Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Great News! Obama Tells Audience at Tucson Memorial That Rep. Giffords Opened Her Eyes For the First Time Tonight (Video)

- Update 1/13/11 - WAIT A MINUTE!  It was reported in the Sonoran Chronicle that Rep. Giffords could open her eyes on Sunday!  The Tucson Chronicle also reported it.   (Via Gatewary Pundit)    So did the Vancouver Sun.  Drudge had a similar notice up  briefly today, but it looks like he took it down.   Why?  What's  going on?    I await clarifications!  -   Update - Jake Tapper of ABC News provides the explanation:

Wednesday was the first time Giffords opened her eyes on her own, which Giffords' neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael Lemole Thursday called “a major milestone.”

“When we examine patients, particularly in this state we have to ‘wake them up,’ give them some stimulus, and with that stimulus they might crack their eyes,” Lemole said today. “That’s very different from speaking to someone and having them open their eyes, or having them open their eyes spontaneously in response to familiarity.”

“Eyes” in the case of Giffords is actually just “eye” since her right eye is bandaged.

Me: If that's what was meant when it was reported on Sunday that Rep. Giffords "opened her eyes," then the early reports were singularly misleading.   The report on January 8th in the Vancouver Sun read:

"Giffords was able to open her eyes and respond to simple commands — indicating a high level of brain function that one surgeon described as remarkable given the extent of her wounds"

 

Giffords was able to open her eyes and respond to simple commands — indicating a high level of brain function that one surgeon described as remarkable given the extent of her wounds.

Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/congresswoman+battles+life+after+shooting+that+leaves+dead/4080788/story.html#ixzz1Axk6sIYq

SARAH PALIN'S RESPONSE TO THE TUCSON KILLINGS

I find her media presence in this video quite compelling.  Her delivery gives life to her text.  A Palid aid said she is getting unprecedented death threats.  

   

Update 1/13/11 - I agreem with Jonah Goldberg's assessment:

Lost in all of the squabbling about the use of the term “blood libel” is an under-appreciated fact. Palin’s statement yesterday was actually the most robust, unapologetic defense of vigorous democratic debate and the American system we’ve heard from any politician since Saturday, and that goes for President Obama’s speech as well. I don’t fault Obama by saying this. Obama was speaking at a memorial service (or at least that was his plan).

Palin did exactly what her detractors claimed she both must do and couldn’t do: give a grown up, mature statement.

JONAH GOLDBERG ON "MEIN KAMPF," "THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO," LEFT-WING PRESS AND THE TUCSON KILLINGS

Since I've never read Hitler's Mein Kampf, I was happy to read Jonah Goldberg's overview with comments relevant to the Tucson killings.  He writes:

Lots of friends and foes have been emailing me to talk about Liberal Fascism in  light of the fact that Loughner liked both the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf. I’m taking a pass on all that largely because I think it’s entirely irrelevant. Also, I have zero interest in hawking even a single book in this context.

But about those other books. When I meet young people who brag about having read Mein Kampf, my first reaction is that they’re lying, for one reason or another. And after further conversation, I usually come away feeling my initial reaction was justified.

LEFTIST MEDIA AND POLITICIANS DISGRACE THEMSELVES

Maybe it's a coincidence, but just yesterday I put up a blog post on truth.  This weekend, in response to the shooting of  Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (and the killing of six others in Tucson),  Leftist media and politicians have launched a major offensive to lay the blame for the violence at the feet of conservatives such as Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Fox news, Glenn Beck and others. 

Andrew Klaven points out: 

The Left—which has been unable to discover any common feature uniting acts of Islamist violence worldwide—nonetheless instantly noticed a bridge between the Tucson shooting and its own political opponents. The Chicago Sun-Times ran a slavering editorial blaming “the right.” MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson suggested that the killings were inspired by right-wing rhetoric. Politico’s Roger Simon did the same.