Stop the Blamestream!

The events of last Saturday, January 8th, were heinous. A lone psychopath took the lives of 6 people and wounded several others, including an Arizona Congresswoman. As the smoke has cleared from this senseless act, it has become more and more apparent that this murderer, Jared Loughner, was indeed a mentally disturbed individual.

It took less than a day for the left, the statists, the Democrats, the ‘usual’ fingerpointers, and the mainstream media to start pointing fingers at everyone from Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh to the Tea Party movement. Demands for a return to the Fairness Doctrine as well as new calls for gun control legislation followed. But Jared Loughner had no affliation with any of these people or movements. And his association with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords dated from before the advent of the Tea Party movement.

Jared Loughner was apolitical. His many mindless ravings on Myspace, Youtube, and gamer forums prove that. He lists among his favorite books Mein Kampf and Communist Manifesto, two diametrically opposed books. He simultaneously espoused a disdain for the Second Constitution, a term sometimes used to describe the post-Civil War amendments that ended slavery, extended the right to vote and required equal protection under the law and for what he terms as the government’s attempts at mind control using grammar. Clearly, Mr. Loughner is all over the place in his ‘convictions.’

But the Left has vehemently attacked talk radio, the Tea Party, and Conservatives as the source of Loughner’s motive. According to Democrats, the vitriol that the Conservatives in this country have ‘unleashed’ is why Loughner took up arms to assassinate Gabrielle Giffords. And the Left continues to deliver this ‘new’ mantra despite all of the mounting evidence that none of this has anything to do with the case. Can’t let a good crisis go to waste, can they?

Lost in this mindless attempt at political mudslinging is the fact that the only political figure that was ‘successfully’ assassinated by Loughner was a Conservative judge, John Roll. If Conservatives were as petty and shallow as the Left, they would be crying foul over Loughner’s ‘obvious’ Leftist connections because he killed a Conservative judge and the congresswoman just happened to be in the way. If that example sounds ludicrous, it is because it is ludicrous. Just a ludicrous as their contention that the Conservatives made him do it. The incendiary speech of Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh made him do it. The Tea Party made him do it.

Jared Loughner is no different than Seung-Hui Cho, the perpetrator of the massacre of 32 people at Virginia Tech, except he survived and is in custody. We have all of these Leftist blamestormers spewing their vitriol regarding Loughner’s motive but Loughner is alive and perhaps we should withhold that judgement until someone is able to extract that motive from him personally. We could not do that in the case of Seung-Hui Cho because he took his own life. The common thread between these two ghastly murderers is their mental illness.

I’ve said in the past that more gun control will not prevent these types of events. It won’t. Banning ‘high capacity’ magazines or specific types of firearms will do nothing to make the public safer. It takes about 2 seconds to eject an empty magazine and insert a loaded one. The size of the magazine bears little on the potential for carnage. What the root cause here is not the method of carnage but the perpetrator of the carnage. We allow the mentally ill to matriculate in our society.

The rise in violent crime in this country can be traced to two occurrences: the rise in illegal drug use and the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill. That deinstitutionalization began in 1955 when there were around 560,000 institutionalized mentally ill patients in this country. Compare that with the 80,000 that were institutionalized in 2006. Our overall population has burgeoned in this same time period and yet the percentage of the population that is institutionalized has shrunk disproportionately. The explanation is that those that we formerly deemed as too mentally ill to function in society now live amongst us.

So much of this mental illness is treated will psychotropic drugs and most is self-administered, as in Seung-Hui Cho’s case. Cho was prescribed psychotropics to stabilize him but Cho stopped taking his meds. We don’t know yet if Loughner was under any psychiatric care or if he was on any medications but we do know that he had a very consistent history of run-ins with authorities over his mental state. And nothing was done.

Signs were ignored in Cho’s case. Cho should have been institutionalized but was not. 32 people paid for that oversight with their lives. Jared Loughner should have been institutionalized and now 6 people have paid for that oversight with their lives. These deaths have nothing to do with politics. These people died because of a failure to address mental illness in a way to keep the public safe. End of story.

