OFF WITH THEIR HEADS

A contributor to Newsday, the Long Island paper, has created a bit of a
rumpus on the Internet by alleging that the lunatic who recently shot up a
meeting of the Unitarian Universalist church in Tennessee, killing two people and
wounding seven, was inspired to do this by the anti-liberal "rants" of some
conservative broadcasters, some of whose books were found in his home and of
course confiscated. Conservatives have been fighting back on the net, denying
that anything anyone said in a broadcast could possibly trigger such an
outburst by an unhinged individual who acted completely on his own in obedience
to voices he heard in his head, not on the radio.

The writer of the letter, a woman, finds that an atmosphere of hatred has
been created by right-wingers and really needs to be dispelled before more
violence erupts. She names four individuals in her indictment and presents
evidence against them as follows; Rush Limbaugh leads the list, as might be
expected. He said "Liberalism is the greatest threat this country faces." He
also said "The Islamofascists are [for] the Democrats" and "Riots at the
Democratic Convention would be the best thing that could happen to this country."

Sean Hannity was guilty of saying "There are things...worth fighting and
dying for and one of them is making sure Nancy Pelosi doesn't become the Speaker."

Michael Savage got rapped for writing "...[a] catastrophic attack would cause
(liberals) to march thousands of us into the hands of the enemy."

Last on the list, Bill O'Reilly was charged with saying "The far left in
America is dominated by haters, people who despise their own country."

Wow! These guys really rattled their cages, didn't they? Or did they? Not
much, in my opinion. Not enough to cause even the looniest loner in the
country to open fire on his neighbors with the intent of wiping them out. Going
back over the roll of sinners above and looking at Limbaugh first, he simply
made an accusation of a kind that's normal in Presidential campaigns, I.e.,
sinister foreign interests are supporting a candidate I don't like. These
things happen. In the flush days of the Soviet Union Moscow would send as much
as $2 million a year to the American Communist party. After it was counted
by the FBI, who had infiltrated the operation, it went to the Party and was
then distributed to politicians and others who were in favor with Moscow.
None of it went to Republicans.
(Cf. Barron, J., Operation Solo: Washington: Regnery Publishing Inc., 1996)

A Hungarian named Soros pledged $50 million in 2004 to defeat George Bush.
So it seems like foreign powers do try to influence American elections,
meaning that there is precedent for Limbaugh's suspicion of Islamists in this
connection. As for his alleged incitement to riot, it's obviously a pious hope
that the left will show its true colors by going on a rampage at its friends'
convention. It's not a suggestion that his fans should do the rioting.
Whatever one thinks about them, it's for certain that none of them have minds
that are that literal.


The case against Hannity is even flimsier. Saying in effect that Nancy
Pelosi's ascension to Speaker of the House was a matter of life and death is
clearly a bit of humorous exaggeration, common in this country as when Mark Twain
said things like "Congress is our only native criminal class." After all,
nobody in his right mind could imagine anyone staking his life on the outcome
of anything Mrs. Pelosi might or might not do in Congress or out. The idea'
s absurd. If it seemed otherwise to the mad bomber in Tennessee, assuming he
ever even heard of it, it's simply more proof of his derangement. Blaming
Hannity for it is a stretch as long as a giraffe's neck.

Next, Michael Savage. He fantasized a situation where a catastrophic attack
on this country resulted in Hillary and Barack taking over our military and
using it to put down resistance to the "enemy." But who would this incite?
Nobody is expecting that kind of attack on this country. 9/11was
catastrophic enough, but there was no such outcome as Savage describes. So, unlike
France in 1940, there won't be any scope for any "collaborators" to join with
the enemy, whoever he might be. Savage is conjuring up a situation like the
movie "Red Dawn" where the U.S. is invaded and occupied. I avoided the movie
because I didn't like its premise that such a thing could happen. I leave
it to fantasists to take an idea like this seriously. As for Hillary and
Barack, I'm sure they'd never be collaborators. Would they be holding out in
the hills? Sure they would.

Bill O'Reilly and the far-left's hate for the U.S. Is Mrs. Kern-Rugile,
the complainant, a far-left individual? She'd deny it, I assume. So what's
her problem? O'Reilly's right. The proof is to be found on the internet
among other places. The people who spell America "Amerika" and demand the
assassination of Bush and Cheney, who can't even be printed some of the time in
their group blogs because of the obscenity and depravity of their messages,
these are the people Billo is talking about.

Mrs. Rugile shows a disturbing side of her own character in the windup to
her diatribe against those who dare to disagree with her world-view. When
conservatives protest against articles like hers, they usually confine themselves
to asking for more balance in the media concerned. They try to get a
hearing, in other words. They don't think of taking over a publication and setting
up an opinion monopoly therein. That is beyond their aspirations. They
know the weight of journalists' opinions will always be on the left. The
left-to-right ratio in the media is easily fifty to one.

That's what some people would call a monopoly. But it's not good enough
for Mrs. Kern-Rugile. She's not interested in balance or in having different
points of view represented as the conservatives are. Instead she specifically
proposes boycotts for right-wing talkers so as to drive them out of public
life. No more broadcasts, no more newspaper columns, above all no more books.
No more opposition, that is. Familiar, isn't it?






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