Sorry Libs… Only 32% of Public Agrees That Political Rhetoric Was Cause of Tucson Slaughter

Sorry libs.
Only 32% of the public believes that political rhetoric caused the “quite liberal” Tucson crackpot to go on a shooting binge at a Safeway. Even a majority of honest democrats believe the shootings were not caused by heated political rhetoric.
The Hill reported:

Almost 60 percent of the public believes that heated political rhetoric has nothing to do with an Arizona shooting spree that gravely wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and killed a federal judge.

Fifty-seven percent of respondents in a new CBS News poll said rhetoric is unrelated to the shooting, while 32 percent said they believe the two are connected…

… Republicans who responded to the poll do not believe the shooting was related to rhetoric at a greater rate than Democrats. Sixty-nine percent of Republicans said rhetoric was not a factor, compared to 19 percent who said it was connected.

A narrow plurality of Democrats believe there is no relationship — 49 percent to 42. Fifty-six percent of independents believe rhetoric is unrelated to the shooting, and 33 percent think it was.

It’s time for a few apologies, isn’t it?

In a related Rasmussen poll… 45% of voters are worried that Obama opponents will turn to violence, down from 53% last year.

#1 January 11, 2011 at 8:04 am
masked evangelist commented:

Rep. Giffords herself talked about toning down the rhetoric:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7046bo92a4
#2 January 11, 2011 at 8:07 am
patman commented:

100% of me would like to see this sheriff crawl back under his rock.
#3 January 11, 2011 at 8:08 am
P. Aaron commented:

Hey! Thus ain’t in keeping with the narrative.
#4 January 11, 2011 at 8:10 am
DigitalTroglodyte commented:

Rep. Giffords herself talked about toning down the rhetoric.

She was also an advocate of gun ownership, which would have served her better in this particular situation. YMMV.
#5 January 11, 2011 at 8:13 am
ramapart ranger commented:

The sudden Tucson-triggered anti-Tea Party rhetoric is nothing more than a temper tantrum from the left over their being rejected by the voters in November.

It isn’t so much “leaping to conclusions” as it is “venting of prejudices.” And the American people recognize it for what it is: Lashing out their “enemies” (as our President has chosen to refer to them).
#6 January 11, 2011 at 8:13 am
DigitalTroglodyte commented:

Petie sqeezes out another steaming non sequitur in 5, 4, 3…
#7 January 11, 2011 at 8:15 am
Betsy Ross commented:

The cause of the tragic AZ shooting was a mentally ill man…The mental health system in the USA is a disaster. The laws are set up to make it virtually impossible for his parents to intervene. You see, he is an adult, his parents no longer have a say in his health care. Getting an adult child to get mental health care by a concerned parent is no longer allowed in the current system. So who suffers? The mentally ill person, their family, and the society at large. The elephant in the room of this whole story is the broken mental health system in this country.
#8 January 11, 2011 at 8:20 am
David_V. commented:

The left just don’t want to face the fact that the guy has no heart or soul.
#9 January 11, 2011 at 8:20 am
chuck in st paul commented:

How soon before some loon “suddenly” pops up and takes a crack at Uhbama? It would be just too, too convenient for the lefties’ meme of ‘right-wing violence’.

During the pre-election political rallies, I was all for smacking the crap out of these SEIU thugs and other jerks who attacked Tea Party folks (literally). At the same time others were advising that this would play into the libtards hands.

Just take a look at the LSM today. Well, well… wild accusations of “right-wing violent rhetoric” leading to murder – leading to calls for destroying 1st and 2nd Amendment rights. As a military veteran I am far from being anything like a pacifist, but it appears the fears on this were warranted, so once again – hold your fire folks. Don’t give the asshats an excuse.
#10 January 11, 2011 at 8:22 am
donh commented:

MORE RESEARCH needs to be done on this Lochner family, especially the father. There could be a family connection to Louis P Lochner a prominant FDR era journalist who was an american specialist foreign reporter working in Nazi Germany . He clearly had Nazi sympathies and helped Nazi war criminals get off easy after the war. … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_P._Lochner …It has been several days since the shooting and the liberal press has failed to provide ANY information on the killer’s father. Could this be him Randell Lockner who has ties to GE healthcare working in Phoenix AZ area ? If so this is proof of motive the shooting was intended to stop the repeal of Obamacare and not an act of insanity… http://www.linkedin.com/in/rlockner
#12 January 11, 2011 at 8:32 am
Granny commented:

