Sunday, January 09, 2011

Sometimes misanthropy is easy.

So, some people got shot yesterday, as you might have heard.

At first, the internet rumor mill determined the shooter had to be of a dusky hue, either one o' them Muslim terr'rists or perhaps from MeCHA. When it turned out that he was about as colorfully ethnic as Theodore Cleaver, the race to pin the label on the whackjob began. He became everybody's "other".

He was a Tea Partier, a Marxist, a Randite, a Nazi, a dope-smoking leftist moonbat, a gun-toting conservative wingnut... Everybody's hobbyhorses are kept saddled up and close to the stable doors these days, ready to go steeplechase over the first handy pile of bodies the media makes available.

And boy howdy, has the media made these available! There was a congresswoman injured! And a federal judge and a congressional staffer and a cute nine-year-old kid were all killed! And, oh, yeah, so were three other faceless proletarian cogs, known but to God and apparently mourned by nobody in Studio 1A in Rockefeller Center.

You should be ashamed of yourselves, you savage pack of jackals. Stop making it so easy to be a misanthrope.

48 comments:

Carteach said...

Ayup

pdb said...

What ever happened to "crazy"?

DaddyBear said...

Yep. Looks like this douchenozzle was an equal opportunity whackjob. And I'm purposely not watching the news programs this morning so that I don't have to watch the ritual blood dance that's definitely being performed.

Josh Kruschke said...

Ya, they gave him every name but the one that fit: piece of shit dirt-bag. Forgive the language, but it seem appropriate; even though I might have given the run of the mill dirt-bag a bad name.

:-(

Chris said...

Ya know, this has actually made me rethink some positions. I have always been a CCW advocate, and hate the idea of passing through metal detectors to go to the Smithsonian. But this shooting really brought home the fact that, given the shear number of people running around, and how easy it is to travel, that anyone in the public eye is acting like a crazy filter, where that one in 100M violent/broken/animal can arm themselves and travel to commit assault.

At some point, with a constant 'probability-of-being-an-idiot', the 'probability-of-being-attacked' is going to climb to unity. And shy of deploying point defenses ( metal detectors etc ) and general counter-filters ( background checks, CCW restrictions ), can anyone see a way of reversing the trend?

Roberta X said...

Chris: plot me a trendline and show me the risk increasing -- especially against an overall downward trend in murder and death-by-gunshot. (I can show you that curve, Linoge updates it every year).

Tremaine said...

The part that interests me is how the media and even some of the law enforcement are blaming the tea party, conservatives or pretty much anyone not in their clique for this whole fiasco.

Their reasoning seems to be that those groups are stirring decent and anger in the government. HATE! HAAAAAAATE MOOOOOONGERS! Ahem. Sorry, I hate it when it does that.

Could it be that the government is just pissing too many people off? Nahhhhhh.

Busting a cap in a judge, no mattter how tempting, is not the way to vent your anger. At least, not yet.

Anonymous said...

That Pima County Sheriff needs to retire. Did you see the look on his detective's face as the Sheriff spelled out his last name for the reporters?

"That's N as in NANCY - O - N as in Nancy..."

Tam said...

Chris,

And yet you'll drive to the grocery store, which is a brajillion times more likely to kill you than is a criminal or a crazy person.

Humans suck at risk assessment. We'll make everybody take their shoes off before getting on a plane, and then feed them alcohol and cholesterol once they're at 30,000 feet...

Sean D Sorrentino said...

I'm really glad I was head down in blog maintenance. I didn't hear about this until fairly late last evening. It certainly kept me from joining in the speculation.

I did watch some of his videos. I wonder what planet he was from. Maybe we can nuke Mars over this blatent act of aggression against our elected representatives.

Anonymous said...

I have found that the rush to fill airtime over rules good reporting every friking time.

I would fall over stone cold dead if some anchorette would say, "There are lot's of unconfirmed reports and we will wait to provide details until we know something for certain."

At work we called the second catagory, Also Killed.
The most news worthy get a follow up article or column. Next group gets a paragraph and a picture.

Thats followed by... also killed were Gerry from flyover country and a yet unidentified officer.

The only category the shooter fits is murderer.

Gerry

staghounds said...

And this is the ONLY news/commentary outlet I have seen that has chosen not to reward him by giving him fame and airing his philosophy.

Mad Saint Jack said...

I've seen a few posts wailing about the gun sale being legal.

I've been wondering if a "dope-smoking leftist moonbat" goes to buy a gun and falsifies the 4473 form by omitting his dope-smoking, is that a "legal gun sale?"

Josh Kruschke said...

Laws only restrict the law-abiding, and give you a reason to punish the offenders. They don't stop nothing.

Divemedic said...

