Washington’s top five most ridiculous reactions to the Arizona shooting

4. Use the Federal Communication Commission’s power to finally get that dastardly Rush Limbaugh off the air (or at least get him to stop being so mean)

Highly ranking House Democrat Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina said this week he wants to reimpose the so-called “Fairness Doctrine,” which would force radio and television broadcasters to bring guests they disagree with on air and provide equal time to “both” sides of an issue.

“Free speech is as free speech does,” Clyburn told the Charleston Post and Courier. “You cannot yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater and call it free speech and some of what I hear, and is being called free speech, is worse than that.”

According to the paper, Clyburn’s daughter, an FCC commissioner, said she opposes her dad’s idea “any way shape or form.”

5. Since the alleged Tucson gunman liked to smoke pot, the federal government should impose tougher drug laws

Last but not least, take it away, former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum:

After horrific shootings, we hear calls for stricter regulation of guns. The Tucson shooting should remind us why we regulate marijuana.

Jared Lee Loughner, the man held as the Tucson shooter, has been described by those who know as a “pot smoking loner.”

He had two encounters with the law, one for possession of drug paraphanalia.

We are also learning that Loughner exhibited signs of severe mental illness, very likely schizophrenia.

The connection between marijuana and schizophrenia is both controversial and complicated. The raw association is strong:

• Schizophrenics are twice as likely to smoke marijuana as non-schizophrenics.
• People who smoke marijuana are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as those who do not smoke.

But is correlation causation?

Increasingly experts seem to be saying: “Yes.”

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