Thank The Maker-Fag For Fred Phelps!
At the very least, the planned protest by the Westboro Baptist Church of the funeral for nine-year-old Tucson shooting victim Christina Green is something that is likely to be regarded as equally disagreeable by both sides on the perhaps-not-so-inexplicably deeper partisan divide that has emerged following an atrocious act of violence that some of us naifs believed should have brought all of us reasonable folk closer together in a national spasm of comity, if only for a few news cycles.
Alas, as Roy has documented, it’s partisan turtles all the way down and always shall be, at least amongst a certain set — and that should long ago have ceased to be a surprise to any of us who’ve been following the whole process for a week or longer.
None of which is to say that they’re worse or we’re worse (SPOILER: they’re worse) in all of this nonsense. But rather that it’s possible for emerging facts from an event of this nature to not fit perfectly into one’s preferred (perhaps instinctive) narrative — and that it is graceful to first challenge oneself as to whether that is the case and, more difficult and meritorious still, to ‘fess up publicly that you may have got it wrong initially if that proves to be true.
Which is a rather long way of saying that, no, it does not appear that Sarah Palin’s gunsight map or Rush Limbaugh’s daily leakages or Glenn Beck’s crocodile tears had any influence whatsoever on the muddled mindset of the Tucson gunman who attempted, over the weekend, to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords along with several other unfortunate people who happened to be in a particular Safeway parking lot on a particularly unlucky morning where she held her rally to meet constituents during the Congressional recess.
(Also not an easily demonstrated influence on the gunman — Sudden Jihad Syndrome or Bush Derangement Syndrome or Liberal Fascism or any other catch-all political theory of recent vintage that seeks to update Mencken’s famous three-legged ‘clear, simple and wrong’ construction by removing the clear and simple portions.)
So for those who leaped out of the gates to declare loud and wide that Tea Party rhetoric was to blame for this, I say, it’s time to dial back the finger-pointing and admit, to paraphrase Jon Stewart, that there is no clear through-line from right-wing rhetoric to the shooter’s motives. Tough as that can be, because it’s difficult to step back from the ledge that potent indignation has built for you, but you must do it or risk losing one of the more important assets you have in navigating a difficult world — sobriety and humility in the face of the facts.
Though one thing you mightn’t dial back is the fact that so many people’s first instinct was to assume in the initial hours of learning that a Democratic congressperson had been shot that Tea Party rage was the likeliest factor behind the crime. That is also a real thing, though it may in this case have proven to be wrong — and it ought to give Tea Partiers pause when they ponder why so many of their fellow Americans thought on first blush so poorly of them upon hearing of this terrible crime and initially measuring who might be culpable of it.
That is what the the current right-wing whinge-fest (and, just to pick on her, Sarah Palin’s own deafening silence) so willfully ignores — that the vindication of specific innocence in this particular incident does not mean that the larger questions about the debased tenor of our current national dialogue do not have merit in their own right.
Whether a disturbed individual might or might not have committed a heinous act all the same if only bombastic radio hosts, politicians and pundits had said or written different things is not really the important take-away from the last 72 hours. The important lesson, in addition to the tales of human tragedy and heroism from the shooting itself, is the glimpse of possible common ground that this latest national gun atrocity may have offered us via these initial knee-jerk (and yes, almost certainly wrong) reactions — the lesson that the political atmosphere of the past several years hasn’t been all that helpful for us sane folks either.
‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’ There has been a lot of referencing of that Rahm Emanuel quote by the Right in the wake of the Tucson massacre and the blame-game tumult that has emerged from it. Their interpretation of the saying, of course, has been to assign it a purely Machiavellian intent. That is not an unfair thing to do — after all, political opportunism was certainly the broad intent behind Emanuel’s coining of the quote in the first place.
But like so many memorable phrases, that quote is not necessarily limited by the intent of its coiner. One might just as easily turn it towards the side of our better angels. Not letting a crisis go to waste does not have to only mean selfishly gaining from it. It could also mean taking advantage of the natural, if temporary togetherness that a crisis can engender — to further noble, difficult goals that have to that point been sidelined by people’s natural ennui towards tough endeavors during easier times. It could mean appealing to people’s crisis-tuned alertness to the stuff that really matters — even if that stuff is only tangentially related to the proximate causes of the actual crisis.
If two neighbors begin building a friendship, does it really matter if their initial point of contact was a dispute over fences? There is an opportunity for more reasonable (if still hotly contested) political discourse still to be had from this national trauma. Sadly, it seems that our political class just doesn’t know how to get to there from here, so deeply ingrained is their reflex towards a horse-race view of the world. I blame the cult of marketing, Sean Hannity and Keith Olbermann, in that order.
Still, Pollyanna that I am, I do hold out hope that maybe this time we’ll successfully tell the higher-profile reactionaries to shut the fuck up and it’ll stick, that starting tonight stone-cold retarded won’t turn up on my evening news feed every goddamn night without fail, and that tomorrow I’ll finally be able to begin my 900,000-word novelization of Josh Trevino’s first clumsy attempts at l’amour without the assistance of a light saber.
Also, POOP.
I’m afraid that while it may be true that this instance was not directly precipitated by a Tea-Bagger, the constant use of violence-laden rhetoric by the right HAS created a very poisonous atmosphere.
I think “Rev” Phelps should burn in the warmest ring of Hell, but disagree completely with banning his protest. There are plenty of other ways to put him at a distance without banning protest. I think calls for calm and propriety are wasted – the rightwing has been playing the “excitable boy” card – and getting away with it – for too long.
Fuck ’em, and POP
Dammit, that’s POOP
BUT THE FAULE PROFIT SHALL BURN IN THE LAKE OF F!I!R!E!
Dammit that’s FAULSE
You got your FAULE in my POP!!
Has anyone said that Palin et al are directly responsible for the choice of target, as opposed to creating an atmosphere of “don’t like ’em, shoot ’em” politics? Serious question – I’ve throttled back on media consumption the past few days to keep calm.
Not claiming to be expert, but I have been trolling for material, & the most heinous that’s sunk into my noggin was a fringe leftist typing something along the lines of there being “blood on Palin’s hands.”
There may have been a little accusatory hysteria when it first broke.
The all out over-reaction from reactionaries pretty much closes the case though.
The all out over-reaction from reactionaries pretty much closes the case though.
Yeah.
Inflammatory rhetoric is aimed at the basest and most irrational tendencies in us. To cheer Palin screeching, “RELOAD!” you have to be at least a little bit of a crazy dumbfuck, and Palin, Beck, Hannity, et al, raise the level of crazy dumbfuckery in this country. And in a country where you can buy a semi-automatic pistol with a thirty-round magazine in a motherfucking Wal-Mart , the level of crazy dumbfuckery doesn’t need raising.
N__B, I think I can answer your question. The only people to publicly condemn the right wing that really matter were Giffords, (in March), her father, (blamed the Tbaggers), and the sheriff, (blamed hate talk radio and TV). Were they having a knee-jerk reaction? Personally, I think not.
Has anyone said that Palin et al are directly responsible for the choice of target, as opposed to creating an atmosphere of “don’t like ‘em, shoot ‘em” politics? Serious question – I’ve throttled back on media consumption the past few days to keep calm.
I’d like to know this as well, cause I think it’s mostly the latter. The really intense threads over at Balloon Juice yesterday had a few people who did a pretty good job separating the one from the other.
One big difference IMO, who sez the inflammatory stuff.
About the highest it goes on one side is teevee talking heads. On the other side, it’s goes right up to the most recent Veep nominee. Basically, the reason Olbermann and several others have paused to reflect and apologize for their moments of excess is that they know they will lose respect from their peeps if they didn’t. The other guys? Not so much.
Otherwise, I’m just a bit old-fashioned about this, I’d rather the discussion were more about gun control than incendiary rhetoric. Pre-9/11, I guess, wevs.
The Sheriff didn’t blame either side specifically, but Limbaugh and the Fauxbots acted like they were stung by jellyfish, anyways. I wonder why?
So guilty…
So, guilty.
Guilty, guilty, guilty…
~
Oh yeah, the Phelps family. It would seem entirely fitting for political poo-flingers of the world to unite, totally ironically of course, against people hijacking a tragedy to highlight their own grievances.
Ted, I wish we could talk about how our DLC corporatist president is pursuing a lot of right-wing policies that have a recent history of failure.
But we can’t, because cynical plutocrats are funding cynical blowhards to shriek about 2nd Amendments solutions and Marxism.
And our cynical corporate press is there to cover “both sides of the debate”: The wingers say the President’s a Marxist, the President says he isn’t, there you have it, nothing more to be heard…just keep ignoring those unserious lefties, ha ha ha when have they ever been right about anything…
~
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.
Unfortunately gun control is not even on the radar for most politicians, being so pants-pissingly afraid of the NRA and such. Won’t stop me from hammering away at my reps with emails and letters though.
I’ve heard that the Hell’s Angels might be hired as security for some of the funerals? Its been said that if you pay them in beer they do an extra good job.
What the fuck is this doing on Sadlyno? We know Sarah Palin didn’t put the gun in Lougher’s hands, but she helped create a sense that it was rational and reasonable and acceptable to shoot at liberals.
And besides, you know who more clearly motivated this guy into hysteria-land? David Wynn Miller. He’s a big advocate for sovereign citizen claims, the kind of bullshit that’s going to get normalized after the tea party is done normalizing their crap. So maybe not the Tea Party per se, but still some one from the same segment of the ideological spectrum.
No don’t you understand aravind? There’s a spot where we can stand and hold hands and live in deepest joy and comity, where people of good will can share in the dispassionate and reasoned discourse and through our common experience grow ever more faithful to the beauty that is our republic.
The fact that one half of our political discourse is off the fucking rails and is egging on crazy people to do crazy things with guns is not what we should be talking about. They are people of good will who are fine upstanding citizens arguing in good faith and we should extend them the most salubrious welcome possible.
Why just the other day I was listening to my rightwing office mate complaining about how unfair it was that they were being blamed for inducing this crazy kid and that now Democrats were going to use this as a pretext to seize all the guns. Cause you know how they banned all the ammo already.
You need to spend some time in the car driving across the cornland listening to the 8 stations all playing Limbaugh to understand what truly openhearted love for this great nation and your fellow Americans is all about.
You’ll see that they’re totally cool with the buttsecks.
OK. Except that it was one of the teatard heroes, Sharron Angle, who used the phrase “Second Amendment solution.” Was the act in Tucson not a “Second Amendment solution?”
