This happened right up the road from me. I was in Bridgeville a week or so ago. Small world.
It is also kind of crazy that these mass shootings are so common they aren’t even the number one story of the day.
Open Thread
This post is in: Domestic Politics, Open Threads
DougJ
Cue the “if everyone in that fitness center had been armed” discussion…
geg6
This is about 20 minutes from me. The stories we’re hearing about this guy…whoa. If the stuff they got off his blog is correct, he was a woman-hating nutcase. Apparently been planning this for some time (possibly since last summer when he didn’t carry through because he was “interested” in how the election turned out) and he had problems with dating and keeping friends. Just a freak with a buncha guns. Good job, NRA.
Punchy
fizzicksd.
Cat Lady
Unless Michael Jackson was somehow involved, it’s just another shooting another day in America.
GregB
It’s the greatest country evah!
I wonder if this guy had any mental healthcare?
-G
peach flavored shampoo
@DougJ: Doug nails it. Here comes the call for concealeds on the treadmill and ankle holsters in the swimming pool.
Slightly OT:
Why is the NRA not supporting Plaxico Burris and his “right” to carry a gun in New York City? Does his skin color have any factor?
Cat Lady
@Punchy:
Yes, mustard. Also, too.
jibeaux
It is an enduring mystery to me why this stuff never ever results in any sort of push towards reforming gun laws. I’ve kind of accepted it at this point, but it remains a mystery to me. I was reading about the 7 alleged terrorists in my neck of the woods (Daniel Boyd et al) and the FBI was discussing how they kept a bunker and 27,000 rounds of ammunition. Which seems to me excessive for one’s personal ammunition needs, of course, but I was struck by the thought that it is almost certainly legal to keep 27,0000 rounds of ammunition. There was no allegation of any lawbreaking, just the suggestion that they’re up to no good.
PeakVT
Cue the “if everyone in that fitness center had been armed” discussion…
If everyone was packing 24/7 we’d never see another murder in this country again. Ever.
DougJ
Here comes the call for concealeds on the treadmill and ankle holsters in the swimming pool.
Yup.
Brick Oven Bill
After coming across some extra cash, went to Wal Mart to purchase some bulk macaroni. This morning broke into it, and, to my disappointment, it is full of worms. Bummer. The worms are carefully separated and put in an easy-see container, which will be brought to Wal Mart to claim an exchange. The replacement pasta will be bow-ties or spaghetti, as there is no place in these forms of pasta for the worms to hide and pass the inspection process.
There has been plenty of press coverage of the gym shooting. It has been all over the news where I am at. Zero national coverage of this, however. The difference is, of course, the soft bigotry of low expectations.
RememberNovember
.@PeakVT: yeah, the US would be a regular Dodge City. Cue the Ennio Morricone soundtrack….
ya know it’s tough to have a concealed weapon with yoga pants
Bob In Pacifica
Gee, I feel like such a wimp. Back in the day whenever I broke up with a woman I’d just drink a little and then pick myself up and look for another woman.
Kryptik
@peach flavored shampoo:
He did the stupid thing and shot himself. No excuse for accidentally shooting yourself ever.
Now if he shot someone ELSE, then it’d be a whole ‘nother story. I’m sure the NRA would be a bit more open in that case.
JR (not the other JR)
Gotta do something with all those guns and ammo before Obama takes them away.
Pasquinade
The shooter, George Soldini, had a website:
http://georgesodini.com/20090804.htm
Pa. man kills 3, himself; Web page describes plans
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jCr-8hvMxT_o93eW1whvXEAyJfqAD99SOTVO0
Evinfuilt
@DougJ:
You just couldn’t wait for anyone else to say it, had to jump the gun.
From here on I expect people on treadmills with AK-47’s with them at all times, maybe a grenade or two, just in case. And if anyone says I can’t take these weapons into a small crowded building, then they ought to take it up with the NRA.
NonyNony
@jibeaux:
Really? There’s nothing all that mysterious about it. There’s a combination of a few things going on, but it mostly boils down to a few factors:
* The Second Amendment being read by the Courts for a long time as protecting ownership rights for individuals rather than for states.
* A rich gun industry that can operate a national lobbying group with a huge membership (the NRA) – controlling both campaign donations to politicians AND votes for the same.
* The proponents of gun ownership mostly being rural residents who don’t tend to encounter the problems with guns that urban residents do.