Chris:
The top ten causes of death account for 79% of all deaths in the US.
1. Diseases of heart (heart disease)
2. Malignant neoplasms (cancer)
3. Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke)
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries)
6. Alzheimer’s disease
7. Diabetes mellitus (diabetes)
8. Influenza and pneumonia
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease)
10. Septicemia
11. Intentional self-harm (suicide)
12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension)
14. Parkinson’s disease
15. Assault (homicide) (less than .8% of all deaths)

There are plenty of intrusive laws that would save more lives than gun control. Outlaw fat, salt, tobacco, artificial foodstuffs, sugar, sweets of any kind, cars, alcohol, pointy objects, tall buildings, and then talk about guns.

The rate of gun homicide in non-Hispanic Caucasians is less than 5 per million. Gun control would do very little, since murder, drug dealing, and gang banging are already illegal, and those risk factors are responsible for more deaths than firearm ownership.

Read more here: http://street-pharmacy.blogspot.com/2011/01/facts-of-death.html

sobriant74 said...

This guy was a whack job murderer, simple as that and I think the biggest crime in all this was the as yet un-named 9 year old whose life was cut too short. I feel for all the victims equally and I am glad there were some sheepdogs amongst the sheep who tackled the guy and ended this massacre. CNSBCFOX will keep rolling pundits talking about theories, I just hope this kid continues to not talk and pleads the 5th all the way to federal death row (killing the fed judge earns him a good chance at that). One less crazy bastard to worry about when out and about with my family.

treefroggy said...

Nut-job does what Nut-jobs do. Fox News to blame. Film at 11.

West, By God said...

Tam, we actually have jackals around here in Baghdad, and they are far better behaved.

Pascal said...

"Stop making it so easy to be a misanthrope. "

Their Stalin's children "One death is a tragedy; a million merely a statistic."

Can't you hear them laughing?
"Making more misanthropes machinates my megalomania."

Mark Philip Alger said...

Chris;

One of the factors that aggravates cyncism is that all state efforts at security are misdirected: at keeping the wrong people out, as opposed to letting the right people in; at banning contraband rather than admit that every object is a potential weapon to a sufficiently creative mind; at seeking ever-more intrusive means of identifying those being granted access rather than assuring their trustworthiness.

Put it all together, it spells TSA, DHS, and all the rest of the misbegotten alpha noodles in the toxic soup of statism. The idea is control, not security.

A real, robust security system would focus on ensuring that only trustworthy people were permitted access, and would admit to anonymous means of assuring that people were trustworthy. It would not matter if the right person were admitted to the presence of God with a pocket nuke. He would not use it. But the wrong person with a soda straw shouldn't be allowed in a public restroom.

Mark Alger

DJMoore said...

pdb said: 'What ever happened to "crazy"?'

I was scolded for this yesterday by a person who told me that he had many mentally ill friends, and that none of them would dream of doing something like this, and that he was sick of seeing them tarred with the same brush as people like Loughner.

Living in Babylon said...

All this is convincing me of is that if a shooting war is what this country needs, we need to start with TV executives.

Kristophr said...

I blame this shooter's rampage on Plivens.

Joe in PNG said...

Wern't guys like Ted Rall and Francis Pivins just calling for exactly this kind of thing?

But the cry is to blaim the Eeevil Right.

staghounds said...

How do you deter James Hadfield?

Ken said...

There are plenty of intrusive laws that would save more lives than gun control.

But they'd be every bit as immoral as gun control is.

Anonymous said...

I was curious to see what you'd have to say about this, Tam. I can do nothing more elegant than agree with you.

Jim

Anonymous said...

"Everybody's hobbyhorses are kept saddled up and close to the stable doors these days..."

And even media can make the case that it's quasi-private enough to be free to blatantly interpret and alter facts and present them as news.

That's infuriating but still okay; but when climbing up on that hobbyhorse is a paid gov gig with the powers of law and force?

Sheriff "N as in Nancy" needs to quit all right...there is no justification for this:

"When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government," said Dupnik at a press conference Saturday. "The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

Sure sounds like he knows whereof he speaks; how in God's name this particular prejudiced bigot became sheriff of anything is a puzzlement. And Olbermann thinks he's "extraordinary"...that oughta be damning praise enough to get him canned right there.

Sen. Kyl responded pretty well today: "I didn't really think that that had any part in a law enforcement briefing last night. It was speculation."

But it was quite a lot more than speculation; it was projection of this twit's own prejudice at best and at worst creates strong doubt of his ability to deal with the people's business in the even-handed manner required by his oath and badge. He needs to resign.

AT

Anonymous said...

I was ranting to my wife last night about the fact that it was probably too soon to be deeply, deeply offended that the ONLY headline was "Congresswoman shot!" when 6 other people, including 4 member of the general public, were dead. Like they were a freakin' afterthought.

And everyone wonders why I hate people as a group.

Nylarthotep said...

I am NOT a Misanthrope. I don't hate humanity, I just hate everyone involved.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Amazing how quickly the Federales swooped down when some of their own were shot and killed. I can't recall the last time the head of the FBI was ordered to the scene to take charge of an investigation. Guess some people are more "Special", huh?

