I did judge her original post to be in astoundingly bad taste. It was juvenile and pointless. If you don't like a politician, vote him out of office, don't pointlessly pray for his death. This user also ran a poll in her journal prompting people to describe how they would kill Bush. That's not only extremely bad taste IMO, it's purposeless. If the system is corrupt, change it. This country is supposed to be a functioning democracy.
As for the Secret Service, I do think that they are required to check out death threats against the President. We in fandom recognize a pointless rant when we see one. We know that the ranter was just blowing off steam. The Secret Service doesn't have that luxury. There are a lot of genuinely dangerous nutcases out there who also print rants like that one. The Secret Service can't sit back and say, 'Let's ignore this one. She's obviously a smart-mouthed little SF fan punk who's talking out her ass.' Unfortunately they have to waste a lot of time and money checking her off a list. Considering how extraordinarily unpopular G.W. Bush is, I'd say the list is gigantic.
People think that hyperbole like this is meaningless or even funny. It isn't. 'Ha, ha, ha, look how cool I am? I described killing the president, aren't I kewl?' Well no, you're not even remotely cool. Cool is getting on an airplane and flying to Florida to personally ensure that our election process remains free and accessible. Whining about killing a politician is astoundingly juvenile.
Regardless, that is still no justification for reporting her. Whichever LJer out there turned her in to the feds as a threat most definitely knew better and did it purely out of spite. I'd love to find the stupid punk and ask her what on earth she thought she would gain from it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-10-29 02:18 pm (UTC)As for the Secret Service, I do think that they are required to check out death threats against the President. We in fandom recognize a pointless rant when we see one. We know that the ranter was just blowing off steam. The Secret Service doesn't have that luxury. There are a lot of genuinely dangerous nutcases out there who also print rants like that one. The Secret Service can't sit back and say, 'Let's ignore this one. She's obviously a smart-mouthed little SF fan punk who's talking out her ass.' Unfortunately they have to waste a lot of time and money checking her off a list. Considering how extraordinarily unpopular G.W. Bush is, I'd say the list is gigantic.
People think that hyperbole like this is meaningless or even funny. It isn't. 'Ha, ha, ha, look how cool I am? I described killing the president, aren't I kewl?' Well no, you're not even remotely cool. Cool is getting on an airplane and flying to Florida to personally ensure that our election process remains free and accessible. Whining about killing a politician is astoundingly juvenile.
Regardless, that is still no justification for reporting her. Whichever LJer out there turned her in to the feds as a threat most definitely knew better and did it purely out of spite. I'd love to find the stupid punk and ask her what on earth she thought she would gain from it.