Within hours of learning that the Tsarnaev brothers were the Boston Marathon bombers on Friday, left-wing radio host Thom Hartmann shifted effortlessly from his heavy hinting that this could be a "far right" bombing of the McVeigh flavor to insisting that these brothers underlined that religious fundamentalists of all faiths were ruining the world, because they all led to violence.
On Tuesday, Hartmann was hinting that the date of the April 15 bombings implied the wacky white "far right" was involved. When that didn't turn out, he just blamed everyone who preferred "Bronze Age gods" to modernity:
HARTMANN: I think that this might be a good opportunity for us to have a conversation about all forms of religious fundamentalism that lead to violence. Whether it's the murder of abortion doctors, whether it is the incredible levels of intolerance and violence that have been documented by the Southern Poverty Law Center by white-supremacy groups operating in the name of Christ, or whether it is fundamentalist Islam, that this would be, actually, perhaps, a good opportunity for us to have a conversation about modernity versus Bronze Age gods.
It wasn't a great week for fans of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which specializes in hyperbolically reporting on an allegedly massive white-supremacist movement in the United States. But Hartmann keeps insisting they must have proved something helpful to the Left.
Former "Hard Copy" host Barry Nolan joined Hartmann on Tuesday to imply this attack must be a kooky anti-government Tea Party thing (the relevant part of the video is just before the ten-minute mark):
HARTMANN: I realize it’s way too early to speculate about who-what-why, but April 15 is a very signficant day on several levels, is it not?
BARRY NOLAN: It absolutely is April 15th in Boston is Patriots Day, and from the finish line of the Boston marathon it’s not a long walk to go to where the Tea Party took place in Boston Harbor. There’s still a great museum based on a ship that celebrates the Tea Party. April 15 is of course the day that many people that are, um, beyond the far right think of as a very important day, because to them it’s a day that represents tyranny.
Right now we’re also discussing changing our gun laws. And the news came out today that Sen. Harry Reid feels he does not yet have the votes to pass new gun regulations to fight gun violence. That’s an issue that’s produced – I do work for Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, and when she proposed one of her gun regulations, she received death threats. So all these issues – tax and guns and the Tea Party – we’re coming up on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing that was basically generated by the belief on Timothy McVeigh’s part that his own government had come tyrannical, which is something you hear on the far right these days.
