Politics and religion.

[SinbadsMom]

You want links, blue?

http://www.democraticunderground.com...ss=389x3790402

http://pr.thinkprogress.org/2010/10/pr20101028

http://mediamatters.org/research/201010260050

And look at these quotes in particular:

1. Rush Limbaugh: "I tell people don't kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for."

2. Senator Phil Gramm: "We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs."

3. Rep. James Hansen on Bill Clinton: Get rid of the guy. Impreach him, censure him, assassinate him."

4. John Derbyshire intimated in the National Review that because Chelsea Clinton had "the taint," she should "be killed."

5. Ann Coulter: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too."

6. Ann Coulter: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times building."

7. Bill O'Reilly: "ll those clowns over at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains."

8. Clear Channel radio host Glenn Beck said he was "thinking about killing Michael Moore" and pondered whether "I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it," before concluding: "No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out -- is this wrong?"

Malkin is whining about Obama saying he wants to know "whose ass to kick" after the BP oil disaster.

How does that compare to Limbaugh joking about killing liberals, or Glenn Beck musing crazily about killing Michael Moore, or a writer for the National Review saying Chelsea Clinton should be killed because she's a Clinton, or Ann Coulter saying it's a shame Timothy McVeigh didn't bomb the NY Times building?

I don't even like the "whose ass to kick" rhetoric. I wish we could get away from all the silly macho talk that too many politicians are too fond of.

But that's a long way from the most important rightwing pundits talking wistfully of killing liberals and bombing mainstream, centrist publications that aren't rightwing enough for them.

And then there's the "liberal hunting license" graphic that many on the right are so fond of:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/1...unting-license

Variations of which are offered by various rightwing sites on all sorts of items, from mugs to T-shirts to bumper stickers.

Sick messages. Violent messages. Not in any way funny, except to sick people.

Those have been around for years. Here's a 2004 Free Republic thread about them.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1158744/posts

And the Google cache of that in case the link doesn't work -- FR is having computer problems and that link seems to work only about half the time:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&ct=clnk&gl=us

There's nothing comparable on the left, whether similarly violent rhetoric from lots of liberal pundits, or sick "jokes" about hunting conservatives.

Yes, both sides need to tone it down. But the side that finds "liberal hunting license" items amusing needs to tone it down more. That sort of thing can incite real violence by unstable individuals.

And honestly, I'd have to question the mental stability of anyone who thinks the "liberal hunting license" items are amusing.

As for Michelle Malkin -- I think this column by Ezra Klein on her "thuggery" says all that needs to be said about her and her own willingness to make people targets:

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/e...=hunting_slugs

Malkin published their personal information on her website, prompting her hordes of orcish mouth-breathers to brandish their pitchforks and inundate the unsuspecting students with death threats (some of which you can read here). When the students frantically called on Malkin to remove their numbers, she posted their contact information again.

Think of that. She knew they were getting death threats from her followers, so she posted their contact info again.

I'm done with this discussion. I'm disgusted by any attempt to justify violent rhetoric, by either side.

Cindy