It was a really nice day today here. I took the opportunity to go for a walk and get some fresh air, then spent a little bit of time grocery shopping with a friend and then did some reading while sitting on the porch. It is supposed to be snowing tomorrow night, so today was love it or leave it time for good weather.
I’m glad I did, as everything in the news is just so depressing- all the mass shootings last week (there was yet another one yesterday in which a man killed his entire family and then himself), all capped by that psychopath fringe right-winger from Pittsburgh. More information keeps coming out about him, and he was clearly a deranged sociopath- exactly the type susceptible to messages from irresponsible people peddling one world government/black helicopter conspiracy theories and bullshit about the Obama administration supporting gun grabs or state sovereignty/secessionist nonsense. According to the KDKA news from Pittsburgh, he told the cops at the hospital guarding him that he wished he had killed more of them, and according to the newspapers, he was involved with Stormfront.
Oh, well. What can you do? Don’t forget about the #1 Ladies Detective Agency tonight.
trollhattan
What’s that thing they’re always saying, "An armed society is a polite society"?
Methinks not so much.
But seriously, how can we stop the slaughter, including of our police? Three in Pittsburgh after four in Oakland. It’s simply not tolerable.
Mary
What can you do? You can keep writing about it, just as you are doing, thank God. Keep up the good work.
Hoya
Stormfront? Jesus Christ.
Laura W
and after #1 Ladies Det. Agency, In Treatment returns!! Heather Havrilesky did a nice job this morning on Salon:
BTW: 60 Minutes is more impressive than ever lately. Tonight’s lead, health care heartbreak piece was just the latest in a long line of really great work this year.
Church Lady
While you are quick to ascribe this clearly disturbed man’s actions on fringe right wing beliefs, I’m not so sure. While he apparently was involved with some pretty fringe stuff, the flash point seems to have been a convergence of unemployment and a domestic disturbance involving his mother. His mother called the police, wanting him thrown out of her home. Upon their arrival, she let them in and they were shot almost immediately by the son.
The Pittsburgh paper also noted that he had been stockpiling guns and ammo for a number of years, far longer than Obama has been in office or Democrats in control of Congress.
Just like so many of the other shootings, this one seems more likely to hinge on the desparation of unemployment combined with fear of homelessness. Sometimes, with a mentally ill person, it takes just one thing, any one thing, to push that person over the edge. What that one thing is seems to vary. For the guy in Oakland, it was the fear of going back to jail. For one mass family killing in California, it was the loss of wealth. For another in California, it was job loss. In North Carolina, it was marital troubles. In New York it seems to be job loss combined with isolation due to a lack of proficiency in English. In Washington, it was the wife leaving the husband for another man. Every one of these people snapped when one particular thing, perhaps after a confluence of other things, pushed them over the edge.
In each case, I don’t think political ideology had much to do with it. Rather, an inability to deal with life’s blows seems to have been the factor.
JL
Just when it finally starts to warm up, the forecast is for snow tomorrow night. Something tells me that the dogwoods and azaleas are not going to be happy. Doesn’t the Masters start this week? Gee!
The news has been tragic and I fear that the whackos will continue coming out of the wood work. After several years of ranting about the immigrants stealing your job, or the blacks not paying their mortgage, what else can we expect.
In a perfect world the FEC would put a muzzle on Beck, Rush and the rest of them.
John Cole
What do you call a member of the Stormfront anti-Semitic crowd who is hording bullets for the impending economic crash? If that doesn’t fit into the “fringe right” category, I don’t know what does.
Fringe right wing does not mean “Republican,” you know.
Jon H
From the post-gazette story:
Figures. The gun nut is the guy who got home sick in boot camp.
Polish the Guillotines
I was watching some History Channel show on Satan vs. Jesus or somesuch. I find it really odd and not a little scary that there’s such a tendency toward apocalyptic belief in the Abrahamic religions. Is this just a general human predisposition in some people? Or is it a totally cultural construct?
So much of this Christian Identity crap is under girded by a literal acceptance of Revelations as prophecy. The Obama-as-anti-Christ crap seems stupid and juvenile, but there are plenty of people out there who deeply believe it’s true.
What’s scariest of all is that a guy like Rupert Murdoch just don’t give a shit if that genie leaves the bottle as long as his chattering monkeys bring home the ratings.
r€nato
@Church Lady:
what’s your point? the crazy right has been stoking ‘commie pinko libruhls are gonna snatch your guns, so donate to the NRA!’ fear and loathing for decades.
This guy was a right-wing nut living with mommy. I don’t know if the guy read any blogs but he sure fit the stereotype of a perpetual right-wing victim who finally snapped. He also sounds like someone taking up Erick Erickson’s call to arms from last week.
I guess we should be thankful that most of Red State’s readers don’t have the gumption to actually follow through on the revenge/revolt fantasies stoked by RS and the rest of the lot of imaginary tough guy vigilantes.
JoyceH
I think we need to call for a boycott of all the advertisers on FAUX news. I was going to suggest boycotting the advertisers on Beck’s show, but that was before I saw that incredible "Freedom Watch" crap – EVERYTHING this lunatic believed, that Obama and Clinton were conspiring with the "international bankers" (militia code for "Jews") to take over the country, confiscate weapons, enslave the citizens, it’s all there, being preached by Alex Jones on FOX itself.
It can’t just be a viewer boycott, because liberals and moderates don’t watch FOX anyway, and with the market fragmentation brought about by cable, they don’t need to appeal to the mainstream – a viewership of several million is a hit on cable. So we need to hit them in the revenue, get the advertisers who are paying for this seditious and dangerous bullcrap to stop paying for it. When it ceases to be profitable, you can bet that FOX will develop a different programming strategy.
And while we’re at it, how about pressing Pelosi on a censure for Bachmann, due to her incitements to violence?
Church Lady
@John & Renato: I didn’t say he wasn’t a right wing nut, I just said I wasn’t so sure that being a right wing nut was the REASON he shot and killed the policemen. I don’t think it was political ideology, but perhaps rather a combination of mental illness and economic factors. That particular combination doesn’t have an ideology.
It was interesting that the paper reported he was stockpiling weapons and ammo because he was afraid the police wouldn’t be able to protect the citizenry, and then he goes and kills three policemen, while trying for others. That just sort of points towards his lunacy.
r€nato
…as a matter of fact, Obama hardly mentioned gun control at all during his campaign and yet as soon as his victory became all but certain to most observers, I heard even my liberal gun-loving friends talking about how they were going to stock up on weapons and ammo before he took office.
