Death of Civility-OK; Death of Decency-Not So Much; Death of a Friend-Sucks (The Gateway)

Sarah Palin compares calls to tamp down the rhetoric with false accusations that Jews used the blood of Christian children to make matzoh.

Which begs four questions, but one will suffice.

Don’t like the blood libel metaphor?

How about a little rape then?

Limbaugh takes his stubby little finger and points it at the Sheriff. Rush Limbaugh blames Sheriff Clarence Dupnik for Tucson shootings (Audio) – National Political Buzz. www.examiner.com

Boston Herald feels it’s better to have a stranger shoot your child than to trust liberals with our freedoms.

If I were half as sick as Editorial Page Editor Jeff Jacoby, I would hope they get their wish.

Query for Today: Why cannot the Tucson Tornado also be both an act of mental illness and of politics? Does one really preclude the other?

Mixed Bag from Kinsley;

Best Quote (on media "balance"): “So Democrats have noted that Republicans have advocated armed sedition while Republicans have noted that Democrats sometimes attempt to portray themselves as victims in order to stifle debate. Neither side has a monopoly on virtue. Balance!”

Worst: "Republicans are right that you can’t run a democracy with people biting their tongue for fear of offending someone else. Perhaps harder to accept is the fact that you can’t run a democracy with everyone censoring themselves for fear of flipping some switch in the brain of a nutcase."

Why the worst? Because Kinsley does not believe it himself; here he is explaining how politicians bite their tongues all the time, as a defining part and parcel of their trade:

"A gaffe…is when a politician tells the truth. Not necessarily the objective truth, but the truth about what he or she really thinks. The serious presidential candidate must hoard his or her opinions, if indeed he or she has any. Each one must be shaped with care, the rough edges must be polished away, before it is produced."

Item #2: Exactly why despicable conservative have been so much more despicable than despicable liberals (a group you might have noticed have never been among my favorites).

Republicans who complain about liberals trying to impose new norms of political speech should take note of their own efforts. In this tidbit, Tim Pawlenty's masculinity is questioned because he would refrain from the use of violent imagery.

Clyburn gets it exactly wrong. The shooting is NOT cause for the country to rethink parameters on free speech, which is a legal concept. The shooting is only cause for the country to rethink parameters on socially acceptable speech, a concept not enforceable by law, but nonetheless in many ways far more effective.

Similarly talkin loud but sayin nuthin (at least nuthin worth hearin) is Republican Tim Scott, who said engaging in such a conversation is not appropriate now.

Arizonans legislators emulate Marxists by trying to heighten the contradictions. Arizona's response to the Gifford shooting: Only guns can stop gun violence. www.slate.com

Could there be anything more preposterous than allowing teen to have intercourse legally, but not oral sex? If anything, this is exactly backwards; oral sex causes neither unwanted births nor abortions (and pauses a lower risk of most STDs, including AIDS).