#7 January 11, 2011 at 8:15 am
Betsy Ross commented:

The cause of the tragic AZ shooting was a mentally ill man…The mental health system in the USA is a disaster. The laws are set up to make it virtually impossible for his parents to intervene. You see, he is an adult, his parents no longer have a say in his health care. Getting an adult child to get mental health care by a concerned parent is no longer allowed in the current system. So who suffers? The mentally ill person, their family, and the society at large. The elephant in the room of this whole story is the broken mental health system in this country.
_________________

It can be very hard in a society such as ours to balance individual freedom of choice and the good of society. For a hundred years or more we as a nation locked those we judged to be “mentally ill” away in often unspeakable conditions (I know, I volunteered in a state mental hospital during my high school years), often for life. We also, by the way, castrated and sterilized them by force.

One of the groups afforded Civil Rights during the 60′s was the mentally ill. That is in keeping with the general principle of self determination afforded all the rest of us. If you don’t want medical treatment, then no power on earth can force you to accept it. Period.

In every state there is some mechanism that allows for at least the evaluation of the adult mentally ill without their consent – for a short period of time, under very limited circumstances. In Massachusetts an adult must present a “clear and present danger” to themselves or others, which means in practice that the individual must have attempted to do themselves or someone else bodily harm – and then a court order is still required. In other states a relative can sign an adult patient into a mental health facility for evaluation for a period of a few (very few) weeks, but it still takes a court order to keep them there.

Overall, the system works pretty well while avoiding a wholesale violation of the rights that we all enjoy as citizens of the United States of America.
#13 January 11, 2011 at 8:38 am
Beto commented:

This guy did this because Rep Giffords wasn’t far enough to the left. He was pushed over the edge by the despicable rhetoric published by The Daily KOS when Rep Giffords voted for someone other than Nancy Pelosi for speaker. She voted for John Lewis, a Black Man, and this enraged Loughner who holds white supremest sentiments. There are is a prevalence of racist belief on the left side of the political spectrum but THAT racism is OK because they are never challenged on it.
#14 January 11, 2011 at 8:46 am
forest commented:

I assume the polling was done prior to the release of the mugshot. Even in the poll write-up, the dishonest reporting continues at the Hill and CBS “Loughner ‘anti-government’” with no context about his “anti-government” attitude deriving from a belief in government ‘mind control’ via control of ‘grammar’ and ‘currency’.

Anyway, the MSM can’t spin the mugshot like they are trying to spin the story. The photo screams “crazy” to anyone who sees it. Plus the stubborn lack of evidence of any connection between Loughner and political debate will take its toll over time.

If the Democrats were smart, they’d drop this whole line right now. This is not the Oklahoma City moment they have been hoping for.
#15 January 11, 2011 at 8:46 am
retire05 commented:

We have no evidence, inspite of what the political hack called Sheriff Dupnik says, that any comments by any right winger stirred the garbage called Loughner’s brain. Yet, the meme that we need to tone down “hateful rhetoric” continues.

So let’s call it what it is; the left crawling up on the bodies of the dead to foist their socialist policies and remove more of the “little” people’s freedom all in the name of security. This is their way of never letting a crisis go to waste.
#16 January 11, 2011 at 8:47 am
Betsy Ross commented:

Granny #12:
I understand how the system is to work in theory but in reality it is a failed system. The thought that a mentally ill person is to determine, on their own, that they need medical assistance is, well, insane. People who are very mentally ill are somehow supposed to manage their own care, take prescribed meds properly, take proper care of themself, etc is not reality-based. No, the system is very broken and many, many people suffer for it and that is the real story in this whole tragedy…
#17 January 11, 2011 at 8:50 am
Kazooskibum commented:

The Democrats target Palin and the Tea-Partiers and the Germans targeted the Jews. Same game plan by the same mindset.
#18 January 11, 2011 at 8:51 am
Ginger commented:

Makes you wonder why he would ask people if they believed in mind control! Why was he asking? Did he believe his mind was being controlled? We do not know his mental state do we? Has he been diagnosed with schizophrenia? Does any one believe the mind could be controlled by another or other means? I do!
#19 January 11, 2011 at 8:54 am
Ginger commented:

Don’t you hear things and see things when you are on certain drugs! Maybe he was “high” when he was in his classes!
#20 January 11, 2011 at 9:00 am
retire05 commented:

#16, Betsy Ross, you are operating from a position that ALL mentally ill people are a harm to either themselves or someone else. That is not true. And I promise you, the bar set by mental health officials can be very low. Simple depression, brought on by some tramatic event, and the normal process of grieving, can be considered by some as a “mental health” issue. Lose you job and are depressed? You could be judged to have “mental health” issues? Going through a bitter divorce? Same senario.

