Sarah Palin, and never mind the ruckus, a libel's a libel ...

Meanwhile on another planet far, far away:

"What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country."

-Rush Limbaugh (here)

Yep those damn filthy commie liberal leftie socialist perverts just love a massacre.

Meanwhile, Sarah Palin makes a brave bid to tone down the rhetoric:

"Journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred they purport to condemn," she said.

"It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." (here)

Blood libel?

Here at the pond we hadn't thought about blood libel for years, and hastily rushed off to the ever to hand wiki to revive dim memories of European history:

Blood libel (also blood accusation) refers to a false accusation or claim that religious minorities, in European contexts almost always Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays. Historically, these claims have – alongside those of well poisoning and host desecration – been a major theme in European persecution of Jews.

The libels typically allege that Jews require human blood for the baking of matzos for Passover. The accusations often assert that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted, and historically blood libel claims have often been made to account for otherwise unexplained deaths of children. (here)

Well I guess it makes a change from referencing Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust ...

Oops, wrong. Cue at last count by Google news thousands of stories and blogs in a frenzy, whether it's Rabbi: By 'blood libel' claim Palin admits 'words can be deadly' , or Why Sarah Palin Should Have Just Left the 'Blood Libel' Alone.

But to be fair to Palin, greater minds have used the term. Like Andrew Breibart:

Uh huh, here in Australia, we know the solemn meaning of we will remember, at the going down of the sun, but why "blood libel"?

Ah yes, the defaming, defiling and slaughtering of Jews for ritually slaughtering Christian babies is much more clear cut than an idle comparison of liberal leftie socialist perverts doing over Sarah Palin to the way Jodie Foster is gang raped on a pinball machine in a movie (here).

What a pity it was too obscure, because gang rape is the perfect metaphor for the current state of political commentary in the United States. And clearly Breibart knows whereof he speaks ...

Meanwhile, it's getting hot in the kitchen.

Pro-Israel Groups: Palin Must Apologize for 'Blood Libel' Accusation.

Except in the antipodies, where the loyalists battle on, as Tim Blair does, berating ABC pointy heads and celebrating in Palin Replies:

UPDATE II. Myers offers his latest opinion on Palin:

Does this stupid woman even think about what she’s saying?

He still thinks he’s the smart guy.

No, no, no Tim, she's still the smart guy, but we're not quite sure how to explain it with a succinct political metaphor.

Which one do you prefer? The blood libel of ABC journalists, well known as a coven of witches with an insatiable lust for the blood of Christian children in their morning tea cakes, or should we think of them as a gang raping pack of ne'er do wells with a penchant for pinball machines?

All in the interests of keeping the political discussion on an even, rational keel of course ...

By the way, it seems Giffords, one of the victims of the mass shooting, was Jewish (Gifford's Jewish Journey: From Israel To Service and Study).

Sensitivity piles on sensitivity.

Or as we like to say on the pond, because while it's a cliche, it's the only cliche that could possibly get near the sheer incomprehensibility of it all ... only in America, and if you want more, here's Analyzing Sarah Palin's 'Blood Libel' Accusation, or Palin's Charge of Blood Liberal Plays the Jewish Card.

Oh dear, it makes the pond yearn for the old days when a decent man intent on preserving the fine institution of slavery could give a cad and a bounder a decent thrashing, of the kind handed out by Preston Brooks to Charles Sumner on the floor of the United States Senate in 1856 ...

Yes, that's what all those do gooder liberal leftie perverts deserve. A damn good whipping, a thrashing that breaks the skin and brings their polluted blood to the surface. Like we did in the good old days to convicts ...

Pardon. The pond pauses to wipe away the flecks of foam and spittle and rage, which might appear a tad unseemly or even provocative in polite company ...