* The proponents of gun control mostly being urban residents who don’t tend to understand why anyone would actually need to or want to own a gun.
* A strong dash of Republican identity politics that ties unlimited gun ownership to “American Patriotism”
That’s about it. It really comes mostly down to the gun industry exploiting the urban/rural divide to keep any kind of reasonable measures to control weapons out of the sphere of public debate. It also doesn’t help that the gun control advocates have had some really damn lousy spokespeople at their front over the years.
RedKitten
Between this and the Blackwater story, I think I’m going to go back to bed.
joe from Lowell
My wife has family in Bridgeville. It’s a nice place.
BOB, there is nothing “soft” about the bigotry that leads the media to ignore crime victims who are poor, black, Latino, or urban.
Cat Lady
@Pasquinade:
Holy fucking shit. I can’t imagine why he didn’t have a friend or a girlfriend. Who wouldn’t want to hang with a deeply disturbed misogynist racist, or is it a racist misogynist?
Ash Can
Imagine the news coverage if this had been a jilted and deranged woman who had shot up a construction site, fire house, or corporate boardroom because of her pathological hatred of men.
Face
@Ash Can: Imagine if this guy had a Muslim name/complexion.
Hunter Gathers
@Ash Can: It would give El Rushbo an excuse to say “FemiNazis”.
Evinfuilt
@Ash Can:
O’Reilly would wet himself if it happened, a dream come true and months of him ranting about Feminazis.
Violet
@Hunter Gathers:
Rush needs an excuse?
So sad what happened. I’ve thought about my gym. Most of the rooms don’t have more than one entrance/exit. It would be so easy to get trapped. Those poor women.
John S.
Because, as you put it BOB:
Therefore, when a bunch of black folk get shot on the South Side of Chicago, nobody cares because they did not evolve in organized societies and are just behaving as evolution dictates.
Asshole.
jibeaux
@NonyNony:
Yeah, I guess I just don’t find those all that convincing. And as much as I detest most positions of the NRA as well as their political strong-arming (jumping in on the Sotomayor confirmation? Seriously??), I don’t think they’re actually preventing the debate. I think public opinion is just honestly pretty out of whack on this issue (out of whack defined as “inconsistent with my personal opinions” :) If we had the debate, gun control would lose.
As for “The proponents of gun control mostly being urban residents who don’t tend to understand why anyone would actually need to or want to own a gun”, my urban residency actually makes me much more inclined to understand why someone would want a gun. I don’t have any particular problem with responsible gun ownership, although it’s not my cup of tea. I just don’t really see how letting psychopaths have guns, or having 27,000 rounds of ammunitions, constitutes responsible gun ownership.
Just Some Fuckhead
This would only happen to me once. I’d calmly slide a full 15 round clip into the Taurus 9mm with the lovely wooden grips that I carry in a convenient holster on my right hip. Then I would fill the macaroni box with 16 well placed holes. Freedom for me means freedom from worms.
This will beginning of the new series of comments whereupon I tackle pesky every day issues with the tried and true solution of gun violence.
jenniebee
@peach flavored shampoo:
what, are you kidding? It’s the latest thing in fitness progression training! Instead of ankle weights, ankle holsters. We start you with a .22, work up to a thirty-aught, and before you know it, you’ll be training for marathons with a glock on each ankle and a Desert Eagle strapped to each thigh. And for toning those arms? There is nothing that burns off that unsightly bicep flab better than strapping knives to it. Forget Pilates, we’re going full Crocodile Dundee.
Just Some Fuckhead
This would only happen to me once. I’d calmly slide a full 15 round clip into the Taurus 9mm with the lovely wooden grips that I carry in a convenient holster on my right hip. Then I would fill the macaroni box with 16 well placed holes. Freedom for me means freedom from worms.
This will be the beginning of a new series of comments whereupon I tackle and solve pesky every day issues with the tried and true solution of gun violence.
Face
This has to be the most ridiculous, insulting comparison in the history of stupid fucking hyperbolic comparisons.
For the link lazy: Cash-4-Clunkers running dry = Katrina
John S.
Andrew Sullivan Chutzpah Watch
I’m sure ol’ Sully was handing out identical advice way back in 2000 to all the world leaders who dared to refer to George W. Bush as the ‘elected’ president even though he was in fact ‘selected’ by the SCOTUS.
