Open Thread

I should have a b’stoner movie night at my house soon where we watch a chuck norris movie from the 80s. One of the ones with a one-sentence plot and 90 minutes of him being awesome.

Yes, several times, always for work lunches / dinners.
Nothing that special, just a standard higher-end steakhouse.
Steakhouses in general aren’t my first choice when it comes to eatin’.

I always liked Chuck Norris.

Legion,

I’m not interested in a debate or scoring points on this. I will share my perspective, my personal reaction, which is not up for debate. I’ve worked for elected officials, candidates, and a federal judge over the course of my professional life. I’ve experienced the many ways they are super-exposed to the public, unfiltered, and take many actions that could lead a less-than-sane person to take retribution (a vote, a legal decision, a failed effort to help, etc.). I’ve taken phone calls and read letters from many unhinged constituents. I have friends who have held elected office and received death threats (unrelated to anything left/right). I’ve been unnerved for the last year or so at the heat and tone of some of the rhetoric that some, not most or all, but some, have adopted at times on the right, and part of my fear is that there are unhinged people out there. The rhetoric has scared me not because of my politics but because of the experience I describe.

I know that Sharon Angle’s reference to 2nd Amendment remedies is political posturing, not advocacy of violence, but I have been worried about the climate that has been developing. Congresswoman Giffords, who had her office vandalized after the health care vote, was specifically concerned about the targets on Palin’s site, for the very same reasons I’ve expressed, and she raised those concerns at the time (and that, more than anything else, is what put Palin into the story). I do not blame Palin, or the climate, for this shooting. As a causal matter, I don’t really think it was a factor. But it was one of my first thoughts upon learning of the shooting, that some of this noise got into some deranged person’s head, and I thought that because I’ve been worried for a while that this was where the rhetoric was likely to take us. I still think some folks have been playing with fire and trying to deny that the fire is, in fact, hot. Just because Loughner was likely too deranged to be influenced by the climate (Dahlia Lithwick has an excellent piece on this, by the way), doesn’t mean this stuff couldn’t be getting into some other semi-deranged person’s head. And although you can’t really control how a mentally ill person processes inputs from the zeitgeist, I think fewer allusions to violence would be a good thing for our safety and national civic culture.

I have often winced at some of the rhetoric coming from the liberal side when it seemed too disrespectful, tone deaf, or otherwise off point. But I don’t remember any dem in congress or who was a nominated candidate for national office saying anything during the Bush years that led me to think it contributed to a climate of reduced public safety for our elected officials. My comments about Palin here post-shooting are not directed at the targets on her website, but at her post-shooting conduct. Given her history with Giffords about the targets, I would think the decent tone would have been some heartfelt grief and not so much “blood libel” rhetoric. I see it as a matter of judgment, not politics, but that’s just me.

I’m receptive to your personal reactions, which may be quite different, but I am just not interested in debate or point scoring.

chuck norris is awesome.

i did a presentation in a college business class and incorporated chuck norris into it. no one thought it was funny :-\