According to the news so far, we can't blame the volatile rhetoric for Laughner's massacre. And, Sarah Palin set the record straight; it's all the fault of the media's blood libel, said with narcissistic certainty. So, we can go back to hating with our conscience clean.
Well, I'm not sold yet. I'll bet my social security check that Laughner was stimulated by the political right-wing vitriol. Somewhere, someplace he was exposed to hate speech, maybe as far back as the Tea Party town hall meetings. I seem to remember a lot of anti-government shouting at those meetings. I also heard that he doesn't watch television, but a person doesn't have to get the hate messages from television. He could get them at the kitchen table from his parents or friends, passed on from the usual suspects.
Because nothing else makes sense. I think everyone knows Laughner is crazy, unbalanced and delusional. I don't think there is any doubt about that. That was obvious from the outset. But, the questions that come to mind are: Why did he pick Congresswoman Giggords' small gathering? If he's angry at his college, as I've heard, why not pick the college? Or the teacher who wouldn't teach with him in the class without police escort? What set him against the specific target he chose? I don't believe he chose it in a vacuum. Something set him off against Giffords, perhaps pushing him into the lucid dreaming we're told that he did. After all, he said himself that he "planned it" and specifically called it an "assassination." Where did he get those ideas? Thin air?
Dave
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