Where do you think this kind of groupthink comes from, since Obama and the Democrats have hardly talked about gun control at all the last several years? It’s been a virtually invisible issue and every time I hear an otherwise reasonable person talking about how Obama is gonna snatch their guns, I ask them why they would think that given that Obama hasn’t put gun laws anywhere near the top of his agenda. Nobody can answer me that question; they just ‘know’ it’s going to happen.
The NRA’s kung fu is strong.
Incertus
Or, you know, Opening Night baseball. At this rate, Brett Myers will give up 285 homers this year.
And the woman who killed another woman in a car accident because she was texting while driving got six years. Might not have been enough.
Just Some Fuckhead
Maybe we could institute a system whereby we check out all Americans thoroughly and identify decent and safe Americans with a number on their forehead or hand. Any American that doesn’t check out or otherwise refuses a number will be clearly indentifiable to the rest of us and we can choose to steer clear of them or otherwise not do business with them.
If they get out of hand they’ll be easy to round up and deal with, whatever that might entail.
r€nato
from CNN:
Furthermore, this asshole popped two cops in the head. That suggests ‘termination with extreme prejudice’ to me. Look at the reference up above in the original post, to the KDKA report; he said he wished he’d tagged more of the cops.
He may have had some personal difficulties in his life, but it sure sounds to me like he saw this as his chance to live up (or down) to his principles. I bet he thinks he’s a real hero for standing up to The Man.
I am glad that the shooter lived for once; he should have to suffer a long, long life spent in prison for what he’s done. That poor mother, I cannot begin to imagine what she’s going through right now.
Mr. Nobody
If only all these shootings were committed by teenagers we could blame video games or music. It’s so much easier that way.
gbear
It was a nice day here after it quit snowing. I’m still trying to get over a cold though so I stayed in a read all day.
I realize there’s been tons of legitimately rotten news this week, but the story that made me want to crumple up into a ball was the NYT article about Ann Althouse getting married to one of her commenters. On their first date they saw ‘The Wrestler’. Sorry John, I know this is the kind of stuff you don’t like in your blog, but somehow this was the story that made me feel sour today. Maybe it’s the cold…
D-Chance.
… he was clearly a deranged sociopath- exactly the type susceptible to messages from irresponsible people peddling one world government/black helicopter conspiracy theories and bullshit…
IOW, he was an Art Bell/George Noory fan?
guest omen
the ladies what?
how was the madoff special on history channel? was it worth catching?
JK
@JoyceH – Michelle Bachman should absolutely be censured for her hateful, despicable rhetoric about revolution and behind enemy lines. She also should be fitted for a straitjacket.
Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, Greta Van Susteren and the rest of the anchors and reporters at Fox constitute a Rogues’ Gallery of ignorance, intolerance, hate-mongering, fear-mongering, mendacity, and moral bankruptcy.
From the day of its first broadcast, Fox News has been waging a scorched Earth campaign against truth, reason, logic, rationality, decency, and common sense.
Fox News is the most intellectually dishonest news organization in America and is a malignant media carcinogen.
guest omen
@trollhattan:
how many work places are going to allow their employees to carry heat? i can just imagine:
"what?? what do you mean i didn’t get a raise?!"
gbear
What, do you think he thought the cops were breaking and entering to burglarize his house? Was it self-protection?
This is a guy who slept in the basement with his guns.
JL
@JK:
Seconded!
Incertus
@guest omen: There was a big deal about this down here in Florida, because our brilliant legislature passed a law allowing people to bring weapons to work, if they left them in their car, except in some specific circumstances. One of the first challenges came when Disney fired a guy for doing it–they had an exception because they deal with explosives and the employee (former employee now) felt that didn’t matter. Don’t know if he’s still looking for work or not.
Just Some Fuckhead
John, if you ever marry one of yer commenters, I expect an invitation.
4tehlulz
@Just Some Fuckhead: Hal Lindsay is intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Just Some Fuckhead
RE: Marriage
I mean if I’m not the lucky commenter, of course.
Wini
Re: #1 Ladies’ Detective Agency (t.v. shows in general, I guess)… Rescue Me is back on Tuesday. I think the earlier seasons were the best, but it’s still one of my favorite shows.
kommrade reproductive vigor
He actually enlisted? Hmmm. Maybe he isn’t a fReichtard.
gex
Wonder if this dude in Pittsburgh will get the same sort of moral outrage from the right as Ice T did when he merely sang about killing cops?
Hmm…
JL
According to Wikio Blog Rankings, John’s Balloon Juice is #37. Congratulations! The link is here
kay
@Incertus:
We did concealed carry here, with an exception for private business owners. You can post a sign, with the exception from the statute on the sign.
Nearly every business in my town took the exception.
Oh, well. You can carry the gun, you just can’t carry it into nearly every private establishment, and all governmental entities. They were excepted of course.
The whole thing was a huge waste of time and effort as far as I’m concerned.
JL
Did anyone watch the past season of Damages?
Delia
Ack. I followed a link on Raw Story to the Stormfront discussion thread on the Pittsburgh killer. I’ve lost an hour of my life to detailed discussions of whether Peplowski is a Polish or Jewish or Russian name, of whether White Nationalists should sympathize with the families of the two slain white cops (the third was black and doesn’t count, but most of them think cops are tools of ZOG anyhow), and then their dawning realization that the creep is one of their own and posted on their message boards.
A few of them have a great new conspiracy theory that the CIA is manipulating people into committing these mass murders so that Obama will have an excuse to take people’s guns away.
Now I’m in desperate need of a brain rinse. There’s far too much concentrated crazy over there.
guest omen
@gbear:
wait, althouse voted for obama? really?
Wini
@JL: I like the show, and started watching.. maybe the first 3 episodes? Then I got distracted by other things and was DVR-ing them.. but then realized I wouldn’t get to watching them until this summer, so decided to wait for the DVD.
John Cole
You know, I want to defend Althouse here. Actually, no, I don’t want to defend her, but I am going to anyway.