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER the Shit-Stain
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
The charge: The Tucson massacre is a consequence of the “climate of hate” created by Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Glenn Beck, Obamacare opponents and sundry other liberal betes noires.
The verdict: Rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/11/AR2011011106993.html
Everyday Fox broadcasts that “Libs” are selling the country out to Muslims or Mexicans.
EVERY FUCKING DAY!
Yes, they are responsible.
The guns and the death threats are how Conservatives raise money.
It is the only thing that can get the attention of their constituency.
They are not going to stop because the cash will dry up.
It was tots just a coincidence that lil’ JL had a beef against the world and decided to take it out on the Congresswoman. Complete random victim. No through-line from our environment of professional braying loudmouths on the cable and the radio claiming that Democrats are filthy vile thuggish parasites and the choice of victim by a unhinged young man.
Y’all need to keep an eye on your sobriety and humility.
I think Fox are totally irresponsible.
Middle of. Truck. Road. Stand. D.Aristophanes. Run over. If.
Hey kidz, have fun! Rearrange this simple sentence to find out what is gonna happen to this blog poster!
The verdict: Rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence.
-The WaPoop’s own Dr. Psycho
“Some ask how urgent this danger is to America and the world. The danger is already significant, and it only grows worse with time. … America must not ignore the threat gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
~
Why do corporations and politicians spend millions of dollars broadcasting messages on television and radio if not to influence behavior?
I have two cents concerning this;
From what I’ve read on liberal websites yesterday, few people are saying that conservatives or their leaders pulled the trigger.
What we are saying is that the conservative movement has been dominated since 1980 at least by people who, in the words of Paul Krugman, “do not accept government by liberals as legitimate” no matter how they were elected, and will flood the airwaves with torrents of violent, revolutionary and yes, eliminationist rhetoric until such time as they’re in charge again. That rhetoric is heard and believed by millions, including many people who aren’t conservatives themselves.
This kid’s politics appeared to have been an incoherent, incomprehensible clusterfuck. That’s not the GOP’s fault. But he lives in an environment (especially in as red a state as Arizona) where Democratic politicians are targeted with violent rhetoric as enemies of the people on a daily basis, and that is the GOP’s fault, from Sharron Angle cheerfully discussing Second Amendment solutions to the people comparing Obama to Allende and calling for a coup after HCR passed, to this charming list of prominent people that I linked to yesterday but is worth linking to twice, to the regular goose-stepping imbeciles waving “TIME TO WATER THE TREE OF LIBERTY” signs outside of town hall meetings while carrying assault rifles.
Oh, D. Aristophanes. I love ya. But take some input from a guy who actually met Dr. Tiller at the annual Abortion Provider of the Year award ceremony back in 2007.
So really what you are saying is that had Sarah Palin been the shooter on Saturday, there’s no reason to tie white Republican anger and death metaphors to Saturday’s event.
Sigh,
I’ll keep that in mind the next time a doctor is shot following her name appearing on a wanted poster. No connection whatsoever.
Don’t be so quick to point the finger at yourself.
The shooter is a madman, yes. But he is also a teabagger. Read his posts. He hits a lot of the obligatory bagger notes. He thinks states do not need to obey federal law. He’s a tenther. And he’s a goldbug. (Indeed in a sweetly nostalgic touch that would make William Jennings Bryan beam with pride, he’s a bimetallist.)
The one missing piece is religion. He doesn’t seem to be man of faith (perhaps there was simply no room for any additional nonsense in his addled brain), so presumably he didn’t murder six people in the name of a sweet and merciful Jesus. But then, teabaggery is one of those schools of conservativism that readily grants the irreligious a place at the table.
And he is, like Ted Bundy, a registered Republican.
It’s probably safe to assume that his very own private insanity was a bigger driving factor in his deed than the more broadly distributed insanity of teabaggery. But the violent political imagery of baggery provided the channels down which his madness flowed. MIght he not just as easily have been motivated by some other brand of foul demagoguery? Might not his obsessed and malfunctioning mind instead have absorbed spew from antichoicers aboiut the need to “defend” “innocent babies” aganist “murderous abortionists”? Or wallowed in the vitriol of dominionists, whetrher Christian or Muslim, insisting that the Lord’s rule be imposed by force? Very likely it might have.
But it didn’t. His fevered brain swelled up instead with crosshairs and second-amendment solutions and watering the tree of liberty and “I want you armed and dangerous!” and “Target them!” and “Reload!”.
No, Palin and Bachmann and Limbaugh & Co. didn’t expressly instruct Loughner to go on a shooting rampage. This is why they are not at the moment in custody and under investigation for conspiracy to murder. Their guilt is merely moral.
But it is guilt all the same. And the baggers know it. Somewhere deep within their primitive and belligerent minds is a dim but frightening awareness that their chanting helped summon up demons and that they share blame for the swathe of death that followed. Of course, they are conservatives, so this moves them not to remorse but to frantic attempts at damage control and blame-shifting. Hence their bleatings and bellowings lo these past days that it is the Lieberals who, just as they are the real racists and the real fascists, are also the real Tucson shooter.
So, again, don’t be so quick to point the finger at yourself. You’re just being an enabler for them.
The one missing piece is religion.
Doesn’t matter;
But then, teabaggery is one of those schools of conservativism that readily grants the irreligious a place at the table.
This. Ayn Rand was an atheist who preached against religion almost as viciously as she preaches against socialism. Doesn’t stop thousands upon thousands of movement conservatives from reading her book like a second Bible. I’ve seen lesser, contemporary “intellectuals” of the GOP who are also atheists and still adored.
So no, that’s not a disqualifier at all, especially in the post-2008 era where the religious right seems to be dead in the water.
Indeed in a sweetly nostalgic touch that would make William Jennings Bryan beam with pride, he’s a bimetallist.
WJB would totally be against Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Jingle.
Turns out that Loughner was actually registered as an Independent and news media got trolled by a ‘shop.
Speaking of dialing back rhetoric, Palin’s responded. Stay classy, Sarah!
Palin’s responded
Yes she has, by calling Loughner “apolitical”? Sarah, you troglodytic imbecile, a person who reads Adolf Hitler, Karl Marx and Ayn Rand, blogs about 9/11 conspiracy theories, attacks his classmantes for having abortions, and shoots politicians can be called many different things. “Apolitical” is not one of them.
Stay classy, Sarah!
Did that festering sore on the ass of the world actually use the phrase blood libel? I wish no violence directed against her; I merely wish her an extended and losing fight with cancer.
Much as I love and respect you DA, I’m troubled by this post. You’re making the “while the accusations may not be true, the damning thing is how believable they are” argument. It’s a bad argument when used against Obama or leftsists or teh Journolist or wev, so there’s a good likelihood that it’s a bad argument when used against they crazies.
That the Tea Party is a political movement and their public image is a very important factor in their identity is only a slightly mitigating point. The same is true of Obama – that his public image is (or at least should be) a factor in what he does and how he acts.
That said, the construct is ripe for LULZ.
“..I say, it’s time to dial back the finger-pointing and admit, to paraphrase Jon Stewart, that there is no clear through-line from right-wing rhetoric to the shooter’s motives….”
No. Sorry you and Jon got it wrong.
The repetitive messaging (not just rhetoric) of Republican, Conservatives & Teabagger politicians and pundits over the last 36 months (http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline) is Advertising.
Nothing less.
And Advertising works. Otherwise Jon wouldn’t have a fuckin’ TV show.
Dragon-King, I understood the point to be that while no specific instance of gun talk by a rightwinger was the proximate cause of Lougher shooting Giffords and the others, the atmosphere created by the multitude of voices delegitimizing a majority Democrat government and laws with which they disagree is responsible.
Gabrielle Giffords is not the only person killed in the last 10 years because they failed to back the move to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy.
Giffords isn’t dead. Judge Roll and five others are.
“…and, just to pick on her, Sarah Palin’s own deafening silence..”
She was just RELOADing
I’ve seen this logic used by wife-beaters & child-beaters before (‘If you didn’t embarrass me in front of other people I wouldn’t be so abusive toward you’)
Somebody check Trig for bruises & hairline fractures.
I always like the way Mrs Tilton thinks, even when temporarily bereft of snark.
I can’t help but wonder how the media, pundits and everyone else would be reacting if a conservative Republican had been shot. Would everyone be calling for cool heads to prevail? Would everyone be asking people to refrain from pointing fingers?
But…it rarely is conservatives who are targeted/killed. Nope, the people who get targeted always SEEM to be Democrats, abortion-providers, the IRS buildings, and other symbols of BIG SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT… (Especially in recent years.) I see a pattern here. It bums me out that other people don’t.
‘Never let a crisis go to waste.’
I always thought that this was just a paraphrase of Milton Friedman’s advice to Reagan era free-marketeer on implementing economic change.
“There is enormous inertia—a tyranny of the status quo—in private and especially governmental arrangements. Only a crisis—actual or perceived—produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.”
I can’t help but wonder how the media, pundits and everyone else would be reacting if a conservative Republican had been shot.
STARK RAVING MAD, is how they’d have reacted.
STARK RAVING MAD, is how they’d have reacted.
How would we be able to tell the difference between that and normal times?
km,
Totes agree with the whole atmosphere thing. You phrased it well (N__B’s objection notwithstanding). Cue citing of the most cited citation on the cite-heavy Intercites.
My position is that regardless of Loughner’s politics or lack thereof, the marrying of gun culture and political activism is related to this assassination attempt. Very much in line with what you’ve stated.
Did that festering sore on the ass of the world actually use the phrase blood libel?
Cue Abe Foxman with an impassioned defense of Palin in 3… 2…
To balance Palin’s Evil – here’s her number one fan after Rich Lowry to contribute teh Stupid.
Cue Abe Foxman with an impassioned defense of Palin in 3… 2…
Some of us are eating, have eaten in the last few hours, and/or intend to eat again at some point before we die. Please don’t do that.
Now we’ve got all these Republicans saying THE REAL issue is the lack of Mental Health services.
http://thinkprogress.org/2011/01/11/rogers-mental-tucson/
Somebody wanna tell these assholes that to get Mental Health services you need Health Care Insurance?
Jared Loughner’s hate came before the Tea Party
Sure.*
How many people did he shoot in that time before the Tea Party?
*The movement now calling itself the Tea Party was around for decades before its latest change in labels and it was spewing the same eliminationist rhetoric back then as it is now. That argument was the functional equivalent of “you can’t blame the KGB for Stalin’s crimes because it was called the NKVD back then.”
