Troubled...

[thedr9wningman]

I certainly hope my math is off here.  I really do.  But this looks suspicious.  And I don't like it at all.

A gunman shot a Democratic congresswoman in the head and killed other people.  She's not dead right now, but may be.  The BBC laid it out like this:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, a conservative Republican, placed Ms Giffords on a list

Comments

[sop4pcrest]

"I really hope I'm just led to this conclusion by mistake."

I hope so too. To think that somebody may have done this because he disagrees with a health care vote is hard to accept. It's just not a sane reaction.

[sop4pcrest]

Personally, I think people are making too much of this. Obviously it was to show that these are political targets, but no sane person would believe Sarah Palin is actually suggesting to shoot people.

Gun metaphors are used all the time. When somebody says something like "I'm not going to go into that court room half-cocked", or "I'm going to give that witness both barrels", only an idiot would believe they are referring to an actual firearm.

[thedr9wningman]

Well, before you go off being half-cocked, I find it presumptuous to call people idiots for making a very logical leap.

Target symbols and bulls-eyes are gun metaphors and imply sniping and military action; enemy fire; a threat. I think there are many sane people who can make the leap that, say, scrawling a bullseye on someone's doorway (or on their district on the internet) is maybe a threat. I also think that, say, a burning cross on the lawn or a horse head in the bed may cause a homeowner alarm

[thedr9wningman]

And to make a point, refer to ferretninja's graphic above. There is a different feeling, isn't there?

[graphemes]

Just so you know, a fatwā is a non-binding legal opinion issued by an Islamic scholar under Islamic law. The popular misconception that the word means a death sentence probably stems from the fatwā issued by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran in 1989 regarding the author Salman Rushdie, who he stated had earned a death sentence for blasphemy. This event led to fatwās gaining widespread media attention in the West.

Also, after the shooting, Palin issued a tweet, which she later deleted:

[thedr9wningman]

Thanks for the clarification!

I was definitely using the mis-defined, colloquial, and bastardised English borrowing of the term (thus with the word-final H). I will readjust my usage of the term in light of this new info, though!

-Arabic pwned

[thedr9wningman]

Now can we argue about the term common sense please? I HATE THE TERM COMMON SENSE. It is arrogant, and says that "If you don't agree with this, you are a part of the out crowd and are no a common person, but instead an 'other' who should be sidelined".

I hate that arrogance so much.

[sop4pcrest]

I feel the same way whenever somebody tries to argue for a "common sense" gun law that I personally don't agree with.