I don’t think there is anything weird about her marrying a commenter at all. As times change, people meet people in ever different ways. It was probably weird in years past to meet your wife at work, but as social mores changed and more women entered the workplace, more people started to meet their spouse in the workplace. As people start to communicate more frequently in different methods, this will seem all the less odd.
And to be honest, other than physical contact, the story makes it seem like they had a normal relationship in every sense of the word. I probably wouldn’t move as fast, but I really don’t find anything weird about her marrying a commenter at all. How is it any different from long distant love affairs via letters from years past? I hope they are both happy and it works out.
gex
@kay: What I particularly like about these compromises is that just about any car thief in a state with these laws is likely to not only get a car, but become armed too. Just think, all those teachers who can’t take their guns into high schools? Those guns are just out there in the parking lot where students can obtain them with a simple smash and grab. This isn’t going to cause problems…
@John Cole: Seconded. It seems odd to have a bunch of people who connect with other people on the Internet mocking people who connected on the Internet.
Brick Oven Bill
The shootings represent a tragic loss of life, taken by those who responded to adversity in the wrong way. Many more tens or hundreds of millions of Americans will be tried in the coming years. The best medicine for adversity that I have found is long walks. Don’t do anything stupid to yourself or others. Get to know your neighbors and take part in your community.
That being said, if Glenn Beck is considered a right wing nut, you had better not read too many of Abraham Lincoln’s writings. I am impressed with Beck’s grasp of the issues, especially the economy. He has been the most accurate economic commentator on the downturn to date. I challenge the group to point to any deliberate, or inadvertent, falsehood he has presented on his show.
This is in contrast to the Administration bearing deliberate false witness that the American population is responsible for feeding 90% of Mexico’s illegal gun trade, when in fact they probably account for 5% of the illegal gun trade. Putting out false information like this makes rational persons wonder if the government is setting the stage to move on the 2nd Amendment. The Administration, at a minimum, should correct the record. If I had made that false charge, I would choose to apologize.
guest omen
@JL:
re damages, i did the first season. but after their return from the writers strike or whatever break they took, it wasn’t the same. didn’t maintain my interest.
Incertus
@Brick Oven Bill:
As opposed to all the other false charges you make.
Brian J
So a guy that just started working with me, who is an ABD in political science and seems to agree with me politically, started talking with me about blogs the other day. Guess which one we both visit fairly frequently? That’s right, Balloon Juice!
Now, considering the number of people in my life who are even just a little bit politically active and interested, I guess it was bound to happen at some point. Still, even if this is more of the more popular sites of its kind on the Internet–and I’d guess that it is–you don’t expect to meet people in real life who know about the same places you know about unless it’s a brand name.
Is your site becoming a brand name, John Cole? Maybe it is.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Polish the Guillotines
Other cultures have apocalyptic myths. What makes the Abrahamic traditions so special is the moral dualism that encourages them to see everyone-not-themselves as the villains of the piece, and the denouement of God’s will as the Divinely sanctioned destruction of everybody else. It’s a tradition built for xenophobic holocausts and self-righteous genocides.
@Church Lady
It does have an ideology. It has websites, disc jockeys, conventions, uniforms and congressional representatives. That’s exactly the point.
@Just Some Fuckhead
I just had to clean coffee off my monitor!
Emma Anne
I know a couple who met through a usenet group and eventually married.
guest omen
@Delia:
thanks for the digest. spared the rest of us from wading through the morass. i wondered what had happened to the black helicopter crowd during the bush years. who needs invented conspiracies when actual ones got played out before our very eyes in real time. from stolen elections to a manipulated war. funny how they get keyed up only when dems are in power.
Just Some Fuckhead
*puts lipstick on, straightens hair*
Just Some Fuckhead
@John Cole: Don’t do anything hasty John. Imagine the commenters you’ll have to choose from when you get this baby in the top ten blogs list.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@John Cole: You’re a good guy, John Cole. May they have many years of happiness together. Just because she’s a raving nutter doesn’t mean she doesn’t deserve love.
In fact, that probably means she needs love more than most.
Lauren
For some reason, I love that you watch No 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Just Some Fuckhead
@JL: I figured he was doing pretty well when an actual veterinarian responded to a distress comment in under five minutes. And on a weekend even.
NonWonderDog
The thing about Althouse is that she’s got an ego of absolutely COSMIC proportions, and she bans every poster who doesn’t devote nearly every post to stroking that ego. For her to actually fall in love with one of her ego-strokers… shit. I don’t know if there are words in the English language for the amount of brown-nosing that must have taken.
I fear for them. (Or I would, if I cared. Really I’m too busy laughing at the wackjobs.)
LD50
Like, say, Afghanistan, right?
JL
@Just Some Fuckhead: I wonder how Carrie’s dog is.
Polish the Guillotines
@The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion:
Well stated, and which raises the question: What does a democratic society do about those of its citizens who subscribe to such beliefs? At what point does enunciation become direct threat? Do we have to wait for cops to be ambushed and killed before acting? Do we go all 1% doctrine and bust everyone signed up on Stormfront?
What do we do about the fact that the most unhinged nuts are apparently the most likely to arm themselves to the teeth and act out?
How the hell do we stop this?
John S.
I met my wife through a phone chat line before the Internet took off. Today was our 6th wedding anniversary, and we’ve been together for 14 years.
You just never know when you’re going to meet the love of your life or how you’re going to meet them. But once you do, it doesn’t really matter.
Brian J
I’d guess it’s not so much what he chose to focus on during the campaign but what he believes and how it was reflected in his past voting on legislation. Wasn’t there some hand gun ban petition he signed about 10-15 years ago?
Unless they are just making stuff up, those who really care a lot about gun rights will care about these issues. It may or may not be a sensible thing to focus on, but if it’s there, they will probably do it.
Delia
One other curious tidbit from that Stormfront thread I endured today. There was a young female racist from Sweden who was commenting. She expressed the opinion that gun laws, or the lack thereof, in the US were appalling and that something should be done to stop the slaughter that’s taking place. Like, um, gun laws such as they have in Sweden. This of course threw all the other racists into fits. They explained to her that we can’t have that here since the US is racially mixed and all gun crimes are committed by nonwhites. Except, apparently, that creep in Pittsburgh.
kay
@gex:
Where did they think they were taking the gun? Schools? Nope. DMV? Of course not. The municipal court/gov agency complex? Yeah, right. Judges are absolutely freaked out over a gun anywhere near them.
