Peter Grier, math wizard and Christian Science Monitor reporter, says the following in an article headlined, “John Patrick Bedell: Did right-wing extremism lead to shooting?“
John Patrick Bedell, whom authorities identified as the gunman in the Pentagon shooting on Thursday, appears to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent antigovernment feelings.
If so, that would make the Pentagon shooting the second violent extremist attack on a federal building within the past month. On Feb. 18, Joseph Stack flew a small aircraft into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. Mr. Stack left behind a disjointed screed in which, among other things, he expressed his hatred of the government. (For more on this incident, click here.)
If so??
So what about if Bedell was not a right-wing extremist? What if he was a left-wing extremist? Would that change the count? Would that mean this would have been the 3rd violent extremist attack attack on a federal building this month? Or the first? What are the rules of addition and subtraction that we’re supposed to use here?
And what about that phrase, “among other things”? If you accept Grier’s invitation and click on the link, you find out that one of the “other things” Stack hated was corporations. If you go looking for his exact words, you find that he used language even more virulent than President Obama’s. Does this mean that President Obama is almost a rightwing extremist, too? Does Janet Napalitano know about this?