A Mind That Suits What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.



Monday, January 10, 2011 :::
 
UPDATE TO POST BELOW, FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER UPDATE:

A Mind That Suits has been busy this day initiating his teaching activities for this semester, and so has not followed press reports.  Now that he has caught up, he is struck by one ridiculous thing:

Even as more and more news comes out demonstrating that the twisted young man who committed the outrage in Arizona is a classic paranoid schizophrenic, the left seems to just get louder and louder in blaming it on Sarah Palin.

This points to a funny thing: they seem to think this will work.

Her PAC produced a map of congressional districts with what looked like gun sights trained on marginal districts, including the one held by Saturday's victim.  It was a map, showing no faces, but two Democratic committees produced at the same time similar maps of targeted Republicans, with bulleyes over their faces.  (See link to James Taranto below.)

Anywone with half a brain will think that it is silly to connect Palin's map to Saturday's outrage, but the Left just keeps saying it louder and louder.

Why do they think this way?

A small business owner has done the math, figuring out what Obamacare is going to cost him.  He shows up at a townhall meeting to ask a question.  His congressman calls him a racist and tells him to sit down and do what his betters tell him.

A poor mother shows up at a school board meeting complaining about the education her child is receiving, and she is labeled a know-nothing, a fact fetishist. 

If she asks for flexibility in where she sends her kid, she is called, yes, a racist.

If people say they hate overreaching government, they are called, incongruously, a fascist.

Sarah Palin uses the commonplace image of "targeting" opponents, and she is accused of inciting violence.

Irrational, yes, but what amazes is that it is so self-evidently self-defeating.  No one is going to be convinced; many are going to be put off.

Strange, strange, strange.

Now, some thanks.

A long time reader of A Mind That Suits, Tom Root, makes the altogether interesting point that we are now in a whirlwind of discussion about the discussion of the tragedy, something sure to drive us all crazy.  It is true.  Check out the website of this portrait artist and musician extraodinaire.

Among his other illustrious friends is longtime Weekly Standard essayist, Jonathan V. Last, who was kind enough to link dear old A Mind That Suits this morning, and so I here return the favor, though anyone with any taste reads TWS in general and friend Jonathan's writing in particular, so he needs no introduction from me.

For newcomers, A Mind That Suits is a resolutely general interest blog, covering everything from popular culture to the adventures of Jacques Chirac in Hanoi.  AMTS achieved minor fame as a resolutely conservative voice who was resolutely opposed to the notion that we could nation build where no one wanted a nation, in Iraq, particularly when the only thing the American people supported was eliminating Saddam Hussein and his Weapons of Mass Destruction.  (Doubtful at first, especially after our troops did not trip over WMD, as promised, A Mind That Suits became convinced that Saddam was a real threat after carefully following the work of the Iraq Survey Group, led by the estimable David Kay.  See their report here.)

And the incompetence of the pre-"surge" strategy left him steaming.  But aside from that, AMTS tends to avoid controversy in favor of longer dilations on things of interest or beauty.

Check out the post immediately following the one on the tragedy in Arizona, which post is on Harry Potter.  A few scrolls down, and one can find a "chrestomathy," a compilation of greatest hits to give you an idea of what AMTS has to offer.  He can't remember the date of the one on Chirac, but he will haul it out when he gets the chance.

Cheers...

UPDATE:  A Mind That Suits is proud to say that he is one of the first fans of the in every way enjoyable Best of the Web Today feature over at the Wall Street Journal's website, and has maintained an affable email friendship with James Taranto, the column's creator and helmsman--and he makes, dare we say, a Great Helmsman--for over a decade now.  He has his usual brilliant rundown on the bilge spewing into the atmosphere.  (Yes, A Mind That Suits knows full well that bilge spews into oceans, but it sounded good.)

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 4:50 PM


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