I am tired of those who want to remove copability from everyone for every henious thing they do. How many times we have hear that a killer had a bad childhood, was bullied in school, raised by a single parent, yada, yada? Reality is that some people are just inherently bad. Hell, it has gotton so bad now that I heard a “psychologist” say that Hitler was the way he was because he had an abusive father.

Bull. We become adults, and as adults we make choices and those choices are ours alone. I am tired of trying to make excuses for evil. It exists. It has always existed. And it will continue to exist no matter how many think they have the answers.
#21 January 11, 2011 at 9:12 am
Granny commented:

#16, Betsy Ross – Our mental health system is NOT broken. We have a couple of things going on here.

First, “mental illness” is very loosely defined. Some would have us categorize someone who is sad for more than a couple of weeks at the loss of a loved one as “chronically depressed” and medicate them. Albert Einstein was at one time considered mentally ill. I’ve had patients that were locked away for essentially their entire adult lives because they became upset at the loss of a child.

Secondly, unlike cancer or strep throat or malaria, there is no definitive test for mental illness. I used to work in this field and I have had clients with as many utterly disparate diagnoses as they had had interviewers. One of the most effective treatments – milieu therapy – was “invented” (if that is the right word) by a man who simply locked away all of the records and refused to let even the primary caretakers of a given patient see them for a minimum of one year.

To make bad matters worse, virtually all of the various drugs for “mental illness” are essentially experimental. For strep throat, we will prescribe one of 2 or 3 antibiotics, depending on whether you are allergic to beta-lactams. For cancer, there are proven protocols to follow. “Mental health” drugs are a toss-up.

The “system” isn’t broken. It is what it is. People slip through the cracks. People slip through the cracks in real medicine too. Cancers go undiagnosed, surgeons cut off the wrong leg, those that should know better miss the strep throat and the kiddo winds up with scarlet fever or worse. There is no magic bullet.
#22 January 11, 2011 at 9:16 am
Betsy Ross commented:

#20 retire05:
I’m speaking of the failed mental health care system that allows way too many people who need help to fall through the cracks. Government-run anything is a bad thing and the mental health care system is a huge failure. A personal example…I have a sister who has suffered with disabling mental illness for over 30 years. We, the family, can see when she is relapsing and not taking her meds. We, the family, call her counselor to tell them she is relapsing. Again and again we are told there is nothing we can do unless she is a danger to herself or others. So, guess what happens? She eventually ends up roaming the streets and the police have to go find her and bring her to the hospital for treatment. This has been going on for decades. Because she is an adult, we have no say in her care or treatment, privacy issues prohibit any involvement in her care. The point I’m speaking to is the mental health care system. I understand they want to balance civil rights with proper care but it is off balance and people suffer.
#23 January 11, 2011 at 9:20 am
Arch commented:

The people who are trying to link violence with the Tea Party movement are either ignorant of what the Tea Party is all about or are deathly afraid it will continue to mount and drive them and their political allies from power. Americans aren’t stupid and they do not believe liberal politicians or their lap dog media.

If you are seriously concerned about Tea Party violence, go to a meeting; there will probably one in your local area on or about April 15th. What you will see is that the crowds are much larger than the press has led you to believe. The people there will resemble the crowd at a 4th of July picnic or a Memorial Day parade. The signs will be hand painted, expressive of freedom from government and its increasing cost, and carried by Moms and school children.

On the other hand, if you are looking for real violence, attend a union meeting. Their signs will be printed and stapled to wooden staves and carried by purple shirted thugs. Be afraid. These people are desperate and they are losing power.
#24 January 11, 2011 at 9:24 am
shibumi commented:

Media spin:

“68% of public delusional and brainwashed by Sarah Palin/ Rush Limbaugh/ Tea Party.”
#25 January 11, 2011 at 9:25 am
retire05 commented:

Betsy, I understand what you are saying, but the litmus test is harm. Is she harming herself roaming the streets? Is she harming anyone else? Most people with mental health issues are never a harm to themselves or others.

