Imagine my surprise when the Huffington Post, bastion of liberal and politically correct thought, posted this image on their home page.

A meat cleaver.  With reference to GOP presidential candidates on the chopping block.

U.S. congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot, along with 18 others, during a constituent meeting in Tucson, Arizona in 2011.  Although the shooter suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, the left wasted no time in blaming both guns and "right-wing rhetoric" for this tragic event.

ABC News believed that Sarah Palin's image featuring gun sight targets "may have fueled the gunman's rage."  CBS News noted, "The former Alaska governor put Giffords on a 'target list' of lawmakers Palin wanted to see unseated in the midterm elections."  The Huffington Post itself suggested that the Giffords shooting may have been a "consequence of the vitriolic rhetoric that has arisen over the past few years among extreme elements of the Tea Party."

So isn't HuffPo inciting violence with such an image and rhetoric?

A Palestinian terrorist attacked a group of wounded Jews with a meat cleaver.  Closer to home for me, an Aurora, Colorado police officer was attacked with a meat cleaver.  And there is always ISIS with their beheadings, via axe, sword, or meat cleaver.  Here is ISIS beheading a "blasphemer" with a large meat cleaver.

Shouldn't the Huffington Post be taken to task for its "violent rhetoric"?  Will ABC and CBS News blame the Huffington Post if, God forbid, a presidential candidate is attacked?

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based retina surgeon and writer.  Follow him on Facebook  and Twitter.