrew, I'm guessing by your use of the verb "released" - more typical for films than other media - that you're referring to the British mockumentary. I haven't seen it.
Nor read about it at all? Very well. Dodge away, Sir, I'm done here.
I don't know what you want me to say. That film should have been banned??
And so should have "We Were Strangers" back in 1949?:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Were_Strangers#Copycat_Effect_on_Oswald
Happy???
Why not just admit that the "climate of hatred" you're so desperate to pin on contemporary political actors is a bogeyman and move on?
AUTHOR: 9T
EMAIL: [email protected]
IP: 183.82.88.250
URL: https://9t.com
DATE: 01/10/2011 04:12:01 AM
Craig Scanlon thrives in a climate of hatred. Apparently, he cannot find enough of it elsewhere. He pumps as much of its hot air into this blog as he has time for.
Perhaps he considers it balancing our extreme political views. He's written something like that in the past. In case we are not keeping track of left-wing invective, he is always ready to offer his own and a hefty supply of links to his sources of choice.
Where would we be without him? We think we would be having an adult conversation on topics of interest. Silly us. I am sure in some comment he will clarify why we are all wrong about that, as about everything else.
Ben - where did I use the phrase "climate of hatred"? I can't see where I used the phrase or any of the authors of what I linked to used it.
I haven't used the phrase.
But since you're focusing on that phrase, do you think that mixing the violent rhetoric with shooting an M16 at a political event, i.e.:
"Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16"
could possibly contribute to such a climate?
And that climate is there even if this Loughner guy is primarily psycho and not of a coherent political ideology, which is what he appears to be.
Get on Target for Victory in November Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office Shoot a fully automatic M16
You live anywhere near Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, Scanlon?
Any idea of the deep and long history of ranching, hunting and personal ownership of firearms here?
We have Davis Montham Air Force Base here, as well as the U.S. Army base Ford Huachuca over in Sierra Vista. There are many active and retired military in Tucson for whom firearms are viewed with calm respect and in many cases a general interest in the workmanship.
Having a campaign rally where there's an appeal to that kind of interest is not at all unusual or alarming. The AZ-8 district is historically conservative. It has a gerrymandered chunk of Tucson which allowed it in 2008 to go D. But on the whole, very conservative and very comfortable with firearms.
(That gerrymandering is why my representative is Raul Grijalva ... they carved his district out of the most liberal areas they could find, including all of the University and a good deal of what was the 60's hippy areas to the west.)
Now, if they were shooting that M-16 at cardboard standups of Giffords, well then yes -- that would be an example of fostering such a climate.
But that's not what they did.
Grijalva had a campaign rally where they served hamburgers and hot dogs. As a radical vegan I took that as fostering a climate of genocide against all animals.
See how foolish that seems?