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Beck Encouraging Right-Wing Wackos to Go Postal
Late on a Saturday night two weeks ago, an unemployed carpenter packed his mother's Toyota Tundra with guns and set off for San Francisco with a plan to kill progressives. That's why progressives don't want people to have guns. When California Highway Patrol officers stopped him on an interstate in Oakland for driving erratically, Likker? Drugs? Just being unbalanced? Byron Williams, wearing body armor, fired at police with a 9mm handgun, a shotgun and a .308-caliber rifle with armor-piercing bullets, Oakland police say. Shot and captured after injuring two officers, Williams, on parole for bank robbery, told investigators that he wanted "to start a revolution" by "killing people of importance at the Tides Foundation and the ACLU," according to a police affidavit. Moron. His mother, Janice, told the San Francisco Chronicle that her son had been watching television news and was upset by "the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items." As a felon, perhaps he was not allowed to vote in November? So he had no outlet for his rage. We'll hear all about the need to limit gun ownership because of this. But since he's a convicted felon, he wasn't supposed to have guns in the first place. So a convicted criminal violated the law (again). Color me surprised. But what television news show could have directed the troubled man's ire toward the obscure Tides Foundation, which sounds as if it's dedicated to oceanography, or perhaps laundry detergent, but which is in fact a nonprofit that claims to support "sustainability, better education, solutions to the AIDS epidemic and human rights"?
Was Beck talking about the Tides after the shooting? I'm not clear on that. Is there something wrong about talking about Tides, and talking about them more than once? For good measure, Beck went after Tides again on Fox that night. And Tuesday night, Wednesday night and Thursday night. That's on top of 29 other mentions of Tides on Beck's Fox show over the past 18 months Fox reports, the shooter decided. It's not fair to blame Beck for violence committed by people who watch his show, Idiot stuff to be sure, but the shooter there was also prohibited by law from having guns and had them anyway. Beck has at times spoken against violence, but he more often forecasts it, warning that "it is only a matter of time before an actual crazy person really does something stupid." There are enough crazies in the world that anyone who forecasts violence is bound to be right ... Most every broadcast has some violent imagery: "The clock is ticking. . . . The war is just beginning. . . . Shoot me in the head if you try to change our government. . . . You have to be prepared to take rocks to the head. . . . The other side is attacking. . . . There is a coup going on. . . . Grab a torch! . . . Drive a stake through the heart of the bloodsuckers. . . . They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered. . . . They are putting a gun to America's head. . . . Hold these people responsible." Visited Daily Kos, lately? How many readers go there? No question. Been there and to the other progressive web sites, and the commenters there can match craziness one on one with any ultra right wing-nut. Beck has prophesied darkly to his millions of followers that we are reaching "a point where the people will have exhausted all their options. When that happens, look out." One night on Fox, discussing the case of a man who killed 10 people, Beck suggested such things were inevitable. "If you're a conservative, you are called a racist, you want to starve children," he said. "And every time they do speak out, they are shut down by political correctness. How do you not have those people turn into that guy?" Here's one idea: Stop encouraging them. You first, pal. Let's have the progressive commentators like yourself stop encouraging the hard left crazies. Deal? Posted by: Bobby 2010-07-31 |
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