Glenn Garvin, Man of Peace.

Say what you want about the rest of Garvin's silly column today, but at least he ends with something I can agree with:

The unavoidable fact is that there is a rich history of violence on the fringes of both sides of the American political spectrum. The right, as liberals are fond of pointing out, has Timothy McVeigh and James Earl Ray. The left has the Puerto Rican nationalists who opened fire on the floor of Congress, animal-rights nuts and eco-terrorists. If Nancy Pelosi really sees trouble coming, she needs to look in both directions.

To be fair to Garvin, this is a modestly constructive point.

However, the examples Glenn cites for "left-wing" violence all spring from the decades-old Norman Lear dreamworld Garvin clearly still inhabits -- and you know who you were then, girls were girls and men were men, mister we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again, didn't need no welfare state, everybody pulled his weight, gee our old Lasalle ran great, those were the days!"

I mean, if only Meathead, I mean Pelosi, would just let the hard-hats bust the heads of a few long-hairs and Dingbat would stop inviting the Jeffersons over, and her cousin Maude would stop forcing the Tuckahoe Country Club to accept Jews .....

Seriously, the Symbionese Liberation Army? Jim Jones?

What's next, Glenn -- the Baader-Meinhof Gang?

Listen, I know the drugs were copious, the music was great, auteurs made real movies, and TV was much better than it is today, but dude -- come on out of the 70s.

The truth is, Glenn cites to no recent examples of left-wing violence because the right-wing stuff has emerged of late to be something of a real problem.

This from Steve Benen back in June, after the Holocaust Museum shootings:

Two months ago, Richard Poplawski, a right-wing extremist, allegedly gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, in part because he feared the non-existent "Obama gun ban." A few weeks ago, Scott Roeder, another right-wing extremist, allegedly assassinated Dr. George Tiller in Kansas. A few hours ago, Von Brunn, another right-wing extremist, allegedly opened fire at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

There are other recent examples that bear similar characteristics. This story out of Tennessee from last year continues to haunt.

Knoxville police Sunday evening searched the Levy Drive home of Jim David Adkisson after he allegedly entered the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church and killed two people and wounded six others during the presentation of a children's musical. [...]

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

The shotgun-wielding suspect in Sunday's mass shooting at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church was motivated by a hatred of "the liberal movement," and he planned to shoot until police shot him, Knoxville Police Chief Sterling P. Owen IV said this morning.

Adkisson, 58, of Powell wrote a four-page letter in which he stated his "hatred of the liberal movement," Owen said. "Liberals in general, as well as gays."

Obviously, we're dealing with sick individuals here. There are key differences between violent right-wing radicals and mainstream Americans who happen to be conservative. Indeed, I'm not suggesting that conservative activists are necessarily dangerous, violent people.

Right, right, and right.

The point is, you'd have to be living in a Don Martin-inspired fantasy world if you are citing the 1954(!) shootings in Congress by Puerto Rican nationalists as somehow relevant to what is happening right here, right now in the fever swamps of the extreme right.

Oh hail Glenn, either stop watching television or return to watching it exclusively -- there's just too much spillover.