Nice to know he holds the state of Iran’s democracy to a higher standard than our own.
Ejoiner
So here’s a question:
Say I go to a town-hall meeting on healthcare and a bunch of (ahem) “patriots” show up to make loud noises, shout insults and generally act like fascist brown-shirts and try to shut down the meeting (or at least prevent any meaningful communication). At what point does it become a law enforcement issue? If I can’t participate to voice my opinion because a bunch of yahoos are causing a disturbance in a public forum, shouldn’t local law enforcement be on hand to remove them? It seems like a First Amendment, civil rights, functioning democracy kinda no-brainer.
RSA
If only life were more like action movies, where a single gunman would have absolutely no chance against a gym full of buff, good-looking men and women armed with exercise equipment…
Lavocat
@ jenniebee & Just Some Fuckhead
Jesus! I’m still laughing hard as I typpe this!
I think I just wet myself.
Scruffy McSnufflepuss
@John S.:
That was a fun discussion, wasn’t it? When BOB said that non-white people still have gang mentalities because they hadn’t had as much experience with iron ore as white people have had, and that white people have thereby developed better social structures.
So racist, so factually inaccurate, so… BOB.
Brick Oven Bill
Another reason that the media does not cover Chicago gun violence is because there is tight gun control in Chicago, which is not working out too good:
8 dead, dozens wounded.
This link (06JUL) precedes the other link (16JUL) by ten days, both within the past month in the same community though. If Sarah Palin were allowed to organize this community, perhaps the violence could be reduced.
I try to handle conflict resolution civilly Just Some Fuckhead, and the solution to my worm problem will be a trip to the Wal Mart return counter, where there is a nice lady who is very helpful. I have no animus towards the worms.
fester
Yeah, that is just on the other side of the county for me, but 3 minutes from a couple of soccer fields I spend way too much time at in the spring and the fall. One of my co-workers is a member at that gym, thankfully she is in California on vacation right now.
Thankfully the morning news is a bit better than the right before I went to bed news as it was being reported then that at least 5 women had died, including at least 2 @ the hospital, while it is now being reported that only three victims died. I think the press was double-counting one of the victims dying at the hospital and had bad info on a non-death @ Mercy ER.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Ejoiner:
You call law enforcement after you have subdued the insurgents, preferably with a long range sighted gun from a balcony area so as not to jeapordize lawful participants and because democracy can sometimes be messy.
EEH
joe from Lowell
Another reason that the media does not cover Chicago gun violence is because there is tight gun control in Chicago, which is not working out too good.
Right, because nobody owns guns in Bridgeville, PA.
It’s those harsh anti-gun laws that are so popular in small towns in Western Pennsylvania.
Good Lord.
joe from Lowell
I remember once, the wife and I were driving down Miller’s Run Road in Bridgeville, and this guy steps out of the woods in full camouflage, with a crossbow in his arms, walks across the street, and disappears into the woods on the other side. Nobody batted an eye.
But remember, folks, it’s those harsh anti-gun laws that make these mass-shootings possible.
gex
Man, am I glad I date women instead of men. Far too many of these situations are men who go after ex-girlfriends. The Omaha mall shooter, the Wisconsin sheriff, the Jonesboro junior high shooting, etc.
I wonder if they ever consider the fact that their violent, possessive asshole personalities are part of the reason women don’t stay with them?
And by the way, if you are planning to just off yourself anyhow, just start there and leave everyone else alone.
Just Some Fuckhead
@EEH:
Imagine the workout I’d get while dodging a hail of bullets and sprinting and diving while returning fire. If I was to die doing my Second Ammendment duty, I could only blame myself for not being better armed, for not having already set up a defensive perimeter using stacked treadmills longways and for not preemptively eliminating my rivals while they soaked in the tub.
The Moar You Know
Read his diary. He’s not a political. He’s just an angry, lonely failure.
I could feel sorry for him except that he’s murdered three people and that count will probably climb.
Brick Oven Bill
This is really a stretch but this story about violence-based blood shortages in Chicago is from over six weeks ago, preceding the other two links by two weeks.
“We see probably an average of between 10 and 15 people who get shot or stabbed every night,” Dr. Dennis said.
Hey, who knew that Helen Thomas and Barack Obama share the same birthday? Neat.
Chicago Gun Control Laws.
inkadu
@Just Some Fuckhead: Ah… gun violence. The solution to, and cause of, all of life’s problems.
