Jared Loughner is a nut job. Trying to pin him with a political ideology is like trying to break one of those cheap pinatas you can buy for a kid's birthday party. It's damn near impossible to do. I don't care if he's a radical or a reactionary.
The problem starts with guns. I have nothing against gun ownership. But it's the kind of guns that you can purchase that bothers me. Who needs a clip that holds 30 rounds, I mean seriously? Someday, somewhere, the right combination violence will shake the United States and put the NRA in its place. I seriously doubt that this incident in Tucson will do much to regulate the problem.
And then there are the remarkable and and incisive observations by the Sheriff of Pima County. The vitriol of political hate speech in this country is nothing new. The verbal sparing by our founding fathers would put Rush Limbaugh and Keith Olbermann to shame. But there's a huge difference as we ride the political wave of talk in the 21st century. It's everywhere. You can't escape it. The 24/7 media crushes any ability to absorb and reflect with any serious deliberation.
I used to love listening to Rush Limbaugh. His blistering attacks of Bill Clinton, feminists, and environmentalists used to amuse me. But after 9/11 I could no longer stomach what I was hearing. Democrats aren't Communists anymore than Republicans are intolerant dimwits.
We are all accountable for what happened in Tucson. It pains me that those engaged in the abusive political discourse can't own up to their own thoughtless rhetoric. How can any one of us can these talking heads seriously as they try to shout down the words of someone like Sheriff Clarence Dupnik.
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