Good Old Neon

PANTHER?

I get the sense that the service was it intended to be more than just a memorial, but also a celebration of the lives of the deceased - so in that sense, I feel the crowds reaction, though boisterous at times, was not inappropriate. I've attended several memorial services ranging from depressingly somber to downright funny and celebratory, all in all, I prefer the latter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9kfcEga0lk&feature=player_embedded

Great post.

Agreed - good point. Most, if not all of the people on that list have pretty much stated that they wouldn't do away with religion even if it was within their power to do so. I've read most of E.O Wilson's books, followed his career, etc - I cannot think of a single instance in which he's ever expressed the belief that religion should be abolished. As a list of brilliant thinkers, scholars and philosphers it's not bad, otherwise, it's a pretty shitty list.

Seriously? WTF? Joe Wilson 'You Lie' Slogan Etched Onto Line Of Assault Rifle Components Rep. Joe Wilson's (R-S.C.) health care-era "you lie" interruption of President Obama is now reportedly being commemorated with a place on a new, limited edition line of assault rifle components. The Columbia Free Times reports that the words are being engraved on a series of lower receivers manufactured for popular AR-15 assault rifles. Lower receivers are one of the primary pieces of the firearms. "Palmetto State Armory would like to honor our esteemed congressman Joe Wilson with the release of

He's neither, he's whack.

Fine, I'll post only the part that contradicts your conclusion: The MSM would have been blatantly irresponsible not to make the connection - if only to note the irony and tragedy, if not to assert an empirical, causal link.

That’s not what he’s saying at all. Here’s the link to the article in its entirety – should you read it, I think you’ll come to a different conclusion. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2011/01/the-politicized-mind-of-gabrielle-giffords.html

Andrew Sullivan makes a good point with respect to the media's initial reaction: But how could they not when Giffords herself had noted the map at the time and worried about what it might portend? The MSM would have been blatantly irresponsible not to make the connection - if only to note the irony and tragedy, if not to assert an empirical, causal link. David is right to call out those who flatly and crudely drew a direct link without any substantive information. But to raise the question and explore it? How could we not? To inquire into such a hideously violent culture, where you are put

Glen Beck: BECK: “Hang on, let me just tell you what I’m thinking. I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out — is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus — band — Do, and I’ve lost all sense of right and wrong now. I used to be able to say, “Yeah, I’d kill Michael Moore,” and then I’d see the little band: What Would Jesus Do? And then I’d realize, “Oh, you wouldn’t kill Michael

George Packer: Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats. Only one side’s activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage

Stephen Budiansky: For as long as I can remember, I have heard conservatives blaming everything that is wrong in the universe, from violent crime to declining test scores to teen pregnancy to rude children to declining patriotism to probably athlete's foot . . . upon Dr. Spock, Hollywood liberals, the abolition of prayer in school, Bill Clinton, the "liberal 1960s," the teaching of evolution — in other words, upon symbols, rhetoric, cultural norms, and the values expressed by political and media leaders. Yet from the moment when someone gets a gun in their hands, apparently, society ceases

From Andrew Sullivan: Palin responds via beck with what appears to me to be a renewed threat of violence: I hate violence. I hate war. Our children will not have peace if politicos just capitalize on this to succeed in portraying anyone as inciting terror and violence. It's barely literate, but what can it mean that children "will not have peace" if people are held morally responsible for consequences of their violent rhetoric? How can asking people to turn the volume down lead to an absence of peace? Then this: According to Beck he wrote to her saying: “Sarah, as you know, peace is

(Speaking dispassionately here) Must one be unhealthy (by “unhealthy” I’m assuming you mean, not of sound mind) to shoot a spouse, for say, a large insurance payoff, an act of infidelity? What about folks in the military who open fire on innocent civilians – a fairly common occurrence by military standards. Or, someone so convinced that certain government officials are hell bent on destroying the country, that they feel it is their duty to stop them by taking the “second amendment remedy" as suggested by Nevada Tea Party candidate, Sharon Angle.

Sure they do.

True, as I thought the actual definition of insane was what we were discussing. Not what you and I define as crazy. A psychotic break, which, keeping in mind I’m not a lawyer, is one criteria by which someone can be found to be legally insane. So, if he’s not truly insane, can tell right from wrong, isn’t (or wasn’t) suffering from some form of psychosis, organic or inorganic, we have to start looking for other contributing factors – such as, say, his environment.

The use of “out of his gourd” to describe his mental state, suggests, to me, the inference that he is insane.

We both know that doesn’t prove he is insane. Sane people are fully capable of performing insane acts.

Again – you have zero proof of this. I won’t pretend to know what his true motives were, but for someone who keeps going out of the way to dismiss anyone who proposes to know, well, you seem pretty damn convinced this is all a result of some sort of mental illness – which, amounts to little more than speculation. For all we know, the dude is hyper-sane and his odd behavior and writings were little more than an act, so that, assuming he survived, he could plead insanity.

In a word, no. Though, I find it interesting that Palin acted awfully quickly to pull down from her websites any reference to the now infamous crosshairs map. I guess she and her camp feel that in light of the shootings, maybe it’s a little inappropriate. Though, that she now all of a sudden finds her own rhetoric insensitive and inappropriate strikes me as funny, as if it wasn’t before, the shit that comes out of her mouth on a pretty much daily basis.

This could, of course, be true. But at the same time, unless you have evidence to prove otherwise, we don't know if he is truly mentally ill, and if so, the severity of his illness, his level of competence, etc. It has been reported that he used drugs, they too could be responisble for his erratic behaviour. He certainly proved that he was lucid enough to purchase a gun, and plan his assination attempt in advance - by perhaps as many as three years.

See, that analogy doesn't work for me. Though his songs cover dark subject matter, to my knowledge, Marilyn Manson never went out of his way to single out jocks, the popular crowd, etc, for punishment. Whereas, Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, et al compare liberals to traitors, insist they are willfully attempting to bring this country down, subvert it, etc. I read Cullen's Columbine, and I get where you're coming from, but I feel there is a distincition to be made between this event, and the circus environment that quickly descended on Columbine. From Andrew Sullivan's site: 3.31 pm A reader wri

I read it last year and enjoyed every page. Currently reading:

I loved loved loved Skippy Dies and was completely underwhelmed by The Imperfectionists.