There's one aspect of this controversial billboard that really, really, really bothers me: I don't like that Libertarian crap about "statism." After 2008, when we learned that our bankers used deregulation as an all-purpose excuse to rip off everyone in the world -- and after global warming has been confirmed by a study funded by the Kochs -- I'd say that what this world needs is a little more FDR-style "statism. Make that a lot more.

There's another aspect about this sign that really, really, really, really bugs the hell out me: Although Obama's foreign policy has been hypocritical and needlessly violent, Romney has made no secret of his desire to attack Iran. His team has announced plans to bring a new generation of bloodthirsty neo-cons into power. Romney's foreign policy may well kill millions.

At one time, the Libertarians themselves would have quickly admitted this latter point. Back in the 1970s, I rejected their philosophy while admiring their honesty -- and their lack of conventional partisanship. They had their own party. These days, Libertarianism is simply a mechanism to get Republicans into power. Did any Libertarian see fit to erect a public advertisement of this sort when Bush prosecuted his ludicrous war in Iraq?

Other than those two criticisms, I don't have any real problems with this comparison of James Holmes and Barack Obama.

To those who say "It's too soon": George Bernard Shaw once used the Jack the Ripper murders to illustrate a political point -- and he did so while the killings were going on.

Whilst we conventional Social Democrats were wasting our time on education, agitation, and organisation, some independent genius has taken the matter in hand, and by simply murdering and disembowelling four women, converted the proprietary press to an inept sort of communism.

Compared to a statement like that, the billboard pictured above is demure.