It took 48 hours, but Glenn Beck, arguably the worst offender at being offensive, has finally commented on the slaughter in Tucson that killed or injured 19 people including a federal judge, a nine year old girl, and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

For the most part his message was a compulsory expression of condolences and a call for non-violence. This from someone whose daily sermons of apocalyptic terror have already inspired murderous acts by unstable individuals. It is notable that he only spoke to actual acts of violence and made no mention of the hostile rhetoric from which they can spring. That is if you don’t count his defense of right-wing media by characterizing criticism of the vilification in civic discourse as politicizing the tragedy. What’s more, his web page with this message featured a rotating gallery of images that includes the one to the left wherein he brandishes a firearm. Now, that’s perfectly legal, of course, but perhaps a bit insensitive considering recent events and the very subject of the page on which it appears. Even Palin felt compelled to remove her “Hit List” from her web site.

[Note] Beck has since removed the image of him brandishing a gun. That is a tacit admission that it was inappropriate, but I don’t expect that he will make an explicit admission, nor apologize.

Also included in his message was a bizarre defense of Sarah Palin that also served as an advertisement for his security provider. He introduced his remarks as being excerpted from his letter to Palin.

“Sarah, as you know, peace is always the answer. I know you are feeling the same heat, if not much more on this. I want you to know you have my support. But please look into protection for your family. An attempt on you could bring the republic down. Please call Gavin De Becker in Los Angeles. He is the guy that protects me. They are, bar none, the best.”

According to Beck it is Sarah Palin who is feeling the heat. She is the victim of Saturday’s massacre, poor thing. And if Glenn Beck thinks that an attempt on Palin could bring down the republic, his opinion of the republic is that it is pretty damn weak. Of course an attempt on Palin, or anyone, would be horrible, but our nation was strong enough to withstand a civil war; strong enough to lose four sitting presidents to assassination and numerous attempts on others; strong enough to endure the loss of 3,000 people on 9/11. It is stupid to suggest that an attempt on a former half-term governor/reality TV star would bring us down when those other events did not.

Beck should refrain from glorifying his elitist class of politicos as the foundations that keep our nation from crumbling to the ground and instead speak to the need for civil discourse in our country. We ought to be able to regard our political adversaries as people with whom we disagree, not mortal enemies. It does not help to call the President a racist or a fascist. It does not help to vilify people like Cass Sunstein as the “most dangerous man in America” or George Soros as a “puppet master” bent on destroying our economy and our nation. It does not help to fantasize about choking the life out of Michael Moore or beating Rep. Charles Rangel to death with a shovel. Nor does it help to announce that he is starting a revolution against those he vilifies as progressives, but who are really his fellow Americans. If he really believes in peace and love, he should practice it – for God’s sake.

As an aside, I was fully prepared with a knee-jerk condemnation of the product placement Beck included in his suck-up to Palin. However, Gavin de Becker & Associates, Beck’s security firm, has an article on their site titled: Media Fear Tactics. It is actually a pretty useful and entertaining commentary on the sensationalism of television news. Ironically, it describes pretty accurately the way Fox News presents their tabloid alternative to journalism. The article was clearly meant as a cautionary guide to shoddy reporting, but the Fox editors seem to have adopted as a style guide.