How do you like your freedom now, imperialist dogs?
The cold war came back to the White House today during a press briefing between Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Russian journalist Andrei Sitov when it was suggested that American freedom was responsible for the Arizona shooting.
[. . .]
Sitov continuing to make his point, "This is America, the democracy, the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly, the freedom to petition your government. And many people outside would also say - and the freedom of a deranged mind to react in a violent way is also American. How do you respond to that?"
Shocked by such a comment, Gibbs answered back, "No, no, I would disagree vehemently with that. There are - there is nothing in the values of our country, there's nothing on the many laws on our books that would provide for somebody to impugn and impede on the very freedoms that you began with by exercising the actions that that individual took on that day. That is not American. We had people that died. We had people whose lives will be changed forever because of the deranged actions of a madman. Those are not American. Those are not in keeping with the important bedrock values by which this country was founded and by which its citizens live each and every day of their lives in hopes of something better for those that are here."
Later Sitov told a CNN reporter that if Americans want the right to bear arms, then they should be ready to face the negative consequences like the shooting.
I hate to say it, but the Rooskie is right. Part of having freedom as a principle to live by is accepting the fact that not everybody is going to use that freedom the way they should, or the way we think they should. Gibbs has a point that we have "bedrock values" that don't include abusing freedom, and laws to hold people accountable when they do. But values don't trump free will, or else we wouldn't need laws.