Hoplophobia is a mental illness as well and any politician that advocates further gun control over this tragedy needs to have his head examined. I have begun to believe that liberalism is a mental illness as well because it leads to irrational behavior and disjointed thought. Anyone that would link conservative political rhetoric with the events of last Saturday is incapable of rational thinking and should perhaps be under the care of a licensed mental healthcare professional. But then again, maybe that’s why we have liberals – we emptied out the insane asylums.

Don't Give Up - We're Behind You, Sarah!

Another day and another news cycle of vicious attacks against Sarah Palin and her family. The leftist media has no moral compass nor ethics whatsoever. The same slimebags that defended Bill Clinton for having an extramarital affair with an employee are lambasting Gov. Palin for her daughter's pregnancy.

I could tell on Friday that the liberal mainstream media was scared to death at what McCain had unleashed upon Obama's ascension to the presidency. The initial response from Obama's campaign immediately attacked Gov. Palin's experience, which is fair game since that is political. But shortly thereafter, the left went pouring into tiny Wasilla looking for dirt.

Instead of real journalism and real fact-finding, these derelicts began concocting a story that Gov. Palin's 16 year old daughter was really the mother of Gov. Palin's baby born in April and that the governor claimed it was her own to hide her daughter's pregnancy. It was already posted on the internet over the holiday weekend by the Daily Kos as if it were fact.

Now, since Monday's revelation by the Palin family that her 17 year old daughter is pregnant and engaged to the father of the teen's unborn child, the left has turned its attack machine on to Bristol Palin. This teenage girl didn't ask to be put in this spotlight and yet the liberal media has abused her for political gain. If there ever was a case of abuse of freedom of the press, this is it. Despite Sen. Obama's statement yesterday that the families of candidates, particularly the children, should be off-limits, the attacks continue.

Most people in Sarah Palin's shoes would probably say enough is enough and turn tail. And I wouldn't blame Gov. Palin for a moment for doing so, knowing the pain that these yellow journalists are inflicting on this family. But I want Sarah Palin and her family to know this - we conservatives back her completely. She has a record as a fighter and a fighter for what is right regardless of the odds. She didn't back down from big oil, from the Alaskan Republican Party, and she sure as hell isn't going to back down from the spineless leftist media.

I urge everyone to write to the editor of your local paper and tell them that you're mad as hell about the media's double standards and their treatment of Sarah Palin and her family and you're not going to take it anymore! Tell them you're sick of the media falling over itself defending the likes of a president caught with his pants down with a subordinate but viciously attacking a pregnant teenager. You're tired of the media making up stories to defend the actions of the Bill Clintons, the Jesse Jacksons, the Ted Kennedys, et al. What does Bristol Palin have to do with the presidential race? If Ted Kennedy murdering a girl in his car has no bearing on his being a Senator, or Bill Clinton's pecadilloes are a private matter, why is Bristol Palin's pregnancy a political issue in this campaign?

Furthermore, in case you missed it on the nightly news (because it wasn't broadcast), the DNC leaked the opposition research documents on Sarah Palin, just like they did on Michael Steele, to the media. So Gov. Palin's home phone number and social security number are out there and available to anyone wanting to steal her personal information. Where does this end? No one was ever charged or convicted when the Dems did this Steele. No one will likely be charged or convicted as a result of this illegal disclosure.

Gov. Palin, the only reason the Democrats and their tasteless minions in the media are doing this to you is that they are scared to death by you. Before you were announced as the VP on McCain's ticket, they knew that Barack Obama was going to get elected this November. That's been plain for months now. But they never counted on facing a strong, conservative woman with a track record of reform and executive experience.

They know that there are some women out there that will vote for you simply because you are a woman just like there are certain constituencies out there that will vote for Obama simply because he is black and some constituencies that will not vote for Obama simply because he is black. That's the nature of this political beast and that will never change. But young women and young moms typically vote Democratic because of the perception that Democrats are the party of women. And in this election, it just isn't so.

