THE HILL: Boehner Will Keep Flying Commercial. “Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) will continue to fly commercially despite the security concerns that came about after Saturday’s shooting in Tucson, Ariz. Boehner’s spokesman Michael Steel told The Hill that the Speaker had no intention to reconsider a decision he previously made to forgo the use of a private jet for transportation to and from his Ohio district.” That’s good, since there’s nothing about what happened in Tucson to suggest any reason not to.

It’s also good, because it sets a tone for not using security as an excuse for more perks, or for hiding from constituents.

TAX REFORM ADVICE: Simplify! Dump the Current Tax Code and Start Over.

CLAYTON CRAMER: Mental Illness And Mass Murder. “How many more tragedies like the Tucson shootings will we have to watch before we start facing the harsh truth? . . .In 1950, a person who was behaving oddly stood a good chance of being hospitalized. It might be for observation for a few days or a few weeks. If the doctors decided that this person was mentally ill, they would be committed, perhaps for a few months, perhaps longer. Hospital space was always at a premium, so generally, if someone was kept, there was a reason for it. The notion that large numbers of sane people were kept for no reason just has not survived my research efforts.”

And here are some related thoughts from the InstaWife.

THE ECONOMIST: Spinning Tucson: Krugman’s Toxic Rhetoric. “This struck me as irresponsibly premature, and one might have thought that, given a little more time and information, Mr Krugman would change his tune, or at least turn down the volume. Nope. . . . At this point, there is simply no sound reason to believe this deranged young man was fired up by ‘toxic’ or ‘eliminationist’ conservative rhetoric from Michele Bachmann or whomever. Why are we even having this conversation? It’s nuts. It’s offensive.”

It’s Krugman. Related thoughts here. “Another way of describing Fitzsimmons’s and Krugman’s comments is that they were fantasies. In the absence of facts, each man constructed a fictional story to explain what had happened. These stories tell us nothing about the external world, but they give us a window into the psyches of Fitzsimmons and Krugman.” Indeed they do. Plus this: “It seems to us there is a very strong case to be made that the ugliest political rhetoric of the past 48 hours has been that coming from the side whose leading voices are attempting to make sense of a senseless crime by blaming their opponents for it.”

HOPING TO END VIOLENT POLITICAL RHETORIC, at Salon’s “War Room” Blog.

Jim Geraghty makes the obvious reference.

SHANNON LOVE: Not So Superior Chinese Mothers. “The secret of Americans’ collective success as a people is our ability to self-organize ourselves on both the small and large scale into highly effective teams The relative inability to self-organize into teams is why China and some other cultures have lagged behind in the modern world. Americans have long relied on activities like sports, theater, marching band etc to teach that one critical American cultural skill. By excluding such activities from her children’s life, Chua is depriving them of one of the most crucial skills an American must have. “

PATTERICO: While We’re Raising Questions — I Have a Few About Sheriff Dupnik. “I’m interested enough, in fact, that I am filing an open records law request for the documents. Do I expect the Dupster to comply? Well, willful violation of the law can lead to damages, so . . . we’ll have to see.”

PIGFORD HASN’T GONE AWAY: Rep. Steve King Says Witnesses Are Ready to Testify in Congress About Alleged Fraud in Federal Compensation Payments to Black Farmers.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI: On the Self-Indulgence of the Tucson Media Orgy.

MARC THIESSEN: Stop Blaming The Tea Party For The Arizona Tragedy.

After the attempted car bombing in Times Square last year, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg publicly speculated that the attack had been carried out by “somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health-care bill or something.” At the Nation, columnist Robert Dreyfuss wrote that “a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right” was probably behind the bombing. Countless others in the left-wing blogosphere joined the “blame the Tea Party” chorus – until it was disclosed that the perpetrator of the attack was not a Tea Party supporter but a Taliban-trained Islamic radical. Whoops.

Over the weekend, the Tea Party detractors were at it again – this time blaming the movement for the tragic shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others. Within hours of the attack, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman had issued his own (admittedly) unfounded verdict: “We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was . . . she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist.” So Tea Party activists are prepared to kill those they cannot defeat at the polls?

Left-wing bloggers and commentators blamed the attack on Tea Party favorite Sarah Palin because she had “targeted” Giffords for defeat during the 2010 elections. The New York Daily News published a column headlined “Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ blood is on Sarah Palin’s hands after putting cross hair over district.” And an hour after Giffords was shot, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas actually tweeted: “Mission accomplished, Sarah Palin.” He conveniently failed to mention that his Daily Kos had put a “bull’s eye” (their words) on Giffords in 2008 – including her on a list of centrist Democrats who should be “targeted” in Democratic primaries. Mission accomplished, Markos?

Some have blamed DailyKos for the Giffords attack, but I think that’s unfair.

