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Knee Jerks: There's Nothing the Left Won't Exploit
Townhall.com ^ | July 22, 2012 | Derek Hunter

Posted on 07/22/2012 6:14:50 AM PDT by Kaslin

After he booby-trapped his apartment with explosives, James Holmes walked into a theater Friday night and opened fire on a crowd waiting to see the first showing of the new Batman movie. He shot scores and murdered a dozen. Holmes acted for reasons unknown, but his actions were pure evil.

His actions also were his alone.

It doesn’t matter if he was bullied as a kid, recently dumped or whatever else anyone comes up with as a possible motive. Nothing “caused” him to do this other than whatever evil lives inside him.

But that hasn’t stopped many progressive liberals in and out of the media from speculating wildly, and seemingly hopefully, as to his motives and his political affiliation. It hasn’t stopped them from using this event as a platform to score political points on the issue of gun control. It’s sickening … and typical.

George Stephanopoulos and Brian Ross of ABC News started the speculation with the following exchange on Good Morning America:

GS to BR: “You found something that might be significant.” (Emphasis added)

BR: “There is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado, ah, page, ah, on the Colorado Tea Party site as well, talking about him joining the Tea Party last year. Now we don’t know if this is the same Jim Holmes, but this is a Jim Holmes of Aurora, Colorado.”

The Jim Holmes Brian Ross “found” is a Hispanic man in his mid-50s, but he was associated with the Tea Party, so the story was simply too good to bother checking the facts. He’s a Tea Partier, therefore …

Ross later corrected his foolishness with a tweet saying “Earlier I reported incorrectly that the shooting suspect might be tied to the Tea Party. I apologize for the mistake.” But we still don’t know why Stephanopoulos thought this information “might be significant.”

What if he were? Does that make every Tea Party member a co-conspirator? Of course not, but that wouldn’t have stopped a lot of media members from reporting it as if it did. They’ve done it before. Who can forget that it was cross-hairs on a map on Sarah Palin’s website that caused psychopathic shooter Jerald Lee Loughner to go on his rampage in Tucson? And who can forget the media reaction when it was discovered he never saw Palin’s website and was, in fact, a Bush-hating anti-war zealot? That’s right … crickets.

On Friday, leftists immediately took to Twitter to blame Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, Mitt Romney and conservatives in general. Blame was being flung everywhere except where it belonged – James Holmes.

What is it about leftists that causes them to immediately assume the worst of those with whom they disagree? What does it say about them that after the dust settles, much of the time, those who commit heinous acts actually share their political philosophy?

The former exposes the desperation and lack of character that surrounds a political philosophy that seeks to make you responsible for everyone but yourself. The latter says nothing about them as a whole because individuals are responsible for their own actions.

It’s our curse that we stay true to our philosophy while they will abandon any principle at any time to score points.

Not to be outdone, film critic Roger Ebert wrote in the New York Times:

That James Holmes is insane, few may doubt. Our gun laws are also insane, but many refuse to make the connection. The United States is one of few developed nations that accepts the notion of firearms in public hands. In theory, the citizenry needs to defend itself. Not a single person at the Aurora, Colo., theater shot back, but the theory will still be defended.

The theater in Aurora, of course, has a ban on guns, which law-abiding citizens observe. This is why no one shot back. Had someone been carrying a legal gun, who knows what would’ve happened?

But do we really need to make a case for gun control before any of the victims are buried? Salman Rushdie thinks so, tweeting that morning, “The ‘right to bear arms’ is the real Bane of America.” Mr. Rushdie, who spent years in hiding from a “fatwa” placed on him by the Ayatollah Khomeini and enjoyed the protection of armed guards during much of that time, saw no irony or lack of tact in his tweet. He simply replied, “No, thank you” when journalists emailed him for further comment.

Mr. Ebert, on the other hand, lives in Chicago, a city that’s seen 27 gun-related murders this month alone while having some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country. You’d think he’d be aware of this, but pointing it out doesn’t advance his leftist agenda.

He’d rather all America become as “safe” as Chicago.

Ebert’s knee-jerk response not only expresses a complete disregard for our Constitution (nothing new for Democrats), it shows a lack of common sense and decency. Rushdie never has been known for his love of much beyond himself. The exchange between Ross and Stephanopoulos shows us just what mainstream media types think of those with whom they disagree.

But none of this left-wing exploitation of tragedy changes the fact that James Holmes acted alone, for reasons we’ll most likely never know nor understand. Even if he’d been a Tea Party member, the Tea Party would’ve been no more to blame than, say, President Obama for giving us an economy in which Holmes was unable to find work or succeed.

