Inanimate Objects Trump Human Agency

     The desire to exculpate people from the responsibility of their own behavior is evident everywhere in our society. The entire philosophy of the Democrat party, and the Left in general, is based on this desire. Unfortunately the Lefts desire is transformed into public policy and is implemented into law under which we all are forced to suffer. But this almost pathological need of Leftists to assign blame to anything or anyone else but the responsible party, has made its way into the very fabric of our culture.
     To wit: I heard a news report about a house fire in a neighboring community to where I live in which it was stated that a cigarette was to blame. It must have been a hell of a cigarette to light itself and then carelessly place its lighted end on something that was flammable and create the inferno which engulfed the house. Nowhere contained within the report on the fire was mentioned the name of the person ultimately responsible. For those reading who still don't understand what I am saying, an inanimate object like a cigarette, an SUV or a gun can not cause harm to human beings or property damage without human agency.
     And yet, if you listen to or read the news, you will find an overwhelming willingness to dismiss people from their behavior, especially when that behavior has caused damage to another human being or their property. This phenomenon occurs multiple times every day, and one only needs to listen to or read the words used to understand that the intent is to sanitize human agency out of negative behavior and put the blame on something that government can regulate and/or tax. It is almost a weekly occurrence that we hear a vehicle, usually the hated SUV, has caused a crash or driven itself into someone or something. In reality, no vehicle can drive itself, it requires a human driver who then should be held responsible for anything that may go wrong as a result of that vehicle moving.
     I believe that this compunction on the part of the news media to blame inanimate objects like guns, SUVs and cigarettes for the bad behavior of human beings, is deliberate. It is usually in reference to those things which the Left sees as evil and have a desire to eliminate or severely restrict by force of government. The same language is not used in the reporting of negative consequences that involve the sacred cows of the Left. For example, if the media reports at all about the thousands of birds that die every year as a result of collisions with windmills, it is reported that the birds flew into the windmills, never that the windmills reached into the sky and smacked down the poor birds. I suppose certain inanimate objects have human abilities and others don't, for a list of ones you should be aware of contact your nearest Leftist.