Hate.

Last year, a 58-year-old unemployed man named Jim Adkisson drove to the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. In his small SUV was a guitar case.

He brought his guitar case into the church, and as worshippers were enjoying a children's musical performance, Adkisson retrieved his shotgun from the case, along with 76 shells. He managed to murder 2, and wound 6 others before he was tackled and detained until his arrest.

Yesterday, he was sentenced to life in prison.

His motive, according to his handwritten manifesto, was to kill liberals. The Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church is known for its tolerance of homosexuals and political refugees.

He wrote, “Liberals are a pest like termites, millions of them … the only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets, kill them where they gather.”

If you read over his stated motive for what he explicitly says is a "hate crime," you will find a collection of right wing radio coded words and talking points. I've listened to enough AM radio, that I'm comfortable saying Adkisson parroted directly from Hannity, who has long called into question the "American-ness" of groups like MoveOn.org and Code Pink (whom he specifically mentions by name ad nauseum), two groups mentioned in Mr. Adkisson's manifesto. In fact, Hannity uses the phrase, "groups like Code Pink and MoveOn.org" like a blues guitarist uses riffs as turnarounds between progressions.

The irresponsibility of Mr. Limbaugh, Mr. Hannity, Mr. Savage, Mr. Levin et al. has forever changed the lives of those families in Knoxville. Having listened to these men peddle their poison for years, it is not unfair to lay this at talk radio's feet. The vieled and not so vield racism, sexism, homophobia and ideological hate these men spew into their microphones every night is far beyond the pale. The difficult part to understand is not why Mr. Adkisson's murderous hatred was screwed up by talk radio--what is surprising is that their listeners have so far show such restraint.