Dry cleaners, drug stores, grocery store. They all took the exception.
The law never allowed concealed carry in any place that serves by the glass, so bars and restaurants are out. Not my office. They’re going to have to man up and disarm (briefly!) if they want to talk to me. I have enough just dealing with distraught unarmed people.
They’re now having this big statehouse battle over concealed carry in public parks. I don’t follow it. I watched the battle over the stupid law, and that was enough.
I figure they paid for the permit. They should be able to find one place they can actually carry the thing.
It should be amusing at the public pool this summer, if they prevail.
Brian J
@NonWonderDog:
I don’t read her site, so I can’t say for sure, but when I read Sadly, No! a lot more than I do now, the guys and the posters there would mock her quite a bit. There were more than a few comments along the lines of "If it’s Thursday, it’s a few lattes and two bottles of red wine for Althouse!" Is there anything to that?
guest omen
@r€nato:
especially when it was the bush administration who confiscated legally owned firearms from law abiding citizens, in the aftermath of katrina.
obama joined with vitter to pass a bill to prevent FEMA from doing that again. obama is on record acting against unlawful government confiscation.
Litlebritdifrnt
@John Cole:
(Haven’t read the rest of the comments so apologies up front) My DH and I met at the Royal Tournament July 14, 1990. We were together every day (after two shows a day) for two weeks. He proposed on July 28, 1990. I said yes. 1991. We were then apart for the majority of the next year, we were married July 14, 1991. From meeting to marrying (gulf war intervening) we spent the grand total of 6 weeks together and then we were apart for another six months until I moved to the US. We corresponded by old fashioned letter every single day, there was not a day that went by that he did not write me, and I did not write him. Sometimes it took weeks for the letters to get to each of us, I would get seven in one day, and so would he. But with letters, (not with phone calls, not with one on one talking, etc) we poured out our hearts to each other. 18 years later we are still very much in love and very much together.
wilfred
What is this? Do you believe that the carnage we have carried out all over the fucking world is not someday going to come home?
Do you remember all these dead, nameless children? All the ones killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, either directly by us or our nominal allies using weapons made and sold by the US? Was the universe going to give us a miss on that?
Do you think we can cheapen life so much and in so many places and that somehow we will not be scarred by it, ruined, even?
Show me one culture that wasn’t. It’s we who didn’t value life enough, didn’t care enough when it was someone else. Dig in.
jcricket
About 13 years ago I met a couple in Hawaii (while on vacation) who were very loathe to admit how they had met – online, via a dating site.
Now I can’t think of a more normal way to meet someone (there’s chemistry.com, eharmony, match, jdate, etc).
If I hear about people meeting via a matchmaker or arranged marriage, it’s much more shocking, despite the 1000+year history of both those types of marriage arrangements.
guest omen
@Brian J:
annenberg fact-checked the misleading NRA mailer:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/nra_targets_obama.html
trollhattan
Please tell me some uberdouche didn’t just compare Glenn Beck and Abraham Lincoln. I think I have to go self-lobotomize with a kebab skewer now.
Brian J
@guest omen:
Doesn’t surprise me. Still, I think my point stands: even if such fears are misplaced or originate from an extreme position, people who belong to a group like the NRA are going to focus on their interest no matter what the dominating topic of the campaign is.
guest omen
@Brick Oven Bill:
I challenge the group to point to any deliberate, or inadvertent, falsehood he has presented on his show.
do you equate obama with hitler too?
Litlebritdifrnt
Oh and the update on my garden is here
http://crittersbybritty.blogstream.com/
For anyone interested in growing stuff, particularly vegetables, my DH had his first home grown salad tonight, with lettuce (of various types) and radish. There are also cat pics, cause you know they are obligatory. :)
PS) If the green bean teepee works out, I am a genius, if not, well lets not go there okay?
PPS) My neighbour across the street was out rototilling his front lawn today, I mean digging that baby up like there was no tomorrow, on the porch they had a boat load of plants, waiting to be planted. I think I am a bad influence. :)
Laura W
@John S.: Happy Anniversary!
@Litlebritdifrnt: Your love story always makes me all weepy and stoopid.
Edit: In Treatment was awesome. Need to watch both again since I was distracted in parts during both, and you just don’t want to be distracted for a minute, really. At least, I don’t. Continuity counts in that show.
J. Michael Neal
Bleah. I’m tired. Worn out, not sleepy. Too much studying and too much getting my hopes up. It’s been a long day, a long month, a long year, and a long decade.
I was +2, which had me reallymorose, but it’s worn off. Now I’m just tired.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Please ignore the 1991 after the "I said yes" bit. Thanks.
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead: I’d tweeze the nose hairs and exfoliate those dry feet if I were you, Fuckhead.
Hoya
I think the real issue is that one segment of the political class hates the other with such virulence that the most bombastic and absurd conspiracy theories become all too real.
Any sane person knows that Gun Control is more or less a dead issue given that the Dems have given it up as a loser, given number of potentially vulnerable Blue Dogs in the House.
Betsy
@Lauren:
I love that you read this blog.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
@John Cole:
Yeah, well I’m not giving the ring back.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Laura W:
I keep saying that I am going to write a book, based upon our letters, which I have kept, we have three boxes of them right now, and I really should condense them into a story of a couple separated by an ocean and by a war. Perhaps I will do it one day.
Bootlegger
@Brick Oven Bill: I saw him do a news story on the next sign of the coming apocalypse. i.e rapture, anti-christ, Jeebus the warrior, all that shit. Would you call that truth?
Bootlegger
@Brick Oven Bill: I saw him do a news story on the next sign of the coming apocalypse. i.e rapture, anti-christ, Jeebus the warrior, all that shit. Would you call that truth?
Library Grape
@Church Lady: the problem i have with church lady’s giving poplawski the benefit of the doubt is that this same benefit of the doubt keeps getting used and pushed, no matter how clear the facts are underlying the wingnut fear and paranoia that drove the person to kill.
ruby ridge? "it was janet reno’s fault for pushing them too hard"
waco? see above under "Janet Reno"
oklahoma city? "it’s unfair to blame the wingnut media because the guys involved were obviously crazy and solely responsible for their actions" or "they would have done it even if there weren’t rightwing nuts in the media stoking their fear, anger and resentment"
i seriously think that even if this poplaski guy had a sticky, well-fondled headshot of michelle malkin in his pocket, there would still be people in the left and "reasonable center" that would be running around comments sections like this coming up with all kinds of justifications and excuses for why malkin doesn’t deserve any of the blame.
we need to be spending a lot more effort fighting against rightwing lies and fearmongering and less time defending and excusing fox news, michelle malkin, glenn beck and their ilk
Laura W
@J. Michael Neal:
Did she say no, then?