But do you really want some bureaucrat making the decision to lock your sister up for the rest of her life? And to being able to participate in her mental health care, that is remedied with the simple creation of a “power of attorney” document that allows you, or your parents, to deal with her medical issues when she is off her meds.

But to blame the “system” for not being able to handle your sister is wrong. Perhaps you should talk to a lawyer, and do what you need to do legally for her.
#26 January 11, 2011 at 9:26 am
Granny commented:

#22 Betsy Ross –

What do you think should give you the right to determine your sister’s health care? In every state in the country, if she is in such dire straits that she cannot make adequate determinations for herself you can go to court, have her declared incompetent and have yourself or some other family member appointed guardian, given that the court concurs with you that your sister is simply incapable of self determination. I’m sure that if your family has been dealing with this for decades you are well aware of this. For that matter, how do you know that it is not the interactions with you and other family members that drives your sister over the edge? That is not an uncommon scenario you know.

It is unfortunate that there are no easy answers for many mental health patients. Believe me, the old way where parents and husbands and doctors could simply lock people away for life was FAR worse. Unimaginably worse.
#27 January 11, 2011 at 9:28 am
Taqiyyotomist commented:

Headline:

32% of Americans Believe Everything They See on Television

——

Why doesn’t Rasmussen do a poll asking how many believe that Obama SUPPORTERS will turn to violence, or that Palin-haters will turn to violence against conservatives?

Why just the one-way poll? I bet the number would be much, much higher than 32%.

It’s getting to the point where, if I have a political discussion with someone whom I know watches television and votes Democrat, that when I inevitably walk away, I’ll walk away looking back over my shoulder until they’re out of sight.

I don’t trust a TV-addict Dem. Not anymore. Not after this. Talk about “mind control”. These people are being pushed by the State-run Media newsies with a constant drumbeat hypnosis of hatred and lies.
#28 January 11, 2011 at 9:31 am
garrettc commented:

Poll questions are so interesting. “45% of respondents are worried that Obama opponents will resort to violence.” With that large a number wouldn’t you think that one or two of your business associates would have expressed something similar? I suspect the poll questions were asked of selected population. Perhaps we should also be concerned with the percent of Obama supporters that will resort to violence.
#29 January 11, 2011 at 9:34 am
Ginger commented:

retire05

Bull. We become adults, and as adults we make choices and those choices are ours alone. I am tired of trying to make excuses for evil. It exists. It has always existed. And it will continue to exist no matter how many think they have the answers.

———————————————————————————-

Thank You! You are so right! I have PTSD and believe me my child hood I would not wish on any one! I chose to live life not blame others. I would NEVER want to harm any one! Using mental illiness is a cop-out! As a child I had to live around drunks and ^%$#@#$% Guess what I don’t drink. I lived through being abused! I do not abuse! My children and grand children are loved. SO EXPERTS CAN TAKE THIR CRAPPY EXCUSES FOR EVIL AND CRAM IT UP THEIR ASSES! It is choices in life!

Here is my moto:

“Life does not owe you a thing.. it is what you make of it.” So people out there that boo hoo hoo’s get a life … grow up! Stop blameing others!

Sorry my PTSD has kicked in with the loss of that beautiful little girl that was taken away from us by that evil son of a bitch! May he burn in HELL!
#30 January 11, 2011 at 9:41 am
Ginger commented:

EXPERTS CAN TAKE THIR CRAPPY EXCUSES FOR EVIL AND CRAM IT UP THEIR ASSES! It is choices in life!

THEIR CRAPPY EXCUSES FOR MENTAL

Sorry got carried away… I meant mental not evil!
#31 January 11, 2011 at 9:41 am
Betsy Ross commented:

Thank you for your comments. Mental health is, indeed, complicated. People commenting about the AZ tragedy don’t understand that the parents aren’t responsible for their adult child’s behavior and do not have the authority to get him the treatment he obviously needed.
#32 January 11, 2011 at 9:48 am
Ginger commented:

Taqiyyotomist…you said

I don’t trust a TV-addict Dem. Not anymore. Not after this. Talk about “mind control”. These people are being pushed by the State-run Media newsies with a constant drumbeat hypnosis of hatred and lies.
———————————————

I thought that way back when Pelosi, Reid, Burtha, Kennedy, Kerry, Hoyer, and all kept going on tv bashing President Bush and always calling him a liar. All the nasty hateful pictures of President Bush was their way of mind controlling the people who refuses to think for themselves!
#33 January 11, 2011 at 10:04 am
Adirondack Patriot commented:

That “32 percent” number keeps reappearing in various polls for various issues. It’s also the same percentage of people who support Obamacare, strongly think that Obama is doing a good job, and who oppose the Tea Party Movement.

