I can't believe what I'm hearing

What a day it's been.

Lou Dobbs, who always has pearls of wisdom in his one-man crusade to eliminate Hispanics from American life, was in top form last night. Apparently he finds it completely "crazy" that anyone could question the right of Joe Horn to shoot two unarmed men in the back after they stole some stuff from his neighbor's house. People are even crazier to suggest there might have been a racial element to what went down in Pasadena Texas (a suburb of Houston). When his guest said people are objecting to Mr Horn serving as "Judge, Jury and Executioner," Lou just ignored him, as if that observation was beneath consideration. Crazy, indeed.

On to Tony Perkins, the head of the hilariously-named Family Research Council (an overtly political right-wing religious group), who wasted no time in declaring the tragic shootings in Colorado to be the fault of the liberal media's "hostility toward Christians." Huh? The shooter was a devout, home-schooled (and clearly deeply disturbed) boy who had been kicked out of the ministry program where the first shootings occurred. Apparently Tony doesn't let the facts get in the way of his proclamations.

What I find particularly fascinating about Perkins' assertions in this case, is that conservatives, especially religious ones, typically reject "liberal" interpretations of society's role in tragic events, insisting instead that responsibility lies with the individual. However, in this case, Perkins is quick to use a sociological explanation, when it suits his purposes to do so. (I'm thinking, for example, of the outrage expressed at "liberal" explanations of Abu Ghraib - suggesting that a culture of inhumanity existed which facilitated the humilation of prisoners. I had a conservative Christian friend berate me for not accepting that the entire unsavory situation was due to a few bad apples who needed to be held accountable for their behavior, not excused by foolish intellectual rationalizations.)