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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (154513)	1/17/2011 8:46:32 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542008

The 60 Minutes piece last night was interesting in many respects, not just because it showed that his friends were such dorks and losers. Loughner went to an open meeting Giffords had in 2007 I think, submitted an incoherent question in writing and was pissed off when Giffords didn't address it. From then on, he decided in his own crazy way that she and the government were useless and evil. Then getting kicked out of class was the last stresser, and he ended up on a shooting spree. It's sadly not an original plot line.

To: epicure who wrote (154513)	1/17/2011 9:12:54 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542008

<<<<If God is telling you to kill someone, that's a crazy non-political killing. If you are killing someone because you think your country isn't doing the right things wrt some odd monetary system you have in mind, that's crazy political. Is that what you were saying Mary? >>> The assassination of a political leader is by definition politically connected. The assassin whatever his degree of sanity targeted a political leader. The assassin did not target a religious leader, a business person, a philosopher, a military person, or anybody else at random. He followed the activities of a political leader - in this case for 3 years - to redress some political grievance. It was not her looks that he objected to or the dress she wore. It was her political views - real or imagined. It was politically connected. Could this have been prevented or who was responsible are entirely different questions but whether or not if you like it or not, the discussion(s) will and should go on. It just has to go on in a way that does not exacerbate a bad situation. We have to make things better. We can not ignore the situation.

To: epicure who wrote (154513)	1/17/2011 5:00:33 PM
From: Cogito	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542008

>>If God is telling you to kill someone, that's a crazy non-political killing. If you are killing someone because you think your country isn't doing the right things wrt some odd monetary system you have in mind, that's crazy political.<< The act itself is what was political - made so by the identity of one of the victims, and the fact that the killer specifically targeted her because of her position. I don't see why we would need to dissect the killer's motivation to make that judgement. Seems to me that we should leave such things to people who aren't crazy. I don't see Loughner as being apolitical. I seem him as being political in a way that most of us don't get, because it's crazy. I believe people are calling him apolitical incorrectly, because they can't place him easily on the spectrum we're all used to. He's neither a Republican nor a Democrat, neither a conservative nor a liberal. That's not a good reason to call him apolitical.