Exploitation, Hypocrisy, and Irresponsibility: The Second

NOTE: This is a school paper I just turned in for my writing class. So if you find the format a little strange, that's why ; )

I have to be completely honest. My friends and I never really talk about controversial issues. If we do, it’s because we agree on the topic. However, this isn’t to say that I don’t have hot topic discussions. On the contrary, this is practically a daily routine for me.  We’ll just say I know of a place full of ignorance and boy, do I have fun with them.

The most recent interaction I’ve had the pleasure to be involved in is the Arizona shooting/civility in politics/metaphor ban. We’ve got group A who are adamant that the shooting is all the fault of the rightwing media and Sarah Palin. Then there are the people in group B who say we should all just get along and that there shouldn’t be any political banter on either side. Finally, we have group C. Group C is just showing up to the scene saying that metaphors should be banned because the imagery is what caused Loughner, the shooter, to snap.

Personally I think Loughner was just a lunatic and placing blame on any political party, agenda, and so forth is as ridiculous as saying rock music inspired the Columbine incident.

While group A jumped on the “blame the conservatives” bandwagon before the victims even got to the hospital, I wanted to wait until some information a bit more substantial than the fact that the congresswoman that got shot had a “D” in front of her name surfaced. I have to admit, my heart sank when I found out she was a Democrat because I knew the repercussions that would soon follow… true to liberal form, they didn’t disappoint.

What the liberal media, liberal bloggers, and even the liberal sheriff, failed to take into consideration before proclaiming their condemnation from atop their ivory towers, is evidence. You can imagine my shock when I heard Sheriff Dupnik, A man of law in a land of innocent before proven guilty, admit he had no proof to substantiate his accusations against conservative talk radio and Sarah Palin. Nevertheless, the damage was done.

Still, the truth usually comes out and more and more information started coming through. Come to find out the shooter, Loughner, was described by his friends since high school as “left wing,” “a political radical,” “quite liberal,” and “a pot head.” With this in mind, If any fingers are to be pointed, they should be in the direction of Bill Maher. Did I, or do I need to mention his reading material? It’s not that big of a deal, just some light reading like “The Communist Manifesto” and Hitler's “Mein Kampf.”

Considering group B’s rantings, I can’t say I’m opposed to civility in politics. After all, many great institutions forbid the topic of politics to be discussed in order to promote companionship due to the nature of the discussion. However, people need to realize politics have never been civil. In fact, I would say we’ve come a long way since political arguments were settled with duels to the death.

A healthy debate and open discussion of politics is essential and what has made this country great. The problem here is, group B loves to play the role of ‘holier than thou’ and claim that all though the conservatives are the bad guys, we should all just stop. To which I must point out their total hypocrisy. Ann Coulter, I know I know, said it best when she said, “President ‘whose asses to kick’ Obama predicted ‘hand-to-hand combat’ with his political opponents and has made such remarks as ‘if they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun’ -- making Obama the first American president to advocate gun fights since Andrew Jackson.”

Which leads me to my next group. Group C should take note and realize that Obama has been king of metaphors since his immaculation. MSNBC’s Chris Mathews has begun to desperately cling to this last resort after the burden of proof and evidence has been weighing on his shoulders making him look more and more like a fool for his premature judgments on air. After restating Palin’s statement, “We’re not retreating, we’re reloading,” Chris said, no I’m not making this up, “THAT’S not a metaphor.” Really buddy? Who did she shoot?

I can’t believe this is even a discussion right now. Do I really need to give a reason why banning metaphors is ridiculous? If a lunatic is going to take a picture of crosshairs on Sarah Palin’s website (keeping in mind the same imagery has been featured on many Liberal websites) literally, they would have done it anyways and blamed it on their bowl of Rice Crispies that morning.

Guns don’t kill people, video games don’t make people violent, spoons didn’t make Rosie O’Donnell fat, and (insert any other cliché here).  Exploiting a tragedy for political gain is beyond the pail and this is getting to be ludicrous. The solution isn’t to hold hands and sing “Kum Ba Yah” or further the “wussification” of America by becoming more politically correct by getting rid of metaphors. It’s time for liberals to grow up and stop pointing fingers at anything and anybody besides the shooter. Remember, these are the people who were adamant about not passing judgment on the Muslim community for terrorist acts but now they’re more than happy to throw conservatives under the bus and feel justified in doing so…

When I say “throw conservatives under the bus,” I don’t mean they actually are tossing conservatives under a large vehicle. That’s a metaphor, Chris.

Exploitation, Hypocrisy, and Irresponsibility

“I solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Arizona, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same, and defend them against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of a peace officer to the best of my ability, so help me God.”

Pima County’s Sheriff Clarence Dupnik took this oath. Although this was decades ago, if he chooses to remain in office, he chooses to continue to maintain his oath. In light of recent events, it seems as though he has all but forgotten this. More specifically, he has forgotten the very last phrase, “I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of a peace officer to the best of my ability, so help me God.”

