In wake of Arizona tragedy, leftist pundits spew hate

In the wake of the monstrous crime perpetrated in Arizona, one of the few sane voices in the ensuing media firestorm has been that of nine-year-old victim Christina Taylor Green's grief-stricken father.

Our thoughts and prayers are with him and all the families that have been affected by this horror.

Watch and listen:

Via Big Hollywood:

"Anyone who’s studied the left for any period of time knew that before the blood had even dried on the sidewalks of Arizona Saturday, that the mainstream media would force us into a terrible choice. After the assassin’s monstrous attack, the decent thing to do would’ve been to come together as a nation to mourn the dead and pray for the survivors. Politics, and most especially political opportunism, should be the last thing on anyone’s mind. But the left, unfortunately, isn’t just anyone. They are who they are and that they would feast on the fresh corpses of the innocent in order to win a couple of political news cycles was obvious. And so those of us who would’ve preferred to go nowhere near the arena of politics when it came to this appalling attack on our country and our democracy, were forced to make sure 1995 didn’t repeat itself, the year President Clinton used the Oklahoma City bombing for partisan gain against his own political enemies.

"Joining in on this feast with the likes of Andrew Sullivan, Salon’s Joan Walsh, George Soros’ Eric Boehlert, the very Sheriff charged with protecting Rep. Giffords, Paul Krugman, Markos Moulitsas, and their allies in the media were, naturally, the dregs of the entertainment industry’s humanity barrel, who could barely contain their excitement over an opportunity to to attack the right, Sarah Palin, and call for – as they always do when given the opportunity – restrictions on speech."

- Big Hollywood's John Nolte

Via City Journal:

"...the Left’s sudden talk about incendiary political rhetoric in the wake of the Arizona shooting isn’t really about political rhetoric at all. It’s about the real-world failure of leftist policies everywhere—the bankrupting of nations and states by greedy unions and unfundable social programs, the destruction of inner cities by identity politics, and the appeasement of Muslim extremists in the face of worldwide jihad, not to mention the frequently fatal effects of delirious environmentalism. Europe is in debt and on fire. American citizens are in political revolt. Even the most left-wing president ever is making desperate overtures to his right.

"But all that might be tolerable to leftists if they weren’t starting to lose control of the one weapon in which they have the most faith: the narrative. The narrative is what leftists believe in instead of the truth. If they can blame George W. Bush for the economic crisis, if they can make Sarah Palin out to be an idiot, if they can call the Tea Party racist until you think it must be true, they might yet retain power in spite of the international disgrace of their ideas. And though they still mostly dominate the narrative on the three broadcast networks, most cable stations, most newspapers, and much of Hollywood, nonetheless Fox News, talk radio, the Internet, and the Wall Street Journal have begun to respond in ways they can’t ignore.

"That’s the hateful rhetoric they’re talking about: conservatives interrupting the stream of leftist invective in order to dismantle their arguments with the facts. As for leftists’ reaction to the Arizona shooting, call it Narrative Hysteria: a frantic attempt to capitalize on calamity by casting their opponents, not merely as racist or sexist or Islamophobic this time, but as somehow responsible for an act of madness and evil. Shame on them."

- Andrew Klavan

Steve Jobs, The Manhattan Declaration, and "The Offensive Christ"

What famous businessman falls into the category of "the offended" when it comes to the idea of supporting life and marriage?

The National Organization for Marriage has the answer (text copied from nationformarriage.org):

“Steve Jobs built his reputation as an iconic marketer in the famous 1984 commercial for the MacIntosh computer in which Apple promises to take on ‘Big Brother’” said Brian Brown, president of NOM. “Jobs has made billions taking on ‘Big Brother’ yet the irony is that in refusing to allow citizens to support pro-life and traditional marriage positions he’s become the very ‘Big Brother’ he has decried.”