But here’s the real point:

On Sunday, the New York Times published a front-page story, “Bloodshed Puts New Focus on Vitriol in Politics.” Nowhere did it mention the vitriol hurled at Tea Party activists, who are routinely derided to as “tea baggers” and racists, and now stand accused of incitement to murder. If you want an example of the lack of civility plaguing our political discourse, look no further than this weekend’s shameful efforts to use this tragedy to demonize the Tea Party.

Indeed.

BLOOD LIBELS: “Here’s a partial list of some of the incidents the left has tried to pin on conservatives: The Columbine shooters. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing… The DC sniper. The New York City Times Square car bomb attempt. They tried to blame that on some Tea Partier angry at the health law, then we find out that was radical Islamists. The February 2010 IRS plane attack in San Antonio. Remember that? It had to be an anti-government clown that flew that plane into the IRS office, had to be. The Pentagon subway shooter. The Fort Hood attack. The Discovery Channel hostage taker. And this guy [John Patrick] Bedell who went into the Pentagon and wanted to shoot these people up. This guy, by the way, is a dead ringer for Loughner. Amy Bishop who shot her colleagues at that Alabama college.”

A ROUNDUP: Ghouls and gimmicks.

JERRY POURNELLE HAS AN EMAIL ON THE ARIZONA SHOOTINGS: “Back in 1971 when I started the shooter would have been put in a mental health institute unless he could be medicated to safely be out under someone’s watchful eye. They changed the laws in the later 70s and 80s to make sure folks like this were not institutionalized.”

Related: “One man’s mental health intervention is another’s police state, or Department of Pre-Crime.”

DUPNIK DOUBLES DOWN: “Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is now officially the worst cop since Maryland’s Chief Charles Moose, last seen still waiting for the DC sniper to pull up in his white van.”

IT’S LIKE THAT SNL SKIT, “THE SHOOTING OF BUCKWHEAT:” “I felt like if anyone was going to shoot her, it would be Jared.”

From the skit:

TED KOPPEL: (voice-over)
John David Stutts spent his childhood here, in this modest home in Lima, Ohio. Everyone who knew him called him a loner, a quiet young man. Stutts attended Sunday school at the Mercy Seat Baptist Church.

MERCY SEAT BAPTIST CHURCH PASTOR:
He was a loner, and a quiet young man. He attended church, and Sunday school. I remember he was always very polite.

TED KOPPEL: (off camera)
Do you believe he killed Buckwheat?

MERCY SEAT BAPTIST CHURCH PASTOR: (without hesitation)
Oh, yes. Definitely. That’s all he talked about.

Well, life is more like old SNL skits every day.

UPDATE: Video.

RHETORIC: Sheriff Who Suggested Talk Shows Incited Attack Was Asked by Dems to Apologize for ‘Inflammatory’ Immigration Remarks.

HYPOCRISY UPDATE: MoveOn launches campaign against vitriolic language — despite sordid history of using vitriolic language.

JOHN HINDERAKER: “I think it’s fair to say that Loughner was not exactly a Tea Partier.”

PJTV: I talk with James Poulos about the Arizona shooting and its politicization.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR: What Motivated Arizona Shooting Suspect?

The investigation of the incident has clearly not finished, and new revelations are sure to come. But at this early stage, no clear links have emerged between Loughner and the current political climate. Rather, acquaintences and criminologists point to a convoluted worldview that appears largely incoherent – ranging from a fascination with dreams to an apparent penchant for nihilism.

His writings merge everything from the Communist Manifesto to discussions of the gold standard to the government’s oppression by use of grammar.

And reader Andy Kohl emails:

According to Loughner, “The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar.”

I refer you to Samuel Delany’s Babel-17, in which one character is driven to assassinate a politician by precisely this method (See Sapir-Whorf). Therefore, by Underpants Gnomes logic, Loughner’s actions can be blamed on a vast conspiracy of Black Gay Dyslexic science-fiction authors. Beware!

It all makes sense now . . . .

IF PEOPLE ARE WORRIED ABOUT CONTEMPT FOR GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, maybe government officials should try being less contemptible? Clyburn: Reading the Constitution provoked murder spree in Tucson, or something.

“UNUSUAL CIRCUMSTANCES:” Former Hill staffer found dead in car.

UPDATE: Reader Adam Kwiatowski writes: “Has anyone blamed Sarah Palin for this yet?”

VIDEO: James Taranto: Sheriff Dupnik Is Distracting Public From Looking At His Contacts With Killer Loughner. Doing a pretty lousy job of it, but that would seem to fit the Dupnik pattern. . . .

HILLARY CLINTON partying like it’s 1995.

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch writes: “You know, if they’re stupid enough they could make a tragedy that should have united us into a threat to the union. I hope that doesn’t happen. But our political class and their media aren’t doing much to earn the country’s faith right now. I wonder if they see how their actions are closer to John Calhoun’s than Abraham Lincoln’s in 1861.”

BLOG COMMENT OF THE DAY: “Anyone else find it creepy that new standard what we may and may not say is: How will it affect the behavior of an obviously crazy person who may or may not hear it?”