A teachable moment…
I would like to preface this by saying that I’m truly sorry that the congresswoman and other bystanders were either shot or killed at the recent massacre in Arizona. I feel really horrible for their families and I hope they’re able to recover from this and to honor the people they’ve lost by moving on with their lives the way their loved ones would have wanted.
I would also like to preface this by saying that I despise the phrase, “A teachable moment,” as it’s just ridiculous to me. You learn something every second of your life, and while some things are more important than others, I find the expression itself to be just ridiculously stupid. That said, let’s analyze this “teachable moment” and see what we come up with.
First, the shooter had problems and mental issues, and this fact was well known by authorities, who did nothing about it. This allowed the shooter to pass an FBI background check so he could get a gun. If this guy was known to be mental, that should have been reported so that he couldn’t get a gun in the first place. Did they do that? No. Instead, this idiot sheriff waits for something to happen and then instantly politicizes it with NO facts whatsoever to back up any of his statements.
Then…
The libtards jump all over the sheriff’s statements and start hurling even more hypocritical, vitriolic and hate filled attacks at Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and many others. Funny thing is, they accuse these people of creating a climate of hate, when in fact they couldn’t point out one valid example of any of them spreading any kind of hate at all. If they want to know who’s really spreading the hate in this country, they should look in the mirror.
For example, here’s a video of all the hate poured on Sarah Palin on Twitter after the event. Funny, I don’t remember EVER hearing Sarah Palin talk like this about anyone. If you look at any statement she’s ever made, she make make a goofy comment about someone’s policies now and then, but I dare any of you to find anything she’s ever said that was hateful or did anything to create a climate of hate. Watch that video, and you’ll see who’s really creating that climate.
Here’s another example…
This article outlines the top 10 examples of liberal hate. It’s a great piece and really shows the hypocrisy of the left. Again, you find me any examples of the right doing or saying anything like this. You can’t.
Aside from all this, think back to the climate of hate the left created around President Bush. That was nothing but a constant river of hate, and continued on for literally two years after he was out of office, perpetuated by the left, which couldn’t stop blaming him for everything, as well as Obama and his cronies who were looking for a scape goat to blame for their failing policies. Again, notice here that Bush has been totally classy about it and has never once bad mouthed the current administration.
Now moving on…
As expected, after this whole incident, the press jumped all over it and it was 24/7 news for several days. Now while it is definitely newsworthy, it’s not something that required or demanded that level of coverage. I got news for you. A whole lot of other people died that day as well, all over the country and all over the world. Certainly a lot more than the number that died here. The only thing that was different was that it was one person who took out several others at a single event. Again, it’s newsworthy, but not to the level they took it. Not to sound heartless, but these people were no more or less important than anyone else around the country who died that day. It was only notable really because #1 the guy was crazy as hell, and #2 the person he shot was a member of Congress. Again, cover it, but don’t beat it to death. So why did they? Ratings. Why did certain networks like CNN and MSNBC totally politicize it? Ratings. They don’t give two squirts of duck crap about the people that died. They were so eager to politicize it and to boost their ratings that they beat the story to death for several days. This wasn’t unexpected however. Every time something like this happens, they beat it to death. Even Fox, which is the news channel I personally watch all the time, beat it to death, only they’ve been exposing the politicization rather than perpetuating it. These media people and political figures who politicized this whole thing, didn’t even have ANY facts to base it on. They knew little to nothing about the shooter’s background. Turns out he wasn’t some right wing nut job at all. His favorite books apparently were Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto, and he worshiped a skull in his back yard. Maybe they should have waited and actually found out this guy’s motivations before they jumped the gun with all this political stuff, huh? You can blame that idiot sheriff for getting that ball rolling though.
