I'm coming late to this thread after a busy day elsewhere, so this comment may be superfluous-- not for the first time!

I reserve the right to repeat it in future comments threads. ;)

Also, I have been furiously skimming through today's comments threads trying to catch up, so I apologize if this point has already been made.

[end of disclaimers]

I urge resisting the deplorable tendency to produce INSTANT analysis of this kind of heinous, shocking event. I'm not talking down to everyone else here-- I very much struggle with this myself.

One of the most egregious common denominators to violent, traumatic events of national importance-- from today's shootings to assassinations and large-scale terrifying mayhem, e.g. 9/11, Oklahoma City, Waco, etc.-- is that "we" precipitously seek an IMMEDIATE comprehensive understanding of events.

I believe that this fundamentally IRRATIONAL tendency or need to figure it ALL out RIGHT AWAY has been amped up and exacerbated by the corporate media 24/7 "news cycle", and the availability of Internet resources (e.g., YouTube).

I welcome feedback from trained psychologists here, but I find that the concept of "Future Shock" has worn well since Alvin Toffler's 1970 book on the subject. IMO, this compulsion to nail it all down instantaneously may be rooted in an attempt to cope with psychological trauma-- to counter the pain and anguish with a rational understanding of what really happened and what it means.

Yet, when one studies and researches these seemingly straightforward, if complex, catastrophic events, one invariably finds that the truth is like the proverbial onion, with layer upon layer. My own experience is that one repeatedly discovers that what one THOUGHT was sure and certain at first blush proves anything but; even if factual information is true and correct, the weight of facts that first seem like the whole or essential truth of the matter changes as larger and broader contexts are revealed.

I'm by no means criticizing, much less rejecting out of hand, the thoughtful possibilities expressed in this long comments thread-- although, of course, some are more insightful and resonant than others.

But without meaning to be pompous or sententious about it, I strongly recommend resisting the tendency to wolf down the preliminary "factual matrix" in large gulps, in hopes of digesting it to reach some definitive, final wisdom that clarifies the meaning of it all. As noted, I don't offer this "advice" lightly; I know it's hard to resist the undertow of putting things into perspective ASAP.

I despise lofty, condescending, manipulative remonstrances like "calm down", "take a deep breath", "get a grip!", etc., and I emphasize that I'm not taking that tone at all.

I'm just noting that geez, even during this "breaking news" thread, the freaking NAME of the, er, suspect changed. Surely the wisest course is to defer peremptory analysis until the smoke clears. End of sermon.

PS: I really had to work to pare down the words in all-caps. What ever happened to Teddy?

I never advocate violence, and today indeed is tragic, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims' families, but I fear this is only the beginning. I do not know who and where, but more of this is sure to come. As the right wingnuts like Palin, Beck, O'Reilly, and Limbaugh continue to stir up the hate in this country, unemployment stays high, the economy continues to sputter, and the rich get richer, the middle class dries up, and the poor get poorer, more violence is pretty predictable. In a sick and twisted way, the wealthy power elites want this kind of stuff to happen. When people are desperate and angry, these sorts of events happen. History is replete with examples.

Yes this was a predictable outcome but I was expecting it around Christmas time which is the traditional time for a couple of mass murder rampage.

I think we can all agree that Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Peter King, Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and other conservatives are doing the "Happy Dance Circle Jerk" over this, eh?

Online petition to have Sarah Palin indicted for incitement to violence:
http://www.petitiononline.com/IndictSP/

It's murder if it is committed by a lone disturbed individual or a government!
Innocent people were killed and seriously wounded, how is it any different when they decided do it the name of national security, against a sovereign nation?

Oh, how up set they all get when it one of their own that catches the bullet. But, when it is some child in a far away place, it is just collateral damage.
What hypocrites.
No wonder humankind cannot find peace, it doesn't respect all life. Just the life of it's own class and nationality.
Violent acts committed by insane people against innocents, that is the tragedy!
On the street or in war!
Those that died or were seriously wounded in this terrible incident were just collateral damage of society that embraces violence. Whether it be in war, or on the football field.
After all, all they need is a "few good men". Right!
My heart goes out to all who are the victims of senseless violence of any-kind.

http://mindprod.com/politics/iraqwarpix.html

This incident will be used to strip more rights from US citizens. Look for increased use of TSA scanners in many more places where one wouldn't expect. Police will be given more power over the population with stop-and-frisk and even rougher police tactics to become normal parts of everyday life.

