And Now for Something Completely Silly

When I turned on my computer this morning, I saw an article by Yahoo News headlined "Bachmann Criticized for Silence On Suicides in District". I was surprised by the headline, and I thought that perhaps there was some unknown skeleton in Bachmann's closet that was now being exposed. Then, I read the article and found that Yahoo News (and many other sites) had seemingly gone crazy. According to the article, there were some high school students in Bachmann's district who have committed suicide over the last few years. They may have done this in response to being picked on for being gay or it may have been for some other reason. (Even the reported did not claim to have any evidence as to the cause.) A reporter for uber liberal Mother Jones Magazine wrote an article about the suicides and asked Bachmann for comment. Bachmann had no comment for the article. That's right, let me repeat the outrage again: BACHMANN HAD NO COMMENT FOR THE ARTICLE!!! And that is not all of Bachmann's outrages. Five years ago, she spoke out against anti-bullying legislation being considered in Minnesota; according to the article, Bachmann was concerned that the legislation was unclear as to what constituted bullying and that it would stifle free speech as a result. Oh the horror! Oh the outrage! No wonder Yahoo News had to put this in its top stories of the day. No wonder there is such upset. How could Bachmann do such a thing!

The truth is that this is a perfect example of the liberal media bias at work. Let's blame Bachmann because some students have committed suicide. I checked this morning. There were suicides by students in Nancy Pelosi's district too. Will she be blamed? There have been suicides by students around the country since Obama became president; will he be blamed? As long as I can recall, there have been suicides by students. That does not make these events any less terrible for those involved. It is just silly, however, to blame Bachmann's refusal to comment for a story in Mother Jones as a cause of suicides. It is just silly to use Bachmann's protection of free speech in a debate on a flawed bill to blame her for the suicides. but would anyone like to bet how many times we will hear this story in the next week?