“STARK RAVING MAD, is how they’d have reacted.”
Well, yeah. Which is kind of my point. When do we become entitled to have our big angry liberal freakout? How many people have to die? I’d like a number.
I blame Bill Kristol’s face-pieing to our side of the aisle’s irresponsible use of aggressive pie rhetoric.
Well, as long as teabaggers consciously divorce themselves from reality, facts and reason like what happens to ill paranoid schizophrenics–who do so involuntarily–maybe we’ll stop treating them like that.
The REAL issue is the lack of Mental Health Services. It’s just that GOPpers are against it.
Here’s some hypothetical outomes from this tragedy:
1. Rousers of redneck rabble will reassess what is and or is not appropriate language in light of the fact that people with mental illness exist and are susceptible to being incited. Also unicorns will fly out my ass.
2. Tighter gun control. And unicorns will fly out my butt.
3. Increased security theatre with Congress-critters nearly constantly surrounded by men with dark glasses and guns.
4. More attention and resources directted to the treatment of the mentally disturbed.
5. Your mom.
Since I’m not the goatse guy, unicorns are not going to fit up my backside. So I’m pushing for #4. Maybe someone can shame the Repubs into dropping their Health Care Repeal nonsense by pointing out that it extends coverage for mental health services to so many more people.
Then again, counting on Repubs to do anything because of shame (other than things involving hookers and/or wet suits) is pretty naive.
So really what you are saying is that had Sarah Palin been the shooter on Saturday, there’s no reason to tie white Republican anger and death metaphors to Saturday’s event.
I’m not saying that at all. In the wake of the shooting, there is every reason to highlight the rancorous state of our national political dialogue and to emphasize Palin et al’s outsized role in getting us to the nasty place we are in.
I’m saying, though, that the initial phase of our reaction to the shooting — when we knew next to nothing about the shooter and lots of folks ran to their blogs or Facebook or the talking head shows to say ‘look what Sarah Palin has wrought’ or something similar — is over. Read the Mother Jones interview with the shooter’s friend — the friend describes him not as a Tea Partier in any recognizable form but rather compares him to Christopher Nolan’s Joker — a guy who just ‘wants to watch the world burn’.
In the reaction to this event by partisans, it sure looks like he got what he wanted.
If we actually do want a saner, more civil political discourse, it obviously cannot just involve us lefties turning the other cheek in the face of wingers’ violent rhetorical outbursts. I’m not for that anyway, because it’s too entertaining to hit back at them. I don’t even think it means us meeting them halfway, given that they are (as I mentioned in the post) worse.
But it does mean sometimes pulling back a bit — in the context of a national tragedy might be a good time for this — to show that we know that the Tea Partiers or conservatives or libertarians who are relatives, co-workers or friends are not all the ideological doppelgangers of Palin, Rush, Beck et al, but actual human beings who are also trying to make sense of a senseless tragedy and whose first thoughts when something like this happens probably aren’t about how to spin it to get greater political power or higher ratings.
And what the wingers do ought to be pretty goddamn predictable by now. We know that Michelle Malkin, for example, is always going to bring a gun to a pillow fight. I just grow increasingly weary of playing the game at all.
What’s also kind of disappointing is that nobody’s talking about how a group of supposedly pansy-assed liberals were the ones who bravely took the shooter down when he was reloading, saving who knows how many more lives that otherwise would have been lost.
Since I’m not the goatse guy
Damn. You were my second guess, right behind* Righteous Bubba.
*Heh.
Also, #5.
Now we’ve got all these Republicans saying THE REAL issue is the lack of Mental Health services.
St. Ronnie cured all mental illness. Remember when he emptied all the mental hospitals?
The goatse guy is open to dialogue.
I don’t know, DA. Who, besides Malkin, would be at that pillow fight?
The Mother Jones interview.
Sweet IPU! From here on, I promise to do my best to address any posts directed to libs. Bookmark it.
3. Increased security theatre with Congress-critters nearly constantly surrounded by men with dark glasses and guns.
aka Peter King’s 1000′ No Gunz Around Us zone
This is ridiculous. The guy is a bagger through and through. His ideas are fringe even for far right libertarians, but they’re definitly born of that maelstrom. The ridiculous grammar arguments are out of the sovereign citizen movement, which is a fringe part of the right-wing militia movement… and he’s also a goldbug. The idea that his views are all over the map politically does not hold water.
But it does mean sometimes pulling back a bit …to show that we know that the Tea Partiers or conservatives or libertarians who are relatives, co-workers or friends are not all the ideological doppelgangers of Palin, Rush, Beck et al, but actual human beings who are also trying to make sense of a senseless tragedy and whose first thoughts when something like this happens probably aren’t about how to spin it to get greater political power or higher ratings.
That is some beautiful sentiment right there. Love of fellow countrymen and all that.
But what the what DA? Unless you’re advocating using this circumstance to drive wedge between the hypothetical familial teatard and the Spewmeisters, then I’m losing your point.
I’m also getting the point that if Libs draw the through line from toxic rhetoric from the Spewmeisters to lethal actions by unhinged bimetallists, we’re being disrespectful to people who listen to and believe said Spewmeisters?
It’s reasonable to say he’s off the map if he’s arguing about words having no meaning. Also: IS HE FRENCH?
What’s also kind of disappointing is that nobody’s talking about how a group of supposedly pansy-assed liberals were the ones who bravely took the shooter down when he was reloading, saving who knows how many more lives that otherwise would have been lost.
Kind of like how everyone knew that the Times Square bomber was Muslim, but nobody knew that the guy who called in to report him was too.
The idea that his views are all over the map politically does not hold water.
9/11 conspiracy theorizing in my experience (no scientific sample, just what I’ve read and heard over the years) tends to come from lefties rather than righties, and Karl Marx is hardly a libertarian author.
Like I said above, from what little I read (on wikipedia I admit), the guy’s politics don’t appear to be “all over the map” so much as “an incoherent, incomprehensible clusterfuck.” Which doesn’t mean you can’t be influenced by teabaggers, of course.
I think it’s almost laughable that the Arizona legislature enacted ’emergency’ legislation to prevent the Phelps tribe from protesting at the funerals. Let them come…let them exercise their first amendment rights…and then let the crowds have at them.
DKW, the first 3 options sounded really painful for you, so I was almost rooting against them. Almost.
OFF TOPIC
Where is Actor? He’s been silent for–what?–four days now?
But what the what DA? Unless you’re advocating using this circumstance to drive wedge between the hypothetical familial teatard and the Spewmeisters, then I’m losing your point.
Well, I am advocating that. I don’t really give a fuck what the Spewmeisters say about all this — hint: it’s whatever they think is to their political or ratings advantage — but I do care about my cousin the Palin fanboy thinks because as ridiculous as a lot of his views and affiliations are, he doesn’t spend all that much time dwelling on politics other than to pick up occasional signals from the teatard ether. As such, he’s actually approachable if one takes a reasonable tone — maybe not to change his mind completely, but at least to remind him that sensible people (my half of the exchange, anyway) can disagree amicably.
But if I were to always go after him with accusations and disdain, I know exactly how he’d react — like the cornered animal that he’d feel like. And that approach doesn’t tend to secure me the last beer at family gatherings, so I’m against it.
You could try mind controlling him with your grammar.
admit, to paraphrase Jon Stewart, that there is no clear through-line from right-wing rhetoric to the shooter’s motives.
I’m still not ready to admit this. As an empiricist, I suggest an experiment: No explicit or dogwhistled calls for political violence for ten years from anyone, and see if the number of attacks goes down.
Sometimes I make him get me an extra helping of potato salad through the delicate use of a gerund.
D.A. at 17:59
Word. I prefer the indirect approach over frontal assualts on entrenched positions. Maneuver them out. And be patient: Little by little, it’s possible to bend people over time.
Where is Actor?
He’s busy making us jealous.
So I walk in the door and there’s already 65 comments, the first 15 of which already say what I took away from DA’s post. DAMN YOU EAST COASTERS!
I did notice this (and maybe someone has already mentioned this; I’ll go back and read):
That smells a lot to me like the “Obama’s a communist! OK maybe not a communist but the fact that you might think that of him is significant!”
No, either a thing is or it isn’t. I’m on the side of thinking that the level of rhetoric made the shooter feel like it’d be OK to shoot up a mall parking lot that had a targeted “enemy” and I’ve seen nothing to make me think otherwise. The level of defensiveness of the worst offenders makes me think they know it too.
Ok, but, here’s what I wanna know:
Rightwingers have forever been screeching about how sex in movies, violence in video games and song lyrics, and even persons unknown to them of the same sex being allowed to marry will bring about the downfall of this Great Nation of Ours.
In other words, their entire schtick is that “people are powerless to make choices; they are automatons who simply act out scenarios they’ve seen or heard.”
Except, of course, when it’s a lunatic acting out a scenario that’s been repeated and reinforced hundreds of times by prominent Republican elected officials, candidates, and media personalities.
Then, the madman acted on his own, and if he was influenced by anything, it was by those dastardly liberals, who wanted that 9 year old girl to be killed so they could use her death as a cudgel against Republicans being given a pass on all the horrible things they do.
Interesting how that works.
…and I really thought that after this particular killing spree, even many on the right would agree that maybe we could cool the incendiary rhetoric a bit and at least try and be civil, but then, seeing defense of this same speech being penned by those on the right, I thought to myself, “siwwy wabbit, why would they want to tone down the rhetoric when it’s the most effective GOTV weapon in their arsenal at the moment”? Palin’s defense of it is glaring.
she’s lost it:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/12/sarah-palin-response-arizona-shooting
Sarah Palin today accused her opponents of manufacturing a “blood libel” by suggesting her rhetoric and campaign tactics had anything to do with the Arizona shootings.
holy shit
But if I were to always go after him with accusations and disdain, I know exactly how he’d react — like the cornered animal that he’d feel like. And that approach doesn’t tend to secure me the last beer at family gatherings, so I’m against it.
I think what rankles is that the spewmeisters on the other side feel absolutely no need to draw that kind of distinction. The people they hate (not just political opponents but entire demographic groups who’ve done nothing but be born to the wrong set of parents, apparently) are routinely attacked not just with accusations and disdain but with violent rhetoric that frequently produces actual violence. (Look at the post-9/11 backlash against the Muslim community and those mistaken for it).