I have spent the past evening reading and thinking and just have to put it in writing. We Americans have the blood of more innocent people on our hands some more than others. Now we have the blood of a Congresswoman, a judge and several others. Liberal Democrats have some because we have not been vocal or united enough to get the truth out, but we certainly do not have as much as the Republicans have as they have to be cover in blood. Oh but they claim they did nothing, but they lie again, because doing nothing in this cases is the same as approving or advocating what was done. The Republican Party is filled with the selfish, greedy, skin head homophobic KKK antiabortion terrorists hate mongers that advocate eliminating liberals. The Republicans have done nothing to voice any opposition to the rhetoric of these people and in fact they have taken money and support from them so they are one of them. Until the Republicans speak up against the head stomping gun toting Tea Party they are to blame. The Republicans are just too greedy for the political power that they will accept these elements into their party and they accept this sort of behavior.
I remember a long time ago when I learned to use a rifle I was taught by a NRA instructor to never point the rifle at anything I did not intend to shoot. Later when I also took hunter safety training the NRA instructor made it a point that you never look at something with your scope you did not intent to shoot. He made the point that it was very disrespectful to look at another human through the scope. I guess Sara Palin never took such an NRA course and so she never understood how disrespectful her web site was. Bad as that was the Republicans never said not to and the NRA never said anything either, so that means they too were being very disrespectful and actually advocating that someone should put these people in the crosshairs. Well someone did.
Trouble is I do not see anything changing. Fox news will do a wonderful job of lie spreading and Beck and Limbaugh will continue to spew out the hate.
I hold the Koch brother, the Murdoch group, and the entire right wing establishment responsible of this, the trouble is there is no way to make them pay. Unlike the crazy right I do not advocate killing them or their ilk.

"Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society."

it's for export only!

Get your terminology straight, especially if you are anti gun and wish to engage in the public discource:

Semi automatic means that you have to pull the trigger each time for each bullet. Only the loading of the next round is done automatically.

Automatic means the gun fires at a *much* faster rate than semi automatic and does so as long as the trigger is held down and there is ammunition in the magazine.

The difference is not trivial or merely one of semantics. Get it straight.

Three wishes:

I hope the wounded victims survive and are able to live long, healthy and productive lives.

I hope the shooter receives appropriate and competent care and is able to survive mindless calls for retribution and transform his life into a positive and actively healing experience.

I hope that the survivors of this horrifically violent experience (most especially Rep. Giffords) have the insight and wisdom to relate their personal trauma to that of the people of Afghanistan who endure similar crimes perpetrated upon them by the govt of the US. Every day. In our name. This I pray. Amen.

my heart goes out to everyone hurt or killed by senseless acts of violence!... it saddens me to see mentalities that don't know any better do harm or call for harm to be done to others... wherever or whoever they may be... there's never a decent reason for inhumane treatment!...

for the sake of all human beings and their futures we need more awareness!...

mindsets sit full of illusion... yet other than optical or theatrical illusion... so few people know what it is... and those who don't think people need to know about illusion are already under its influence more than they realize...

schools need to teach students about illusion... so they can learn how everyone's standard human perception uses illusion... which can distort something from being seen "as it actually is"... into something else much different... when thoughts (already in the mind) substitute their own 'pictures' (or connotations etc) instead...

with this learning in mind... then mental pictures that resurface as ignorant social or racial or extremist or manipulative bias etc are less apt to make bigger impacts... as they’ll have awareness of many alternatives available... and they'll have advantages of being more prone to use added consideration as they live with themselves and others in our world here!...

(this isn't a cure or a fix... but at least it's a beginning)...

my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone!...

a heartfelt wishingwell to each'n'all!... :)

Do we have to believe the reports that she is maintained in "an induced coma"?

This sounds like a death report that needs to be delayed to avert a national uprising.

The truth about how she is doing is being managed by the same cartel that wanted her out of the way.

How naive are we people.

Been following the impromptu debate on the "suitability" of non-violence and I'm thankful for GwNorth for pointing out the flaws in the argument for violence under certain situations. Also want to thank fake_french, KrazyKatz, glenn ford, Rick, sallysense, RandB and others who have spoken out on the validity of non-violence irrespective of the situation. But here I want to make it VERY CLEAR that non-violence does not mean passive acceptance of injustice.

