More Tea Party Violence?

By Jack Cashill

Before anyone had publicly identified the shooter of Arizona Congreswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the wire services were busily and shamelessly trying to establish a link between the violence and the Tea Party movement.

The fact that Giffords is a Democrat and that the shooter, 22 year-old Jared Lee Loughner, is a white gun owner assures that they will continue to do so in spite of ample evidence to the contrary.

To be fair, Loughner's YouTube and MySpace pages show someone who is pretty seriously deranged. His favorite books, however, include none that might be construed as Tea Party favorites with the possible exception of Ayn Rand's We The Living.

The book also includes some gentle liberal favorites like To Kill A Mockingbird, hippie cult hits like Siddartha and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and that ultimate left wing classic, the Communist Manifesto.

Loughner has also produced a confused, type-only video for YouTube. In it, he attempts to acquaint the viewer with an unexplained phenomenon called "conscience dreaming." Through this process he hopes to promote literacy and introduce a "new currency" to "literate dreamers." It does not go any deeper than that.

In the next few days, the best strategy is to ignore the media noise and pray for those victims like Gifffords will survive and and for those several victims who will not.