Where Greed Lives and Innocence Dies

THIS TIME... A 9 Year Old Little Girl Died. And this violent rhetoric, coming from certain high-profile individuals, from certain "news" networks; to sell books, to get ratings, to sell ads from those ratings... To sell, sell, sell...

And even though it's actually never existed now or in recorded human history, people talk about how evil communism is... As though capitalism is better. HOW is it better?

Remember, capitalism and democracy are two different things. One is not necessary for the other.

I'm not a communist. By glaring example, I don't think humans are capable of it at this point in our evolution. The idea is there. And then delusion sets in and it becomes something else. It becomes totalitarian.

But, I do believe in strong social ideals. I believe in a true democracy with strong socialistic programs. I believe in helping my fellow citizen, helping my neighbors. Knowing that we're all in this together, that the better off they are, the better off I'll be. So, in actuality, it's kind of selfish. But, still... That's what I believe. That's how I try to live.

Just watching greed in action - from Wall Street, to the Health "Care" Insurance Murderers, to the violent language perpetrators, I'm left wondering how "good" capitalism really is... when at its very core, greed lives.

I'm sorry. I'm venting. Even though I'm not surprised by this tragedy, I'm still reeling from it...

It Doesn’t Matter Why He Did It By George Packer, The New Yorker, January 9, 2011

... the tragedy wouldn't change this basic fact: for the past two years, many conservative leaders, activists, and media figures have made a habit of trying to delegitimize their political opponents. Not just arguing against their opponents, but doing everything possible to turn them into enemies of the country and cast them out beyond the pale. Instead of “soft on defense,” one routinely hears the words “treason” and “traitor.” The President isn't a big-government liberal—he's a socialist who wants to impose tyranny. He's also, according to a minority of Republicans, including elected officials, an impostor. Even the reading of the Constitution on the first day of the 112th Congress was conceived as an assault on the legitimacy of the Democratic Administration and Congress

This relentlessly hostile rhetoric has become standard issue on the right. (On the left it appears in anonymous comment threads, not congressional speeches and national T.V. programs.) And it has gone almost entirely uncriticized by Republican leaders. Partisan media encourages it, while the mainstream media finds it titillating and airs it, often without comment, so that the gradual effect is to desensitize even people to whom the rhetoric is repellent. We’ve all grown so used to it over the past couple of years that it took the shock of an assassination attempt to show us the ugliness to which our politics has sunk.

... Whatever drove Jared Lee Loughner, America's political frequencies are full of violent static.

*** If you're so inclined to sign the petition to Congress and the TV news networks Full petition text: "I call for an end to all overt and implied appeals to violence in American politics. We must debate, not hate."

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