(Not snark.)
Just Some Fuckhead
@jcricket:
That is pretty fucking kinky. I don’t think it’s the sorta thing Althouse did but I admire yer openness.
John Cole
Ruby Ridge happened under Bush 1. Clinton was dodging blowjob allegations from Gennifer Flowers when that shit went down.
Bootlegger
@Polish the Guillotines:
Democracy is messy. Pluralism is loud. If you do something to keep it from getting messy or turn down the volume, you no longer have democracy or pluralism. We don’t live in a Utopia, no one does. But we are free and, relative to times past, we are safe.
Laura W
@Litlebritdifrnt: You could also post them to a blog, like Incertus is doing with his great great great great aunt Helen. I think that would be a lovely way to record and preserve them, and it could be as public or private as you wished. But at least you’d have them all transcribed and archived, in one place.
Library Grape
@John Cole: thanks John for the correction. i had it fused in my mind with clinton probably because it happened in the general vicinity of the election cycle (late 1992)
guest omen
@John Cole:
i’m sure grape knows that. she was just pointing to the winger tendency to fudge the timeline that she put in quotes.
jcricket
Your handle is aptly chosen :-)
I met my wife via twitter. She had me with her 356th tweet of the week. I think it was something like: "@jcricket roxerz back http://il.by.z/as12nnd LOL!"
Be still my heart.
guest omen
@guest omen:
guess not.
Library Grape
@Bootlegger: wow bootlegger, that is some pretty serious fatalism. "Democracy is messy" so throw up your hands and let slip the unhinged wingnuts of culture war? In a democracy, you gotta break some egss, right? of course the government is rightly constrained by the first amendment but don’t you think it is important for us to fight against the agents of hatred and intolerance and find ways to pressure them to tone down the inciteful rhetoric?
purple_rider_lib
I have read this blog for over a year, and now I cannot stay away for more than 24 hours (great stuff!). I read the Lynn Adkins post, and I am sorry for your loss, John, but I was wondering, where exactly are you from? The reason I ask is that I am from Martins Ferry, Ohio (transplanted to Los Angeles). It is just weird (for me, anyway) to hear a liberal voice from my home region. I read many blogs, and comment on very few, so i just had to ask…
P.S.: Bought the Furminator for my dog, and now have built a guest house out of the excess hair, so it has pretty much paid for itself…
As I am new to commenting on any blog, I understand if this question is out of bounds. I just figured out tonight, via one of your posts, the region you are from…
Laura W
Fuckhead, who is this woman singing now? And can you find a link to this song she’s singing? It’s sorta cool.
Edit: Jennifer…um…Jennifer….don’t they use last names in Country? Oh..SNAP! She’s representing for women "who don’t matter" in her acceptance speech. Now I really like her.
J. Michael Neal
@Laura W: Nah. I’m going to be out of town most of this week, at the NCAA hockey final four, and was waiting until next week to ask. I just overheard her making a movie date with someone else today. It was pretty casual, so I’m still going to ask. I’m just feeling very pessimistic about my chances.
On the one hand, I’m just pleased that I was able to muster the courage to ask in the first place. That is a big step for me. So, even if she says no, I have something positive to take away from it. Right now, though, the fact that it takes so much effort is just draining when I’m feeling pessimistic.
Library Grape
@guest omen: sorry, that was my mistake. my 1992 and 1993 blended together it appears.
p.s. me is a he
guest omen
@Bootlegger:
What do we do about the fact that the most unhinged nuts are apparently the most likely to arm themselves to the teeth and act out?
How the hell do we stop this?
do what the oligarchy do: divide and conquer. think of something to cause them turn upon themselves.
J. Michael Neal
On the plus side, I always have the option of lying down next to Eddie and listening to him purr.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: Sugarland. They are the country equivalent of the Eurythmics.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Laura W: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw19mYuOlTU
Corner Stone
@Litlebritdifrnt
Please do.
guest omen
@Library Grape:
sorry. i should have guessed at "sticky."
Brick Oven Bill
Beck has stated that he things the government is headed towards fascism. Fascism is a system of government where the government controls businesses, like the auto companies, and banks. The trend line is there. Obama will not take back the TARP money in exchange for ceding control. There will be no racial fascism in the US under an Obama administration. For this I will have to defer to Lincoln and some other time.
I watched Beck’s ‘Apocalypse’ show and do not recall any Biblical references. He deserves credit for not bringing them up, because the very close parallels are there, should one choose to exploit them. People keep saying that things are ‘unsustainable’. Personally, I give Beck credit for examining what that means.
I could lay out some far more serious scenarios than Beck did on his show, all of which would be within the realm of possibility.
Library Grape
@guest omen: lol, just the way my mind works i guess
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: well, beck didnt need to evoke the bible explicitly, his audience gets the dog whistles just fine on their own. for instance, the stuff about the "one world currency" is a clear reference to the endtimes when we’ll have one world government and one world currency under the antichrist. do a bit of googling and you’ll find some really scary end times stuff in there.
see, e.g., http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=75856
Bootlegger
@Library Grape: Fatalism? Hardly. It doesn’t have to be fatal.
Yes, the government should do absolutely nothing when idiots open their mouths. In a society of 600 million people there will be a significant number who believe crazy shit. If that’s one in a million you have 600 people. But if its a political belief held by one in 600 then you’re talking about a million people. You can’t shut them up without causing some serious backlash from the million Believers and others who sympathize with the Believers because they believe they are next for government censor and control.
Democracy absolutely cannot work unless everyone buys into the system. As soon as the government silences one voice, many more will start to wonder who is next.
How did you feel when the Right was talking about silencing opposition to the War on Terra because it was "undermining the troops" and approaching "treason" or "sedition"?
No dude. Without dissent, and I mean every bit of ass-oozing crazy dissent, democracy does not work.
Mike in NC
BOB that statement is 100% USDA bullshit. Won’t even comment further…
Hoya
Of course there’s no biblical references in a show called "Apocalypse". How silly of me.
