2011-tuscon-shooting

Republicans know well that a change of rhetorical pace is necessary. But efforts by their leaders to damp down the bellicosity of newly elected Tea Party types is running into the fact that the Tea Partiers have only the high volume setting on their amplifiers, just like Palin. They're like a couple having a fight at a funeral; politely sotto voce, then suddenly bursting out fortissimo with their plaints and accusations.

Memo to extreme partisans: If you can't bring yourselves to love your enemies, can you at least learn to hate your friends?

When Loughner himself speaks and we find out his real influences are Spiderman, 'Gnome Chomsky,' Taylor Swift, and Dr. Bronner, then what?

Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.

This is how it works now with the news: the story begins with a moral, then a narrative is fashioned to support it.

Given Loughner's obsession with meaninglessness and language, maybe Foucault & Derrida deserve some fault here, too.