It’s a safe bet to say that the 32 percent is the Democrat base.
#36 January 11, 2011 at 10:33 am
Floradora commented:

WHERE were all these “hand wringers” talking about toning down the rhetoric during the Bush years when the vitriol, violent speech and wishes of death for our president were the norm??
#37 January 11, 2011 at 10:33 am
retire05 commented:

Ginger, I understand where you are coming from. My own mother was incapable of loving for whatever reason. I grew up thinking there was something wrong with me. It was not until my own daughter started showing the same signs my mother had that I learned about Borderline Personality Disorder, a mental illness that seems to jump generations. My daughter is a clone of my mother.

Education is a wonderful thing. If you have PTSD you should know absolutely everything you can learn about it. Once you understand something, it become easier to deal with (such as my mother and daughters BPD). It is not the known that will throw you for a loop, it is the unknown. It is the same with depression. Once you understand that it is cyclical, it is easier to ride through the downside days.

But we can’t ignore the fact that there have been unstable people since the beginning of time. People wonder why the school shootings are happening, yet when they are asking “What is wrong with our kids?” they never talk about Billy the Kid, who did his fair share of killing.
#38 January 11, 2011 at 10:41 am
Henry Hawkins commented:

Granny is correct on the necessary balance between protecting the freedom of the mentally ill versus protecting society from the potentially violent behaviors of the mentally ill. It is a difficult process and part of the problem is that it mixes up to magisteria that do not mix well: jurispridence and the mental illness treatment infrastructure.

Take the shooter, Loughner. For every person out there exhibiting the type and degree of illness he did prior to the shooting, there are dozens, hundreds even, who will not go on to commit such an act of violence. A very high percentage of schizophrenics are not and will never be violent. It is extremely hard to determine one from the other in advance, and by law it is not permitted to take away one’s freedom by commitment to a mental health facility unless certain criteria are met. These critieria differ widely fram state to state, but generally include evidence that the person in question is exhibiting extreme dangerousness to self or others and that the dangerous be immediate, dangerous right now, not predicted for weeks, months, or years down the road.

The mental illness commitment system in NC calls for a ‘pick up’ order (commitment petition) by a judge or magistrate who has heard credible testimony indicating immediate dangerousness from a credible family member, police officer, etc.. The order commands law enforcement to take the person in question to the local designated mental health facility for an evaluation by a psychiatrist, who also interviews the family, caretakers, anyone involved, and then decides whether the immediate dangerousness criterion has been met. If so, the person is taken by law enforcement to a residential mental health facility where one of their psychiatrists does a second evaluation. If he or she concurs, the person is committed to the hospital for a 72 hour observation period. If at the end of the 72 period the person remains an immediate danger to self or others, he or she is kept for additonal periods of time, with a confirmatory reevaluation required to keep them in hospital for more time. It takes either two MDs, ideally psychiatrists, or a judge and a psychiatrist, to commit someone in NC. It takes two psychiatrist evals to commit, and the psychiatrists cannot work for the same hospital, to prevent false commitments to fill beds and allow billing (a $ thing – it happens).
#40 January 11, 2011 at 11:15 am
Taqiyyotomist commented:

Henry, if you don’t have a blog of your own, you should. It would be a good one, IMO. You write wisdom that is up there with Skookum and the proprietors of Flopping Aces, or even with Victor D. Hansen. I’m tellin’ you. You’ve posted some of the most astute and well-written comments I’ve read in a long time, since you popped onto the scene. Kudos. God’s blessed you like Solomon, with wisdom and an ability to convey it well.
#41 January 11, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Henry Hawkins commented:

Well, thank you so much. That’s very kind. Just be prepared to read me saying something very stupid and entirely wrong from time to time, lol.

