Godspeed Gabby

As Representative Gabrielle Giffords prepares to begin a new phase of her recovery at a Houston, TX Rehabilitative facility, the spotlight will be taken from Tucson, AZ for a while.  At least, we hope it will so that Tucsonians can resume their daily, normal activities.  It is likely that the processing of the shooter through the judicial system will remain in the headlines.

We've not yet realized all the ramifications of this madman's shooting rampage.  We wish Representative Gifford's and the surviving victims of the attack a full recovery.  God be with them.

It is fitting that we end the coverage of this tragedy with the eloquent evaluation of the tragedy by Andrew Cline in The American Spectator.

Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom



By Andrew Cline


A member of Congress is shot by a lunatic gunman, and all of a sudden you can't say "crosshairs" on CNN. Not to make light of a tragedy, but had Rep. Giffords been hit in the face with a whipped cream pie, would the Food Network have to go off the air?

What the Tucson shootings reveal about our political culture is its gross opportunism, not its violent imagery. Six people died in an attack on a freely elected member of our republican government, and the left decided that the appropriate response was to rip the nation apart by blaming the tragedy on the right in general and Sarah Palin in particular.

The gravity of the situation on that awful Saturday was perfectly obvious. This nation survives because we check our guns at the ballot box. We have agreed to settle our political disagreements with felt-tip pens and touch screen machines, not weaponry. Giffords' shooting raised the specter of that agreement unraveling. This wasn't a presidential assassination, an assault on the human symbol of American power. It was a hit on a rank-and-file representative, her staff, and her constituents. The target could have been any one of us. If this were the tip of a domestic political movement, it could, conceivably, portend civil war.

Yet with this raw national wound still fresh, the left reached for the biggest bag of salt it could find. Civility? It was nowhere to be found among the chorus of "progressives" shrieking, "Sarah Palin did it!" And when they were proven wrong -- when it was revealed that the suspected shooter never watched political TV, never listened to talk radio, and was a mentally disturbed loner with no detectable political ideology -- they fell silent without apology. Except for the ones who continue to debase themselves by brazenly, shamelessly spreading the lie.

The only apology America got was from CNN anchor John King, who semi-apologized this week for a guest's use of the term "crosshairs" in a political context. "We're trying, we're trying to get away from that language," King said. Why?

King's own CNN reported a week earlier (on Jan. 11), "There's no evidence the heated political environment played any role in the shooting spree that left Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition and killed six others…"

If CNN itself reported that there is no link between political rhetoric and the shooting, then why would CNN avoid using generic military terminology when discussing politics?

There is no reason. There are only guilt and fear. Guilt that one's use of a metaphor might have somehow contributed to a lunatic's violent act, and fear that, if it didn't in the past, it might in the future. So CNN tries to "get away from that language."

Obviously, the executives haven't thought this through. For what is to replace our common political terms derived from the language of warfare? What do we say in place of "campaign," "target," "attack"?

If we scrub this terminology from our political lexicon, we have to replace it with something.

Some suggestions for the CNN brass:

In place of "campaign": Peace caravan. "The Romney peace caravan had no comment today on allegations…" Or: "An Obama peace caravan spokesman said…."

In place of "target": Flower. "The AARP sent out a direct mail piece flowering retirees…."

In place of "attack": Love tap. "Sen. Ringworm's peace caravan today love tapped the president for suggesting a tax cut for people who have voted in the last three federal elections…."

In place of "sights" and "crosshairs": Rainbows. "Sarah Palin today released a map with multi-colored rainbows over congressional districts she wants conservatives to flower on Election Day…." Or "There's no question Rep. Greasepalm is in the Tea Party's rainbow…."

CNN will not replace those terms, of course. It will simply "try" to avoid using them. It will fail. We use military metaphors in politics for good reason -- they apply. They catch the spirit of politics, which is a sublimation of conflict. Using passive words to describe aggressive acts, or simply not describing them at all, on the hope that the switch will reduce violence is a fool's errand.

As such, only fools will pursue it.

Of Tragedies And Double Standards

Prayer vigil for Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, AZ

Today has been a very unusual Sunday.  It didn't really feel very much like a Sunday as we watched Fox News and saw the usually weekly staff taking the place of the weekend programs.  Like many Americans we were tuned in to television news, and reading news on the Internet, mostly hoping that news would come that Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was "out of the woods," although we know that with a complex injury to the brain as she suffered, only time can tell how long her recovery will be, and what deficits, if any, she will have suffered.


The carnage in Arizona yesterday was truly an American tragedy and it has many ramifications.  First and foremost what should concern us is the recovery process of those who were injured, and  we send our condolences and sympathy for the families of those who were sensesly murdered.


However in spite of our grief and concern, we can't help but feel anger at the irresponsibility of those who have from the onset attempted to politicize the  murderous rampage of an individual who by all accounts is unstable and deranged.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, "After the shooting, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a Democrat in a largely Republican state, condemned "the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government."  This, in our opinion, was the initial source of the subsequent, damaging reports that have appeared in the mainstream media, as well as many leftist blogs and journals.

This irresponsible attempt to link Jared Lee Loughren to the Tea Party movement, and specifically former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was and is reprehensible.  Even Fox News' Geraldo Rivera and Shepherd Smith, both sensationalist personalities, are guilty of this abhorrent behavior.  Not only have their baseless speculations misinformed many and offended many others, but they have also inspired the news media abroad to blame American conservatives.

