The Blame Game

The Left has been disparate to demonize conservative as violent and angry, ignoring violence and riots on the Left and blaming any incident of violence or terrorism on the Right. The most recent example of this can be found in the case of John Patrick Bedell, an obviously insane person who was killed whire shooting up the Pentagon. Despite the fact that he was a registered Democrat, was vehemently anti-Bush, and was critical of capitalism, the media worked to classify his as a right-wing extremist. The same tactic was taken when Andrew Joseph Stack flew a plan into an IRS building in Texas — despite his rantings against capitalism and organized religion, and in support of socialized medicine, the media again labeled him a right-wing extremist. This meme is well in line with the political narrative that people on the Right are somehow more unstable and prone to violence than those on the left.

Truther Shoots Up Pentagon (Updated)

Yesterday a “well-dressed, well-educated” man armed to the teeth walked up to the Pentagon, pulled out a gun, and started shooting. Police responded by shooting him in the head, and he is now resting comfortably in a freezer in someone’s morgue. The man, John Patrick Bedell, was connected to “anti-government writings.” Unfortunately, the media didn’t get too far with their “violence+anti–government=tea party” meme before the truth came out — Bedell was a left-wing, anti-Bush 9/11 truther.

Tea Party Extremists

The buzz that has been generated by the left and the mainstream media is that the Tea Party movement is filled with violent, racist, hate-mongering, unenlightened, ignorant, theocratic, anti-government militia types that want people to fly airplanes into federal offices. It seems to be accepted that agreeing in any way with positions advocated by the Tea Party makes you a John Birch birther seperatist militia who jumps when Glenn Beck sneezes and froths at the mouth whenever the neurons in Bill Maher’s elitist brain make connections to each other.

Joe Stack, Right Winger

From Red State:

Anti-IRS Nutjob Hero?

After a nutjob flew a plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas, the Left immediately blamed conservatives and “teabaggers” for formenting anti-government fervor and driving Andrew Joseph Stack to crashing his plane as an act of defiance against the government. In doing so, they ignored the ramblings of his suicide note, which decried the lack of health care reform, demonized the Catholic Church, banks, and George W. Bush, and slammed capitalism as greedy. In short, he was way too far to the left to be a Tea Partier, and was way to crazy to belong solidly to any political ideology.

Praise for Home Bulldozer Guy?

Tim Cavanaugh at Reason Magazine takes a look at the media response to a man who destroyed his house with a bulldozer because of an impending foreclosure.

Man Flies Plane into IRS Building in Austin, TX

Today a complete and utter crackpot flew a small passenger airplane into an IRS building in Austin, TX. The alleged nutjob left a suicide note (online!) in which he eloquently stated his logical decision-making process is careful, easy-to-follow terms. Okay, I made that up — the guy rambled about how taxes and the IRS were bad, big business is bad, the fact that government-run health care wasn’t passed is bad, President Bush is bad, capitalism is bad, and the only way to change was for him to die.