I’m amazed by any critter that can chew through dry pasta. I for one welcome out new wormy overlords.
Balconesfault
@Ejoiner: there was a good posting on Kos yesterday about this … can’t find it, but the point was a set of tactics for town hall meeting organizers, including holding it indoors so chanting mobs can’t dominate, signing people in and giving them nametags, announcing a code of conduct at the beginning, alert the police to have them present during the meeting, and haul out anyone who starts acting excessively disruptive.
slag
@Face: That’s about as bad as what Tweety said about Rev Wright during the election: “This is [Obama’s] Iraq. This is [Obama’s] Iraq.” It’s appalling what little perspective these people have.
inkadu
@The Moar You Know: His webpage is off line. Where did you get his diary? I want primary source material.
I wonder if Hillary would have been this guy’s target if she made it to the pretzelduncy. The Church Lady would probably just chalk it up to mental illness and not politics, even though there is one party that has a fear of women and is rapidly becoming indistinguishable with mental illness.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Brick Oven Bill:
I think those six words adequately capture everything you’ve ever said.
IndieTarheel
@Just Some Fuckhead: Okay, you are REALLY good at this. Maybe TOO good.
Balconesfault
@RSA:
Well, who knows. Perhaps had he wanted to hold them hostage or something, like happens in movies, he wouldn’t have had a chance. But in those movies, even when the bad guys lose, there are usually a pile of good guys/innocent bystanders with bullet holes in them by the time the credits roll.
The problem is that we’ve decided First Amendment = legalizing sufficient firepower to hold off a small battalion. For self defense against Joe the Mugger, I can understand carrying a six-shot revolver. But who the hell needs a Glock with a 19 round magazine?
Any crazy person who doesn’t have a medical or criminal history can go buy themselves enough weaponry and ammo to be able to kill at least two dozen people in a crowd before anyone could stop them – even if everyone were carrying. This guy was kind of a slacker, imo.
geg6
@Brick Oven Bill:
Oh, BOB, sage of how to control gun violence…
Please tell me exactly how the “harsh” gun laws here in Pennsylvania have forced two white men, this man and Richard Poplawski, to kill people in rather large numbers and alarming fashion. I’m dying to know.
Brick Oven Bill
This from a person who would take a 9mm to a box of worm-infested pasta. Anybody worth their salt would know to use birdshot.
You are in good company though Just Some Fuckhead. Obama campaigned on setting up behind a duck blind with a ‘six-shooter’.
media browski
Wingnut event horizon finally reached: the point at which Coulter, Limbaugh and Beck refuse to join the Birther movement.
Balconesfault
@Balconesfault: oops … Second Amendment.
Damn my inability to edit after posting!
Bootlegger
<a href=”http://www.headzup.tv/wuhzup/2009/08/headzup-birther-texas-ranger-kicks-ass-for-lou-dobbs/” Birther, Texas Ranger
Bootlegger
Hmmm, html code didn’t work, so here’s the long form. See Birther, Texas Ranger
http://www.headzup.tv/wuhzup/2009/08/headzup-birther-texas-ranger-kicks-ass-for-lou-dobbs/
The Moar You Know
@inkadu: Hell, I guess I got lucky before his webserver died. Typical programmer, can’t run a webserver worth shit (or else the cops unplugged it). I have the page saved.
Ash
@inkadu: Really? It’s still working for me, though I may have it cached or something like that.
Ash
WTF? How did I not realize the edit function was completely gone? Grr.
Anyway inkadu, it’s up here in full
http://elitestv.com/pub/2009/08/george-sodini-journal-entries
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Next up, BOB will inform us that Swift got the details wrong in A Modest Proposal: everybody knows that properly cooked Irish babies should be baked in an oven, not braised over an open fire.
kay
The gun nuts are just increasing the incursion of the security state on the rest of us.
There are going to be metal detectors and cameras everywhere.
Thanks, idiots. Way to police your own.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
If we start being able to carry around heavy duty weapons, I want RPGs. Or an armored car with a 20-mm cannon for highway duty.
The knuckleheads who think that if everybody were armed, all these gun problems would go away clearly never studied gun violence, gun ordinances and law enforcement in the Old West.
Any town that started out with no gun control ordinances had an appalling rate of…drum roll please for the bleeding obvious: shootings! Imagine that.