The Manhattan Declaration has been signed by nearly 500,000 Christians who pledge their support for pro-life, traditional marriage and religious liberty. Launched in Manhattan in November 2009, the Declaration - called “A Call of Christian Conscience” - enjoys the support of prominent Christian clergy, ministers and scholars. The app was developed to facilitate other Christians to sign the Declaration. The app was approved by Apple reviewers and rated 4 plus, certifying that it contains no offensive content. Despite this, Apple pulled the app from the iTunes store when gay marriage advocates mounted an online petition. An Apple spokesperson defended the action saying that the Christian app was “offensive to large groups of people.”

“Apple happily allows all kinds of apps for pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage groups, yet when Christians develop an app to support traditional marriage and life, it is called offensive and is pulled from the iTunes store,” Brown said. “What is offensive is that Steve Jobs has targeted Christians for discrimination and religious bigotry, censoring our basic right to speech. Steve Jobs has become Big Brother and we call on Christians across America to contact Jobs to express their outrage at his unfair, discriminatory decision. Apple should immediately restore the Manhattan Declaration app and apologize to all Christians for their actions.”

Obama Hates My iPod?!

"You're coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don't always rank all that high on the truth meter."

Like those of Saul Alinsky, for example?

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations, -- none of which I know how to work -- information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation.”

The point being that we ought to be using our xboxes to blow up real terrorists?

"All of this is not only putting new pressures on you, it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."

Says the man with 8 million friends on facebook. Give me a BREAK!

Such are but a few quotes by our esteemed president to university graduates yesterday at Hampton University in Virginia, and while we cannot judge with certainty the degree to which this amateur lecture on the morality of Turok, Halo, and the Pussycat Dolls is reflective of Obama’s own perspective, the words themselves are troubling enough.

Let’s forget for a moment that Xboxes and PlayStations have NO place in a discussion concerning the 24/7 news cycle. Let’s forget that in 5 out of 10 photos, Obama is clutching his Crackberry like Gollum with the Ring of Power. Let’s forget that in China, “truth meter” is probably the technical term for the number of times you’re permitted to mention the Dalai Lama on national television before you find yourself sharing a cell at an undisclosed location with a Chinese practicing Christian who failed to adequately conceal his religious convictions. And, of course, let’s just forget that a democracy is by its very definition a safe haven for ALL political brands- except for those that express a desire to destroy that democracy, obviously.

And how does one attack democracy in the media? What are some of the typical arguments we can expect from a closed-minded ideologue intent on censoring and regulating any opposing political machines in the media? By condescending to the people of the United States, like in this speech. After all, every American teenager sitting at home playing patriotic games like Call of Duty really OUGHT to be spending their time reviewing the latest Rachel Maddow blog, right?

There have in the past been various leaders of countless nations who- whether possessing a nefarious agenda or some misguided sense of public service- have taken to the notion that societal ills can be cured if only the right people can be made to shut up. In the case of Mr. Obama, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for a moment and assume he was trying to imply something about the blogs by certain Islamic extremists that led to the censorship of South Park and may or may not have been a factor in the motivation of the recent attempt to destroy innocent lives at Times Square. In addition, we ought to agree wholeheartedly with the president when he recalls the Jeffersonian notion of a republic’s need for an educated citizenry. But let us not stand idly by when the administration begins to slide into the ideology of censorship.

When it comes to the mass media, government knows what is best- for the government. We must be vocal in our opposition to any attempt by those in power to attack those forces in the media who do not share the regime’s collectivist agenda. An attack on the rights of a man or woman to express themselves politically- excepting calls to violence, naturally- is an open assault on the liberty of all Americans at every level of society, and it must not be tolerated.

But on some level we can understand why Obama is so frustrated. After all, it must be frustrating to observe the successes of Andrew Breitbart’s blogs, the commercial success of patriotic games like Call of Duty, and the proliferation of conservative fiction like The Dark Knight and Iron Man 2. Avatar or no Avatar, the ideals of conservatism are being further embedded in pop culture day after day.

And it’s making the statists VERY nervous.