Whether Hillary Clinton should have been selected as Obama's running mate is moot because she wasn't and there are alot of women out there that probably still would have voted for Obama had you not showed up on the McCain ticket. The reality is that those women, who are not issue-driven voters, will vote for McCain-Palin in November. Glad to have them on board.

The most frightening thing for the Obama campaign and the leftist media is that you are much more than the former beauty queen from Alaska. You have energized the conservative base of the Republican Party in ways that Sen. McCain could never do alone. Obama was counting on not just a huge turnout from his base constituency in November - he was counting on the conservative base to stay home in November. And that base would likely not have shown up this November if not for you.

If it sounds like I'm pleading a case, I am. I'm asking you, Sarah Palin, to continue to be the bare-knuckled fighter you have been your entire career and not let the onslaught of the Left upon you and your family wear you down and make you quit. That's why the Left is attacking you so hard - because you are the game-changer - you are their worst nightmare.

Sarah, I've got your back. To steal a line from our favorite band, Van Halen, "Come baby, finish what ya started!"

Misleading us into War

10 years after we were told that 100's of thousands of ethnic Albanians were being systematically murdered, we still have troops on the ground in Kosovo. Why is that? And, more importantly, where is the public outcry?

We've been in Iraq since 2003. I don't buy the story that we were misled to war but I agree that we largely fought the war incorrectly until the troop surge. We've been there 5 years and we had a clearly defined mission. What's our mission in Kosovo? We've been there ten years - haven't we completed that mission yet? Why don't we care more about Kosovo? Why don't we care that the atrocities committed in Kosovo were exaggerated as a pretext to the US and its NATO-allies attacking? We care so much about whether or not the Bush Administration exaggerated Saddam Hussein's secret nuclear and biological weapons programs, how come Bill Clinton gets a pass? There were 17 UN-resolutions against Iraq that Saddam flagrantly ignored and the US and the rest of the world gave Saddam 13 years to comply but Bush was chastised for not giving diplomacy a chance to work.

How many UN-resolutions were issued against Milosevic? How many years was Slobodon Milosevic given to comply? Did Clinton get the UN's blessing before going into Kosovo? No. The UN Security Council refused to allow military action. So, why is it when Bill Clinton decides to "go it alone" it's a good thing but when George Bush decides to "go it alone" he's evil?

Besides all the mystery surrounding our continued occupation of Kosovo, does anyone understand what was at stake in Kosovo? Apparently not. You see, the supposed aggressors in the conflict were Serbs, who are Orthodox Christians. The supposed victim in all of this were Albanians, who are Muslim. It turns out that the part that gets overlooked in all of the rhetoric is that the Albanians, the Muslims, were led by the Kosovo Liberation Army, an Islamic terrorist group. Are you with me so far?

So, when Bill Clinton decided to get involved in this CIVIL WAR and impose his will on a sovereign nation, he sided with the Islamic terrorists. He and the NATO-allies bombed Christians during the Easter season of 1999. But apparently, that's okay because he was helping Islamic terrorists defeat Christian infidels.

Fast-forward to the conflict in Iraq, where George Bush has led a coalition to kill Islamic terrorists that have a stated mission to kill all Christian and Jewish infidels, and suddenly, the media frames this as an unjust war and illegal attempt by Bush to democratize the Middle East.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let's look at two photos: one from Kosovo and one from Iraq.





In the first photo, we see members of the KLA posing with the head of a decapitated Serbian. This photo is fairly recent and the KLA members are now part of the UN peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. The second photo is a US GI providing aid to an Iraqi child. Which photo really represents a religion or ideology of peace? Who's really committing atrocities worldwide?

More issues with Media Anti-gun Bias

Here's some stories of attempted mass murders that you may have missed because they didn't involve firearms and therefore were not sensationalized by the media.

Woman charged with driving into street festival

By Arlo Wagner

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The Oxon Hill woman who drove her station wagon through a street festival in Southeast, injuring at least 40 persons, was charged with aggravated assault while armed, but police were still searching yesterday for an explanation for the bizarre episode.

