Here's a web of irony so dense I won't even try to untangle it: Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot at point-blank range by a seemingly anti-government madman who was able to legally purchase and carry a concealed semi-automatic weapon despite being rejected from the United States Army, is still alive today because a superb municipal infrastructure got her into surgery 38 minutes after the bullet traveled through her brain. It will be a long time before we know exactly what her prospects for recovery are, but it is very possible, if not likely, that she and/or her family will wish that she had not survived, as they live in a state that despite having some of the most permissive gun laws in the nation, criminalizes assisted suicide.
@MMFLINT (Michael Moore): If a Detroit Muslim put a map on the web w/crosshairs on 20 pols, then 1 of them got shot, where would he be sitting right now? Just asking.
That's a good goddamned question and gets to the heart of the current debate about political rhetoric and imagery. Is anyone really saying that Sarah Palin is responsible for this act? Of course not. Political rhetoric doesn't kill people. Mentally unstable persons who've listened to violent political rhetoric kill people.
Whether or not Jared Lee Loughner (yup...three names) turns out to have been explicitly provoked by the Tea Party crowd is not really important. Palin, Beck, & Co. have, at the very least, turned a deaf ear to the darkest aspects of their movement. They have constructed a presentable facade for the deep-seated fear and bigotry that motivates many of their followers, allowing them to feel enlightned and self-righteous about primitive feelings. They have encouraged revolution ("Take back our country") among a restless, simple-minded, fringe minority - a minority that happens to like its guns. For this, they cannot be exonerated. For this, the perception is proof enough that they have gone too far.
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Once we get past the initial trauma of this situation, one can hope that we'll have a serious national discussion about two important underlying issues: Mental health and guns. We'll find that Jared Lee Loughner is less responsible for this crime than the people who negelected to institutionalize him.
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