And yet every time that happens (not accusations and disdain; actual deaths), we’re told to sit back and play nice and understand where they’re coming from and realize that they’re not all like that and the really important thing is that we not the feelings of people like, say, your cousin. (Or quite a few people I know).
Meanwhile, the other side isn’t even remotely interested in responding in kind. Obama’s “beyond red states and blue states” speeches are answered with Palin’s “real vs unreal America” ones. The few people on their side who do stand up to the insanity are either ignored or eventually blacklisted (example; Bush and McCain’s “remember we’re fighting terrorism not Islam” rhetoric is now paraded as prime examples of why they were liberal RINOs).
And the body count keeps fucking climbing, but every time we’re told to be mindful of other people’s feelings and not use this for political advantage or whatever. That’s why you’ve had such an explosion of fury from the left over this; it’s called the straw that broke the camel’s back.
DA: I understand what you’re saying, I agree with some of it, and I’d add that you’re taking the high road and I respect you for it. But I also understand and tend to side more with the outraged liberal crowds. Enough is goddamn enough. How much more of this shit is it going to take? We’re not taking offense at being looked down upon by some imaginary elites; people are dying, and I’m not seeing any indication that it’s about to stop. How fucking far do those assholes have to take it before people finally stand up and say “enough”?
The verdict: Rarely in American political discourse has there been a charge so reckless, so scurrilous and so unsupported by evidence.
Says the guy who does psych evaluations of presidents based on the words of their speechwriters.
Speaking of dialing back rhetoric, Palin’s responded. Stay classy, Sarah!
Blood libel? Holy fuck.
I am shamed by the big fat nothing I’ve got on the grammar jokes front. I’ve been fumbling for the past five minutes on a lame imperative/apéritif pun. I blame septic vitriolic rhetoric that makes us sick something something lick a dick.
And for those who were disappointed by Jon Stewart’s measured take on all this: after noting that the crazy will always be with us, he also said our goal should be for the politicians and media mouthpieces to not sound just like the crazies, so we can tell who the crazies are.
after noting that the crazy will always be with us, he also said our goal should be for the politicians and media mouthpieces to not sound just like the crazies, so we can tell who the crazies are.
Objection. Assumes facts not in evidence (that the politicians and media mouthpieces are not themselves crazies).
I’m sorry you stopped. This had the beginnings of something truly beautiful.
Without looking for any statistics to back me up, I’ll posit people today are more willing to shoot others than say, 30 years ago.
There are myriad reasons for this increase, an elucidation of which would likely garner a Nobel prize.
With that in mind, attempting to whittle the list down to just one thing doesn’t seem so smart.
Chris – perhaps a few, but I think I agree with Stewart’s implicit point: some of the worst offenders on this count aren’t crazy – they just pretend to be to whip up the crazies for money or ratings or whatever.
Maybe the solution to this is much simpler than we’ve considered. Maybe all that needs to happen is for the Secret Service to call on the next media personality or elected official/candidate who links guns to political actions. And every one after that, until they finally understand that it’s serious business to even make a veiled threat against a political opponent.
Jon Stewart’s always a little too measured for me. I didn’t take much issue with what he said. He toned down the “reasonable liberal” shtick a bit.
,,,so I was almost rooting against them. Almost.
If being sodomized by mythical creatures leads to an end to firearms-flavoured demagoguery and the violent shootings of civilians then I will drop my pants willingly (and totes heterosexually). And hope that unicorn horns aren’t as sharp as they look.
Blood libel? Holy fuck.
my reaction too.. did no-one at her office say; ‘hay Sarah, pick another phrase….”….
whats that you see in your rear view mirror Sarah… your presidential hopes…
Also the non-violent shootings of civilians. Man my englisheness is like in the crapper today.
As usual, the real victim here is Sarah Palin.
“Unhand my baguette monsieur!!….and take zat!…and.zat!”!
“As usual, the real victim here is Sarah Palin.”
On this we can all agree.
bOINGbOING had a thread over the weekend about DAVID WYNN MILLER and his unique understanding of law and language.
This shite seems to have been an influence on the mad-and-in-no-way-involved-or-influenced-by-or-improperly-guided-by-the-Spewmeisters-or-the-TeaParty Laughner
“As usual, the real victim here is Sarah Palin.”
Freedom is always the victim. Will no one stand up for Freedom?
That smells a lot to me like the “Obama’s a communist! OK maybe not a communist but the fact that you might think that of him is significant!”
False analogy. Obama isn’t a communist, doesn’t ‘seem like’ one and never has. He’s a middle-of-the-road Dem pol who is way too complicit with monied interests but who at least on occasion serves up watered-down liberal policy that is somewhat better than what we’d get from the GOP. The ‘fact that you might think that of him’ means you are retarded.
But I was talking about people’s gut reactions to the shooting before more facts were in. In those first few hours and days of learning that a Democratic congresswoman in the heart of brown-people-hating teatard country had been shot, it was sensible (and not retarded) to guess that the shooter was a teatard or heavily influenced by them in a direct way. And as we get more evidence, that may still prove to be the case. But right now, it seems pretty unlikely — we just don’t have any useful evidence that points in that direction. ‘He was a goldbug!’ … ‘His weird grammar fixation is similar to the sovereign citizen movement!’ etc. just doesn’t cut the mustard for me.
But to the point of whether it ought to be troubling in its own right that so many people’s first reaction to the shooting was, oh, this has got to be a teatard. It’s similar to if you learned that a prominent abortion doctor had just been shot. You’d justifiably guess right off the bat that a pro-life nutter was responsible. But if it turned out that the shooter was an estranged lover, your initial instinct would obviously be wrong. But here’s the thing — that wouldn’t mean that you were exhibiting anything less than common sense in making the pro-lifer assumption in the first place.
I will disagree with you to a certain extent:
It’s true the the Arizona shooter was likely not directly influenced by Tea-Party style rhetoric (so far as we know). But I DO think that the language of the Palins, the Angles, the Bachmanns, the Becks, et al, DID contribute to a toxic and overheated political climate where one knew this type of thing was bound to happen sooner or later.
Words have consequences. Remember the overheated right -wing rhetoric against Clinton in the 1990s–and the Oklahoma City bombing? The bombing of the 1996 Olympic games? The attacks on abortion clinics? The shots fired at the White House? the attempt to crash a plane into the White House in 1994?
“Man my englisheness is like in the crapper today.”
And it’s a shame–really dampens my horniness.
Wait a minute…
DA: I understand what you’re saying, I agree with some of it, and I’d add that you’re taking the high road and I respect you for it. But I also understand and tend to side more with the outraged liberal crowds.
Likewise. I guess I sometimes just get weary of always having to be in the muck with these winger assholes. But I’m glad you and others are still manning the barricades. I’m just having a smoke break, I’ll be back eventually …
Hm. You know, I’m all for nuance and giving people the benefit of the doubt and shit, and there are definitely plenty of rightwingers that you can *at least* talk to, but anyone who takes to heart shit that Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, et al spew on a regular basis *must*, by *definition* be, at best, brainwashed, and at worst, delusional, selfish, racist, and possibly sociopathic.
If we can reach the somewhat reasonable rightwingers by saying, “Oh, okay, both sides do it, let’s tone down the rhetoric,” that’s great. But guess what? The people who will listen to that aren’t the people we need to worry about. We need to worry about the “crazies” like this guy, and saying “Oh, we need to tone down the rhetoric” to those sorts of people, and people like Limbaugh, Malkin, etc etc etc is pretty much fucking useless. It’s a useless proposition. I’d rather go with the TRUTH, which is that these people are demagogues who are inciting violence and poisoning the political atmosphere of this country and find some way to bring it to the attention of reasonable people.
We’re losing at this right now, in no small part because of the mainstream media’s refusal to, you know, TELL THE FUCKING TRUTH, but I’m *not* going to go with the “both sides do it” line just to make some conservative’s fee fees better.
But I DO think that the language of the Palins, the Angles, the Bachmanns, the Becks, et al, DID contribute to a toxic and overheated political climate where one knew this type of thing was bound to happen sooner or later.
Oh, I agree with that wholeheartedly. Shit, this type of thing HAS happened already in recent years and it WAS directly tied to right-wing rhetoric (see: the Tiller murder, the shoot-up of the Unitarian church, the Castanega fake anthrax mailings that were inspired by Malkin, Coulter etc).
And it will happen again.
Damn, people, slow the fuck down.
“And yet every time that happens (not accusations and disdain; actual deaths), we’re told to sit back and play nice and understand where they’re coming from and realize that they’re not all like that and the really important thing is that we not the feelings of people like, say, your cousin. (Or quite a few people I know).”
Yeah, I think in this case (and a lot of cases), the people who are saying that we need to realize that they’re not all like that are people who don’t really have any substantive reason to be afraid of the likes of rightwing rhetoric, other than the fact that they’re liberals. For those of us who are vulnerable (and I don’t count myself as being *that* vulnerable), it’s rather maddening to hear over and over again how we should give people the benefit of the doubt or reach across the aisle or what the fuck ever.
I do think we need to remember that these people, however retrofuck they are, are *people* and deserve the same basic respect that we’d extend to any human being, but other than that, fuck ’em.
And it will happen again.
Of course it will. But here is the great thing about that. We can prove that evolution is real by pointing out that bullet proof-politicians have a competitive advantage and thus are more successful than their bullet susceptible colleagues.
False analogy
Okay, I think I understand now. The problem isn’t so much that the “accusations, while false, are believable”, it’s that the accusations are so very much believable. It’s not “while Obama may not have spent hundreds of millions of tax dollars to fly in a chef to specially fix his arugula and tofu cheese sammich, the fact that right-tards all over the country fell for the story means Obama hates America”. The problem is that we all expect lunatic psycho political assassins to be wearing Gadsden flag underoos.
You’re right. The Tea Party isn’t monolithic. In fact, the lack of shared principles and ideals other than generalized discontent is a particularly striking aspect of the movement.
Maybe this incident can serve to bring about dialogue about how the opportunistic sick fucks like those that populate the airwaves are exactly what they are – blood-libel and all. I gotta say that I’m skeptical, but totally in agreement that this would be a good thing™.
Still, when the inevitable “We’re all Jared Loughner now” post comes from Bobo Wens or Insty – I will nod in agreement and make jokes about their newfound self-awareness.
Also POOP.
To go back to the domestic violence parallel again (and I’m sorry if this seems insensitive or is somehow not taking domestic violence seriously, because that’s not my intention at all), it seems to me that it’s like a wife saying, “You’re an abuser!” to the person who has abused her. And the reaction is, “OMG SEE YOU’RE JUST AS BAD!” when the worst thing she’s guilty of is labeling him after he’s kicked her in the head.
