Blogger-nut sighted

In the US, a female teacher, Amy Bishop, shot three people dead Friday, and wounded three others, after learning she had been denied tenure at an Alabama university. Tragic incident. She can't have been okay in the head.

Implications for gun control? Well... none it seems.

Now... some people who fly in the same blog stream as magpie will know of a certain neocon loon. I was willing to bet HE had it all worked out, and I was not disappointed:

"Amy Bishop, Detained in Huntsville University Faculty Murders, is Harvard-Trained Left-Wing Professor." says he.

Right. She was Left-wing and went to Harvard. Ergo it was obvious she was going to kill someone. Genius. Perhaps everyone who ever went to Harvard and doesn't believe in American hegemony through force of arms should be pre-emptively jailed. Dunno.

Perhaps someone should take HIM away in a straitjacket before he goes on a rampage after hearing an academic sneer at Sarah Palin (He's real tough though...shows pictures of male models to a blogger he doesn't like and swears he had abs like that 20 years ago).

Appropriating a tragic and violent crime to serve one's personal political paranoia is loathsome and without merit. It's not the first time this blogger has done this. And if she was a life-long Republican and an avowed neoconservative, it still wouldn't mean jack shit as far as the case goes.

No coverage I have seen indicates her political leaning - whatever it actually is - had anything to do with the crime. Unless Bishop was a member of a radical organisation the remainder of which is an immediate threat to public safety, there is absolutely no reason to even hypothesize what her political leanings are.

Israel's cause supported by non-conservatives

Peter Costello, who might have been prime minister if he wasn't (he claims) short-changed by John Howard, commented in Israel that his support for that country was motivated in part "by the anti-Israel rhetoric of those on the left of politics".
The irony is he was standing next to the acting prime minister of Australia at the time of the Gaza incursion, Julia Gillard, who IS to the Left of him. Yet...

In front of an elite audience of Israeli politicians, academics and cultural figures at a dinner at the landmark King David Hotel, senior Israeli minister Isaac Herzog paid a warm tribute to Ms Gillard for her support for Israel during the Gaza conflict in January.
"You stood almost alone on the world stage in support of Israel's right to defend itself," enthused Mr Herzog, an act of courage he said would never be forgotten by the people of Israel.
Ms Gillard was Acting Prime Minister when Israel launched a three-week offensive against Hamas that resulted in the deaths of more than 1300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.
At the time, Ms Gillard condemned Hamas for shelling southern Israel, but pointedly refused to criticise Israel's response, although she did urge it to be "very mindful" of civilian casualties.
Mr Herzog, a personal friend of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd (also to the Left of Costello) and chairman of the Israel-Australia parliamentary association, also thanked federal parliamentarians for passing a motion last year in support of Israel's 60th anniversary.
(source: The Age Newspaper 24th June 2009, reported by Jason Koutsoukis in Jerusalem)

So where is the actual basis for Costello's comment? In myth and stereotype. In demonisation of anyone to the left of politics.
And yes some Israeli actions in the Gaza incident remain questionable, even if Gillard didn't say it.