Just Some Fuckhead
@jcricket:
Thanks. :)
Bootlegger
@guest omen: For the record, I didn’t write that, I wrote an opposing viewpoint.
Library Grape
@Bootlegger: fatalism has nothing to do with something being fatal. a common definition would be "a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate or inevitable predetermination." in other words, "that’s life and stuff happens as it was meant to happen — nothing we can do about it."
to your point, dissent is of course vital to our democracy. there is however some dissent that is dangerous and tantamount to incitement. by saying that i’m not saying that people should be legally liable for most inflammatory speech. i am saying, however, that we must do everything in our power to call out the truly despicable inflammatory shit put out by the right wing nutjobs that has the real potential to percolate through to the heads of the unstable wingnuts who teeter on the edge of mass killings. to that end, i think the apologism people can throw up to excuse fox news for their lies and inflammatory bullshit is counterproductive.
Bootlegger
@Brick Oven Bill:
Evidence please?
I wasn’t talking about Beck’s war-gaming the Great Revolt Against Liberalism, I was referring to a regular news bit on his show. He did the whole "feature" thing, touted it early in the show, offered a few tastes as he cut to commercial. Then he interviews a "scholar" who agrees with him that the name of Iran’s latest missile, in Persian, is that same as some arrows used in the Great Battle in Revelations, ergo: the Rapture is coming. He reported this *as news*.
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: for a point of comparison, read this: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=75856 alongside this: http://www.newshounds.us/2009/04/01/beck_and_bachmann_spread_more_paranoid_falsehoods_about_geithner_and_the_dollar.php
Alex Scott
Here’s the thing that bugs me about the way the Bible is used today:
Most of what passes for "Biblical prophecy" actually isn’t.
The Rapture? Not in there. Oh, sure, St. Paul writes about believers being seized up into the sky to meet Christ, but that’s never treated as a separate event from The End. It never implies that Christians get to skip any Tribulation. If anything, it’s the exact opposite. Plenty of other prooftexts about the premillennial apocalypse are really cobbled together from unrelated parts of the Bible. The whole theology was concocted a little under 200 years ago, and hardly represents traditional Christian teaching.
And it’s hardly based on a "literal" reading of Revelation. A literal interpretation is hardly even possible, and a plain reading ought to show why! Most of this theology is, in fact, built on a very generous reading of Rev. As a result, a series of obscure visions become a detailed outline of Things to Come; a series of Old Testament-inspired symbols for the Roman Empire become a One World Government, Currency, and Religion; and anyone promoting peace, justice, and unity comes under heavy suspicion (never mind what Jesus said about peacemakers).
Barbara Rossing (a Lutheran minister) lays it all out in The Rapture Exposed.
Sorry for the rant, but I hate seeing my religion–which already has enough blood on its hands–twisted to promote this kind of garbage.
Just Some Fuckhead
Gotta crash. I can’t imagine anything more scintillating than watching a coupla hours of whack-a-BOB
*blinks hard twice*
but Mrs. Fuckhead wants to see George Strait’s boots.
Bootlegger
@Library Grape: Obviously you didn’t like my pun. I know exactly to what the concept of fatalism refers.
And who decides this? You?
Of course you have the right to comment on the crazy, that’s the whole point. The crazy doesn’t come out in a vacuum or through a government official channel, and is thus open to critique which in the case of Beck’s Citizens, is openly mocking and justly so.
You sorely misconstrue my argument. The Idiots get the microphone, then you get the microphone to explain how stupid it is. *Allowing* Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh, Levin, or the guys from Jackass to show the stupid, doesn’t imply that the rest of us can’t comment on it. That’s the whole point, duh.
Polish the Guillotines
@guest omen: Guest — you’re attributing my comment to bootlegger. FYI.
Library Grape
by the way, i posted a wrapup earlier today of some of the recent revelations about the pittsburgh shooter and some reactions at http://www.librarygrape.com/2009/04/chilling-rise-of-right-wing-hate-in.html if anyone is interested
guest omen
i take it from his refusal to answer that b.o. bill does think that obama = hitler is an apt comparison.
trollhattan
Teh Sadlys are having a go at short-bus Glenn B.
http://www.sadlyno.com/archives/19448.html
It’s a bit like watching a cat torment a doomed mouse, but it’s impossible not to stay until the kill.
Any guesses whether Shep Smith will be ordered to stop openly making fun of him?
Brick Oven Bill
Bootlegger, at this point in the evening I will have to refer you to the Wall Street Journal. Varney wrote it and it is probably on Drudge.
Geithner did, by the way, just float the idea of a world currency at the CFR. After stating that he would never consider it less than a day earlier before our elected officials. This is a trend. I wish the Balloon Juice group would hold their government to the same standard of truth that they hold some guy with a TV show at 5pm Eastern.
In any case, my impact on the future of the world is limited, at best. Here is a good explanation of human brains, and why most of us are screwed up. Warning-this is my favorite New Age commentator, and although I do not share his politics, I share his belief that human evolution has occurred within the past 30,000 years. Read at your own risk:
How The Heck Did It Come To This?
Library Grape
@Bootlegger: well, i’ll grant you that we seem to be talking past one another. if your main point is that the government shouldn’t able to step in and stop highly offensive speech that does not rise to the level of an incitement to violence, then we agree. i was making a larger point about what should be done in the private arena to combat such speech but it would appear that we also generally agree on that point as well.
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: when you say this Brick, you are 100% incorrect:
The whole idea floating around out there is the potential for some countries to potentially switch from using the dollar as a de facto reserve currency and instead use some other currency in place of it. there is no proposal to create a new currency to fill that role or any proposal to replace the us dollar as beck and bachmann claim
read the fact check here: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/apr/01/michele-bachmann/defending-dollar-bachmann-distorts-geithners-comme/
Laura W
@Just Some Fuckhead: Thanks. I liked that a lot. Will add to amazon wish list for next purchase. I do enjoy finding new artists.
Seems like just yesterday these ladies were the new artists on the block.
Tattoosydney
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Fixt.
Bootlegger
@Brick Oven Bill: There’s no evidence at all, just speculation.
