Death threats and other thoughts

Interesting story here about CNN and CBS running a story about a nutjob who wanted to kill Obama, but editing out the part where he also wanted to kill Bush.

I was at dinner the other day with a friend who’s a bit of an uber-liberal- in a discussion about the Supreme Court, he asserted that he would like to shoot a certain outspoken conservative Supreme Court justice in the head, and at another time, he asserted that he would like to run over a prominent radio talk show host with a truck. Now, I know that he was mostly joking, and I’m sure that if he actually had an opportunity to do something like that, he wouldn’t take it, but I have to say, I don’t know any conservative-types who would make similar statements about democrats. None. For example, when Senator Kennedy got sick, every person who I heard discuss it said something nice about him and indicated that they hoped he would be OK- I remember hearing the same when former President Clinton had heart surgery.

Why is this sort of language acceptable to the left, who generally claim to be more peaceable, than the right? Is this just anger over being out of power? Extended Bush Derangement Syndrome? Or do I only listen to smart, emotionally controlled conservatives? I don’t know.

That also got me thinking- if I had the opportunity to stop someone who was attempting to assassinate, say, Barak Obama, I would certainly take it. I probably wouldn’t take that opportunity if they were attempting to shoot, say, Kim Jong-Il, one of the Castros, or Hugo Chavez, but are there any politicians (or other public figures) here in the states who I would be OK with letting an assassination happen? I can’t think of any (barring, of course, some nut who was an immediate threat to others, like a bomber).