Piggy-backing off what Charles posted earlier tonight, I'd like to point out that the anti-government murder of a Census Bureau worker in Kentucky comes on the same day that the House Republican Whip, Eric Cantor, said he"thinks House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "is in another world" if she believes raucous anti-health-reform demonstrations could lead to violence -- and he says he hasn't personally witnessed racist comments during a summer of passionate town hall demonstrations."

Ignoring his comments about racism and focusing only on anti-government violence, Cantor is clearly oblivious to both recent history and to current events. An AP story on the Kentucky killing provides some historical perspective:

The most deadly attack on federal workers came in 1995 when the federal building in Oklahoma City was devastated by a truck bomb, killing 168 and injuring more than 680. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for the bombing, carried literature by modern, ultra-right-wing anti-government authors.

A private group called PEER, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, tracks violence against employees who enforce environmental regulations, but the group's executive director, Jeff Ruch, said it's hard to know about all of the cases because some agencies don't share data on instances of violence against employees.

From 1996 to 2006, according to the group's most recent data, violent incidents against federal Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service workers soared from 55 to 290.

Ruch said that after the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, "we kept getting reports from employees that attacks and intimidation against federal employees had not diminished, and that's why we've been tracking them."

And as for current events, there's no way Cantor didn't hear about this incredibly bizarre story from a California health care rally just this month.

"California authorities say a clash between opponents and supporters of health care reform ended with one man biting off another man's finger.

Ventura County Sheriff's Capt. Frank O'Hanlon says about 100 people demonstrating in favor of health care reforms rallied Wednesday night on a street corner. One protester walked across the street to confront about 25 counter-demonstrators. O'Hanlon says the man got into an argument and fist fight, during which he bit off the left pinky of a 65-year-old man who opposed health care reform."

Some say that there's no reasoning with the fringe and that we should just ignore them. I agree that there's no reasoning with them, but if they're going to murder government workers in Kentucky like they did in Oklahoma 14 years ago or Memphis and Los Angeles 41 years ago, then there's no ignoring them, either. I have explored this issue in two recent entries.

Adapted from a much snarkier post at Blue Moose Democrat.