High Ground Underground

When I heard that in Tucson a U.S. representative, and a Federal judge, as well as several other innocent bystanders had been shot and some killed, I hadn’t yet heard what the party affiliation of the representative (or judge) was, but felt immediately it was an attack against democracy, as any assassination attempt is. And it made me shocked and angry. That didn’t change when I learned it was a Democrat Representative. What did change, was when we almost immediately began to hear a tirade from almost every media commentator, and the Pima County sheriff, about how this was a result of the inflamed political rhetoric of the Right, the Tea Party, and certain conservative spokespeople. A sheriff, of all people, should rely more on evidence, and be circumspect about personal opinion. There was then, and there is now, no evidence whatsoever that the shooter was aligned with or listened to or influenced by any of them – in fact, perhaps that was his problem – talk shows could have kept h...

When it comes to accommodating sensitivities, it generally seems to be a one-way street when Muslims (or at least their activists/extremists) are involved. They violently demand that we treat their Koran, and Mohammed, with great respect. And in this country we almost always do – handling their Korans at Gitmo quite literally with kid gloves, and universally denouncing the Koran-burning kook (whom the Left and Islamisists love to put forward as somehow typical of “Islamophobes” opposed to the Ground Zero mosque). And US publications tripped over themselves to avoid publishing the Danish cartoons. The country was also marvelously restrained towards Muslims in the US following 9/11 – no violence against Muslims or their many mosques here. They enjoy religious and other freedoms and peace here that Muslims nowhere else in the world enjoy. Many of our troops have died defending Muslim sects in Iraq, or Muslims in the Balkans. But what do we see on the other side? There are no Chris...