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I think what could have prevented Jared Loughner from his murder spree comes from his own mouth: "Thus, the argument to call me a terrorist is Ad hominem.”
Exactly what the U.S.A. needs less of from our politicians. Definition ad hominem: (1) appealing to one's prejudices, emotions, or special interests rather than to one's intellect or reason; and (2) attacking an opponent's character rather than answering his argument. The children & young adults are frightened. They grow up in a world where sex & terrorists can kill them.
Even though its a day late I can not Let Marco's words be the last on this subject. Of course the full weight of the responsibility rest firmly on the shoulders of the shooter. He will tried and sentenced as he should be.That is not in question. What is in question is that as a society do we as a people have a responsibility too, and do we look back and ask ourselves the tough questions. A progressives society does. The question is, do merchants of hate that advocate murder through subliminal messaging hold some kind of responsibility when a act such as this massacre occurs. And the answer is YES. And Marco if you have a two digit I.Q. It would be best if you stayed away from the bridge. The amount of hate and visceral coming from the right over the A.M.air waves is 800 times greater than the any thing positive. YES THERE IS SHARRED RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS CASE.
Health insurance of those injured. I'd like to know about the health insurance plans held by those injured in the shooting. How are those different individuals dealing with their recovery costs? Who will declare bankruptcy?
RE: Television and Radio CEOs need to make a choice in the coming days – profits or patriotism. Our Democracy is at stake.
"Profit," for sure (the track record of unregulated big business is clear).. If it puts fear in the hearts of democrats, they probably like this.
I think the correlation is obvious.. There are always mentally ill individuals who will act on webpages, that hint for violence (like con's and palin do).. Yes, there are lots of sick violent movies out there (they call entertainment), but Palin chose to put real life individuals in cross hairs, now one is shot in the head..
The only one making any sense on this entire affair is ed schultz. His take (and mine) is that actions speak louder than words. The media, Obama during the state of union, and the rest of DC will condescendingly tell everyone "else" to cool their rhetoric while they all continue to pass their greedy and anti-social laws.
Actions speak so much louder than words, and political deeds have made it perfectly clear they are hateful. They don't care about anything but themselves. They gave away the jobs and won't fund unemployment. They bailed out the banks but don't care how many people are losing their homes. Americans can't afford health care and die for lack of insurance while Washington and every other industrialized country enjoys universal health care. They can't wait to bankrupt the states, defund pensions, cut pay, destroy unions, and defund the schools while they pass more laws to put people in their for-profit prisons. Endless funding for two endless wars, but we can't afford Social Security or free college for kids who won't be able to get jobs without it. This is what they need to cool. People are pissed off, and pissed off people do crazy shit. If Reagan hadn't of destroyed the mental health system, maybe this shooter would have gotten help.
If someone is loving, kind and gentle to me in their actions and deeds, people can tell me anything about them and I won't believe it. It isn't the rhetoric. It is the deeds.
Too many laws, too many cops, and not a lick of justice anywhere.
I caught the tail end of the authoritarian segment with John Dean who has collaborated with Bob Altemeyer, Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Manitoba in his writing. Maybe Altemeyer was referenced during the interview but in case he wasn't I'll post this. Altemeyer has authored a fine piece of work titled The Authoritarians estimating that 25% of the worlds population regardless of national or ethnic origin fit the profile of the "authoritarian follower" personality type. It is available as a book from book sellers but also free or charge in PDF format by clicking the link above.
I'll blather on no further because Altemeyer says it so much better than I.
I found this posted by somebody on Huffington Post. It is a very powerful timeline. It is depressing, but really makes a point.
http://www.csgv.org/issues-and-campaigns/guns-democracy-and-freedom/insu...
If you want a body and mind without toxicity, you must add Kim Chee to your diet. My wife is giving me a big surprise today. She has prepared for me a Four Bean Salad. It is sad because I won't be at a social gathering filled with conservative crazies.
As we hold Representative Giffords and the other victims in prayer, we should also take a moment to reflect about where we are as a nation. Exactly one year ago, NETWORK published an issue of the Connection entitled “Civility and the Common Good.” It included an article by former Republican Representative Jim Leach in which he addressed the increasingly rancorous discourse on Capitol Hill and throughout the country. He wrote that if we are to truly govern for the common good, we need “thoughtfulness and decency of expression in the public square.” As he noted, “Civilization requires civility. Words matter.” Violence takes many forms, and it is time to pull back from the hyper-partisan, angry atmosphere in which people demonize those who disagree with them. Throughout our history, one of the strengths of our democracy has been the ability of Americans to “petition government” through public demonstrations and direct contact with elected officials. But many of us in Washington have noticed a more hostile tone in recent years. At demonstrations, violent anti-government images on too many signs have disturbed us, and angry rhetoric on the Hill has also increased. One need only read the online comments sections of reputable news media such as the Washington Post and New York Times to see how pervasive this trend has become across the U.S. Topics such as immigration and healthcare reform draw many comments that can only be considered hate speech. Meanwhile, public officials report receiving more and more death threats.
Dick Armey's starting of the Tea Party attempts to give credibility to the spread of White Supremacists groups across our hatefilled nation.
Here are three good articles to read.
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/index.html?story=/politics/war_room/2011/01/10/lafantasie_political_violene&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29_7_30_110
Nothing will ever change.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/01/10/fear&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29_7_30_110
Government can create problems as well as hope.
http://www.salon.com/news/jared_loughner/index.html?story=/news/feature/2011/01/10/loughner_bio_background&source=newsletter&utm_source=contactology&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Salon_Daily%20Newsletter%20%28Not%20Premium%29_7_30_110
A primer on Jared!
