Loose Talk About Political Violence

I was just going to pass this by and let it die. But then I saw the eleven zillion comments and thought responding was better.

First of all: Everybody shut the hell up about riots and violence.
You do not joke about this kind of thing and you do not make casual--even if idle--threats about this kind of thing.

Second: Nice job Rick Perlstein for using two personal e-mails to fabricate some kind of mass movement.
Seriously. You don't know better than this? You needed a post at the Huffington Post that bad? C'mon. Think, then write. Two people blowing off steam is not worth a post. Why encourage people to think along these lines? And don't give me the "I was reporting, not advocating" line. Two personal e-mails does not warrant stirring up this kind of shit. Seriously. Be a man about this and explain your mistake, admit you stirred up something you shouldn't have.

Third: O.k., wait a second. Lemme get this straight. Some of these morons want to talk about riots in Denver in response to some loose talk about possible shenanigans...when we couldn't even get people out on the street to peacefully protest the actual attempted theft of an actual election in 2000??? In fact, the party trying to steal the election had protesters out protesting our failure to acquiesce to the theft and we still couldn't get people out there. Now you want to not only protest, but riot? How does that make sense?

This reminds me that I'm getting pretty sick of people saying that this is the most important election of our lifetime. You know what was the most important election of our lifetime? 2000, dummy! If we hadn't screwed the pooch--or allowed the pooch to be screwed without protest, anyway--in 2000, this election wouldn't be so important. If we'd have elected somebody else--anybody else--in 2000 we wouldn't be in the mess we're in now.

Wait, I forgot...we did elect somebody else... Sorta.

Forth: Um, may I remind you that no actual shenanigans have been pulled at this point?
So all this stuff is, in addition to being irresponsible and idiotic, premature.

Fifth: There are states between total passivity and rioting
Might I suggest that we all familiarize ourselves with them.

Sixth: How is it that people who are so smitten with Obama's message can say this kind of stuff?
Do these people think that the following is a sensible message: "Let's stop the partisan bickering and change the tone in Washington...and if you don't agree, we are going to riot your punk asses!" Think about it.

I mean really. The mind reels at this kind of thing.

Are we, like, absolutely sure there isn't some better form of government we've overlooked? Like maybe government by magic eight ball? (Octocracy?)

O.k., now everybody shut up about this BS and start acting at least semi-sane