Let us see,; where has the meter moved recently?  The Good Doctor will take three examples for contemplation, two of which occurred on what is typically considered Sanctuary, the grounds of a church.

In July of 2008 in Knoxville, TN. Jim David Adkinson, driven by what he considered to be the Liberalism of the Unitarian Universalist faith, went to a children’s performance at the church and opened fire with a 12 gauge shotgun, killing toe and wounding several others.  In a letter Adkinson expected to be printed after he was to be gunned down by police (which did not happen;parishoners disarmed and held him until police arrived), he noted or only his disdain toward ‘liberal’ policy initiatives, such as welfare.  He also complained that his food stamps were about to be cut.  As to the destructive policies of liberals and the Unitarian faith, I point out that Unitarians believe in a “free and responsible search for truth and meaning” and spiritual growth.

Adkinson, unable to shoot his intended targets, which would be the leaders of the Democratic party and other public figures noted in books by Bernard Goldberg and Bill O’Reilly, instead settled in shooting up a children’s church performance.

In April of this year, Richard Poplawski ambushed a Pittsburgh, PA patrol unit responding to a 911 call by Poplawski’s mother, who was trying to have her son removed from her house.  In the shootout that followed, three police officers were killed by Poplawski’s automatic weapon and two more were wounded.  In the aftermath, it was noted that the conservative bloviator Glen Beck had told his audience that President Obama was planning to take the guns away, which Poplawski had in turn told freinds, and that he posted to a white supremacist web site a You Tube link to an segment Beck did where Beck disavowed “FEMA concentration camps”.

Most recently, a Wichita , KS doctor proving abortion services, George Tiller, was gunned on May 31 as he stood in the lobby of the church where his wife and daughter were attending services inside.

Let me make an aside at this point to share my views on aborting a fetus. I daresay, if I were a woman, in most situations, I would likely not have one. Neither can I say there are no circumstances where I would consider the procedure. My wife would not have an abortion (Edit: Upon hearing this, my beloved spouse, practical woman that she is, pointed out that if she were “raped by some freakish creature with two heads and three arms”, she would indeed have the fetus aborted under those circumstances).. While I have friends who have had the procedure, in none of their situations was the decision made lightly, cavalierly or without great soul wrenching contemplation.  The only moral position I am sure of is that I am supremely unqualified to tell another human being how to approach such a traumatic crossroad, as I am unqualified to tell someone whether to engage in patient assisted suicide in the face of a terminal disease.  I know, love, and respect kith and kin on both sides of the philosophical arguments concerning terminating a pregnancy. and I will not tell them they are right or wrong, simply because I am not omniscient.

This moral reluctance does not seem to strike Mr. O’Reilly, who has referred many times of the years to Dr. Tiller in the most incindiary fashion,

The astute reader may have by now observed my thread of logic here, which is the presence of firebrands such as O’Reilly, Beck, Michael Savage or Rush Limbaugh in inspiring horrendous acts of mayhem and violence.  These people, and others, have made a cottage industry of stoking the flames of intolerance, hatred, and interpersonal bile under the premise of patriotism or moral superiority.  While I am sure there are those on the left guilty of such behavior, frankly, they don’t seem to have the platform that has been provided to these minions of malice.  The only lefty firebrand who comes easily to mind is Keith Olbermann, and I have never heard him advocate for anything worser than criminal trials for the political and social miscreants he regularly focuses on.  While these right wing hosts say they do not incite people who are already unbalanced to commit homegrown terrorism, neither can they reasonable say they do not go to the edge when they suggest that the country is under attack by liberals and left leaning public figures.

So it is time, I think, to call these people on their garbage. Not necessarily by phoning into their shows or writing letters to their producers; no, they will either hang up or refuse to acknowledge any position other than their own.  Perhaps the strongest message is by using good old capitalism, contacting their sponsors and host stations and making it clear that you can no longer buy those products or support those services advertised on programs that implicitly advocate violence and hate against fellow citizens.  Contact your representatives and let them know that if they support this kind of hate speech, you can no longer support their reelection for public office.

If enough people take the air out of these windbags, think how much cleaner our skies will be,

crossposted

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The Good Doctor is heartened in knowing that if he were ever able to bother himself with the care and feeding of a Blackberry-like electronic steno-gnat, he will have the senior Senator from Arizona to thank for it.  As his senior economic adviser stated it:  “You’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.“

Considering that the Senator has acknowledged not being comfortable with emails or web interaction, this miracle is even more illuminating when one takes into account that Blackberry’s parent company, Research In Motion, is Canadian. So take off, eh?

Besides, the man knows his technology.  He responded to a query by the busy bodies over at Science Debate 2008 asking how good his chops were in maintaining America’s Edge in Technology by reminding those meddlesome kids that he was more than up to the task, because he had used the newest technology the Navy has to offer.  In 1967, mind you, but technology is one of the great fixed stars of our culture, right up there with keeping teens sexually inactive among their peers.

Meanwhile, how do you like The Good Doctor’s new digs?  I’m still unpacking widgets and wiring buttons, so it will be a short time until full throttle.  Please keep your seats in their upright position and ignore the arcs of Tesla’s Vengance streaming through the countryside.  In short, please be patient whilst manifestations continues apace.  I thrive on communication, so let me know what your thoughts are.

In the “Oooh - Lookee Here!” segment, a very wry chap by the name of George Saunders writes in The New Yorker this:

Now, let’s talk about slogans. Ours is: Country First. Think about it. When you think of what should come first, what does? Us ourselves? No. That would be selfish. Our personal families? Selfish. God? God is good, I love Him, but, as our slogan suggests, no, sorry, God, You are not First. No, you don’t, Lord! How about: the common good of all mankind! Is that First? Don’t make me laugh with your weak blinking! No! Mercy is not First and wisdom is not First and love is super but way near the back, and ditto with patience and discernment and compassion and all that happy crap, they are all back behind Country, in the back of my S.U.V., which— Here is an example! Say I am about to run over a nun or orphan, or an orphan who grew up to become a nun—which I admire that, that is cool, good bootstrapping there, Sister—but then God or whomever goes, “It is My will that you hit that orphaned nun, do not ask Me why, don’t you dare, and I say unto thee, if you do not hit that nun, via a skillful swerve, your Country is going to suffer, and don’t ask Me how, specifically, as I have not decided that yet!” Well, I am going to do my best to get that nun in one felt swope, because, at the Convention, at which my Vice-Presidential candidate kicked mucho butt, what did the signs there say? Did they say “Orphaned Nuns First” and then there is a picture of a sad little nun with a hobo pack?

As cheery as the economic situation is, and boy do my cheeks hurt from smiling, some naysayers continue to moan and complain like the whiners Phil Gramm sniffs at.   Scott Bateman knows how to handle them, though.

If you need to find me, I’ll be counting my apple cores . . . .

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