Miracle as Jared Loughner shoots Gabrielle Giffords in head

[TonyGosling]

I've been getting some interesting thoughts on this one from coldhardtruth on twitter. http://twitter.com/coldhardtruth

1. First you rile up psychotics with inflammatory language about tyranny, betrayal, and taking back the country. http://tiny.cc/gm71j

2. Then you make it easy for them to get guns. http://tiny.cc/gm71j

3. But if you really want trouble, you should also make it hard for them to get treatment for mental illness. http://tiny.cc/gm71j

4. Jared Loughner falls into a pool of people who often go uninsured – http://tiny.cc/gm71j

5. not young enough to be covered by parents (until the health-care bill's coverage of twentysomethings kicked in a few months ago)..

6. ... not old enough for Medicare, not poor enough for Medicaid. If such a person happens to have a history of mental illness…

7. …he will be effectively uninsurable. To get treatment, he actually has to commit a crime. http://tiny.cc/gm71j

8. If Republicans succeed in repealing the Obama health care bill, that's how it will remain. http://tiny.cc/gm71j



US congresswoman breathing unaided
The US congresswoman shot in the Tucson massacre is breathing on her own after being taken off a ventilator.
Neurosurgeon Michael Lemole said he had left a breathing tube in Gabrielle Giffords to protect her airway, but she was drawing breath on her own, was alert, and was responding to doctors.
Six people are still in hospital after the shooting on Saturday at a Tucson grocery store. Six others died and 14 were injured in the attack.
Meanwhile, a 22-year-old man faced court accused of trying to assassinate the congresswoman and killing six other people.
Jared Loughner, who appeared with a shaved head and a cut on his right temple, stared vacantly into the packed courtroom as he attended a short procedural hearing in Phoenix.
Before the hearing began, Jared Loughner's court-appointed lawyer Judy Clarke whispered to the defendant, who only spoke to say "yes" when the judge asked if he understood that he could face life in prison or the death penalty if convicted.
Ms Clarke has previously defended "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and al Qaida operative Zacarias Moussaoui among others.
The judge ordered Loughner to be held without bail.