There was a reason that sheriffs instituted literal “check your guns at the edge of town” ordinances and enforced them. Gun violence went waaay down as a result.
Imagine that.
Again, all the gun freaks in this country should simply pack up and head to Somalia with their stash. And if more than a few of em die before they can reproduce, the world will be a much better place.
Pasquinade
Soldini’s signature on a 1994 Google Groups (Usenet) post:
George Sodini
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA
Stop Socialism: Impeach Clinton!
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.transport.urban-transit/browse_thread/thread/2b74dcf5d305d8a/603d3a0b5daa4d22?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=%22george+sodini
joe from Lowell
Obama campaigned on setting up behind a duck blind with a ‘six-shooter’.
Your memory is off, BOB. He didn’t campaign on that, he made fun of Hillary for, allegedly, doing that. He characterized her sudden embrace of gun culture that way. “Six-shooter” was of a piece with “Annie Oakley.”
Brick Oven Bill
Here we have Annie Oakley with a shotgun.
Here we have Barack Obama:
“She’s running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment, she’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley! Hillary Clinton’s out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday, she’s packin’ a six shooter! C’mon! She knows better. That’s some politics being played by Hillary Clinton. I want to see that picture of her out there in the duck blinds.”
bvac
From google cache: http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:http://georgesodini.com/20090804.htm&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US
kay
I look forward to walking through the metal detector and emptying my bag, and removing rings and necklaces, on my way into the municipal pool.
This gun culture is really promoting freedom, I must say.
It’s fabulous.
Comrade Dread
It is a sad fact of life that there are a small percentage of sociopaths and psychotics running around in our society. Some can appear normal enough to purchase a gun and some have their break after they’ve bought a gun.
There is no solution that will eliminate it. Prohibition does not work and frankly, given the wonderful stories of cops I’ve seen lately, I would not support prohibition unless we disarmed the police as well.
We could implement a basic psychological screening test as part of a mandatory gun safety course people would need to pass in order to buy weapons, but I don’t see a will for that to get passed.
Arming everyone doesn’t seem like a great idea. I mean, seriously, half of my fellow Americans shouldn’t even be driving a damn car. I’d hate to see them handle a weapon. I mean, I guess if we could wave a magic wand so that they could only hurt themselves, I’d call in natural selection and be done with it.
kay
@Comrade Dread:
How’s about the NRA tone down the rhetoric? If this is a hobby, how’s about they sell it as one, instead of handing every psychopath a place in his or her little Minuteman drama?
I don’t carry a gun, yet I’m going to be subject to intrusive searches everywhere I go if this keeps up.
What about my right to be left alone?
Balconesfault
@Comrade Dread:
I could quickly see this turning into a Catch-22 deal!
freelancer
Lord knows that when I shattered my leg last winter and went to the ER in the middle of the night, it was so insane! I’m thankful I brought my mp5 and my buddy had his shotty:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OPyoJgV_YY
Devon Cole
I have a lot of friends who belong to that gym.
The shooter/psychopath worked as a systems analyst for K&L Gates in the accounting and finance department since 1999. He was basically a ticking time bomb. His blog is really disturbing.
I feel horrible for the families and friends of the victims. I couldn’t sleep last night.
Comrade Darkness
@Brick Oven Bill: I have a friend who hunts with a six shooter. She can only afford one gun.
asiangrrlMN
@gex: You read my mind, girlfriend. When I read that he was complaining about not being able to get a girlfriend, my first thought was, “Gee, I wonder why.”
As for your last sentiment, I wholeheartedly agree. I don’t believe in killing anyone, but if someone feels he (and it’s so often a he) has to kill someone, then he should start with himself. If, after that, he still feels like killing someone, he can shoot someone else.
inkadu
Thanks, for the Sodini diary, folks.
I hate to say it, but I sympathize with a lot of what he said in there. And he got a few chuckles out of me, too.
I can see why people don’t like these things released. It’s easier to demonize people like Sodini, instead of realizing how sane and logical people crazy people are, and how much they function, in many particulars, like everyone else.
And it’s always a fun game to blame your enemies for things like this; and there’s a lot to go around on this guy. But since I’m an atheist, I’m going to argue for religion. He was obviously twisted by a religious upbringing, which he complains about. He says his church taught him that mass killing was ok (though this may be some post-grave vengeance harassment snark), the church service may have prevented him from getting psychological help (i get the feeling his therapist would have come in for condemnation if he had one), and the entry from the last day:
Comrade Dread
One, because it’s not just a hobby, it is a right.
