Very odd comment by Governor Palin

[BridgeRunner]

It is crap like this that makes me think Palin running would be a good idea.  Oh, the GOP has better candidates and I'd really prefer she didn't, but nobody brings out folks' inner asshat like Palin does.

Quote from "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" NPR news quiz show, speaking about Palin being involved in everything: "...we can't blame her really...she's America's collective ex-girlfriend."

[Perd Hapley]

Can someone please explain this to those of us who've never had an ex-girlfriend? 

[BridgeRunner]

Can someone please explain this to those of us who've never had an ex-girlfriend? 

If it has ended badly, there is hatred and vitriol; if it ended well, there is ambivalence; if it ended unwillingly, there is obsessive devotion.

[richyoung]

The irony of this is that while conservatives are now upset at being blamed for the acts of an individual extremists, if this had been a guy with a Muslim name, the conservative pundits would've been first in line to bash Islam & Muslims as responsible.

Is thiws an apt comparison - or not?

Lets examine, class - in the case of a guy with a Muslim name, there is no shortage of clerics, web sites, political leaders exhorting the Faithful to go kill the infidel - in fact, it can be, and is, supported by entries in the Koran itself.

On the other hand, I am unaware of any text, twitter, or email where Palin or Rush exhorted anyone to shoot somebody....

[richyoung]

Oh, I thought the concepts she articulated in the speech and much of the content was great, and I agree with it.  I still, myself, would not have chosen, or had my speechwriter use, a term that I myself consider anti-Semitic.

The term is not anti-semitic.  See the word 'libel" in the term "blood libel"?  That labels the blood libels...libelous.  Its a factual description of an antisemitic act, but is in itself not anti-semitic, any more than "Holocaust" is....

[CNYCacher]

The term is not anti-semitic.  See the word 'libel" in the term "blood libel"?  That labels the blood libels...libelous.  Its a factual description of an antisemitic act, but is in itself not anti-semitic, any more than "Holocaust" is....

Exactly.  There seems to be some confusion out there regarding just what exactly the term is referring to.

The blood libel itself is the lie being told, it is not the act which you are lying about.

To use the historical example: If person A claims that the Jews drink the blood of christian children, then person A is committing a blood libel.  Person A is not accusing Jews of blood libel.

Likewise, lefties blaming Sarah Palin for inciting violence are themselves committing an act which could be described as a blood libel.