It amazes me that people are so quick to condemn something they’ve seen on the cover of a magazine or heard about through gossip and feel free to say the most awful things about stuff they know nothing about.  This week’s cover of Rolling Stone is one example.  People just saw that face and went off, or they heard about it and went off.  The other is the President’s remarks yesterday on the Trayvon Martin shooting.  I doubt that many of them actually listened, but off they went making the most outrageously awful, ugly and prejudiced statements on Facebook.  The Media say we’re polarized.  I think there may be more to it than that.  Both the stories are tragedies;  for Tzarnaev and his family, and for Trayvon’s family.  Are they both victims of the hate that gets thrown around on the internet under a cloak of anonymity?  The remarks about Obama’s speech that I saw had little to do with what he said, it was more about the writer’s hatred for him.  Todd Starnes Facebook page is an education in right wing nasty looniness.  I must be living in some other country where people try to reach across divides and understand each other no matter what their differences.  This is what Todd Starnes said that began the discussion:

 “President Obama is now our Race-Baiter in Chief. His remarks today on the Trayvon Martin tragedy are beyond reprehensible. 

 “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” he said. He actually said the outcome might have been different if Trayvon had been white.

 Folks – we have reached a very dangerous point in this nation when the president of the united states begins to question the judicial system.”

That’s a deliberate misinterpretation of what the President said.  He questioned the validity of one particular law, not the entire judicial system.

A kind of “balance” can be had it you also check out Newshounds.  At least it’s somewhat better written and more understandable than Starnes’ site. (Why do I read this stuff, anyway?)  It’s hard to know what the folks on Starnes’ site actually believe.  What would they say if confronted in person about their words?  Quite possibly, like the crowds of Obama haters at their rallies.