No government action ever will outlaw crazy or evil, and no ceding of liberty to government ever will stop an individual from perpetrating their sickness on innocent victims.

It just happens. And the person who does it is responsible.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Colorado
KEYWORDS: abc; brianross; coloradoshooting; guncontrol; jamesholmes; jimholmes; rogerebert; stephanopoulos; teaparty; theleft

1 posted on 07/22/2012 6:14:55 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

The left asumes the worse when it comes to those who disagree with because, in reality, it’s a reflection of who they are. They accuse others of doing what they would do


2 posted on 07/22/2012 6:21:52 AM PDT by LMAO ("Begging hands and Bleeding hearts will only cry out for more"...Anthem from Rush)
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To: LMAO
Ebert makes a living on the celebration of violence caused by the repeated use of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the "productions" of Hollywood in movies and on TV.

Perhaps he could start there by calling for the BATFE to prohibit same.

3 posted on 07/22/2012 6:32:36 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Kaslin

Accusing the Tea Party wasn’t merely a knee-jerk reaction, it was the waving of a red cape, like a bull-fighter, to distract from the real culprit.


4 posted on 07/22/2012 6:33:33 AM PDT by the invisib1e hand (If Bill Ayers had a son, he'd look like James Holmes.)
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To: LMAO

Exactly and that is called projection, which the left uses all the time


5 posted on 07/22/2012 6:36:47 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: LMAO

Exactly and that is called projection, which the left uses all the time


6 posted on 07/22/2012 6:36:59 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

There’s no promise of justice being served from the White Hut either.


7 posted on 07/22/2012 6:55:34 AM PDT by BerryDingle (I know how to deal with communists, I still wear their scars on my back from Hollywood-Ronald Reagan)
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To: Kaslin
Ran across this:

The SHOOTINGS WERE STAGED.

Massive ammo of 6000 rounds were bought - STAGED to stop ammo from being sold online to patriots.

Bought multiple guns on mulitiple websites - STAGED to prevent online sales of weapons on internet.

Shooting occurs a few days before UN gun vote treaty on Americans - STAGED to infuence vote against 2nd Ammendment.

Gave up without a fight - STAGED to prevent himself from being shot after completion of job.

Told Police about booby-trapped apartment - For so much hatred of society why would he do that?

ALL STAGED as setup to blowing away the 2nd Ammendment by liberals in government.

8 posted on 07/22/2012 6:56:34 AM PDT by Jerrybob (Truth -- the new hate speech.)
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To: Kaslin

When I read or hear a liberal call for more restrictions, I say this:

Until you are equally furious about this administration allowing firearms to be delivered to the most notorious murderers in North America, and who have used those firearms to kill nearly 300 Mexicans and Americans, you can take your calls for civilian restrictions and stuff them!


9 posted on 07/22/2012 7:05:36 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (When religions have to beg the gov't for a waiver, we are already under socialism.)
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To: Jerrybob

“ALL STAGED”

Very strange coincidence.

Considering the antics of the left, not very much of a stretch.

IMHO


10 posted on 07/22/2012 7:12:50 AM PDT by ripley
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To: Jerrybob

I read something like that, too.
http://www.naturalnews.com/036536_James_Holmes_shooting_false_flag.html


11 posted on 07/22/2012 7:13:03 AM PDT by RandallFlagg (Obama hates Mexicans (Fast and Furious))
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To: Kaslin

I think it was operatives in the Obama White House who gave the marching orders to OWS Democrat James Holmes (D- Aurora) so B. Hussein Obama could jump-start his campaign after a bad week.


12 posted on 07/22/2012 7:17:40 AM PDT by MuttTheHoople (Obama does not have the work ethic to be Anti-Christ.)
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To: Kaslin
Ross later corrected his foolishness with a tweet saying “Earlier I reported incorrectly that the shooting suspect might be tied to the Tea Party. I apologize for the mistake.” But we still don’t know why Stephanopoulos thought this information “might be significant.”

Probably because Stephanopoulos got a hurried signal from a program director that Ross had some new information. In the chaotic nature of a breaking story, I suspect Stephanapoulos did not even know what Ross was going to say. I think this one is all on Ross.

13 posted on 07/22/2012 7:18:25 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
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To: Kaslin

The unasked question: Does media’s stance, of moral relevantism and other firmly held cultural biases, influence violent psychotic behavior in those predisposed to psychological dysfunction? Is the media to blame? Does the media influence an individual’s violent outbursts?

