"Afraid of the Facts?"

The above question was the chyron on this morning's edition of Fox and Friends, subtitled Stupidity Ahoy!, and you have to admit it's rather thought-provoking for Fox. The thrust of the question seemed to center around the loud disruptions of town-hall meetings and the assertions made that the loud mouths are stifling honest, thoughtful discussions.

Well, here are some of the questions and statements I heard over the weekend, culled from the videos played for us by the media:

"The Government should keep its hands off my Medicare!"

"This bill - this monstrosity - says nothing about tort reform."

"Why won't Obama come clean about his birth certificate?"

"Why does Obama want to kill Trig Palin?"

Taking these statements and questions in order, I suppose it'd be nice if the Government - which established, runs and funds Medicare - should just drop it like a chalupa and walk away. I suppose it'd be good to wedge some tort reform into the bill and make it harder to sue doctors for malpractice. The "birther" and "deather" arguments are Just Plain Silly, but are usually delivered at volume levels just shy of public nuisance (the bit about tort reform was actually delivered in a deliberate and measured tone - much respect for that guy).

Unfortunately, the people who are tossing these statements and others like them around like so many verbal firecrackers are not interested in measured, thoughtful debate. Far from it - they want to yell, displaying their ignorance for all and sundry while trying to drown out anyone who actually wants to talk about issues.

Let's toss in for good measure the Twittered threats that these "protesters" will exercise their First Amendment rights while carrying guns, which poses the risk that they'll be whipped by their own rhetoric into a homicidal fury.

Because it's all fun until someone dies.

And that's what people should be afraid of - not the facts.