Tucson shootings the result of too much freedom?

Oh boy.  You’d think this reporter worked for RT rather that ITAR-Tass – usually they’re the ones who specialize in that whole political-sadism-at-moments-of-national-tragedy shtick.  That said, this is totally being blown out of proportion.  From Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post:

Adjectives sharpen their elbows as they vie to properly describe the Cold War-ish moment Thursday when Andrei Sitov of the state-run ITAR-Tass news agency challenged Robert Gibbs about the Arizona shootings.

According to Sitov, the assault was just an extension of American free expression, this time the “freedom of a deranged mind to react in a violent way.” (…)

“It’s the reverse side of freedom. Unless you want restrictions, unless you want a bigger role for the government . . .”

Audacity had few competitors on this particular day. Being lectured about American freedoms by a man whose own status among the living wouldn’t be so assured under similar circumstances back home was rich in ironies. It was also horribly ill-timed. A couple of time zones away, Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old killed in the rampage just outside Tucson, was being lowered into the ground by her devastated parents and community.