And moving on again…
Something else that we can all learn from this is that we’ll always be able to spot the politicians that are the biggest knee-jerking idiots right after something like this happens. Rather than just taking it for what it is, some nut job snapping and killing a bunch of people, suddenly they feel like they have to pass some legislation so they can look like they actually care or are trying to make the situation better. Everything from new gun control measures to limits on freedom of speech have been proposed, none of which would have prevented this tragedy. Legislation proposed in a knee jerk fashion is never well thought out and often does more to limit people’s freedoms than it does to solve any of the problems it was aimed at. Again, they’re trying to politicize something that wasn’t political and to fix something that wasn’t broken. What was broken here was that sheriff’s department and the fact that they didn’t deal with this guy earlier. You can blame that on the laws that prevent people from being committed against their will. In some cases, that needs to happen, while in other cases that power could be abused, which is why those laws are in place. So what’s the answer? Honestly, I don’t know on that one. It’s a tough call. Still, is it being talked about? No. What is being talked about is limitations of our freedoms, which naturally are mostly being proposed by who? Liberals. There’s one Republican, Peter King, who’s really shown his stripes in this one as well.
Now in the House today, they’re having some six hour debate about some stupid resolution condemning this act. First off, a politician or a government condemning any act is just stupid. What does that do? I’ll tell you what it does. It does absolutely nothing except waste time at the taxpayer’s expense. Not only that, but the condemnation had to be introduced, debated on and then voted on. Again, what’s the point? It’s all just a waste of time when they should be focusing on more important things, like the economy, jobs, the wars, etc…. These condemnations are always such a joke. Governments issue these statements condemning this or that, and it all amounts to paying lip service to something they either can’t or won’t do anything about. It’s like, just shut the hell up already and do your damn jobs…please.
I also would hope that after all of this, people will be held accountable for their own actions rather than everyone going around trying to place the blame anywhere except for where it truly belongs. This guy was a nut job. That’s the end of the story. Some idiots in Congress are trying to pass some knee-jerk gun control legislation now that’s patently unconstitutional and frankly, unenforceable. Why? Even if this guy had never been able to get his hands on a gun, this was a large gathering of people. He could have gotten behind the wheel of a car and ran it through the crowd, mowing people down, injuring and killing far more people than he did with a gun. He could have also fashioned some kind of a bomb and strapped it to himself, walked into the crowd and blown himself up. There are a myriad of ways to kill large groups of people. Trying to pass some knee-jerk gun legislation after the fact is not only stupid, it’s irresponsible. This guy was one individual who snapped. It happens. It happens in free societies, and in societies that aren’t so free. It happens because human beings can snap. The only way to prevent that is to outlaw human beings from existing at all. It’s happened before, and it will continue to happen in the future. All you can really do to help prevent it is to watch for the warning signs and get these people the help they need before its too late rather than just ignoring the problem. This guy was solely responsible for his actions, and looking for outside causes and influences is pointless. He had mental issues. End of story. You can’t sterilize a whole society because one in a million people might read something and go mental.
You wanna know the real reason why the left accuses the right of creating a climate of hate? Because they hate the right so much, that that’s all they can feel when they listen to anything the right has to say on any issue. They also hate it when their agenda is exposed by the right. I know most liberals really hate Glenn Beck, and yet I never hear any of them dispute the facts he presents. Instead, they slam him with personal attacks. The first thing they teach you in a debating class is to stick to the facts and use them to back up your position. When you resort to personal attacks, you’ve lost the debate. The left can’t dispute his facts, so they attack him personally. It’s the same with Rush Limbaugh or any of the others they attack so frequently. If they had facts to back up their positions, rather than manipulative lies and half truths, maybe they wouldn’t feel so much hatred all the time.
So while I hate the term, this whole thing, at least I hope, has been a teachable moment. I hope this finally exposes the hypocrisy and the vitriolic hatred that flows like a river from the left. I also hope that people will see the news media for what it has become and hold it to a higher standard. The days of blaming Bush, and now Palin for spreading hate are over. The left has been exposed for what it is, and if anything good has come of this whole thing, that’s been it. I just hope things can change now, at least somewhat. Honestly though, I really don’t have high hopes for that happening. I also hope the voters in that county in Arizona where this happened remember this whole incident when it comes time to elect a new sheriff, because this guy needs to be thrown out on his ear.
Lastly, I hope that the congresswoman makes a full and complete recovery and that the families and friends affected by the shooting can find some peace. The world is full of nuts, and they just happened to be in the wrong place, at the wrong time when one of them cracked.
(Current Mood: irritated
) 