I also want to express my joy about Gabbie’s mending. I hope her recovery is 100%. She is one of our forward looking Congress persons, and has “miles to go”.
Thank you for allowing us to give expression to how we feel!

What are they good for… nothin’.

The president needs to tighten the law regarding firearms in order to reduce senseless killings.

When your right to bare arms requires the mass production of high powered high capacity firearms, or your right to free speech requires the mass communication of incitements to violence, then the basic inalienable rights of others trumps your Amendment rights.

Assuming this is true, explain in detail how gun control led to a Fascist state.

Hitler was also a vegetarian (not for health reasons or because it can support more people, but for moral reasons. Yes, really—look it up). Thus, I conclude that you believe all vegetarians are Fascists.

@DPruitt: There are common metaphors and then there is targetting your opponents with sniper sights. Can we agree that the latter is unacceptable? Bringing guns to political rallies is not acceptable. Threatening “Second Amendment remedies” is not acceptable. Shooting at targets with your opponents initials on them is not acceptable (google “lowry dws”).

@physicsnutt: “leftoid violence”. There are no “leftoids” with any institutional support in American politics. Zero. Zip. Nada.

This is really amazing. Not so long ago the Southern Poverty Law Center published an in-depth study of right wing hate groups THROUGHOUT the USA. Racist, xenophobic, anti-government, conspiracy addled loonies… most of them armed to the teeth… and you have the temerity to come on here and haul out the unibomber and Oswald. Why don’t you reach further and include Charlie Manson – I’m sure Fox could whip up some spin to place him in the “leftist” terror camp – and hey you got one more.

Man, this stuff would be funny if it wasn’t so damn sad. There are no leftist paramilitary type groupings in the USA that comes close to the gun-ready angry white men out there who call themselves all manner of names… all the way from Aryan Nations to KKK to Neo-Nazis and in-between. The number of extremist nativist groups has been steadily rising. Three hundred and sixty three NEW patriot/militia type groups appeared in 2009… duly noted and filed by the ever-vigilant SPLC. In fact last year the SPLC released a report titled “The Second Wave: Return of the Militias” – link to it at :

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/publications/splc-report-return-of-the-militias

Trying to concoct an armed threat from the left equal to the magnitude of the threat emanating from the extremist right at this juncture in American history is simply delusional.

Britain and Japan are hardly fascist states, and they have very very tight gun control laws, and have had them for some time (not to mention that there is no national politician not named Bloomberg actually pushing gun control). And I know more about African politics than you likely do (considering that you just say “Africa”), and the CIA was every bit as involved in violence there as the KGB was. The CIA happily installed and supported Mobutu, the worst of the keptocrats, and UNITA was every bit as vile as the MPLA, for two examples. This isn’t to exonerate the KGB-supported activity in the former third world, it was horrific, but there were plenty of right-wing atrocities. You cite Venezuela, but ignore the very similar behaviour from the right-wing Colombian regime.

And anyway, comparing revolutionaries on the other side of the globe to people here is somewhat ridiculous. What is the last major act of left-wing domestic terrorism in the States? I just linked a long list of right-wing acts of terrorism/threats of terrorism that happened recently and in the United States.

And congrats on the NY times non-sequitir.

whatever. The tea party came to prominence by showing up at candidate forums and yelling down Congresspeople, rather than having a discussion. The tea party exists to stifle discussion, and turn it into some big huge identity game. This is also the point of the birther movement. I have nothing against ordinary rank-and-file conservatives, but the conservative movement/activists have a lot of ‘splainin’ to do.

Also, this is hardly the first instance of right-wing political violence since Obama was inagurated:

http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insurrection-timeline

Not to mention Oklahoma City (which, yes, didn’t happen when Obama was president, but was certainly an act of right-wing terrorism.).

Now, which politician said, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun?” Which politician exhorted a large crowd to “punish our enemies” when talking about his political opponents?

Barack Obama on both counts. Since that is true, any attack on a politician that disagrees with Obama is automatically Obama’s fault, yes?

WAIT!! I just realized that Gifford was opposed to comprehensive immigration reform!! And the judge shot was a REPUBLICAN!! It is all OBAMA’S FAULT!!! OBAMA YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!!!!

Or the guy was just a nutcase and everybody here is simply trying to scapegoat an unliked politician.

I will continue praying for Ms. Gifford and her family not to mention the family of that little girl and the other victims. I will also no longer read Discover magazine thanks to the classless people I now know write for it and read it. Good night.

Also, the whole currency should be backed by gold and silver thing. Conservatives have been demanding that currency be backed by gold since William Jennings Bryan’s famous speech, “You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.” This was in response to new silver mines increasing the money supply, which Bryan saw as stimulating the economy, but the rich saw it as diluting their share of everything.

Conservatives have always been steadfastly opposed to increasing the money supply, and one way to prevent that is to tie money to something that has a fixed supply, like gold. Thus the recent debate about quantitative easing fuels goldbugism.

Seeing the government as untrustworthy and an enemy is the heart of modern conservative rhetoric. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama alike are accused of increasing the size of government. Beyond goldbugism and nullification and opposition to jus soli citizenship and the hatred of public sector unions is Grover Norquist’s stated desire to “drown [government] in a bathtub”.

Arguing that the federal government isn’t legitimate is a central talking point of the American right, though, even if there aren’t direct calls for civil disobedience. As is ranting about the gold standard. And Sharron Angle really DID talk about “Second Amendment solutions.”

Laughner’s ideas are clearly a jumble of junk more than a coherent ideology, but there certainly does seem to be more than a bit cross-pollinated with the far right ideas that have been going around these days. Especially since it now seems that he viewed this as a political assassination attempt himself.

Wait, what? Charlie Brooker? As in British comedian and television presenter Charlie Brooker?

As a non-American I doubt he falls under anyone’s definition of a “prominent liberal.”