Tuesday, January 11, 2011

 

A Walk on the Wacked Side



When I read a column by David Brooks in the NY Times that Jared Loughner's videos were easily available on youtube, I headed over to see what he'd done. Pathological Power Point, a loaded-with-symbolism Flag burning, to peruse a couple.

This Power Point flick is supposed to be a series of syllogisms for a class he took in logic.

It's strange to step into the void of youtube. On my way to Jared's "My Final Thoughts," I happened across a film by a guy who calls himself humans4targets2 and who reviews guns in his videos. I felt as though I'd stumbled into a really scary neighborhood. Nearby was somebody putting a cat into a vise, either a demonstration against animal abuse or a direct example of it. I couldn't tell, since I couldn't bear to watch it, free speech or no damn free speech.

Jared's films themselves draw responses, some of which are only slightly less crazy than the videos' contents. Some respondents try [unsuccessfully] to make sense out of his assertions, while others just dive into the water and try to speak the language.

I'm bemused by the clinicians' analyses of the attacks as 'non-political.' It may be that Jared was obsessed with his 'new language' and 'new currencies' topics and was frustrated by Gabrielle Giffords' response to his propositions. Reviving the gold standard is a sort of political issue. If the word 'political' can be traced through its etymology to a definition involving the exercise of power, and Loughner trips out on control, then there may be at least echoes of the political in his ramblings.

Jared Loughner aside, it's worth noting that a gun manufacturer has decided to honor loony pol Joe Wilson with his own gun component. Named "You Lie!" the line of assault rifles includes his fabled outburst etched on its components.

Talk about hunting down a market niche. That's Yankee ingenuity for you.

Whether Jared was an actual political animal lapping up every creamy drip of Mama Bear metaphor or simply a lost soul deep in a schizophrenic whirlpool, my little walking tour tells me that there are actually business opportunities created by our current national insanity. Candidates for president of the Republican National Committee were asked how many guns they owned, right after Michael Steele recited the opening line from A Tale of Two Cities, which illustrated why he found War and Peace so relevant today(?). Steele didn't own any guns, but a lady at the end of the candidate table (the far right, actually) said that she owned 16--an interview coup, to be sure.

Are these the mad ramblings of an Empire in decline?

Bloody likely.

Comments:
That RNC interview was sad. Tucker Carlson and Grover Norquist? A pair of trust fund kids, good figureheads for the GOP. Norquist should have been charged with laundering money for Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed. Norquist's line about drowning the gov't in a bathtub was especially tasteless here in Clear Lake where religious nut Andrea Yates drowned her children in the bathtub.
 
all the talk the pundits are doing about the shooter's motives os really just tragedy porn. we can't control people's thoughts, and we can't predict which mentally ill person will perpetrate the next massacre. we can, however, control guns and ammo and how people get them. that won't happen, though, because politicians are too damned scared of the nra.
 
I cannot stand to read bizarre rantings, word salad and neologisms created by insane people, so I skipped viewing any of this turd's YouTube posts.
I really don't care is this young, murdering piece of shit is bipolar, schizophrenic or just a mean, crazy bastard because his daddy beat him as a child.
What I care about is the NRA lobbyists filling the coffers of legislators on both sides, insane people not getting the treatment they need, and the toxic cocktail created by both situations.
You want your 2nd Amendment rights? Fine, go buy all the rifles you want. But if I had my way, there would be no more handguns made or sold in the U.S.
There would be substantial financial incentives for those who sell their existing handguns back to the government, who can then distribute them to the military and police officers.
No more automatic weapons, either.
Hunters use rifles. Let 'em.
Criminals prefer the discretion handguns provide them.
I almost hate to say this, but if more gun nuts were Democrats or liberals and they started assassinating Republicans, teabaggers and grifters from Alaska, gun laws would change overnight.
People who fan the flames of hatred and murder should be fired, ignored or otherwise put out of business.
This creepy gun shit is getting ridiculous.
 
I viewed a lot of his you tube offerings, just to get a glimpse of his frame of mind.
I watched the burning flag piece, with the "let the bodies hit the floor" heavy metal background music.

After looking at his case, I think what we see are pieces of the puzzle.

• Inability to fit in.

• Smoking "Synergy" (google synthetic marijuana & read about how this legal in some states (yes AZ), knock off THC herbal incense is potent, toxic, addictive & causes blackouts & hallucinations) undetectable in blood labwork).

• The parents, said the parents of Jareds friend, any time he saw them in the grocery store had 30 pack cases of beer in the shopping cart.

• He was convinced there was government mind control going on.

• Access to a gun w enhanced fire power.
(that type of add on was banned in the Clinton years).

Here is a good article:

http://www.alternet.org/news/149488/yes,_jared_loughner

The political climate- open season on hate was in full swing.

Americans hang on to the gun culture, even when more & more innocent people die as a result. There is no place for rapid fire weaponry here. Even police do not carry Glocks w 30 bullet magazines.

Even more lunatic fringe is Palin, who has no mute button, or decency to STFU & let the community & nation mourn the loss.

Her most recent item is she's headed to speak at a Hunting & gun show at the end of the month, in Nevada.

This may have been in place before the shooting, but anyone with an ounce of tact & consciousness would have cancelled- which leads me to believe Palin is nothing less than a media whore.

Important to note the event is *closed to the media*. This is consistent with Palin's one way communication system. She can get away with that, now that she's ex governor & a private citizen, but if she wants to hold office, she can't roll that way.

One can only hope her acts are so offensive, she self implodes.
But her dinner speech @ the hunting event is sold out. Palins events are always no media, no photos, no recording. Her team releases a few pre approved official photos & film clips. Signatures not included (you pay extra for that!).

Anyway my point is that although I don't subscribe to the hate circuit, it was hard to not hear it & have it swirling around the airwaves or internets.

I don;t know if the shooter's parents had talk radio or Fox news blaring in the house all the time. All we do know is this young man was recommended to have a mental eval & the parents were told & they did not do so.

Was it money or lack of health care coverage?
Fear? (Adult children can be intimidating)
Bad family environment?
Isolation?
Vitriol?
Easy access to guns?

All of it rolled into one?

Sadly, he will now get the evaluation he needs, but after the damage was done.
 
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