Aaaand, of course, the thread slows down when I start posting. Fuckers.
T&U killed the thread.
To go back to the domestic violence parallel again (and I’m sorry if this seems insensitive or is somehow not taking domestic violence seriously, because that’s not my intention at all), it seems to me that it’s like a wife saying, “You’re an abuser!” to the person who has abused her. And the reaction is, “OMG SEE YOU’RE JUST AS BAD!” when the worst thing she’s guilty of is labeling him after he’s kicked her in the head.
I don’t think you’re trivializing it. You can recover from rape (like you said, not to trivialize it or anything); you can’t recover from death.
And I agree, but once again I’ve known that about them ever since they rose up in sincere patriotic outrage because Obama had dared to feel sorry for the Iraq war, and that was more important than, y’know, the lives of Iraqis.
Aaaand, of course, the thread slows down when I start posting. Fuckers.
I also hate posting during EST lunch hours.
T&U killed the thread.
You saying that is as violent as her actions.
Going back to the whole “blood libel” thing…is she serious, here, or, as usual, does she not know what the fuck she’s talking about?
I’ll add that the only thing resembling “blood libel” that I’ve seen in the political discourse has come from the right, through accusations that Muslims are treasonous barbarians and “abortion doctors” murder live babies and collect them for nefarious mad scientist experiments.
All of us.
————-
Blood libel? No shit?
Talk about playing the victim. Fuck.
Yes, Sarah, nobody ever in the history of the world has been as oppressed as poor you. Oh, woe. How awful to be hoist on your own retard.
Going back to the whole “blood libel” thing…is she serious, here, or, as usual, does she not know what the fuck she’s talking about?
Yes.
I didn’t mean “killed the thread” in the violent sense. I meant it in the same sense that surveyors use the word “killed”.
You saying that is as violent as her actions.
I used its blood to make gluten-free crackers to go with my hummus.
I love Twitter: “Blood Libel is a beautiful name for a girl.”
From AuldBlackJack’s link:
“Everybody is talking about ‘oh, this is about people having guns, this is about political speech.’ None of that had a factor here.”
Republicans seem to have a hard time figuring out that most problems have more than one cause. This, to me, is a combination of not provding for our countrymen with mental problems, providing such people with easy access to fire arms and exposing them to extreme political speech.
Also from that link:
“If we want to solve this from happening in the future, you can talk about all the gun laws you want — that’s not going to do it. A bad guy is going to get a gun.”
Now replace the word gun with drug and see how well that would fly in the Republican party.
“Well, yeah. Which is kind of my point. When do we become entitled to have our big angry liberal freakout? How many people have to die? I’d like a number.
All of us.”
That’s what I thought. And then our liberal freakout will be so diluted because ghosts can’t yell or spit.
Now you’re getting the idea.
I’m a little less skeptical now. The blood-libel thing may have been a step too far for Super Sarah. The comment section at Wash Posts On Faith post regarding it is remarkably sane.
it seems to me that it’s like a wife saying, “You’re an abuser!” to the person who has abused her. And the reaction is, “OMG SEE YOU’RE JUST AS BAD!” when the worst thing she’s guilty of is labeling him after he’s kicked her in the head.
Somebody commented over at alicublog that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric while the right needs to tone down the murder. I’m sure it’s uncivil of me to republish it as I am obviously accusing each and every person on the right of murder rather than recognizing that they are individuals. I only do it because I am an irrational totally group identified lefty commie terrorist who hates America.
“I guess I sometimes just get weary of always having to be in the muck with these winger assholes.”
Is that the underlying sentiment here, DA? You’re just tired of all the ugliness? Or do you honestly think – as all the “reasonable” “moderate” “centrists” do (or claim to) – that humouring the psychotic fuckers will get them to behave like decent human beings, instead of like Sara Palin or Fred Phelps?
If it’s the latter, well, you’re dead wrong. I don’t want to be an asshole about it, because I know you’re trying to take the high road here. But you’re still wrong.
I meant it in the same sense that surveyors use the word “killed”.
Oh, you mean T&U finished the beer.
Love it.
Which, along with
made me think “OK Sheriff, we’re gonna fuck ya now. And we’re gonna fuck ya slooooowwwww.” twice in one thread.
The intent of the people paying Palin, Beck sLimebag and all the Fox marionettes is to divide Americans from each other. Divide & conquer and all that- it isn’t complicated.
Because if “sensible” Americans of different political leanings actually talked with one another we’d know we have a lot in common, that all believe our Gov has been completely taken over by multi-national corporate interests, and our country being systematically destroyed by the Super-Wealthy. And then we might well DO something. Can’t have that!
So the crazy-righties have been empowered, the bigots, the snake-handlers all the bottom-of-the-barrel have been thoroughly churned up into the main -that is, sensible- body of Americans, to wreck havoc and create fear, and terrorize moderates and liberals.
Incidents like Dr. Tiller’s murder, the Holocaust museum murder, and Saturday’s assassination attempt & murder, are a victory for the Murdochs and Kochs and Wall Street Folk who put Obama in power, because now Americans hate one another even more than we did last week, because we’re still blaming each other, and threatening & killing one another for the deliberate crimes of the very few multi billionaires who run things.
She used that phrase!?!? Is Giffords by any chance Jewish? That would just make it too perfectly outré.
When Orangy Boner said of a dem candidate in a neighboring district “he’s a dead man” for his health care vote that guy took exception. Boner of course said he didn’t mean it that way. The guy replied (my paraphrase) “it doesn’t matter how you meant it. It doesn’t matter how I took it. What matters is how the least sane person who heard you say it took it.”.
,,,most problems have more than one cause.
LIAR! All bad things happen because God is ANGRY. And also because liberals. God is Angry at liberals.
People blame Wal-Mart, but it’s really Sam’s Club (and Costco) that makes the high-capacity magazines an issue. I mean, bullets are really cheap but you have to buy like 500 of them.
She used that phrase!?!? Is Giffords by any chance Jewish? That would just make it too perfectly outré.
She is!!!!
I’m a little less skeptical now. The blood-libel thing may have been a step too far for Super Sarah. The comment section at Wash Posts On Faith post regarding it is remarkably sane.
That is a grab bag of fail right there.
There’s something more than ordinarily disgusting about listening to Palin prattle on about the First Amendment in the name of a bastardized American Exceptionalism creed that leads her to violate every one of its tenets.
Even sicker is the way she wraps herself and her ideology in the mantle of a woman she knows opposes everything it stands for. Kind of like conservatives claiming MLK’s mantle, if they’d done it three days after he was shot and it came out of the mouth of George Wallace.
And this is different from the emergency legislation banning WBC protests how, Sarah?
I do hold out hope that maybe this time we’ll successfully tell the higher-profile reactionaries to shut the fuck up and it’ll stick, that starting tonight stone-cold retarded won’t turn up on my evening news feed every goddamn night without fail
The Quitter sure put this hope in its place.
fiqst for rightwing verisimilitude.
Pat Buchanan apparently just called Sarah Palin a “victim of hate.”
Poor baby.
Oh dear.
From Giffords’ Wikipedia page: ” Giffords was raised in a mixed religious environment by her Jewish father and Christian Science-practicing mother. She has identified herself solely with Judaism since 2001, belonging to Congregation Chaverim, a Reform synagogue, in Tucson.She is Arizona’s first Jewish Congresswoman.”
WHOOOOOOOOPS. Am I being too hopeful in thinking that this will sink Palin?
Of course, the Teatards are going to cry foul at being forced to bear any of the blame for this, but they’ll surely take their political winnings and learn from them.
Apparently, several AZ Republican officials who were targets of the Teatards have resigned their positions, for personal safety reasons.
Yeah. That sort of result will surely get them to back off the rhetoric.
Oy.
“Is Giffords by any chance Jewish?”
Oy vey!
god IS angry at liberals and/or atheists
(Sorry if this has already been linked to/pointed out.)
This is how it starts, people.
There’s something more than ordinarily disgusting about listening to Palin prattle on about the First Amendment in the name of a bastardized American Exceptionalism creed that leads her to violate every one of its tenets.
Especially considering she’s trying to use the First Amendment as a shield against criticism; she can say anything she wants, but for anyone to complain about it is beyond the pale and a violation of her Constitutional right not to be made to feel bad about being a fucking moron.
That is a grab bag of fail right there.
Well yeah, Palin’s pretty out of touch. But it’s the comment thread that’s interesting. The Under God columnist asked
and the answer seems to be pretty unequivocal.
“victim of hate.”
The seldom played B side of the Eagles’ single, Victim of Love
Especially considering she’s trying to use the First Amendment as a shield against criticism; she can say anything she wants, but for anyone to complain about it is beyond the pale and a violation of her Constitutional right not to be made to feel bad about being a fucking moron.
“Calling me an abuser is the same thing as me kicking you in the head!”
I knew they were different, but I didn’t think they were another race. The Grand Old Race perhaps?
Is “blood libel” a surveyors’ term?
and the answer seems to be pretty unequivocal.
Well, it is the Post.
KWillow at 19:37 is I like sez me
Blood LEVEL.
Jonah Goldblart enters the blood libel fray.
Shorter Quitter, from DKW’s link:
“Crimes stand on their own unless they are committed against me.”
Hooboy, I tried to read the comments at the Loadpants but Juses! I hate that they make me hate them.
“Calling me an abuser is the same thing as me kicking you in the head!”
Except when it is La Sarah because then it is worse. Plus we scuffed her shoe with our skull.
Jonah Goldblart enters the blood libel fray.
Thank God. I’ve been wondering what I should think.
Where “them” = commenters, not the comments themselves.
Cue Abe Foxman with an impassioned defense of Palin in 3… 2…
I hate myself. Here’s the “condemnation”:
I was so proud of myself when I leveled the droopy living room ceiling in our 1860 farmhouse reno with the aid of a water level of my own inspiration and construction.
/patting self on back
Shorter Foxman:
It is unfortunate that Palin resorted to jew-baiting in the most offensive manner I can imagine, but those liberals totally deserved it.
From Jonah’s comments:
I blockquote this not to comment on its content, but to ask: is there a name for this type of writing? The aimless hyperbole, the stilted cadence, the use and misuse of SAT words (“mendacity”) where ordinary ones will do? We see it all the time in comment threads. Somebody cleverer than me should give it a good name.