Ironically, when Major Nidal Malik Hassan opened fire at Ft. Hood, Texas, killing 13 of his fellow soldiers and wounding 32 others, the media was very cautious to even mention that Major Hassan was a Muslim.  In fact, Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to link  Hassan to radical Islam in spite of the fact that Hassan screamed, "Allahu Akbar," the Muslim battle cry, as he opened fire at Ft. Hood's Soldier Readiness center.  Later investigations linked him to a renegade American Muslim cleric who preaches violence against America, and radical Islamic references were found in his possessions. 

Anyone who does not see the double standard here is either deliberately obtuse or in complete denial.

The accusations that Loughren was somehow linked to an publication called American Renaissance has been  denied by the founder of  "The New Century Foundation - Yale University graduate Jared Taylor, the author of several books on race and policy who has has written that diversity is "dangerous" because it is "one of the most divisive forces on the planet."

American Renaissance is the publication of the The New Century Foundation, described by the Anti-Defamation League as a "self-styled think tank." The ADL, on its website, calls American Renaissance a "white supremacist journal and companion Website" that "promotes pseudoscientific studies that attempt to demonstrate the intellectual and cultural superiority of whites and publishes articles on the supposed decline of American society because of integrationist social policies." 

Even the most hardcore liberal must see that such a group has nothing to do with a grassroots movement such as the Tea Party which is not made up of pseudo intellectuals, but rather, every day Americans of every religion and race who stand for something entirely different from those segregationist ideas.


Mark Pitcavage, director of investigative research at the Anti-Defamation League, is skeptical about any hard connection between Loughner and American Renaissance.  Says Mr. Pitcavage. "Based on the limited nature of [Loughner's] Internet footprint suggesting his thoughts and beliefs, there's nothing to lead one to think he would lean that way. It's perplexing to us that there is a notion of a substantial connection."

Several government agencies have engaged in a fact finding endeavor in order to put together a psychological profile of Jared Lee Loughner.  Currently his computer is being analyzed in order to learn more about him.  He has been described by those who knew him as a marijuana smoking, loner who  was a troubled student who not only caused problems in class but he actually frightened his classmates. He also has a record of problems with the law. 

According to the Christian Science Monitor, the picture that emerges of Loughren is  as an anti-social, erratic and possibly mentally unstable young man, whose anti-religion and anti-flag views run starkly counter to the broader tea party platform. Caitie Parker, one of his high school classmates, says in press reports that in the past Loughner was "quite liberal," and a "political radical." Sheriff Dupnik said Saturday, "He has a troubled past, I can tell you that."    In one of his You Tube rants, Loughner declares, "No, I wont Trust in God."  Even Sheriff Dupnik can see that such a description does not match the liberal thinker's stereotype of a Conservative Tea Party affiliate.

In his My Space account, Loughner listed his favorite books as Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Wizard of OZ, Aesop's Fables, The Odyssey, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, Peter Pan, To Kill A Mockingbird, We The Living, Phantom Toll Booth, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Pulp,Through The Looking Glass, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha,The Old Man and the Sea, Gulliver's Travels, Mein Kampf, The Republic and Meno.  Hardly a required reading list for  Tea Party members who stress fiscal responsibility, loyalty to the Constitution, and smaller government, wouldn't you say?

The more one delves into Jared Loughner's past, it paints a picture of a mentally ill, disturbed young man who as we tend to say in Education, "fell through the cracks."  We don't know yet if he ever received psychiatric help or sought it.  The recurrence of young adults going on a shooting spree and killing innocent people such as occurred at Virginia Tech, Columbine, University of Texas, and others throughout the world is a frightening phenomenon.


It is also disturbing to us as "bloggers from the right" that the Department of Homeland Security should issue a memo linking Jared Loughner with "American Renaissance" an anti government journal, or that the Sheriff of Pima County should suggest that right wing rhetoric was responsible for this act.

Jared Lee Loughner certainly appears to have had his problems with "government."  He felt he was being spied on, and he feared "mind control."  But those are the rantings of a deeply disturbed mind.  There is no evidence as of today that Loughner was affiliated with any political group, left or right.

We find it abusive and unfair to take advantage of this extremely tragic situation to cast aspersion and blame on Conservatives and the Tea Party movement in order to weaken its influence.  Representative Giffords, a self described Blue Dog Democrat, and a former Republican would not, we are sure, agree.  A gun owner herself, and defender of the Second Amendment, we believe she'd disapprove of such tactics.

These unfounded accusations, without a shred of evidence to connect this lunatic to any Conservative movement is just a scurrilous ploy on the part of liberals and leftists to silence those of us on the right.  It is behavior unbecoming any human being that values the sanctity of human life, to take advantage of such a tragedy for political gains. 

As long as the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States exists, we will speak our minds.  Ours is not inflammatory speech, nor is it provocative.  It is meant to make the reader think and evaluate his/her political stand.

We pray for Congresswoman Giffords' full recovery, and may she be able to return to Congress and represent the constituents who reelected her to office.  To those on the left, be warned, your ruse has failed miserably.  Conservatism in America will not be silenced.