Having just gotten home from a very special day for the family, I knew nothing of the Tiller murder until logging in here a little while ago.
After reading some of the diaries and news stories on Daily Kos, I thought I'd see what Red State and Little Green Football had to say. I wasn't sure what to expect, but what I found was intriguing:
At Red State, there was a front-page story about the murder, followed by a large number of comments. Early in the comments was this quote from a pro-life site:
I hope you will join me in denouncing this violent act of lawless vigilantism which stands in direct opposition to the mission and vision of all pro-life organizations. My condolences to the victims of this act and my sincere desire that God’s grace would be upon them.
I did fine one (1) commenter who said that the murder of Tiller was a good thing. He was immediately opposed by one comment after another, and when he tried to argue the point in a second comment, he was swamped under by even more comments. This sort of sums up those comments:
It is reassuring to see that most here believe, as I do, that murder is murder, and if killing babies is wrong, so is killing adults.
This, though, seemed to me to be one of the best and most telling comments there:
I think that at the end of the day, in America, the rule of law is the most precious thing we have and the only thing that stands between us and anarchy and tribalism. It is the basic agreement that allows us to come together to help others, both here and abroad.
Little Green Footballs did a story about the murder, but then did a separate story about comments from other stories (including two lower-level ones at Red State that I didn't see on the list), where the comments were as bad as you fear, and more. (I thought the title, Bad Craziness Watch, was particularly apropos.) After quoting some of the comments to show how bad they were, LGF concluded:
Some right wing blogs are closing comments on threads about the murder, and judging from the vile, sick stuff you see above, that’s probably a good idea.
This is very, very bad craziness, at its worst. Shame on all you people who are gloating and partying over a murder that took place inside a church. And you call yourselves "Christians?" What the hell is wrong with you?
I’m pleased to say that LGF did not join in this orgy of murder celebration; we had a few over the top comments, but they were quickly deleted, and a couple of people lost their accounts.
So, there you have it. Even though there are certainly right-wing crazies celebrating this murder tonight, the proprietors of these two sites are condemning the murder AND the comments. For that, at least, I am thankful.