The Evil Petting Zoo

So, in case you've missed it by now, a man down in Knoxville, TN, went into a Unitarian Universalist church and opened fire, killing two and wounding several. He did this while the church was putting on a children's production of Annie. When the police searched his car, they found a manifesto blaming his recent ills on liberals, and claiming that since he could not attack liberal leaders, he would attack those who voted for them. A search of his home found books by Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage.

I've got a message, for all those glorious pundits on the right, from Ann Coulter to Glenn Beck to Bill O'Reilly to Michael Reagan to Michael Savage to Michelle Malkin. Here's the message:

Choke on it.

These are the fruits of your labors. You pretend to jape and joke, and all the while, men like Jim David Adkisson take your words as gospel. You proclaim that Howard Dean should be hung for treason, and they listen. You "joke" about your desire to choke Michael Moore to death, and they listen. You fantasize about the ways you want to kill liberals, and they listen. You encourage your readers to stalk children, and they listen. You open people up for death threats, only to mock them when they fear for their safety, and they listen. You talked about San Francisco getting righteously destroyed, and they listened. You "joke" about assassinating standing politicians, and they listen. And after a while, they start to think it sounds like a good idea.

Don't tell me you didn't know this was coming. You've known this was coming for a long while. Hell, when it happened, and when one of your fanboys started thinking it was time to scare the shit out of those measly liberals, you cracked wise about it.

Well, ha ha. What a funny joke it was. But the joke's over. Now's the time when you show that you've still got something, tarnished and rotten as it may be, resembling a soul. Now's the time that you realize that people listen to what you have to say, and what that leads to may not be good. Now's the time when you realize that us liberals aren't just fucking targets, but your fellow Americans with lives, loves, and dreams. We are not waste. We are not traitors. We are American citizens, just like you.

And if you continue on this path, then that's good. That means I get to treat you as the piece of waste that you obviously consider me to be. Makes it easier for both of us.