The Holocaust Museum shooter has ushered in a new round of the Blame Game. Liberals are saying he was a conservative nutjob. Conservatives are claiming he was more like someone on the extreme left. Democrats point out the KKK connection and Republicans remind us that the KKK was originally born out of the Donkey. Unfortunately what nobody in the media will say is that this is a sign of how ignorance and a belief system driven to the extreme can becomes dangerous and even deadly. They won't say that because to a lesser extent, driving beliefs to one far corner is where they make their money.

The media makes this world seem like you have two choices and those choices are Perez Hilton or Carrie Prejean. The same people who were saying that people threatening to leave the US because of George W. Bush were un-American are now saying that their American pride is going to drive them to secede. Glen Beck seemed like he was on a logical path as he explained how there are crazies on all sides and we need to realize that. A nice thought that he then basically ignored when he, moments later, said that America resembled early Nazi era Germany and that we were becoming a facist country. So much for a calming influence.

So instead of trying to find actual answers or maybe even ways that the average Joe can help improve their own life or the life of their fellow Americans, we have more and more stories designed to be "us or them". Letterman v. Palin is the latest. But guess what, there's a middle ground. Letterman shouldn't have made the joke and he should have apologized for it (and probably cut it out from the West Coast feed like SNL did when they had a rude Chelsea Clinton joke on Wayne's World). At the same time, the Palin's also have to realize that they helped make their daughter a public figure, a role which she then embraced by going on talk shows and appearing on the covers of magazine as a spokesperson on preventing teen pregnancy. As with most debates nowadays, both sides go so far to one side that they end up both being wrong.

To quote Chris Rock,

"Everybody's so busy wanting to be down with the gang. "I'm conservative", "I'm liberal", "I'm conservative". Bullshit! Be a fucking person! Lis-ten! Let it swirl around your head. Then form your opinion. No normal, decent person is one thing, okay?"

Maybe rather than using tragedies like the Holocaust shooting to place blame on others, we can try to use these events to bring Americans together.  I know that might not necessarily get ratings but maybe we can not let the paper chase effect everything, put monetary issues aside, and do what's best for the country.

That'll be the day.