Palin has every right to defend herself against these kinds of attacks, and we agree with her that the best tradition in America is one of finding common ground despite our differences.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you. Yes, I bolted out of the gate in the race to blame the Violence Peddlers. What if I (we) had not? This precipitous action is one of the few times the Left has not waited until it was too late, until the V.P.s had run two laps to our 1/4 mile marker before placing blame where blame is genuinely due, and thereby planting the accusation that the Left had to defend against, usually unsuccessfully. Run it back now? I will wait until the facts are known. Right now we don’t know all the facts. If they prove that I was too hasty to point to whom I believe the most likely inspiration for Tucson, then I will remain silent. That will be my apology.
John Cole knows Republicans far too well.
“actual human beings who are also trying to make sense of a senseless tragedy”
a dubious proposition at this point, DA
I’m seeing a lot of humanity forfeited by good white ordinary Christian folk, who have become total monsters. Sadly, yes.
BLOOD-LIBELLING. Get it right.
“I blockquote this not to comment on its content, but to ask: is there a name for this type of writing?”
Buckleyisms?
I’ve posted a belated Christmas gift for La Palin over at my joint.
BLOOD-LIBELLING. Get it right.
I use a Dymo Blood-Libeler for that professionally-printed look.
Although Buckley did know how to use the term “mendacity” correctly, I think. He knew all about it, after all.
Hyperboleet.
Official ADL statement. It’s a good thing my new schtick is making your mom jokes because parody and satire are dead.
Hyperboleet.
Why are you a genius?
Official ADL statement. It’s a good thing my new schtick is making your mom jokes because parody and satire are dead.
WHAT?
I don’t even know what to say to that. Fuck.
“It is a stunning display of unhinged Leftest hatred that they should shriek with such blood-curdling mendacity over every word ever uttered by Palin.”
Oh my. Somebody’s trying very hard. And mucking things up pretty badly.
While the term “blood-libel” has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused…
Yep. I use it in court all the time. “Your honor, the state has utterly failed to prove its case. The defendant moves for a directed verdict and, for the record, objects to the state’s blood libel.”
Unless someone can tell me what “blood-curdling” mendacity is. Blood-curdling would be a much better descriptor for “shriek”…but in his haste to sound like he has on his Smart Fedora, he got all excited and mixed up.
Ugh. My quotatiOn marks are all messed up. Shoulda worn my Smart Fedora.
I ate RB’s brain. Blame the zombie for getting it all started.
I was so proud of myself when I leveled the droopy living room ceiling in our 1860 farmhouse reno with the aid of a water level of my own inspiration and construction.
Inspired by this, many residents of Brisbane are having their living rooms water leveled even as we type.
“Shoulda worn my Smart Fedora”
With your maternity French maid outfit?
“blood-curdling” mendacity
Little Miss Palin
Stepped in a fail and
Spoke of her curds and gore,
Along came a voter
Who looked and said “Totes, her
“speeches are all a bore.”
rodertrudis – thank you for your centrist civility vis-a-vis ‘the facts’. I would only caution that the facts do in fact seem to be known now, and that it would appear to be counter-factual at this point to double down on the idea that this dude is the poster child for teatard violence. Still, while that ship may have sailed, it still remains that teatard violence is now being talked about semi-seriously (as are gun control and mental health care) so that’s not a terrible thing.
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin is busy digging herself an even deeper hole even as it becomes clear that she was not actually the Jodi Foster of the shooter’s fevered brain movies, with whom he would settle down with after his triumphant deed to produce strangely named babies.
And that too is not a terrible thing, if only because it further exposes her proclivity for snatching dumbass from the jaws of victory.
he got all excited and mixed up.
MOMMY PUT HIS SMART SOCKS ON WRONG.
My concern with mental health care being brought to the forefront is that it will be used as an excuse to start locking people up for being “crazy”. Which…is not good.
I ate RB’s brain.
GOD I MISS THAT GUY!
T&U – yes, that is true, not good. More widespread knowledge of resources available for people like the shooter’s college classmates to turn to with their concerns about him would, however, be good.
I ate RB’s brain. Blame the zombie for getting it all started.
Did you leave any for me?
GOD I MISS THAT GUY!
Not as much as I miss Tigrismus.
Heavens, no. I was thinking more along lines of a Colbert-style Brooks Brothers suit.
Get outta here with your blood libels
My concern with mental health care being brought to the forefront is that it will be used as an excuse to start locking people up for being “crazy”. Which…is not good.
Not as long as these bozos consider disagreeing with them a sure sign of mental illness.
Tigrismus was a hell of a guy.
That’s what I thought. And then our liberal freakout will be so diluted because ghosts can’t yell or spit.
that’s why you all need to go zombie.
THAT would be an awesome liberal freakout.
Not as long as these bozos consider disagreeing with them a sure sign of mental illness.
Not to mention the fact that most mentally ill people do not have the propensity to be violent and are disproportionate victims of violence themselves.
that’s why you all need to go zombie.
I’m not eating any conservative’s brain! God knows what you could catch.
OK, but only if we can be the really fast, strong “28 Days” kind.
Plus, what an unsatisfyingly* tiny morsel.
*is this not a word? Somebody toss me my Smart Fedora™
Shorter Palin:
Ha! That Congresswoman had to get shot in the head to get all that attention! Now watch this drive!
Plus, what an unsatisfyingly* tiny morsel.
KFC chicken popcorn looks bigger and more appetizing
for “Black Pudding”*
When blood libel is fun.
*Ewww.
Pig testicles look bigger and more appealing.
“Pig testicles look bigger and more appealing.”
is what DKW’s mom said.
Ha! That Congresswoman had to get shot in the head to get all that attention! Now watch this drive!
Perish the thought!
“Now watch this drive” will forever remain the catch-phrase of the Bush administration. Reagan had “tear down this wall,” Nixon had “I am not a crook,” Kennedy had “ask not what your country can do for you,” FDR had “nothing to fear but fear itself,” and Lincoln with his “four score and seven years ago.” Bush, in my opinion, should get “now watch this drive” and have it patented.
(Palin’s catchphrase will always be “I can see Russia from my house,” which isn’t even a quote from her, which is her good fortune, because anything she thought up on her own would have been orders of magnitude dumber).
KFC chicken popcorn looks bigger and more appetizing
Also slightly less likely to lead to syphilitic kuru with cycles of fecal vomiting.
“Chris said,
January 12, 2011 at 20:55”
I dunno, “heckuva job Brownie” is pretty good.
I was gonna say…
This said by the group that, whenever someone utters the slightest criticism of Israeli policies in Palestine, screams ANTISEMITISM longest and loudest. Talk about heated rhetoric and business-as-usual approaches.
It could mean appealing to people’s crisis-tuned alertness to the stuff that really matters
Like buying a shit-load of guns?
This said by the group that, whenever someone utters the slightest criticism of Israeli policies in Palestine, screams ANTISEMITISM longest and loudest.
People say patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. It’s not. It’s usually the first, as others have pointed out.
Sobbing uncontrollably while calling for civility and niceness and equal treatment, that’s the last refuge. Brought up by people like Palin or the ADL when they’re so completely out of arguments that they have nothing but “you don’t have to be so meeeeeaan about it!” to fall back on.
both parties have reverted to political partisanship and finger-pointing at a time when the American people are looking for leadership, not more vitriol
Also the group who put the words “job killing” in the FIRST BILL introduced in the new Congressional session, so spare us the tut-tutting about heated partisan vitriol vs leadership.
OT;
A majority of very conservative Americans believe political leaders in Washington should stick to their beliefs even if little is accomplished, while all other groups, particularly moderates and liberals, are more amenable to compromise for the sake of getting things done.
And in that, you have the root of the entire political deadlock. We have moderates and liberals who want to work with people, and conservatives who want to have everything they want and are happy to burn down the country if they don’t get it.
Not an especially surprising insight, but this one’s formalized by statistics.
I’m offended at all the attacks on vitriol. Sure, sulfuric acid will eat the flesh off your bones, but if the other option is ending up a zombie, that’s okay.
No, nobody did. But Sarah Palin DID target Giffords with a rifle scope imagery, and in doing so DID FUCKING CALL FOR GIFFORDS DEATH. “Shoot the Democrats” politics from Teabagger Barbie et al gave the would-be assassin sanction to pull the trigger. And fuck you for trying to say any different.
vs said,
January 12, 2011 at 19:46
god IS angry at liberals and/or atheists
You know who ELSE was an atheist AND a liberal?
From Esteev’s link: “The specific model of Glock 19, 9mm pistol allegedly used by Jared Loughner was high on the list of sought after weapons.”
Who does this? Who hears about a horrific shooting and says, “man, I have got to get me the weapon that caused that?”
Who does this? Who hears about a horrific shooting and says, “man, I have got to get me the weapon that caused that?”
Idiots who think the weapon will be banned. And sociopaths. The two groups cross, most likely.
I mean seriously, we wouldn’t take the ‘surveyor’s mark’ deflection seriously if this had happened in a non-US country. But WERE NO. 1! here in Murrika, so politicians calling for the assassination of rival party members JEST KANT HAPPIN HURR!!! Even though it totally just did happen, and has for several years, you fucking morons.
I’m not eating any conservative’s brain! God knows what you could catch.
pfft. You’ll already be dead.
I’m skipping a lot – a man can only take so many POOP jokes – but seriously, this is the single funniest thing ever posted on Sadly, No!
Still, Pollyanna that I am, I do hold out hope that maybe this time we’ll successfully tell the higher-profile reactionaries to shut the fuck up and it’ll stick, that starting tonight stone-cold retarded won’t turn up on my evening news feed every goddamn night without fail…
I swear, I laughed for a solid five minutes at that one. You card, you.
Is “heckuva job Brownie now watch this swing” too long?
Who hears about a horrific shooting and says, “man, I have got to get me the weapon that caused that
Concerned citizens who do not want the warning shot through the head to be fatal
Er, “drive”. I mean
pfft. You’ll already be dead.
Still, it’s the thought that squicks me out…
Awww, Palin pulled the video!
but if the other option is ending up a zombie, that’s okay.
Zombie Libel.
Awww, Palin pulled the video!
What video?
The one of her mentioning blood libels?
I’m still stuck on Foxman. Holy fucking shit. Foxman. I. Just. It’s. Consider this justification of Palin’s jew-baiting:
YOU ARE THE FUCKING NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE ADL. WHAT. THE. FUCKING. HELL?!?!