(I have no desire really to go hunting or skeet shooting, but I do have an interest in self-defense and would probably buy a gun for that purpose.)
Two, because they are an interest group. The more outrage they can whip up amongst the members, the more donations they get.
Brick Oven Bill
I bet that your friend does not eat much duck Comrade Darkness. Either that or she hunts at the petting zoo.
The Moar You Know
@Devon Cole: I have been reading and re-reading his blog/last testament/ravings and I have to agree, he was a ticking time bomb. Most telling is the brief entry about his mother. He saw women as either sex objects or a source of terror. And he didn’t understand why women wouldn’t get near him! Amazing that some people are so lacking in self-awareness.
I suspect that a lot of people, especially his co-workers, knew he was batshit crazy, dangerous and ready to snap. I’ve worked with one guy like that over the years (thankfully not any more), and it’s not a mystery to anyone, or a question of “if”, but simply “when”.
Sadly, we have no mechanism for taking a guy like that out of society to prevent them harming anyone – we have to wait until they actually hurt somebody and by then it’s far too late.
I don’t know how we, as a society, can address that, but we need to figure something out.
kay
@Comrade Dread:
You have to see the irony here. In defense of the Second Amendment, you’re ginning up the restrictions of the security state for the rest of us.
It isn’t 1860.
Comrade Darkness
@Brick Oven Bill: We buy bulk a lot and used to have problems like this. Right after you bring it home you can kill the eggs by putting things in the freezer for a few weeks. If it’s flour, you can nuke it, but I wouldn’t do that with much else if you want it to cook right.
They were probably grain moths. My cats love eating those. After a few were loosed from the pantry, the cats would catch and eat them, then beg for more like they were treats. If you want to see a happy bird convention, dump the pasta out on the compost, or a corner of your yard. Watching the worms helplessly devoured makes everything right in the world again.
Tax Analyst
“Right, because nobody owns guns in Bridgeville, PA.
It’s those harsh anti-gun laws that are so popular in small towns in Western Pennsylvania.”
Hey, Pennsylvania…isn’t that where those bitter people with guns and bibles live? What gives? Do folks who go the gym leave both their guns AND bibles at home when they are going to work out?
That kind of neutralizes ones ability to blow away any and all assorted evil-doers in every situation. Maybe there should be a law that if you have a gun you HAVE to carry it with you always, just in case a crazed gunman (or someone you think is or might be a crazed gunman) happens to walk into wherever it is you are at.
I mean, doesn’t gun ownership have a responsibility attached to it? You know, if you don’t have the gun with you it’s hardly the guns fault if you get blown away by some nut.
Also, if you leave it at home it could get stoelen by a crinimal-tpye.
Comrade Darkness
@Brick Oven Bill: Squirrel. Opossum. Don’t know if she’s tried hunting duck. I haven’t asked.
Comrade Dread
This tragedy is a lot like terrorism.
And we have two choices in our response to it. We can find positive ways to reduce the risk (such as safety classes and a basic psych test) without compromising on our civil liberties and accept that even despite our best efforts it will be impossible to stop or prevent every incident of violence.
Or we can go the route of metal detectors, armed security or police everywhere, warrantless surveilance, etc.
This is a tragedy and we should look for positive things we can do to both safeguard civil liberties (which include gun ownership) and prevent more incidents like this, but we should be under no illusion that a free society carries some risks with it.
The Moar You Know
@inkadu: I sympathize with him all the way up until the second he pulled the trigger. Loneliness is crippling and he didn’t know how to, for want of a better term, not be pathetic.
If you can get to his original site and use “view source”, there is a very interesting statement at the end of the HTML document, one that would not appear to the run-of-the-mill viewer. An “easter egg” for his fellow nerds:
I also am very interested in what happened to the baby he mentions. The child would be 18 now.
The Moar You Know
@The Moar You Know: Dammit, I should have pulled out his formatting. Here is his hidden message:
vacuumslayer
Erm, I missed the deadline to donate to the site. I tried to yesterday on my iPhone and kept getting error messages from PayPal. Is there something I can contribute? I visit this site several times a day and feel it’s only fair.