I have read about Gandhi's methods and his thoughts on non-violence and I have no doubt that he was no slacker when it came to resisting injustice, no matter how big and powerful the opponent was (we're talking the British friggin' Empire here). But, like Chief Joseph, referred to here by GwNorth and eadbetweenthe_lines, Gandhi knew very well on where violence would lead in a country like India with such diversity, biases and bigotry, and he rightly decided that the end DID NOT justify the means. He took a lot of flak for it - because after all the Indian population was many times that of the white men ruling over them and it is quite conceivable that a violent revolution could just as well have got them the independence they were fighting for. All they needed was a bit of unity - even temporary alliances among the various local and regional leaders, and even with the loss of a few million Indians, an armed resistance was entirely feasible and winnable. Of course the British knew this as well and they were doing everything possible, based on their understanding of the various differences within the subcontinent to keep the people divided, or at least preventing any solid cohesion, by using such factors as religion, regionalism, etc. In spite of Gandhi's open advocacy for a non-violent struggle, many people did quit the "mainstream" movement, went ahead and set up the rebel Indian National Army under a man called Subhas Chandra Bose, who was not averse to making deals with the Germans and the Japanese in his fight against the British.

I know there exists a group of historians who have continually belittled the role of Gandhi and his non-violent methods and I am absolutely familiar with all their talking points - ranging from the alleged "nobility" of the British to the threat of armed uprising of Indian soldiers under the British to the INA's role to the British simply wanting to get the hell out of their colonies. (The last one is absolutely false - because India was the "jewel" in the Crown. But if the British had really wanted to quit their colonies, they would have done so in Malaya, Kenya, Guyana, etc., instead of waiting for several more years and several more struggles by the locals against them. British politicians were openly talking about the need to hold on to the colonies because of all the debt they had from the War. I am writing this only to preempt any stupid, half-assed posts along these lines.

The reason I mention Gandhi here is because his non-violence was based on a very deep understanding (maybe even "realization") that at our core, we humans are indeed connected. This is NOT some spiritual fluff - it can be seen even logically:
Those who advocate some form of socialism are essentially speaking out of a desire for an equitable and just society, whereas it is easy to stress our selfish nature and even make a virtue out of it like the right wingers and capitalists are doing. Why should we even care about someone in Iraq or Burma, if it weren't for such a connection? Of course, there's also that thing called the Golden Rule and history has shown us what happens when people remain silent when "First they came ...." for other victims. So it is also in our self interest to acknowledge that there is this connection, even if we don't make a big deal of it outwardly.

Gandhi also knew what would happen once the British left, given the enormous complexity of the Indian society, with its historical grievances, differences and enmities among various groups within. The situation would probably have descended into bloodshed and civil war within decades at the most.

Here is the main reason I mention Gandhi here:
In spite of all the differences, if people listened to Gandhi, it was because of his moral stature. Admittedly, he was by no means perfect, but he was about the best that the people could get back then. Gandhi realized early on that taking on injustice was going to need more than just ganging up with like-minded people. And his goals were probably much too high - beyond just "simple" independence and "equal rights" - even though there was no way that he was going to achieve his goals in his lifetime. But his efforts did not go to waste, as his writings and thoughts have continued to inspire other people in their struggles against oppression and injustice to this day.

In any struggle, only the side that is stronger at that point in time will prevail, whether the methods used are violent or non-violent. So it is extremely important for the non-violent struggle to never lose its moral compass as its strength essentially derives from a strong moral foundation. That is probably what is lacking in most parts of the world today, as there are not enough people of the stature of Gandhi who are not only willing to put their lives on the line, but more importantly, who can communicate and reach out to a diversity of people and keep them focused and are capable of making people to look within.

... ... (continued below) ... ...

I know I'm late to this thread, but who didn't see this stuff coming...

the only question is how long the fight remains one-sided...

love this by Boehner:

"An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve," he said in a statement. "Acts and threats of violence against public officials have no place in our society."

how quickly he figuratively moves the the increasingly potential gun barrel away from his own face, and that of his brethren...

as Elton John titled his early effort, "Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only The Piano Player"...

the war begins...politicians should be nervous...they're going to be caught between an angry mob and an angry team of puppetmasters...eventually, the puppetmasters will have their own concersn...