As details emerge about the life of Gabrielle Giffords shooter Jared Loughner–his deranged manifestos, his Salvia habit, the ease with which he acquired a gun–it’s clear that the rhetoric of the Tea Party belongs pretty far down on the list of possible causes (if it belongs there at all).
Whatever one thinks of Sarah Palin—or Read More
The deranged expression on the face of Jared Lee Loughner in the mug shot released by the police–taken within hours after he allegedly killed six innocent people and wounded 14 more, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords–suggests that we may never fully understand whatever illness afflicts him. The law requires us to assess his mental state and Read More
There is little question that political discourse in the United States in the early 21st century will never be confused with the Lincoln-Douglas debate. Political combatants take an unseemly delight in characterizing opponents as enemies of the state, and reasonably decent public servants can expect to be labeled as pinheads and traitors, puppets of capital Read More
For all the hand-wringing over whether the gut-wrenching massacre in Tucson was the result of America’s virulent political discourse, the hand-wringing itself quickly became another instance of the virulence, and then the inanity, of American political discourse.
First, liberal writers declared that Jared Lee Loughner was the product of right-wing incitement: Sarah Palin shamefully putting Read More
