MARK HALPERIN IN TIME: Maybe a horrendous act of violence will kill hundreds, even thousands, of Americans and thereby brighten Obama’s political future. “No one wants the country to suffer another catastrophe. But when a struggling Bill Clinton was faced with the Oklahoma City bombing and a floundering George W. Bush was confronted by 9/11, they found their voices and a route to political revival.”
It’s like they had the narrative pre-written.
“HATE SPEECH” FROM GOOGLE EARTH? Nah, they donate to Democrats.
INTERN OF THE YEAR: DANIEL HERNANDEZ: “Daniel Hernandez had only been Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ intern for five days, and on Saturday, he may have saved her life.”
ANN ALTHOUSE: “Professor Liberman has failed to consider an obvious hypothesis — that West’s books are edited.”
ED DRISCOLL: Breeding Men Who Riot.
Related: Professor Jacobson: Two Sicknesses On Display In Arizona. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time we have seen this type of reaction. The meme that opponents of Obama are crazy and dangerous has been an explicit Democratic Party campaign strategy for over two years. Here is just a partial list of events in which the left-wing and Democratic Party media operation has immediately blamed right-wing rhetoric, only to be proven wrong when the facts finally came out: Bill Sparkman, Amy Bishop, The Fort Hood Shooter, The IRS Plane Crasher, The Cabbie Stabbing, and The Pentagon Shooter. The facts will come out about the shooting and murder by Loughner. Until then, we’ll be subjected to the sickness of people who seek to use the crime to their political advantage and who will worry about the facts later on, if ever.”
OBAMA LOOKING AT TAX REFORM. We could use something along the lines of 1986 — lower rates coupled with fewer deductions, etc. — but given the shambolic nightmare of healthcare “reform,” this is going to be a tough sell, even to Democrats.
I’VE GOT A COLUMN IN TOMORROW’S WALL STREET JOURNAL: The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel. “Those who purport to care about the tenor of political discourse don’t help civil debate when they seize on any pretext to call their political opponents accomplices to murder.”
MARKDOWNS ON reconditioned tools.
JACK SHAFER: The awesome stupidity of the calls to tamp down political speech in the wake of the Giffords shooting.
Sheriff Dupnik’s political sermon came before any conclusive or even circumstantial proof had been offered that the shooter had been incited by anything except the gas music from Jupiter playing inside his head.
For as long as I’ve been alive, crosshairs and bull’s-eyes have been an accepted part of the graphical lexicon when it comes to political debates. Such “inflammatory” words as targeting, attacking, destroying, blasting, crushing, burying, knee-capping, and others have similarly guided political thought and action. Not once have the use of these images or words tempted me or anybody else I know to kill. I’ve listened to, read—and even written!—vicious attacks on government without reaching for my gun. I’ve even gotten angry, for goodness’ sake, without coming close to assassinating a politician or a judge.
From what I can tell, I’m not an outlier. Only the tiniest handful of people—most of whom are already behind bars, in psychiatric institutions, or on psycho-meds—can be driven to kill by political whispers or shouts. Asking us to forever hold our tongues lest we awake their deeper demons infantilizes and neuters us and makes politicians no safer.
The call by Sheriff Dupnik and others to take our political conversation down a few notches might make sense if anybody had been calling for the assassination in the first place, which they hadn’t.
FROM DAN MITCHELL: A Two-Part Quiz for Libertarians and other Advocates of Limited Government.
Related: The Perils Hidden In Success. “It is clearly the case that failing to be be more successful and wealthy than your ancestors is worse than having the opportunity to eat yourself into an expensive and debilitating degenerative condition – but why sabotage the benefits that you do have?”
BOB OWENS: Salon Posts Completely False Article About Giffords Shooting. “Elliott’s post isn’t just wrong, it’s embarrassingly wrong.”
I dunno, I found the part about Sarah Palin being the second shooter on the grassy knoll quite compelling.
ED MORRISSEY: The shame — and hypocrisy — of CNN. “CNN clearly didn’t inadvertently cross the line once, but repeatedly kept insisting on a link between the shooting and political activism on the Right, especially Palin’s.” CNN’s coverage could be fairly described as “hate speech,” couldn’t it? Because that’s what blood libel is.
Plus this: “Contra David Frum, I don’t see this as a particular moment to reflect on ‘extreme political rhetoric,’ since there’s nothing to connect political rhetoric from either side of the political spectrum to this crime. I wouldn’t even call for reflection on the continued sales of Mein Kampf or The Communist Manifesto, even though the suspect credits both of these as among his favorites, as they have no causal connection to the actions of a lunatic. Perhaps, though, this is a good moment to reflect on those who rush to exploit tragedy in an attempt to bully political activists into silence.”
AIR FORCE GETTING STRICT:
The U.S. Air Force has been using a rarely enforced 19th century law (the Anti-Deficiency Act, or ADA), and more inspections, to get rid of generals and senior commanders who do not do their jobs. This all began because of the embarrassing problems with nuclear weapons security last three years ago. Since then, commanders have come under more pressure to do things right. That means more strictness in following the rules. Scary inspections have become fashionable again, along with fiscal responsibility. Commanders who don’t get with the program are headed for early retirement. This has happened to 14 air force generals and dozens of colonels in the last three years.
Well, this seems like a good place for strictness in following the rules.
DOES THE PROPOSED INVASIVE-SPECIES POLICY discriminate against the hairless?
POPULAR MECHANICS: Top 19 Gadgets From The Consumer Electronics Show.
AT AMAZON, markdowns on sports and outdoor equipment.
VIDEO: MIT Media Lab Prints Out Sweet-Sounding Flute With 3D Printer. “The flute was created on an Objet Connex500 rapid prototyper, a 3-D printer that can print in multiple materials at the same time. The flute was constructed from a few different materials – a rigid material for the body, a softer one for the mouthpiece, another for sealing the air in at the proper places – during a print run of about 15 hours, during which time the materials were added on one thin layer at a time.”
BEER: IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? People who drink more, exercise more. “In fact, the data show, the more people drink, the more they exercise.”
GRAPHS: Energy Production And Usage.
FACEBOOK IS AT OR NEAR “PEAK HYPE.”
A MOTORIZED UNICYCLE that converts to a motorcycle.
REMINDER: Virginia Postrel is surveying Star Trek fans for her book on Glamour. If you’re one, fill out her questionnaire!
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