"We're still trying to piece together exactly just what happened that led up to this," said Chief Cathy L. Lanier of the Metropolitan Police Department.

Police charged Tonya Bell, 30, of the 1300 block of Southview Drive in Oxon Hill, with assault while armed. They say she plowed her 1991 Volvo station wagon into residents Saturday night at the Unifest event along Martin Luther King Avenue Southeast.

Investigators are waiting for the results of drug and alcohol tests administered to Miss Bell at Greater Southeast Community Hospital, where she was treated for a sprained ankle.

Police Cmdr. Patrick Burke confirmed witness statements that Miss Bell appeared to have been smoking something and laughing as she drove through the crowd.

Police officials will subpoena the tests results today and give the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office, a department spokesman said yesterday. Additional charges are expected and likely to include assault on a police officer while armed.

No one was killed by the vehicle, which witnesses said went through the festival at about 8 p.m. D.C. fire department spokesman Alan Etter said authorities think the vehicle was going as fast as 70 mph.

Among the injured were several children and two police officers working the festival. Four-year-old Marcellus Jackson, whose leg was broken, was the only child who remained hospitalized.

40 people injured. And not a one of them shot by a firearm. Mowed down at 70 mph by a Volvo Station Wagon. Let's see - that would be one half 3051 lbs times 102 fps squared - that's 15871302 foot-pounds. A 9mm FMJ bullet would have one half 0.017714 lbs times 1145 fps squared which equals 11611 foot-pounds. Which has more potential to do harm? Those 40 people are lucky to be alive.

8-11-06 - A 77-year-old man accidentally drove his car into a crowd of fellow mosque-goers this afternoon in Hayward, sending five people to the hospital and leaving six with minor injuries.

Must be a loophole somewhere that allows a 77-year-old man obtain a driver's license. We should go after the people that sold him that automobile before they sell another deadly weapon to another 77-year-old!

7-9-06 - An 89-year-old man driving through a crowd at a summer festival panicked after striking one pedestrian and lurched his station wagon through the throng, injuring 27 people, city officials and witnesses said.

Stop the insanity!!! We must ban the sale of all vehicles weighing over 1500 pounds and capable of more than 35 mph!!! These weapons of death with which the automakers have flooded the market must be stopped!!!

5-29-07 - A Worcester man was arrested and charged with three counts of felony assault after, the police said, he drove into a crowd of people on Washington Street early Sunday.

Oh, the humanity! Why is America so enthralled with this automobile-lust? Can't anyone stop this evil?

3-4-06 - Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 23, drove a silver Jeep Grand Cherokee into the UNC-Chapel Hill campus around noon on Friday, and headed for the Pit, an open area surrounded by two libraries, a dining hall, and the student union. His SUV was going about 45 mph when Taheri-azar began intentionally hitting people in the crowd. Lauren Westate, a student who saw the incident, told reporters, "He was speeding up and swerving to hit people. One person got knocked out of a wheelchair, and he didn’t care." Sophomore Jeff Hoffman, his arm in a bandage, told reporters, "I see everyone kind of part because there’s a car coming through and the next thing I know, I’m on his windshield."

5932872 ft-lbs!!! To paraphrase Chucky Schumer, that's enough energy to pick you and 19 friends and carry you across the Pit!!! Chucky, what can we do to stop these would-be killers from striking again? Clearly, we must ban the SUV's!

5-21-07 - Southern California's illegal drag racing culture took another bloody turn early Sunday in Lancaster, when a passing driver veered into a crowd of spectators, leaving two men dead and three men hospitalized. Some onlookers then jumped into their cars, chased down the driver and held him for deputies, authorities said.

More carnage!!! When will our federal government step in to rid us of this scourge?

7-2-06 - MADISON, Ind. - A car plowed into a crowd Sunday at a speedboat race on the Ohio River, sending as many as a dozen people to a hospital, according to reports.

I can't take it anymore! We need car control now!!! Do it for the children!