By the way, if you live in a place that allows Legal Concealed and/or open Carry, and it's legal for you to carry, then please carry. I really don't give a flyin' frack what the "Motivation" and "Political Ideology" of any one who starts shooting at me and mine any more. For Crom's Sake, this happened in Arizona!

NotClauswitz said...

And we're not the country with the highest murder-rate in the World, as many on the left and gun-banners in particular like to say, they can't even Google? The lie - we're not even in the top-ten. And there's other ways to look at that too.

ASM826 said...

The heck with what they are saying about him. Congress is preparing gun control legislation.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47338.html

Brad K. said...

I am waiting for Fox News to make a commentary observation, "Ironic, isn't it, that in the liberal, Democratic crowd there weren't any CCW or open carry citizens, ready and willing to defend their families, their neighbors, their public servants, and their community?"

The father of the little girl killed has been interviewed. I haven't heard, and don't expect to hear, what every father should be asked. "Do you wish you had been armed and ready to defend your daughter and your family?"

Instead, all the law-abiding citizens, and those that believed the anti-gun rhetoric, showed up expecting the laws to protect them from anyone willing to break the law.

I am not advocating all citizens should be ready to shoot at the drop of a dime, at the threat of harm. What occurs to me is that this is another mass shooting in a Disarmed Victim Zone. The likely presence of armed resistance would likely have prevented the incident.

WV: biretta. Where's the cockatoo?

Tam said...

ASM826,

"Congress is preparing gun control legislation."

No, Carolyn McCarthy is going to try to float another gun control bill, which happens with only slightly less frequency than the sun rising.


Brad K.,

"I am waiting for Fox News to make a commentary observation..." When the Today" show was interviewing one of the guys who held the suspect down til the five-oh got there, they asked him if he had been scared running towards where the gun shots were coming from (he was outside the store and heard the shooting) and he replied "No, I carry a weapon, so I wasn't scared." The interviewer didn't follow that potential line of questioning for some reason.

Buzz said...

"for some reason"

Tam, you damned well know the reason.

Anonymous said...

"War is Boring" blog actually blamed the GOP while passive-aggressively claiming to be political. Douche-bag.

John said...

The Aunties have praying for this -- to the Devil, apparently.

At least in Arizona, some of the bystanders fought back, refused to be cowering victims, and stopped the killer. A medal to that woman and those who pitched in. They did better than the riders on that subway in New York where McCarthy's husband got greased.

The pro-gun orgs should immediately 'recognize and award' those ordinary people who stepped into the fire and wrestled with evil.

Oh, and how about an InterNet and USPS campaign to the Ariz Atty Gen and Gov, to make sure this wack-job doesn't skate on insanity..."As a legal and safe user of firearms for recreation and self-defense, I ask that the death penalty be swiftly prosecuted and exacted upon this killer...because there is no excuse under heaven or on earth to commit mass murder upon innocent people....and etc.."

Of course, we could always open a national discourse upon the philosophical root causes of violence in society, as they related to the generalized cultural erosion of inhibitions to criminal acts, against the moral order. Media talking heads, 'Social Science' professors and urban Easterners should be invited, tho I doubt that they would find it to be a comfortable experience.

Further that, this deponent saith not.

Anonymous said...

Sheriff Dupnik gets in front of cameras for anything. He waxed ignorant over the state immigration law, too. He's running for a higher office, I suspect.

Repeal. Recall. Resist.

Anonymous said...

How quickly we forget...

http://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/search?q=fort+hood

You were first to label the Ft Hood shooter! Doc Jihadi, Maj. Hasan...

Pin the tail on the Muslim! Well done you hypocrite.

Joe in PNG said...

Sooooo, you're trying to tell me that Maj. Hassan was NOT a muslim? Who's a thunk it?

Tam said...

Anon 3:01,

"You were first to label..."

Bet me?

Joanna said...

Actually, there's little to no hypocrisy there -- in both cases, Tam was insisting on correct identification of the shooter.

NotClauswitz said...

NotAMuslim! NotAMuslim! NotAMuslim! Two Minute HATE on Sarah Palin, starts NOW!

Anonymous said...

I got into an argument on facebook last night with a lefty-loon who was equating Sarah Palin with Charles Manson. For some people, the only way they can think is with hyperbole.

I'm kind of glad my family doesn't have a history of living a long time. I'm pretty much done with this place.

Firehand said...

I didn't see it, did hear audio of some of the sheriff's statements.

Wow.

Generally the chief LE officer of a county doesn't
A: Make political statements while discussing a major crime or
B: Give the accused defense points while flapping his gums.

This clown is a disgrace to that badge he wears.

Anonymous said...

Actually Tam seemed to play down and minimize the seriousness of this tragedy by making light of it ("so, some people got shot", etc)

How are the AZ and Ft Hood incidents different? Aren't both acts of terrorism? Tam seems to view them differently based on either ethnicity or political information.

Anonymous said...

The Ft. Hood incident was clearly perpetrated by a jihadist. AZ, from I can tell--and so far, it's anybody's guess--was motivated by mental illness. Terrorism isn't defined by body count.