The blog idea is on my menu, but unfortunately, like with most people in RL, my time is precious and seemingly spent against my will a good deal of the time. I am not a professional writer by any means, but I have published short stories here and there and for ten years created and maintained a webite with a 3,000 member message board on the topic of scientific skepticism and its subparts of critical thinking, scientific methodology, etc., and their application against the many myths and fallacies present in our culture, particularly where their presence does damage, like bogus medical practices, dangerous religio-rituals, and much of the stuff you see debunked on cable TV shows like Mythbusters.

I have two book manuscripts as well, both fiction, one from my youth and by all evidences unsellable (lol), the other finished last year and awaiting rewrites after favorable reviews from a couple small publishers.

Thank you again, Taq. You are very kind. And possibly nuts.

(j/k)
#42 January 11, 2011 at 12:18 pm
Alana commented:

“I don’t trust a TV-addict Dem. Not anymore. Not after this. Talk about “mind control”. These people are being pushed by the State-run Media newsies with a constant drumbeat hypnosis of hatred and lies.”

I know exactly what you mean. “TV-addict Dem.” Our oldest and best friends are tv-addict dems. This hasn’t been much of a problem in the past (and I was less politically active in the past), and we also never talked about politics much. But since the last presidential election, when they just assumed I wouldn’t vote for Palin, and actually laughted at me in incredible derision when they found out I did – things have been different.

Fortunately, they live a long way off and we don’t see them that often, but since that day I’ve been careful never to let the talk turn to politics when we do see them. (Though I did, one day, in a group with their grown kids, listening to their derision of Palin, interject that Palin never actually said “I can see Russia from my house,” and they all stared at me like I’d grown a third eye. But at least they didn’t deride me again.)

This is a couple whose television is on all the time, and it is tuned to MSNBC and the like.

They are indeed, TV addict Democrats, and there is, indeed, no hope for them, on any topic, ever. All they know is what their TV stations tell them, and they consider that the total truth, possibly direct from God. They never even listen to the other side.

It’s not like I don’t trust them, of course, being our oldest and dearest friends. But I will tell you that, mentally, I now have them on the opposite side from myself. I guess you could say, I’ve sort of decided that should push ever come to shove, they will be on the opposite side. I guess you could say I no longer feel truly close to them, though I work hard to focus on the things I do feel close to them about, and to ignore their political ignorance.
#43 January 11, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Reaganite Republican commented:

Very illuminating, linked at RR-

If There’s Still Any Hope of Salvaging the MSM’s Credibility… They’re Going to Have to STOP LYING First
#44 January 11, 2011 at 1:17 pm
Spike commented:

That 32% would be none other than the 3.2 out of ten, Nut cases that we have running
around here in America trying to desroy her. You know like, Move on, Dail Kos, Code Pink
and all the other Jackass_s.
#45 January 11, 2011 at 1:53 pm
Frank commented:

32% of of the Public are idiots!
#46 January 11, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Henry Hawkins commented:

The one poll that cannot be taken, and would be the most important poll ever if it could, is the poll that measures how many people will lie on polls.
#47 January 11, 2011 at 5:22 pm
burt commented:

I’m sure 32% of the German people supported Hitler even as the bombs fell on their heads.
#51 January 12, 2011 at 12:45 pm
Liam Benson commented:

This debate over whether Jared Loughner is a liberal or a conservative is pointless as I hardly think he can be labeled “a liberal” anymore than he can be called a “tea partier.” Anyone using either term to describe him is merely using this tragedy as an opportunity to score political points and the news and comments here prove that both sides are equally guilty of doing exactly that. What matters is that he had a gun like everyone else in Arizona and he used it with an intent to kill and did so. He also wounded many. This has little to do with the shooter’s politics and more with his own beliefs or lack there of and no I am not referring to religion

Regardless, it still was never a good idea for Palin (or any politician for that matter) to post a map with crosshair targets on Gifford’s or any other congressional seat. Maybe Sarah even agrees with me “NOW” or why else has she since removed the map from her site? But I do not think she or Fox News is to blame any more than “The Communist Manifesto” or other books Loughner read are. Nor, is the music he listened too. Yet in light of recent events it can’t hurt to reconsider the “meaning” of the “words” that we and our politicians have been using.

It is important to remember that politics is not a team sport and that political discourse should remain civil and that there is never any reason for opposing parties to behave like soccer hooligans or resort to “second amendment solutions. It takes both a left and right wing for an eagle to fly.