Anyhoo, if you need help with graphics for the site or something, I’m happy to help. I’m pretty ok at that kind of thing.
inkadu
@The Moar You Know: I sympathize with him all the way up until the second he pulled the trigger.
I kinda figured that went without saying; I’m not quite up to his level of blaming women for all my problems, or the general hopelessness (I have my days). But teh googles are way better than TV, on that we agree 100%.
Thanks for the easter egg. There’s a very strange quirk with the website: If I click on a link here on Balloon Juice, I get a service not available error. However, if I reload the page, I get the diary.
And, wait, now I was able to load the page from here. Maybe I have a ‘crazy’ cookie on my computer now.
Lyle4
if he had just killed himself I would have found him sympathetic, a lonely person who had no idea how to fix it. The minute he went after other people though, he turned into the lowest kind of life form.
Women have enough to deal with without having to worry that every man they reject will turn into a homicidal maniac. One of my ex’s had to take legal action against a guy who tried to pick her up at a grocery store, and started stalking her when she rebuffed him. It’s pathetic.
Just Some Fuckhead
@vacuumslayer:
Just wait for the next site rebuild in three months.
Balconesfault
@Tax Analyst:
Given the guys religious blog-quotes, I’d say yes.
asiangrrlMN
Great. So it’s the ebbil women’s fault that he did what he did. If only one of them would have talked to him! You know what? He was a creepy motherfucker who could not relate to women as people. They were either dominating bitches like his mother or hot young things whom he wanted to fuck. Gee, no woman would have sex with him in the last 19 years? Maybe he could have thought about why that was rather than deny that maybe, just maybe, there was something wrong with him.
It is not up to women to coddle men’s fragile egos and convince them not to kill us en masse just because we won’t fuck them. I thought we were supposed to be the weaker gender. Sheesh.
Sympathy for him? Hell no. If what he wrote in his diary is considered ‘normal’ thinking for men, then I am completely switching over to women.
P.S. So, the next time a woman pulls a Bobbitt, we can agree that that would be a normal response for her, too, amirite?
freelancer
Open Thread so what the hell?
via LGM,
http://lefarkins.blogspot.com/2009/08/and-medicare-is-like-mini-japanese.html
This is the funniest sentence I’ve read today:
R-Jud
@asiangrrlMN:
Word.
Oh, I’m pretty sure he knew there was something wrong with him. It’s just that his way of solving it was completely twisted.
Brachiator
@kay:
Haahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Oh, I’m sorry. I couldn’t help myself.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
The NRA formerly opposed the Sotomayor nomination and let it be known that they will be “wery, wery angwy” with any Senator who votes for her, especially if that Senator previously had a “good” pro-gun record.
The heating up of the rhetoric has barely begun.
vacuumslayer
@asiangrrlMN: I’m glad you said it. I was certainly thinking it.
Brachiator
@Comrade Dread:
A Modest Proposal to Lessen Gun Violence.
Make it illegal for any man who is not a law enforcement officer or in military service to own any type of firearm.
Make it mandatory for all women to be trained in handling firearms and make it legal for all women to carry concealed weapons.
Any male who is not a law enforcement officer or active duty military seen with a firearm in public can be shot on sight by a woman. No questions asked.
Comrade Dread
Brachiator, you obviously have never been around pregnant or menopausal women if you think that would reduce gun violence.
Brachiator
@Comrade Dread:
I don’t think that I have ever seen, read, or heard the following headline:
Pregnant and Menopausal Women Go On Shooting Spree
Ever.
So, your point would be?
Comrade Dread
It’s called a joke. Which I assumed your proposal was.
If you are remotely serious, then I suggest therapy, because there’s some anger issues there.
Brachiator
@Comrade Dread:
“Modest proposal” should have been a hint at being satirical. Sorry if it misfired.
No. No. Remotely Serious is the guy a few houses down the street. Remotely “R. U.” Serious. He recently attended the funeral for his uncle, Ded Lee Serious. Very low key people. Related to the Stern family.
joe from Lowell
BOB,
Thank you for confirm my description in your #69 comment.
Yup, it was a characterization of Hillary. Yup, it was part of the Annie Oakley line.
As I said.
joe clark
My experience with fist fights, not gun fights, is that most people don’t see who started a fight. There’s a commotion,they turn and see the attacked party fighting back.If every one was carrying and pulled in one of these situations it’d be a mutual blood bath and then the SWAT would come and kill anyone who had a gun in his/her hand.