The liberal media labels the harmless as harmful and evil as benign. They have created a culture of confusion that influences mallable minds, those who do not know right from wrong or good from evil because to do so is labeled as bias, prejudice or discrimination.


14 posted on 07/22/2012 7:20:11 AM PDT by This I Wonder32460
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To: Jerrybob

In this bizarro world we live in now, this makes perfect sense. And, I thought it was awful convenient that this happened right before this UN treaty, and we must not forget this; these people are EVIL. We are being “governed”
by the most evil, corrupt, criminal administration in American history. Believe it.


15 posted on 07/22/2012 8:14:08 AM PDT by 383rr (Those who choose security over liberty deserve neither; GUN CONTROL= SLAVERY)
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To: Kaslin
I am positive that Ronald Reagan listened to or read the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and took them to heart. He used the power of the presidency for good in strong opposition to evil. We have to fight this current advancement of evil by deepening our moral roots so that the mouthpiece media cannot be exploitative. We have to laugh derisively at their attempts to portray inane falsehoods as lies. TRUTH is the ultimate power.

The following words were spoken over thirty years ago by a physics teacher who spent eight years as a prisoner of The Communist Soviet Union in Siberian labor camps. President Reagan's actions did much to stop the march of the Communist ideology but he was (and we were) attacked from behind by a misinterpretation of "free" speech.

"There is no moral responsibility for deformation or disproportion. What sort of responsibility does a journalist have to his readers, or to history? If he has misled public opinion or the government by inaccurate information or wrong conclusions, do we know of any cases where the same journalist or the same newspaper has publicly recognized and rectified such mistakes? No, it does not happen, because it would damage sales.

A nation may be the victim of such a mistake, but the journalist always gets away with it. One may safely assume that he will start writing the opposite with renewed self-assurance. Because instant and credible information has to be given, it becomes necessary to resort to guesswork, rumors,and suppositions to fill in the voids, and none of them will ever be rectified, they will stay on in the readers' memory. How many hasty, immature, superficial, and misleading judgments are expressed every day, confusing readers,without any verification?

The press can both stimulate public opinion and mis-educate it. Thus we may see terrorists turned into heroes, or secret matters pertaining to one's nation's defense publicly revealed, or we may witness shameless intrusions on the privacy of well-known people under the slogan: "Everyone is entitled to know every thing."

But this is a false slogan, characteristic of a false era. People also have the right not to know, and it is a much more valuable one. The right not to have their divine souls stuffed with gossip, nonsense, vain talk. A person who works and leads a meaningful life does not need this excessive burdening flow of information.

Hastiness and superficiality are the psychic disease of the twentieth century, and more than anywhere else this disease is reflected in the press. In-depth analysis of a problem is anathema to the press. It stops at sensational formulas. Such as it is, however, the press has become the greatest power within the Western countries, more powerful than the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary. One would then like to ask: By what law has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? In the Communist East, a journalist is frankly appointed as a state official. But who has granted Western journalists their power, for how long a time, and with what prerogatives?

Enormous freedom exists for the press, but not for the readership, because newspapers mostly give stress and emphasis to those opinions which do not too sharply contradict their own, or the general trend."

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn - "A World Split Apart" (June 8, 1978 Harvard University Commencement Address)

You can find the full text (59 pages) at Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/48014109/A-Solzhenitsyn-A-Warning-to-the-West-etc


16 posted on 07/22/2012 10:31:29 AM PDT by arasina (So there.)
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To: Colonel Kangaroo
Probably because Stephanopoulos got a hurried signal from a program director that Ross had some new information. In the chaotic nature of a breaking story, I suspect Stephanapoulos did not even know what Ross was going to say. I think this one is all on Ross.

What if the "hurried signal" from the producer allowed Ross to accuse the shooter of planning an assassination attempt? Would they have speculated about it and continued with more rumors with that as a starting point? Of course they would have. They are ALL responsible for any misinformation that comes over their airwaves.

17 posted on 07/22/2012 10:53:00 AM PDT by arasina (So there.)
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To: Kaslin
Mr. Ebert, on the other hand, lives in Chicago, a city that’s seen 27 gun-related murders this month alone while having some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country. You’d think he’d be aware of this, but pointing it out doesn’t advance his leftist agenda.

He’d rather all America become as “safe” as Chicago.

Which is less 'safe' than Afghanistan.

With all due respect, Roger Ebert is a rhetorical menace to society when he parrots LW social engineering dreck. He should stick to rating his Hollywood propaganda.

18 posted on 07/22/2012 11:56:53 AM PDT by Post Toasties (Leftists give insanity a bad name. 0bama: Four years of failure and fingerpointing.)
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