No rush to judgment here

It took about 4 minutes after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting hit the wires for one of my more vitriolic Facebook friends to post a denunciation of "Right Wing Tea Baggers". Can't let the facts get in the way of a good narrative! Saner friends shouted him down and since it was Wild Card Weekend I settled in to watch the Seahawks get their butts kicked by the defending champion Saints.

Except the Seahawks didn't get the memo and they won the game. So much for jumping to conclusions, eh?

We don't know a whole lot about Jared Lee Loughner. But what we do know points to a very disturbed individual who probably shouldn't be permitted to play with sharp objects.

But pundits will opine and the scions at The New York Times quickly jumped on the same bandwagon as my excitable Facebook friend.

While the exact motivations of the suspect in the shootings remained unclear, an Internet site tied to the man, Jared Lee Loughner, contained antigovernment ramblings. And regardless of what led to the episode, it quickly focused attention on the degree to which inflammatory language, threats and implicit instigations to violence have become a steady undercurrent in the nation's political culture.

"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

That of course was noted domestic terrorist Barack Hussein Obama exhorting his supporters to defeat John McCain in the 2008 election. Which was eons before The Times discovered the supposed undercurrent of vitriol in the nation's political culture.

But then candidate Obama wasn't one of those unhinged teabaggers so naturally his metaphor couldn't possibly be misinterpreted. Certainly not by the mature erudite readers of the nation's Fishwrap of Record!

A quick channel flip before the Jets - Indy game found the MSNBC clown show blaming Sarah Palin for the tragedy. Sadly they weren't the only ones. Not by a country mile. The same media which urged restraint after the Fort Hood shooting was galloping headfirst into an indictment of their favorite bogeymen.

On a positive note, the Jets are headed to Foxborough next weekend! Peyton Manning will be joining his brother Eli on the couch. Maybe Archie can bring the popcorn and invite a few of his Nawlins buddies over for a beer.

Like Yogi Berra said, "it ain't over 'til it's over." We'll eventually know more about Jared Lee Loughner than any of us would ever have cared to know. Until then though let's try to keep our heads about us. And let us pray for his victims and their families.

UPDATE 10 Jan 2011 13:43:
Linked at Conservative Hideout and Republican Redefined.

Thanks guys!

Posted at 12:09 by Chris Wysocki   [/news]   Comments | Perm Link |
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