Nevermind the fact that your premise is wrong – this sort of thing IS THE BASIC PURPOSE OF THE ADL. FIGHTING THIS SORT OF SHIT IS THE REASON THE ADL EXISTS!
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Resign Abraham Foxman. Just fucking resign.
“man, I have got to get me the weapon that caused that?”
I hope they aren’t thinking: “Well, at least we know it works!”
I don’t get the whole, “hey there was a shooting, I should get a gun.” Because as we know, if everyone was armed and dangerous, we’d be safe — because no one would leave the house.
A youtube commenter from the UK I read recently mentioned that their strict gun laws hasn’t brought on a totalitarian dictatorship hellbent on taking away EVERY freedom you thought you had.
The one of her mentioning blood libels?
Yup.
YOU ARE THE FUCKING NATIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE ADL. WHAT. THE. FUCKING. HELL?!?!
Dude, I know. Is she getting a pass because she’s militantly pro-Israel, or what?
A youtube commenter from the UK I read recently mentioned that their strict gun laws hasn’t brought on a totalitarian dictatorship hellbent on taking away EVERY freedom you thought you had.
And let’s be honest, the only thing that a gun is going to do in a fight against a totalitarian takeover is get you killed.
Awww, Palin pulled the video!
It’s because she’s a retard. Sorry, Trig(ger?????)
Ooo ooo ooo I have just the gif for this.
Yup.
Fuck me, what a weaseling bitch.
Dude, I know. Is she getting a pass because she’s militantly pro-
Israelsemites killing other semites on Uncle Sam’s dime, or what?Fixxed.
the only thing that a gun is going to do in a fight against a
totalitarianzombie takeover is get youkilledthrough the night.For future reference.
Okay, it’s back. Hm.
And let’s be honest, the only thing that a gun is going to do in a fight against a totalitarian takeover is get you killed.
More to the point, if there’s ever a totalitarian takeover, the NRA crowd that’s supposedly the antibody against that kind of thing won’t be out there fighting the takeover. They’ll be the SA militia supplementing the state security thugs by beating and chasing down union members, intellectuals, left wing sympathizers, Muslims, immigrants and uppity minorities.
So even if you accept their premise, it’s still a moot point.
I swear, I laughed for a solid five minutes at that one. You card, you.
In my defense, I was drunk on fermented essence of rainbow with a pony chaser when I wrote that.
I fucking love The Onion.
Um, that’s NOT what Jonah Goldberg says.
Is she getting a pass because she’s militantly pro-Israel, or what?
YA THINK?
[The UK’s] strict gun laws hasn’t brought on a totalitarian dictatorship hellbent on taking away EVERY freedom you thought you had.
It’s talk like this that’ll get all of our freedoms taken away, Libtard!
That stuff will mess you up.
Me too.
that’s NOT what Jonah Goldberg says.
What? That if you don’t believe in Christ you’re a goatfucking child molester?
YA THINK?
Well, you know, I didn’t want to sound anti-Semitic or anything…
Ahem.
I fucking love The Onion.
I fucking love Bill Maher:
Finally unstuck the pins from mine eyes and hunkered down to watch “Blood Libel” and I realize now that I owe Sarah Palin sincere apologies for criticizing her for the last few days for not coming out with a statement sooner…..helloooo!….she was in rehearsals all that time!!!
Ooo ooo ooo I have just the gif for this.
Goaltse! Seriously, for some reason I expected hands to be spreading apart the uprights. I cannot imagine why.
What? That if you don’t believe in Christ you’re a goatfucking child molester?
Well, you know, THAT doesn’t sound anti-semetic at all.
In my defense, I was drunk on fermented essence of rainbow with a pony chaser when I wrote that.
I’m glad you went with ponies instead of unicorns. You never know where those unicorns have been.
Fuck, I’m still epically pissed at Foxman.
I just wish you’d express it. It’s unhealthy to keep these things inside. Much like unicorns up your ass.
Chris,
Indeed. I’ve long thought the same thing, doubly so after my Old Man joined the NRA 20 years ago and started receiving some of their literature. Scary, unsettling shit. For what it’s worth, though, he quit the NRA – and lost the downpayment on a lifetime membership – when it became obvious to him that they were really interested in protecting Second Amendment Rights – and, in his eyes, hunters’ rights – and more interested in securing political power and enriching gun manufacturers. My Old Man’s idea of gun ownership is a 12-gauge shotgun, a .30-06 rifle and a muzzle loader. Pistols and semi-autos are, in his words, “for sissies”.
In my defense, I was drunk on fermented essence of rainbow with a pony chaser when I wrote that.
Think you could hook a brother up? I seem to be mainlining pure, uncut cynicism, rage and total disgust with humanity these days.
It’s talk like this that’ll get all of our freedoms taken away, Libtard!
Speak of the goatfucking child molester, a commenter over at the Huffinglue Post quotes George Mason: “To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.”
What year are these people living in?
Jesus Christ, more obligations.
Living in the year of the Fruitbat (Pratchett !990’s)
Spread them goalposts Baybee!!
It’s reasonable to say he’s off the map if he’s arguing about words having no meaning.
Anyone insisting that “words have meanings” is committing a Blood Libel. Or possibly a Holocaust.
D-KW needs some cheering up. PENIS.
I can hardly wait for the next political event in AZ. An avid over-zealous fanatic will run towards an already nervous politician. The politician will see this person reaching into his pocket for a pen and a piece of paper for an autograph. The alert politician will “outdraw” the suspicious looking civilian and shoot him dead. At the sound of the gunfire, thirty people in the crowd (who all showed up at the event armed and hoping to live out their hero fantasy) will draw their own weapons and open fire. In the bloody aftermath we will learn that it’s all the libruls fault and the only real victim was Sarah Palin.
Ha, Jennifer Rubin loved Foxman’s statement.
Also, Foxman last April re their immigration bullshit: “We are seeing these offensive and inappropriate Nazi and Holocaust comparisons come to the fore in the public debate once again,” Foxman continued. “We saw it in the health care debate, and now we are seeing it with Arizona. It is disturbing that in speaking out against the bill a number of individuals have taken to…describing the legislation as being reminiscent of Nazi policies that required Jews and others to carry identity cards, or in comparing the governor and other Arizona officials as being like Hitler.”
But when Sarah Palin starts slinging around accusations of Blood Libel, meh.
My Old Man’s idea of gun ownership is a 12-gauge shotgun, a .30-06 rifle and a muzzle loader.
Your dad’s a badass.
Arizona Republicans resign because of violent rhetoric and, you know, violence.
From w-a-a-y back:
Also applies to the Democratic Party.
There’s a theory that pops up in sci-fi shows about multiverses, y’know, everything that could ever possibly happen has happened in some parallel universe. Well, in some parallel universe, my head just EXPLODED –
We saw it in the health care debate, and now we are seeing it with Arizona.
AND WHERE THE FUCK WAS YOUR SORRY ASS WHEN THEY WERE BEING INAPPROPRIATE DURING THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE, YOU BLISTERING IDIOT!!!
Last April again: “Comparisons to the Nazis may be politically expedient and serve an agenda of demonizing those who supported the bill, but in the end they do great damage to the memory of six million Jews and the millions of others and soldiers who fought to defeat Nazism,” Foxman said.
Arizona Republicans resign because of violent rhetoric and, you know, violence.
Whaaaaaaaaat?! Nice find T&U. Too bad this will get no press.
I just wish you’d express it.
Your wish is my command.
Abraham Foxman,
You’ve seen a lot of things in your life, you’ve lived through much worse than I can imagine. You’ve accomplish much and many see your voice as an important one.
That you have made you life and career the protection of those whom society is prone to oppress and persecute – that is commendable. And while there have been times when you have done things I have disagreed with – Park 51 being a recent example – I have seen the ADL as a net good. I have considered your goals and my goals to be, if not the same – at least compatible.
But this is too much. This very incident, this thing that Palin has done – speaking up against it is the very reason for the existence of the ADL. Denouncing the trivialization of very real hatred and demagoguery – that’s what it is supposed to be about.
And now you have done exactly what the ADL was founded to oppose. You are trivializing the use of one of the most vile and hateful slanders used against jews. And for what? Because you feel some sort of affinity for Sarah Palin’s politics.
That’s what you’ve done – you’ve taken the suffering and persecution faced by jews and oppressed minorities everywhere and sold it out for your own personal political views. Congratulations National Director Foxman, you have filled me with more disgust than Palin did. For at least Palin has always been a self-promoting opportunist and all that she can sell out are the mindless rubes who have already been duped by her.
Yours with utmost disappointment,
Dragon-King Wangchuck
Arizona Republicans resign because of violent rhetoric and, you know, violence.
Tea party types hate these guys because they campaigned for McCain in freaking Arizona? Wait’ll they find out what Palin was doing!
Wait til. Jesus. Man, these sinus drugs are awesome.
BUT BUT THAT WAS LIBERALS!!! THIS IS SAINTESS SARAH. SHE IS DUFFERENT
Arizona Republicans resign because of violent rhetoric and, you know, violence.
Yeah, I’m somewhat stunned. Even Republicans are getting so scared of teabaggers they won’t stay in office? Once again, you may find a few crackpots with violent language on the left, but you’ll look in vain for a trend so visible and scary that even members of the party are put in fear for their lives.
And of course, fascist analogies still aren’t appropriate, even though Arizona’s actually reaching the point of rule through terror.
ftfy
Jon Stewart’s always a little too measured for me.
I’m with you on this, VS. I prefer Colbert’s harder edge.
I feeling a longer post coming on. (<== Joke springboard available fer free!)
I still believe that the bankster apocalypse was set off because it was becoming apparent that Obama was going to win the nomination and probably the election.
Basically doom was anticipated in the form of widespread riots, generally race-based, and money needed a safe hiding place, so the giant shitpile had to be dismantled.
We are still suffering from the effects of those who long for their cathartic civil war, so they can start killing people in the streets and like shooting all the guns and no one can stop them.
Sirious- extremism in the name of Whiteness is what the true right winger really longs for.
“In stage four, as the duo assumes full control of the country, power struggles emerge between the brownshirt-bred party faithful and the institutions of the conservative elites — church, military, professions, and business. The character of the regime is determined by who gets the upper hand. If the party members (who gained power through street thuggery) win, an authoritarian police state may well follow. If the conservatives can get them back under control, a more traditional theocracy, corporatocracy, or military regime can re-emerge over time. But in neither case will the results resemble the democracy that this alliance overthrew.”
Ooh. I get to Ahem.