Geithner never said he favored a single world currency, I heard the recording. He said he thought there was some merit in standardizing how they price international bond trading. If you knew enough to be not so dangerous, you’d know that China doesn’t "float" their currency, which puts us at a disadvantage as a trading partner. China’s willingness to alter this policy when it comes to international business dealings (and NOT government to government) is good for us, a major concession by the Chinese.
But Geithner never said he favored or supported a single world currency. Get your head out of Beck’s echo chamber BOB.
J. Michael Neal
There’s a great human interest story on Kansas City Royals pitcher Zack Greinke, by Joe Posnanski, the best sportswriter in America. Greinke melted down in 2005, and was diagnosed with social anxiety and clinical depression. He’s now one of the best pitchers in the world.
guest omen
@trollhattan:
he is? how so?
AhabTRuler
Are we to all start queening for Cole’s affection? Am I to be his angel?
Bootlegger
@Library Grape: Ok, but I was never making the argument you heard. You agree with me, it seems, that democracy is messy and pluralism is loud.
Library Grape
@guest omen: did you miss the hilarious video of shep mocking beck? http://www.librarygrape.com/2009/03/foxs-shepard-smith-openly-mocks-glenn.html . that was seriously the funniest 2:52 i’ve watched in a long time
trollhattan
@ guest omen
Oh yes, indeedy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkMqvy-D5hM
Comedy gold, and an estimable set of cajones. Hope for humanity and all.
Brick Oven Bill
Knowledge.
Knowledge comes from touch, vision, and sound, among other things. I heard and watched Geithner say his words. Therefore I know.
This is for you Library Grape.
But do not believe this. Because it is only something you might read. Caves and shadows.
Library Grape
@Bootlegger: i do agree that democracy is messy and pluralism is loud.
Wile E. Quixote
@kay
I remember when Washington State passed a law banning weapons at bars and taverns. Now I’m a gun nut, I’ve got a CWP, I’ve got two gun safes in my basement, I first fired a pistol when I was all of six years old and grew up in a house with guns and spent 13 years in the Army National Guard, and you know what, I thought that this was an absolutely fantastic idea. I mean really, firearms and alcohol, these things do not mix and if I’m out at a bar with a few friends enjoying a pitcher of beer, a plate of wings and a game of pool I don’t want to have to worry that the drunk off his ass moody loner sitting by himself at a table in the corner might suddenly whip out a piece and start blasting away. But a certain segment of the gun nut community completely shit themselves over this "violation" of their rights. My father, who is quite cynical, thought that the state government should have appeased them by allowing the creation of special "second amendment bars" where you could go get drunk while carrying a firearm. The walls would be made of steel, there would be no windows and drinks would be served through an armored slot in the wall. He felt that these bars would only be in business for a few years because the number of people patronizing them would probably decrease fairly rapidly.
Library Grape
@Brick Oven Bill: dang BOB, you really want to believe whatever it is you want to believe, don’t you. i already read the article you linked earlier today and the several articles out over the weekend debunking the article’s claims. if you want to read the definitive fact check from politifact, here’s the link again: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/apr/01/michele-bachmann/defending-dollar-bachmann-distorts-geithners-comme/ . if you don’t, that’s fine. you’re welcome to your own mininformed opinions.
Laura W
@Tattoosydney:
Wicked.
J. Michael Neal
I think I speak for most of the drunken, moody loners when I say that we are far more likely to shoot ourselves than you. Some by accident, some not.
AhabTRuler
Fixeteth.
For accuracy.
Laura W
@AhabTRuler:
You feel good, I said it’s funny that you understood.
I know you would.
When you were good,
you were very, very good.
Stay with it, if you can. One of my faves, despite the pathos.
J. Michael Neal
@AhabTRuler: Now, just because that’s what I would do, doesn’t mean we should project to all the others.
2liberal
@ just some fuckhead
in neal stephensons’ scifi novel "snow crash" in a balkanized USA crimimals would get tattoos – for example "poor impulse control" was tattood on one guy’s forehead.
Wile E. Quixote
Do you know what makes V-8 and PBR taste even better? Take an imperial pint glass (20 oz). Put a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce in the bottom of the glass. Add a few splashes of green Tobasco sauce and put a few ounces of lime juice in the bottom of the glass. Pour in a 12 oz can of PBR making sure not to get a head and then add V-8. Stir to mix. Fantastic, especially after a long workout when you need to replenish your electrolytes.
AhabTRuler
@J. Michael Neal:
Here.
@Wile E. Quixote: You are insane. You lost me at "even better".
J. Michael Neal
@AhabTRuler: Oh, fine. If you’re going to go pull out numbers and statistics and facts, while I’m engaged in a bit of ghoulish humor over my own depression, I’m just going to take my . . . well, actually, I’m not going anywhere. It takes about three hours for my sleep meds to put me to sleep, and I just took them.
Library Grape
@2liberal: excellent snow crash reference! one of my favorite books of all time. have you checked out stephenson’s latest book, Anathem? an excellent read if you have some time on your hands
AhabTRuler
depression ain’t really funny, but I know where you are coming from. ;-)
Wile E. Quixote
@AhabTRuler
Oh c’mon, give it a try, it’s like a Bloody Mary made with beer instead of Vodka. I mean it’s not as if I’m doing anything weird like putting Clamato in it, I mean I do have some standards ya know.
Tattoosydney
@Wile E. Quixote:
Truly, truly gross.
Wile E. Quixote
@TattooSydney
Red Hand Larry. Is that anything like Crotchmen or One Fisted Tales?
Mike in NC
@ Wile E. Quixote:
Will never forget the time we were conducting a NATO exercise in some tiny village in Scotland, when a platoon of French Foreign Legionnaires arrived with a case of the munchies. They walked into the shop with assault rifles slung and bought out all the beer and junk food in the place. Really brought out the "firearms and alcohol don’t mix" concept.
Clamato and vodka isn’t half bad, depending on the time of day. Nor beer, for that matter. But I’m from Boston and can’t resist anything with clams in it. Nor vodka…
Wile E. Quixote
@Tattoosydney
Would you like it better if I put some Vegemite in it and used Fosters instead of PBR?
J. Michael Neal
Everything really quiets down when Fuckhead and Laura go to bed, doesn’t it?
Johnny Pez
Is is just my imagination, or has BOB been getting noticeably crazier lately? I mean, I seem to remember when BOB was just your standard wingnut troll, but now he’s apparently gone all black helicopters on us.
guest omen
a correction over something said on bill moyers:
Oh noes! Somebody (William Black) went on Bill Moyers and said that Obama is breaking the law by not nationalizing stricken banks!
