History and Tucson

Hey assholes,

You just don't get it, do you? Words can incite violence, cause people to riot, and cause people who are mentally on edge to kill others. All through history, this has been a political fact. The fact that you stated that you don't apologize for what you say or what it might incite in others leads me to believe that you and others like you are only out to cause trouble. You don't care about the feelings of other people. You don't care about the possible consequences of your rhetoric. Too put it bluntly, you just don't give a damn. It's nice to know that Maximilien de Robespierre is alive and well.

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's Propaganda Minister, was quoted as saying, "It is not propaganda’s task to be intelligent, its task is to lead to success."  He openly acknowledged that he was exploiting the lowest instincts of the German people – racism, xenophobia, class envy and insecurity. The very same thing that you and your buddy's are doing. Well, evidently, the Right's propaganda led to success in Tucson. To say that Jared Lee Loughner was apolitical, didn't watch the news, didn't read newspapers or magazines, and was mentally incapable of understanding any of it is laughable and an excuse to detach yourselves from this tragedy. Loughner lived with his family, who had a TV, watched the news, which Jared had access to, had the newspaper delivered, which Jared had access to, had magazines delivered, which Jared had access to, and had a computer with Internet access, which Jared had access to, and to which he posted to his own blog and sent emails to others. There is also a billboard in Tucson for Rush Limbaugh that declares Rush a straight shooter with images of bullet holes on it but of course Jared never saw that either.  He also posted YouTube videos.  This requires forthought and intelligence, as the simple act of setting up a blog and maintaining it requires the mental capacity to understand what you are doing. If Jared Lee Loughner didn't follow the news, then how did he know that Giffords would be at that Safeway in Tucson at that particular time? Kind of blows a hole in your theory, doesn't it? Jared Loughner attended college and graduated from high school. This is proof of his mental capacity to understand, read, and absorb knowledge, otherwise
he would never had graduated high school or been accepted into college.

As for me, I am politically independant. I vote for the man or woman who I think will do the best job, regardless of their political affiliations. I have liberal, conservative, and libertarian viewpoints on just about all matters. I believe in gun ownership, but I don't believe everybody has the right to own a gun. The Federal background check is a joke. It is not tough enough. Just about anybody can buy a gun, all they have to do is lie in the appropriate places on the form.

I am a disabled veteran from the First Gulf War. I flew left seat in an OH-58 Kiowa helicopter as an Aeroscout Observer for a Cobra Attack Helicopter Company. As part of my job was being the navigator for my pilot, I had intense training in maps and navigation. While in the Air National Guard in Arkansas, I was an Imagrey Interpreter, and had a Top Secret Compartmented Information Security Clearance. Believe me when I say I am an expert at maps and map symbols. Sarah Palin's PAC map had symbols on people and districts that were gunsights, not survey markers. She also had a "hit list". This is the equivalent of a pogram or putsch, no matter what you say or believe. She targeted these individuals, and should be brought to task for it. My first job in the U.S. Army was as a Firing Section Technician at a forward missile base in Germany along the northern East German border during the Cold War. We were on constant alert to Communist attack, and our own survivability time was approximatley 15 minutes before our site would be destroyed. I grew up in a military family, and know all the horrors associated with war. Personally, I suffer from PTSD, Flashbacks, Chronic Depression, Severe Migraines, Tinnitus, Ménière's Disease, Degenerative Disk Disease in my neck from complications from helicopters which I won't get in to, a ruptured disk in my L5 vertabrae also due to complications with the same, and rheumatoid arthritis. My mental illnesses are controlled with drugs, and I am a rational human being who poses no threat to society. I attend college at the local university with a major in Graphics Design. I have made the President's List, and maintain myself on the Dean's List. So, before you come to any conclusions, I am not stupid or irrational, or crazy.

Thanks for listening.