Jon Stewart, Keith Olbermann and others threatened.

[Crowley]

This guy is really sick:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/0115082chad1.html


He sent them faux anthrax in the mail.

[Erik Burnham]

The shows aren't THAT bad.

Seriously, obviously low behavior.

Book 'im, Danno.

[Infra-Man]

Ahh, so this is the guy. I remember hearing about the threats (pretty sure Olbermann talked about it on the air, Stewart didn't). What a nutter.

Crazy stuff like this reminds me of John Hinckley, Jr.'s poetry/letters to Jodie Foster as published in Apocalypse Culture II.

[the4thpip]

That story became 100% more entertaining when the police report mentioned that he is a Katherine Harris supporter. I hope we get a photo of her visiting him in jail.

[Rattlehead]

I blame Rush Limbaugh. Seriously. The man does nothing but spend 3 hours a day on the radio trying to convice people that there is some sort of cultural divide between so-called "liberals" and "conservatives" that simply does not exist. The caveat is, you can be out in the middle of fucking nowhere, and I guarantee that you will be able to hear his insane ramblings. The other day he was going on about how "liberalism" is perverted, even though the man pops ED pills and screws prostitutes like there is no tomorrow. I'm all for free speech, but people like him are dangerous, and I fully believe it leads to incidents like this. John Stewart isn't even a real journalist, it's a humour show and it always has been. Keith Olbermann is just as willing to take the Democrats to task about failing to deliver on thier promises back in 06 as he is willing to point out the failings and blatant lies of the Bush Administration.

[Infra-Man]

I blame Rush Limbaugh. Seriously. The man does nothing but spend 3 hours a day on the radio trying to convice people that there is some sort of cultural divide between so-called "liberals" and "conservatives" that simply does not exist. The caveat is, you can be out in the middle of fucking nowhere, and I guarantee that you will be able to hear his insane ramblings. The other day he was going on about how "liberalism" is perverted, even though the man pops ED pills and screws prostitutes like there is no tomorrow. I'm all for free speech, but people like him are dangerous, and I fully believe it leads to incidents like this. John Stewart isn't even a real journalist, it's a humour show and it always has been. Keith Olbermann is just as willing to take the Democrats to task about failing to deliver on thier promises back in 06 as he is willing to point out the failings and blatant lies of the Bush Administration.

I don't think Limbaugh is to blame here, especially given other partisan hacks that have contributed to the coarsening of political discourse in this country (e.g., Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Dinesh D'Souza, etc.). And even then, I don't think one can really blame them for the actions of a clearly unhinged individual.

However, it does show how gross the political partisanship has become, in that vehemently disagreeing with someone of a different political stripe is suddenly not enough; now politics is internalized to such an extent that a disagreement is taken as some serious personal affront. That's obviously not the case, but people seem to have taken things to an extreme just to have the appearance of being informed.

I remember my roommate and some of her friends were talking about how they hated a mutual acquaintance of theirs because that person happened to be a conservative, and it made me realize how immature politics has become, or at least how immature some people's views of politics have become. The thing is, neither my roommate nor her friends are particularly politically aware (e.g., they don't know who's running on the democratic side, they don't watch or read the news), but they seem to think that to take a side is to assert one's politics in an intelligent manner, which is obviously not the case. One can stand on either side of the false bifurcation that is the red state/blue state divide, but the ignorant are still ignorant no matter how firmly they place their feet into the ground.

Liberalism or conservatism are not reasons to hate others, but merely different political points of view. It's as if politics is just another spectator sport, but even then, I don't think that Bears fans seriously want to hurt Packers fans.

[ElvisGuy]

That Ann Coulter ! She such a prankster !

[Lester C.]

I'm torn here. On the one hand I want the bastard to go to jail as he is obviously a terrorist. On the other hand he's obviously not quite right in the head, so a very small part of me feels he needs leniency. I'm hoping he gets the help he needs in prison.

[Crowley]

I loathe Coulter, O'reilly and Rush...

but I wouldn't blame this on them.

[Sabrinaset]

...Coulter?