Um, except that he isn’t:
http://phoenixwoman.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/somehow-this-doesnt-surprise-me/
Fulcanelli
@J. Michael Neal: Guess it depends on whether or not you’re within earshot…
Incertus
@Mike in NC:
My friend Neal would disagree, at least on the clamato and beer part.
Fulcanelli
@Johnny Pez: In a bizarre twist of fate, Brick Oven Bill finally got his pizza sauce stained hands on a copy of Obama’s birth certificate, and alas he was standing too close to one of his pizza oven prototypes and it went up in flames before he could read it.
Fulcanelli
Jeebus, I’ve got insomnia. Where’s North Dallas 40 or Phil when you need them? After the lickin’ they got last time they came ’round these parts, maybe they’re still licking their wounds. Sigh. Pour another one…
Tattoosydney
@Wile E. Quixote:
I’m not sure. Fuckhead cited it yesterday as "the gayest thing" he had ever seen. I didn’t dig too deeply (if you will excuse the expression).
guest omen
cheers, fulcanelli. (clink)
you east coasters close shop early.
dms
I guess some people, that is, fans of #1 Ladies Detective Agency, In Treatment, and the ahistorical and poorly acted Tudors, aren’t feeling the economic pinch.
Some of us have had to get rid of cable because it’s a useless expense. Good to know the newly minted Democrats are pretty much like their entitled Republican forebears.
Tattoosydney
@Wile E. Quixote:
Possibly, although it is worth noting that no-one in Australia actually drinks Fosters. It’s our great joke on the rest of the world – canning camel piss and selling it to the Yanks.
Fulcanelli
@Tattoosydney:
What’s popular with the connoisseurs down under? Here in New England micro brews rule and Sam Adams is big, being local and all…
Tom
OT, sorry, but should be noted:
A Coffin, a Flag, a Photograph – The Lede Blog – NYTimes.com
Corner Stone
@JMN
I’m pretty sure she’s going to hunt you down and kick you in the junk for this one.
Corner Stone
@Library Grape
Your site makes my trend anti-virus go noots.
Calming Influence
@Tom: This was one way we knew we were at war in the 60s…the other way was that your girlfriend’s brother came home in a box. Lest we forget. Fuck war.
Tattoosydney
@Fulcanelli:
The Australian beer market has been dominated by beers made by Fosters (although not (as mentioned) actual Fosters brand beer)) and Lion Nathan, but there are an incresing number of smaller brewers breaking through.
Strongly recommended (if you can find them):
Coopers – A big brewer which has somehow managed to maintain its "boutique" appeal. Good serious tasting beers.
Little creatures – my favourite, and my default beer if available. Seriously good stuff.
James Squire – owned by Lion Nathan, but somehow better than their standard crap.
My pick – Little Creatures Pale Ale. Yum.
Brachiator
@Brick Oven Bill:
You made this claim once before in an earlier thread. It is not true. I posted a link from an ATF official who, in August 2008, made the claim that the majority of gun used by the Mexican drug cartel originated in the US.
People who make a fetish of the Second Amendment need to stop blaming liberals, Democrats or the Obama Administration for their desperate need to cling to guns.
For the record, later news reports suggested that the Oakland murderer did not just have a vague fear of going back to jail, but to a more palpable fear that the police had linked him to a series of heinous rapes (Cop-killer suspected of raping 12-year-old).
As for the others, lots of people go through periods of desperation, but the easy access to guns transforms personal turmoil into public tragedy.
Shibby
Way off topic but I just got home from studying late and was hungry as hell.
My folks drove in for my birthday yesterday and took me out to eat. I had a ton of leftovers that I stuck in the fridge.
I get home only to discover my shithead roommate ate all of them.
I think I’m gonna go give him a wake up call by punching his face.
/vent
Chuck Butcher
@Johnny Pez:
He told you why, he’s been listening to Glenn.
TenguPhule
So that’s why it tastes better then the domestic stuff.
Brachiator
@Shibby:
Just as long as you don’t shoot him.
Have a beer and relax. Or forget about it and have one of the beers recommended here tomorrow.
Tom
@Calming Influence:
Yeah. A sobering moment, as it should be. My heartfelt condolences to his grieving family.
TenguPhule
It sounds like something right out of a college hazing ritual.
TenguPhule
BOB has two minds and both of them are crazy.
guest omen
@Shibby:
tell him you figured he would do that so you spit in the food ahead of time.
Tattoosydney
@Corner Stone:
Heh.
Graham
Am I missing something? In order for Obama to confiscate guns, as the Right seems to be in a panic about, wouldn’t he have to do a rather unlikely end-run around DC vs Heller?
Yelli
As usual, the expat addict of Balloon Juice is contributing to a long thread that will probably get ignored wayyyy on the bottom..
However, I think everyone is missing a really important point here. Health insurance.
Usually (not in all cases) mental illness can at least be properly managed with preventative care. Events like this might have been curtailed when the mentally ill are under the care of a doctors and psychologists. Instead, the Republicans continue to cry "Under Obama, we will turn into Europe!"
We all need to get on board the "health insurance for all train" so hopefully events like this can be minimized.
gil mann
Yeah, Yelli, I always show up late too.
That’s maybe the liberalist response to a news item I’ve ever seen. "Death! Destruction! Chaos!" "Y’know, if we were to reconsider our priorities in the arena of public policy…"
Sorry, it just struck me as funny. Might be the TheraFlu.
Anyway, I can’t claim to speak for the entire Crazo-American community, but though we’ve been known to kill the mood at social gatherings, we’re generally not murderous, or even outwardly-directed. The spree-shooter types needed to be involuntarily commited somewhere along the line (you’ve gotta have some Narcissistic Personality Disorder in your cocktail of fucked-uppedness to take lives, so I would imagine that self-reporting’s low), and, I mean, that’s beenavailable, but there’s gotta be someone around to see the signs and make the call. And give a shit, so, y’know, tall order.
I’m all for universal health care, mind. I just wouldn’t look for it to reduce horror. Might help mitigate its aftermath, though.
2liberal
@library grape: re anathem – i have the cycle but haven’t read anathem yet. stephenson is getting too long winded and much less fun.