Truly Bizarre

Eric Alterman is right about the gunman at the President's townhall meeting:

In 45 years of watching presidents--Dad took me to see Lyndon zip by in a
motorcade back in '64 -- this
is the first time I ever saw anyone anywhere near a presidential appearance who
was packing and didn't have a badge. The general equanimity with which this was
handled was flatly bizarre. More people got worked up by the faker in Missouri
who sustained a vicious slip-and-fall and then an incomprehensible relapse the
next day that put him in a wheelchair.

Someone was at a presidential appearance with a gun. And he was proudly wearing
it outside his pants, for all the honest world to see. (RIP, Townes). Forget the
president for a minute. What if this cluck decides that he doesn't much like the
folks gathered there who are on the other side of the issue from him? This is
the cult of the NRA gone completely insane. Why not just let folks bring their
Legally Licensed Firearms into the congressional gallery while we're at it? Or
onto airplanes?

You couldn't get within two miles of the last guy if you had a placard
reading, "We Think Your War Ill-Advised, Sir." People got rousted at rallies for
wearing uncomplimentary T-shirts. This
happened to credentialed journalists at the Republican convention a year ago.
But this guy gets to stand there, visibly strapped, and wave his sign about the
tree of liberty and the blood of patriots, and people just take it all as
business as usual.