"It doesn't matter that we conservatives jumped for joy at the word of Ted Kennedy's death and berated him mercilessly in the days and weeks after."

Did conservatives jump for joy when Kennedy died? I was watching pretty closely for something like that, because I was afraid it would create more sympathy for Kennedy's health-care positions, and I don't remember seeing it, at least not in mainstream commentary. That conservatives didn't "honor" Kennedy's memory by helping to enact all his statist policy proposals does not constitute joy at his death, to my mind, but maybe it's close enough, for some people?

It appears that some people are easily led, wishing ill on another person because of vocalized opinions is admitting that we are not mentally strong and allow others to control over our personal life. (No side is always right)
Everyone is entitled to agree or disagree, to have all agree would require total control by force and none of us want to live with that.

Aside from the 8 year old's argument of "They do it too!", not crying about someone dying is a far cry from joyfully wishing someone dead, it's actually messed up that someone actually thought that was a good argument.

You pretty much have to let people ruin your day. It's just how much you let them ruin it.

If you let it get to you too much, the idjits have won.
If you don't notice it they don't get the derision they so richly deserve.

One thing that helps is to expect people to be absolute scum, that way, you're surprised a lot less.

One other thing, am I the only one who thinks it funny that that guy used the 1st Amendment as a defense for wishing death on someone for what they say?

That just seems kinda ironic to me.

"It doesn't matter that we conservatives jumped for joy at the word of Ted Kennedy's death and berated him mercilessly in the days and weeks after."

Yeah, "jumped for joy" is hyperbole, but considering that Kennedy killed a woman he was boffing while his wife was pregnant, colluded with the Soviet Union to undermine the United States, and actively worked to create legislation that would prohibit any of us little people from receiving the health care he received himself...every word of "merciless beration" directed at Kennedy was well-deserved, in life as well as after.

Rush has had some issues with women, but he never tried to gang-rape a waitress with Chris Dodd (or committed treason as defined by the Constitution), so I just don't grok the comparison.

I only feel pity and compassion for these people who wish anyone ill. They don't understand how that kind of hate and rage harms others and themselves.

Did Voltaire ever actually defend anyone "to the death" or even at any risk to his own comfort? Or was he just making a proto-Leftist snarky wisecrack?

If economic equality is the only value, then there's nothing wrong with wishing death on those who don't fetishize it or, indeed, with killing them outright to the extent that they are in the way of its realization.

As others have pointed out elsewhere online, the folks who are wishing death upon Limbaugh are the same folk that want to have control over your health care.

Think about it.

It is actually pretty frightening to see how completely oblivious some people are to their own blinding irony. I go to a lot a "righty" blogs (as well as "lefty" blogs), and anyone who believes for an instant that the "right" is more hateful than the "left" simply isn't paying attention. My own rough estimate is that the lefty blogs are about four times as likely to be filled with vicious hate-filled comments than the righty blogs, and the profanity and illiteracy is more like 20 times as prevalent.

It's easy to let yourself spew venom when you've convinced yourself that you are morally superior to your targets.

I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better. It's gonna be an ugly decade I think.

I may be old-fashioned, but I still believe in that Voltaire-credited saying, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." And wishing someone dead because of what he says is hardly consistent with defending his right to say it.

EVERYTHING about the left is projection. EVERYTHING. Once you realize this, their actions make total sense.

Wishing someone dead doesn't seem very liberal to me at all. It also doesn't look favorable to your argument when you insult the opposition in consistently, boring, "feeble minded" ways.

No true Liberal would say anything like that and I'm not so sure there are any true Liberals left. Certainly not on the far left.

Rush rocks!

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death my right to say I wish you were dead."

BTW, you ought to fix the tab order in the comment section anyway, it is very disconcerting, or at least as disconcerting as a tab order problem can get :)

They say you can't legislate morality, but here is a perfect counterexample. The legality of saying something doesn't say much about its morality. Yet here they are saying someone should die sooner rather than later, and justifying themselves with "Free Speech, right?" -- as if the legality of it were the question.

Or perhaps this example is merely the rule in disguise.

If Rush himself would not defend to the death the right to wish him dead I wouldn't listen to him again.

But I am certain he would.

Live free or die.

Yeah, there's a certain irony in saying You shut up, I'm exercising my first amendment rights!

The left wishing the death of Rush is entirely consistent with the history of their mentality. There is always a death wish at hand and when they have the upper-hand they act on that wish. Think of the death-talley for Stalin, Mao, Kim Il, Pol Pot, Castro...

A happy "ha ha", to liberals opressives and socialists.

Limbaugh is the god of "hate speach"

He speaks and
you hate!

Hahahahahahahahaha

The oh-so-civilized Harlan Ellison, self-proclaimed defender of freedom, free speech, etc, also wished death on all Republicans. (Seen on a You Tube video, I think.)

Nice job, Eric.

As much as liberals hate Rush, conservatives hate Olbermann wayyy more.

Sorry but most conservatives barely know that Olberman's alive.

There's something intensely brain-hurty about expressing hateful desires about someone because you think he's hateful. What has Limbaugh said in his most uncharitable moment that comes close to wishing someone a slow, painful death?

It strikes me that, when a person wishes someone dead, what he's really wishing is that he had the guts to go try to actually kill the person and the smarts to elude justice afterwards.

But it's hard to beat God's take on this, from Matthew 5:

21 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

But I suppose folks wishing Limbaugh dead are nothing if not in possession of what they suppose to be a great cause. Or vice versa.

What's really funny about Rush Limbaugh is he took the MSM left-liberal bias (mostly a self-selection problem) and used it to make himself a billionaire.

Shine on, you crazy star.

I have linked this and added a small new wrinkle.