Roomin' House Blues

It is actually amazing what an abundance of information there is about Loughner's political views.  But I actually won't start there. The first myth I want to dismantle is simple, in fact I have already addressed it. It's the alleged incomparability of politics and mental illness.   I have worked with the mentally ill and find that they range all over the place on politics, from the apolitical to the intensely political. And they range from left to right. The day of the Columbine shootings a Bipolar friend started calling gun dealers to chew them out for there role in the massacre and to tell them he believes in gun control.   I think the irony of this should not escape our notice.  We automatically assume that the mentally ill are apolitical and violent.  He demonstrated the opposite. I should say here that there is at least as much evidence of Loughner's right wing politics that his mental illness...

I find it amazing that it has become a matter of controversy to suggest that violent images, death threats, gun toting and martial exercises have consequences.  We are being told that it's just normal to use cross hairs as a political image and that Democrats do it also.  It is pointed out that Sen Joe Manchin held up again in an ad that said he opened fire on Obama's climate change legislation.   Of course he didn't threaten to open fire on Obama, but even at that, the point was to found like the Tea Party in order to pull votes from the right.  We are told that the most plausible explanation  for our young shooters actions is his mental illness, and that we have no proof he heard any of the Tea Party ads, propaganda, news.  Therefore it must be implausible that he was influenced by them. First of all this is a direct insult to millions of Americans who suffer from mental health problems --maybe not as sev...