I like Norman Goldman's analysis. We have a cultural INFLUENZA of rightwing gun-nut hate put out by the 24/7 RW Hate radio and Fox. And the sick people like Loughner are the most susceptible to it. That means he wouldnt even have had to directly listen to Beck or Palin etc. Their RW hate influenza has spread to the internet as well and beyond. .
http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence
This is not an issue of gun control per-se although gun control is related (aside: if people were really interested in controlling guns they need to take it to the "gun obssesed"lazy-movie writers in Hollywood. There is a gun in 90% of their movies and when it appears it always becomes the definitive instument that changes the dynamic of the plot)
In the case of the Tucson kid he is clearly mentally ill. This is a result of zero mental health care for these type of people in our system. He needed medication and a doctor.
In the case of bi-polar and schiz types the rejection tips them off. He was rejected by the military, the community college and most impportantly-his girlfriend.
Rejection was the case in the Columbine killers mentality as well as ineffective mental health treatment. Cho, at Virginia Tech had the same problem. When the resentment builds up, they go get a gun to shoot the people who rejected them.
In the Tucson kid's case he is 22. He attended the rallies to try to conect with the congresswoman to seek validation from:
1. A nationally respected figure
2. An attractive woman.
As the information comes in he had black curly hair before which made her possibly mistake him for a Latino. He asked her a question and she apparently answered him in Spanish, mistakenly profiling him and deeply insulting him. This was the ultimate rejection from an attractive woman and someone whom he wanted to illicit respect.
This is why "he didn't like her answer" when he asked" If words don't mean anything, what is the point of government?" or words to that effect.He then came back with the gun.
The deficiency here is lack of a mental health care program which could have been located in the school itself. This tragedy will continue again and again until mental illness is recognized as a disease.
Using words to describe this type of individual as "nut case" "crazy" "lunatic" etc. don't help the problem. Millions of families live with this devastating illness, alone and in turmoil and it is tragic that they are subjected to this level of stigma and insult.
Whenever this happens the mentally ill are further shoved into the social garbage can and so the problem continues. The killings will continue because of untreated mental disease, not gun control.
A question about the statistics that you are quoting for gun deaths. I do believe this should be broken down to a more TRUE evaluation instead of just lumped together. How many of those are from former military, present military, police and or criminals?
Bachmanns Crazy Eyes are even crazier.
I've finally seen Jared Loughner's face on TV. He looks like a shaven-headed Glenn Beck. He especially has Beck's Crazy Eyes. And no I don't mean that the other way around.
Time for everyone to re-watch Bowling For Columbine. Moore had some great clips in that one about how news here in America is focused on "If it bleeds it leads" and so forth.
N
When Reagan emptied the mental hospitals, the buildings were not vacant for long. East Monline State Hospital (Illinois) was converted from a mental facility to a prison. Then, the former patients were brought back in.
The up side? Prison employees are much cheaper than medical staff. The savings go to the stock holders.
Of course, the patients are not treated or cured, and are eventually tossed back out the door.
I'd like to know how carrying a weapon would have helped: JFK, MLK, John Lennon, Ronald Reagan, or Gaby Giffords? Unless carrying a gun suddenly makes one omniscent, and therefore able to disable the perpetrator before they act, I can't see the reasoning behind the pro-gun activists stance.
Thanks for the input gerald, but I already have such things figured out.
N
Maxrot, I have given you a starting point for assessing someone to avoid being with and for voting for someone who can do great damage to human beings. I am not a psychiatrist but this guideline can help me to look at politicians like Demented and Boner or a talk show hosts like Limbaugh and Beck.
Someone on Stephanie Miller's blog pointed out that the 2nd Amendment has the words "well-regulated militia". Even then, the Founding Fathers recognized that people didn't have the unalienable right to have any gun at any time with no restrictions. So for those who think the 2nd Amendment guarantees them a weapon, they also must agree to regulation of that weapon. And yet they don't.
Great, how about instead of limiting guns and gun clip capacity, we just demand that all ammunition must be of the less leathal type? How about we all carry guns with rubber bullets, and if someone try's pulling out a gun on a crowd, they're probably not going to kill anyone, but the hoards of rubber bullets raining back down on the perp will probably kill him (or her). Win win for everyone.
N
Conservative VS. Liberal--Defined....Just for the heck of it I looked in Webster's for an official definition of conservative and liberal. For conservative you get: tendng to preserve established traditions or institutions and to "resist or oppose any changes in these". For Liberal you get: belonging to the people, free. Tolerant of views different from one's own: Broad-minded. Favoring reform or progress, favoring political reforms tendng toward democracy and personal freedom. I know many liberals, and some but not as many conservatives and what I notice is this: Conservatives have a rigid inflexible agenda-they say I am right and you are wrong, end of discussion-- Liberals by far say: We are all connected, what happens to one happens to all of us, lets work together, I accept who you are and I realize that the same Sun rises and sets on each of us. Will conservative radio talk show hosts do self examination, reflection, and adjust or change their rhetoric to be tolerant, accepting of others, open minded, non-judgemental, and favor "personal freedom"? Probably not. Will liberal minded progressive media personnel be open minded, listen to and respect others, adapt and reflect on the use of language and ideology to be even more compassionate, uniting all of us together in brotherly love, and standing up for ALL who love freedom? Most likely and I hope so, YES..