And, yes, I don’t care, I’ll fucking Godwin up in this bitch ALL FUCKING DAY, motherfuckers.
Ooh. I get to Ahem.
Whoops, sorry. I had the suspicion that someone had already brought that up, but I was too lazy to check.
Needs more stuff about fucking his mom.
No, seriously, bravo.
And, yes, I don’t care, I’ll fucking SURVEY up in this bitch ALL FUCKING DAY, SURVEYORS.
Dial it back there T+U.
While the term “blood-libel” has become part of the English parlance to refer to someone being falsely accused
Teh Gazoogle reveals that Foxman himself does not use the term that way, but rather is quite proprietorial about it.
Never mind; I’m sure he’ll be comfortable when Holocaust, Shoah and Kristollnacht become the next shorthand terms for “Liberals are being mean”.
I’m offended at all the attacks on vitriol. Sure, sulfuric acid will eat the flesh off your bones
Meh. Sulphuric is much over-rated. Go for hydrofluoric acid if you want to dispose of a body in a hurry. Or so I’m told.
“D-KW needs some […] PENIS.”
Can’t imagine why. I give him plenty.
‘sawriiiight T&U. Just makin fun.
Also, DKW, it seems not all teh Joos are happy about Sarah’s little slip.
Where are the “I fucked your dad” jokes?
I just think Colbert is funnier and smarter (and, yes, definitely more biting in his commentary) and has more of a sense of the absurd. He reminds me of a younger Steve Martin in that way.
I consider myself–pretentiously!–to be a student of comedy…and, anyway, that’s what I’ve observed.
I wanted to make some, but I’ve been too busy fucking your dad.
Your dad’s a badass.
That’s the general consensus. I have to go to the gym and then the laundromat, but one day when I have time, remind me to tell you about the two, count ’em, two times he’s been blown up. That’s not a metaphor. Twice in his life he’s been in the middle of shit blowing the fuck up, and he’s still walking around. I tell those stories and people say, “Wow, your dad’s a badass”, and I say “Yep”.
Will picric acid work? AFAF.
Arizona Republicans resign because of violent rhetoric and, you know, violence.
REPUBLICANS ARE THE TRUE VICTIMS. Clearly they was afeared of Democratic intimidation.
Picric acid is for jam making, I thought. The Good Doktor knows of what he speaks with the hydrofluoric acid. That is serious badass- keep- it- a -fucking way- from- me, stuff
Will picric acid work? AFAF.
Save that for BLOWING STUFF UP.
Oooh. Sorry to break this to you, but unless he walked away from the explosions in slow motion, it doesn’t count.
AK – picric acid go boom. That’s why I ….. My friend has it on hand.
TruculentandUnreliable said,
January 12, 2011 at 22:22
Good find, T&U. I’ve had that page in the back of my mind for quite a while, especially after reading “The Anatomy of Fascism” this past summer.
And because one good quote deserve another,
[1], [2] and [3] have been true for a while, and in many ways have been true since the 1970s at least. [4] is where we drew the line. Till today I’d have said the line’s still there; we’re “up to our eyeballs in lone wolves” and small groups of crazies, but no sustained nationwide movement, certainly not as powerful or as well-organized as the KKK or SA.
But what strikes me about this is that the lone wolf crazies fulfill the same purpose just as easily. Heck, this guy wasn’t even a teabagger, but he accomplished the same result; several of their political opponents were scared into resigning and (unlike after OKC), the craziness has not taken a hit; it’s still growing. Whoever said you needed ghost sheets or cheap uniforms, after all?
Thanks, Dr. Smut, but there’s no point in disposing of bodies unless something goes boom, is there? That’s what my friend says.
How big is, uh, your friend’s friend?
So it sounds like picric acid is good for jam-making if you want to name your line of fine jam products “Fruitsplosion!!!” The “Atomic Apple” and “Berry Bomb” names are available for licensing purposes, btw.
Perhaps we can help you there, squire.
But what strikes me about this is that the lone wolf crazies fulfill the same purpose just as easily. Heck, this guy wasn’t even a teabagger, but he accomplished the same result; several of their political opponents were scared into resigning and (unlike after OKC), the craziness has not taken a hit; it’s still growing. Whoever said you needed ghost sheets or cheap uniforms, after all?
Exactly. If the “lone wolves” can intimidate moderates into stepping down because they’re afraid of their own safety and the Teabaggers can get their preferred candidates in place, then the violence doesn’t have to be organized.
How poignant
Picric Acid go boom
Substance McGravitas said,
I ROFL every time I watch that. And now shit, I can’t find the link to the Mt. St. Helens coverage (might have been the same station) with the “exploding bosom” and more over the top metaphor.
Ill timed much?
I ate a conservative’s brains once….I had it with some overcooked ocra and washed it down with a bottle of chinese cooking wine.
So it sounds like picric acid is good for jam-making if you want to name your line of fine jam products “Fruitsplosion!!!”
Conversely, the use of pectic acid in high-explosive shells ceased after WW1, when it was found to have little effect other than slowing troop movements.
Perhaps Sarah Palin could redeem herself by having Kenny Ortega choreograph her next video.
Exactly. If the “lone wolves” can intimidate moderates into stepping down because they’re afraid of their own safety and the Teabaggers can get their preferred candidates in place, then the violence doesn’t have to be organized.
Which begs the question, are they deliberately inciting violence in order to cause this result?
I’d say no. I’ve always thought the violent rhetoric was just part of the apocalyptic, us v. them rhetoric that was supposed to drive their voters to the polls to vote against Satan. They know a few people will get hurt along the way, but that’s a byproduct, not something they really care about either way.
OTOH, after seeing those Arizona Republicans resign, the same thing that just dawned on me could have dawned on a couple of their campaigners. Which gives them even less incentive to rein in the rhetoric and even more to keep pushing the usversusthemathon.
Perhaps Sarah Palin could redeem herself by having
Kenny OrtegaEd Grimley choreograph her next video.I fixed that for you, Open C.
I’d say no. I’ve always thought the violent rhetoric was just part of the apocalyptic, us v. them rhetoric that was supposed to drive their voters to the polls to vote against Satan. They know a few people will get hurt along the way, but that’s a byproduct, not something they really care about either way.
I agree. Although I do think the fact that people who aren’t supportive of their agenda are harassed/intimidated/assaulted/murdered is more than just a byproduct–it’s a nice bonus. Sort of like the Southern Strategy. Sure, that’s not the primary aim, but it certainly doesn’t hurt them if Democratic voters are murdered.
Ed Grimley choreograph her next video.
Ahem, angry Kiwis actually
Turns out that Loughner was actually registered as an Independent and news media got trolled by a ‘shop
You mean I was wrong to think that Loughner is a Republican? In that case, I really do need to apologize.
To Loughner.
“Ed Grimley choreograph her next video.
Ahem, angry Kiwis actually”
Bret! Of course!
You mean I was wrong to think that Loughner is a Republican? In that case, I really do need to apologize.
Don’t sweat it. Most of the idiots commenting on his registered affiliation that I saw yesterday thought he was a Democrat.
To Loughner.
Oh, that. Carry on.
Don’t forget informing. Report Suspicious Activity, y’know.
These people saying I made a mistake are obviously delusional, because I don’t make mistakes. EVER. Patriots are perfect – I know it’s true because Jesus told me so Himself!
Besides, I have it on good authority (yep, Jesus) that that Giffords lady was secretly planning to use Trig’s blood for some of her unpatriotic ethnic baked goods, you betcha! Also, the lamestream media needs to stop attacking patriots like me and Glenn Beck because it’s all about supporting the troops, not to mention the economy, and also the health-care, too.
The fact that my word-salad has now totally deflected attention from yet another killing of a moderate and made me into the real center of attention is a mere coincidence! Did I mention that I really really hate violence? Because I really do, ya know! Now DON’T RETREAT, RELOAD, AMERICA!
*counts money, laughs*
Excellent link from T&U at 22:22.
I seem to be mainlining pure, uncut cynicism, rage and total disgust with humanity these days.
Me too. Great place to rehab: Minor-league baseball game.
Let’s see: the right shut down mental hospitals en masse & then made sure there’d be no funds to reopen them … passed amendments to allow any bugfuck-crazy freak with enough money easy access to firepower, up to & including assault-rifles made solely to kill people, without a background check … legalized jumbo magazines to let them slaughter even more innocents … & has openly called for secession, insurrection & revolution non-stop ever since November 2008, to folks proudly wearing “I’m A Terrorist” buttons while holstering automatic weaponry.
Yeah, plainly the DFHs are over the top. Dude wasn’t wearing a “Don’t Tread On Me” t-shirt while clutching a book by Coulter or Limbaugh this time, so the best thing to do now is just STFU & hope you’re not next, hippy!
Outstanding thread so far. No so much with the funnies, perhaps, but lots of passionate and articulate discussion. I especially liked the the continuing dialogue between Chris, DA, and T&U.
Don’t have much to say myself; I’m in reading-and-cogitating mode.
Well not quite as distant from that as you might hope
W/R/T Palin’s 8-minute “I’m the real victim here because SHUT UP that’s why” video:
Doctor: What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.
Gentlewoman: It is an accustom’d action with her, to seem thus washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of an hour.
Lady Macbeth: Yet here’s a spot.
Doctor: Hark, she speaks. I will set down what comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
Lady Macbeth: Out, damn’d spot! Out, I say!—One; two: why, then ’tis time to do’t. — Hell is murky. — Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our pow’r to accompt? — Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?
…or is that ascribing too much self-knowledge to her? Along with some semblance of a conscience, any semblance of a sense of propriety or that much-fabled (but little-seen) “taking of personal responsibility” that we keep hearing the Right prattle on about?
Hmmm… Civil discourse… Bullies never back down because you point out the fallacies of their arguments. You confront them face to face, and don’t back down. AND humiliate them.
Dammit – thought I strangled the thread with my bare surveyor’s marks, but everyone jest up and left. That’s socialesim for you!
David Frum on NPR dragged in an amazing comment, to the effect that the political discourse in this country is poisoned by things such as the belief that “a small group of political operatives, many of them Jews, got the country immersed in an unpopular war”. Because sure, Cheney and PNAC were quite explicitly writing about doing exactly what they did, ten years before, but hey, when you describe it that way it sounds like some far-out Elders of Zion shit.
Whatever he gets paid to do what he does, it’s not enough. He’s an unbelievable bastard, and I hope that some crazy person jams a theodolite up his butt.