Last Saturday, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head, 13 were wounded, and 6 died including a 9 year old girl.  The man behind the shooting was Jared Loughner. The following Monday, Dupnik had a few choice words to say about the incident on ABC News to anchor Diane Sawyer: “The kind of rhetoric that flows from people like Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information…attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials and that kind of behavior in my opinion is not without consequences." Talk like this went on and on blaming every well-known conservative for the actions of this Loughner lunatic.

After being asked if Dupnik had any evidence supporting these accusations which basically point the finger and make Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, the Tea Party, and Rush Limbaugh accessories to the shooting, he finally admitted that he had none. Those are some serious accusations for a man in his office to be throwing around. And for what? Political gain?

This man, of all people, should be the last person pointing fingers without evidence, which in turn potentially creates bias for or against a criminal and assigns blame where blame is unwarranted.  Engaging in speculation and overreaching damages the case he should be focusing on as well as his credibility as one who has the duty to be fair and unbiased in this type of situation.  His own flow of irresponsible rhetoric is not only inappropriate, it’s irrelevant.

Of course we need civility in politics and at times it can get out of hand. But this is the way it has always been. In fact, we have come a long way since the time when heated political arguments were resolved with a duel. BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THE SHOOTING SHERIFF? It has been shown that not only was this guy apolitical, he is a pothead, paranoid schizophrenic who reads a number a number of books such as Hitler’s Mein Kampf , worships skulls, and has been obsessed with Mrs. Giffords since before the Tea Party and even before Palin was a known figure.

There is NO evidence supporting Dupnik’s outrageous claims that talk radio or any other conservative influenced his actions. If anything, judging by his belief systems, he is more in line with liberal ideology.  At this point, I’m only getting into speculation so lets move on.

According to the New York Post if you want the real explanation as to why the Sheriff of Pima County is telling every news outlet who asks that Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and all right-wing conservatives are behind Jared Loughner's shooting spree just read the account of the young killer's rap sheet. Jared Loughner has at least 12 run-ins with law enforcement for all sorts of minor violations and offenses since high school.

This tragedy couldn't have been prevented when a person who has never been violent suddenly snaps and goes on a psychotic rampage. But it is a sign of weak character that Sheriff Clarence Dupnik has decided to run away from the crime by blaming anyone but the shooter himself. It may serve Dupnik's politics to blame the right but it certainly doesn't serve justice or the people he is sworn to protect.

My prayers go out to the families and friends of Federal Judge John Roll, Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, and all those involved in the senseless shooting at her event.  There is no place in our society for violent attacks of any kind, especially against those who selflessly choose to serve in public office.

What this whole ordeal has become disgusts me. As if the liberals couldn’t get much lower, something like this happens. People are finally waking up and opening their eyes and seeing the democrats for what they really are. This has been obvious and has been made clear by the historic votes in November. I think fools like Dupnik see this and in their desperation, they use a tragedy to pull an irrelevant correlation out of their backsides in the attempt to demonize and criminalize conservative thought.

As if they even care about how heated the rhetoric has become. Their own words have stirred up more hatred and vicious vitriol than any conservative talk show host or government official has ever been able to create. Look at the number of threats Glen Beck is under at any given point. (“15” was Beck’s own estimation). Look at the overwhelming amount of death threats and wishes aimed at Sarah Palin because of Dupnik’s thoughtless remarks. Speaking of conservative women, no group of conservatives is hated more, besides possibly black conservatives, than they are. It’s sickening at times. Trust me, liberals don’t care one bit about being civil.

The double standard of the left is despicable and intolerable.  While the entertainment industry makes billions selling violent movies, lyrics, and video games, liberals consistently argue that these expressions are not to blame for any crimes or self-destructive behavior.  "Leave these 'artists' alone," they cry.  However, because they think they can further their political agenda, they enthusiastically claim that an act by one deranged individual was caused by the "tone" of conservative rhetoric heard in the media.  No reasonable person would conclude that free speech should be illegal because some deranged person might be incited to violence.

Now I know not all left leaning pundits have the same skewed opinion about the shooting as Dupnik and most of the mainstream media such as MSNBC’s Chris Mathews. Jon Stewart, a comedian with a political show on comedy central even has enough sense to say, “We live in a complex ecosystem of influences and motivations and I wouldn’t blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine.”

There’s no excuse for this, there’s no one to blame besides the person with the gun. The irony about all of this and the reason why I wanted to discuss this is we are looking at a law enforcement individual in a position of power and in a profession where evidence is mandatory yet there’s no evidence to back up ANYTHING he is saying. NOTHING. He made a huge mistake and he has joined the ranks of the people of small character who will take this ridiculously sad event and use it to spit hatred while the victims are on their way to the hospital without even knowing their names.

As a professional officer of law enforcement he should behave as such and stick to the facts. Instead, he took his 15 minutes of fame to lash out at political opponents by calling them bigots, racists, and inciters of violence, lumping in the entire state of Arizona with his statement when describing his home state as a “Mecca of bigotry and hatred.” He has even failed to acknowledge that the only violence at a Tea Party event was perpetrated by Democrat Teamster thugs against a black Tea Party activist. Dupnik owes every single victim of his recent slander an apology and because of his incendiary and biased public comments as a Sheriff, his letter of resignation should be turned in.