On Jan 12, 12:02*am, Don Foreman
wrote:
On Mon, 10 Jan 2011 10:59:06 -0800 (PST), rangerssuck





wrote:
On Jan 10, 12:58*am, "Pete C." wrote:
wrote:

What I have feared in the USA, based on the highly polarized political
rhetoric I've heard here and on other newsgroups has happened, in a
small (relatively) way in Tuscon yesterday. The attack on an American
congresswoman, and the death of a federal judge and 5 others,
including an innocent 9 year old girl, is NOT what America wants to be
known for.
The divisive political rhetoric can so easily trip an off-balance
person to do horrific things - and put many otherwise functional
people off-balance - making these occurrences more likely.

In this case the perp was captured alive so there is a CHANCE what
causes this one to go off may be established - kinda hard to do when
they kill themselves or are gunned down by LEOs

Pray for the USA.

The sad thing is that 50-60% of the US population is quite centrist. The
reality is that the only two viable (for the foreseeable future)
political parties have been overrun by the 20-25% of extremists in each
"wing".-

And further, the sadder part is that the wingers on both ends of the
spectrum preach violence. I see less of it coming from the left, but
I'm sure it's there. As long as we have Sarah Palin publishing maps
with crosshairs (of course now she's running away from that) and
Sharon Angle talking about "Second Amendment options," and Gunner's
leaders with their "great cull," we are in serious trouble.

And then there's the uber-violent bangers who have no particular
political or religious zeolotry beyond their gang affiliation.

Those who abhor violence might do well to focus on dealing with
violence rather than try to form associations between nutcases and
whatever political persuasions they dislike.

And even though we're all "pretty sure" that Gunner's talk of a "great
cull" is all just fantasy, it raises a couple of questions:

1) How do we _KNOW_ it's just fantasy? How do we know that his talk
should not be taken seriously and that we shouldn't drop a dime to the
FBI on him?

2) Is a person who obviously derives great pleasure from such
fantasies mentally stable? Should a person who talks incessantly about
violent acts, be they real or fantastic, be allowed to own firearms?
Where do you draw the line?

Just to be perfectly clear, this isn't aimed at Gunner alone. He is,
however a convenient example for discussion's sake.