We have seen the enemy of polite discourse and civility: We deny the enemy is in and among us.

Commentary on the Michigan View on January 10, 2011

America is a violent country; deny that if you wish, facts are facts. We are a country whose government and economy are in flat spin and we are desperately trying to blame someone else for this dangerous condition.

Killer Guns: an oxymoron.

Everyone knows a handgun can serve as a unique paperweight. Guns bought easily by mentally deranged individuals, or by highly charged militia troopers, or desperately frightened housewives, they however, all kill in the hands of individuals using them. It takes such a very small amount of "muscle twitch" to fire a gun, even a fully automatic Gluck, that saying guns don't kill is a bromide that mocks the horrific reality. There is so much violence in our media, literature, entertainment, and video games it is ubiquitous in our daily lives. The cool steel or the cold carbon of a Gluck gives so many a sense of comfort and security, that gun will never harm a soul, but the killing potential is still only a deadly instant away.

The rule on guns in heated or dangerous situations is simple: don't resort to brandishing a weapon unless you intend to use it - if conditions or emotions demand.

The political ads in the fierce and highly charged November national election didn't feature dozens of politicians getting cream cakes shoved or thrown into their faces. Guns and gun related images and language permeated the airways and in some very high profile ways became the "message." The media used was the message and it was all about the power of life and death, killing off the opponent, the party, the health care bill, etc. These were professionally chosen media messages that the sponsors intended to gin up support, to achieve the "emotion" that we crave and is so useful in getting out the vote for "our" cause, our candidate, our side.

Sarah Palin's cross hairs depicting those "targeted" opponents would be mild and incidental to any thought of killing, if Sarah had never been pictured, as she was and is, over and over, tee-shirted and in camouflages, holding an automatic (M-16) at the ready with A CROSS-HAIRS SCOPE ON IT one might not put so much attention on Sarah's serious provocations. Add in the high profile national attention Palin got by hyping her concept "death panels," in condemnation of Obama Care, there's plenty of hardcore angst there, enough to take some over the edge. Trouble in Tucson began with the debate over health care which esculated to a white heat. Note: "It began with emotional town hall meetings in the summer of 2009, when some critics warned of government 'death panels.'" The situation voiced by Gabby Giffords in her own words: "We're on Sarah Palin's targeted list The way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize there are consequences to that action."

Then there was Kelly, Rep. Giffords' ultra-aggressive Tea Party opponent who distributed literature bearing the following message presented thus: "(H)elp remove Gabrielle Giffords from office, shoot a fully automatic M-16 with Jesse Kelly." Of course there is ambiguity here, but what is that you don't understand about "remove" and "shoot a fully automatic M-16" planted clearly juxapositioned in Kelly's campaign piece.

Teapartisan Sharon Angle's reference to resorting to "second amendment remedies" wafted over the airways targeting Sen. Harry Reed, untoward provocation, laced with her reference to "domestic enemies."

When do we reach the tipping point, our addled and psychotics have already gotten the message, When do "secret sleeper cells," "self-activated militias" in place around the country, act not in a hazy trance, but with practiced military precision to take "change" of a country they truly fear is being lost to "domestic enemies." Impossible, Never, Never. This is exactly what happened with Timothy McVeigh and Oklahoma City!

We have now another strong warning. Try to talk it away, or bluster past the criticisms, but one cannot coat this infamy with excusability or credibly deny the obvious effects of direct provocations and inflammatory rhetoric which leads to such violence. We all see and know argumentive fatefulnesses are smothering our civic discourse like crazy-making kudzu.

"Popular spokespeople like Ms. Palin routinely drop words like "tyranny" and "socialism" when describing the president and his allies, as if blind to the idea that Americans legitimately faced with either enemy would almost certainly take up arms," Matt Bai writes.