January 2011 – Page 17 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Quote of the Day

But suppose that, instead of being hit by a bullet, Representative Giffords had been struck by a rock falling from space. ItÂ does happen occasionally,Â after all. And you know what? It happens about as often as an American politician is shot by a crazy person.

But that wouldnâ€™t be anywhere near as interesting, because anyone who proposed that politicians never again have public meetings outdoors, or that a crash projectÂ be undertaken to sweep the sky clean of meteoroids to make sure that one was never again hit by one, wouldnâ€™t be taken seriously, or have op-eds published, or bills introduced to implement their ideas. They would instead be treated as the lunatics they would be. People with any sense would understand that life carries risk and uncertainties, and that we have to accept them, and get on with it in the face of them.

This is no different. People get randomly struck by lightning, and sometimes there are storms and lightning strikes in human minds, setting off events that are impossible to either predict or prevent.

I agree. Many would like to turn the country at large into a low level loony bin, where you can’t have dangerous materials or dangerous objects for fear you might hurt yourselves or others with them. But I agree with Rand’s outlook. It’s not really much different than other natural phenomena, and as we’ve seen, it happens everywhere, across the globe.

Blood Dancing Summary

Glenn Reynolds has a nice roundup.

UPDATE: More from the Washington Post. I would bet money the shooter was eligible to buy a firearm in all fifty states. I don’t think James Grimaldi or Sari Horwitz has any shame at all. I’ve never bought a copy of the Washington Post. Nor will I ever. I hope everyone else cancels their subscription. Let them flush into the sewer of history where they belong.

More on the Tucson Mass Killer

Jim Lindgren has a good summary from a Twitter user who, seemingly credibly, is claiming to have gone to high school with the shooter. To me all this seems to point more closely to schizophrenia:

Saying Jared Laughner was the gunman. Really hoping thatâ€™s not the same guy I went to HS with, really good friend. Freaking out right now!!! about 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone

Official I went to high school & college, & was in a band w/ the gunman. I canâ€™t even fathom this right now. about 1 hour ago via Twitter for iPhone

I went to high school, college, & was in a band with the gunman. This tragedy has just turned to horrific. 43 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to antderosa

I can. That is him. 39 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to antderosa

He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in â€™07, asked her a question & he told me she was â€œstupid & unintelligentâ€ 37 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to antderosa

He was a pot head & into rock like Hendrix,The Doors, Anti-Flag. I havenâ€™t seen him in person since â€™07 in a sign language class 35 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to antderosa

As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy. 33 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone

He had a lot of friends until he got alcohol poisoning in â€™06, & dropped out of school. Mainly loner very philosophical. 29 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to antderosa

More left. I havenâ€™t seen him since â€™07 though. He became very reclusive. 27 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to noboa

I havenâ€™t seen him since â€™07. Then, he was left wing. 25 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to lakarune

itâ€™s loughner just checked my year book. less than 20 seconds ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to antderosa

This is a circus. Good Morning America just called me. less than 5 seconds ago via Twitter for iPhone

Marijuana use greatly increases the probability of becoming schizophrenic. Combined with the fact that he later become very reclusive, I think is more evidence that this is a case of mental illness. I don’t think his political orientation has a thing to do with anything here. The simple fact seems to be this is another case of someone with undiagnosed, untreated mental illness acting out paranoid delusions. I would not be surprised if, having no record of criminal or mental health problems, he purchased the Glock 19 legally. Our opponents are already trying to make hay out of this in a desperate attempt to become relevant.

UPDATE: More from Clayton Cramer, who has personal experience with mental illness in his family, can be found here.

Rep. Giffords Murdered Shot by Gunman

This is horrible. That’s all I really have to say right now. I think this might be the first Congressperson murdered since Rep. Leo Ryan was ambushed and murdered by Jim Jones’ cult. She is also the first female politician to be murdered in American history.

UPDATE: Apparently there’s reports that Giffords is not, in fact, dead, but is alive and in surgery. If this is the case, we sincerely hope she recovers.

UPDATE: Reports are confirmed. She’s in surgery.

UPDATE: Looks like the shooter has a YouTube channel. Given his age (early 20s) and the content of these videos, this looks to be the case of a young man who has come down with schizophrenia. He’s the right age for it.

UPDATE: Reports now seem to suggest she’s out of surgery, and while still in critical condition, surgeons expect she’ll pull through.

UPDATE: The Brady Campaign is already dancing in the blood of the victims, saying this needs to be addressed immediately, even though we don’t yet know the circumstances:

We also are deeply concerned about the heated political rhetoric that escalates debates and controversies, and sometimes makes it seem as if violence is an acceptable response to honest disagreements. Shortly after President Obama took office, the head of the NRA crowed that “the guys with the guns make the rules;” participants in Congressional forums and Presidential events started carrying guns in public; and then, just last year a candidate for U.S. Senate said the citizens unhappy with elections results should consider exercising their “Second Amendment remedies” and Sarah Palin used gun “target” metaphors encouraging voters to defeat Rep. Giffords and others.

This seems to me to be a bit, ahem, premature.

UPDATE: Josh Sugarmann is joining the blood dance too. Though, I don’t have high expectations of Sugarmann. I tend to think of the Bradys as more misguided than evil. Josh Sugarmann is a horrible person.

UPDATE: Jim and Sarah Brady manage to have a classier respond than all the other anti-gun people put together.

Remembering Rightwing Prof

I hadn’t realized it has been a year since RightWingProf died of cancer. It’s also my mother’s birthday, who also died of cancer, at 43. She would be 60 today. So here’s to both of them.

UPDATE: I think this passage, from around the time when RightWingProf discovered he was terminally ill from cancer, is profound:

Focusing exclusively on Christianity, however, when a woman says, â€œâ€˜And all mankindâ€™ makes me feel excluded,â€ she is being narcisssistic. The church and its worship is not about her, or me, or how it may make us feel. It is about worshipping God. Period. My feelings, exclusion, political correctness, all of these are substituting ourselves as the focus of worship. Further, it is narcissistic to the point of dishonesty, as she knows that â€œmankindâ€ is a gender-neutral word, as is â€œman.â€ By insisting that it is not, she is placing herself at the center, and demanding that the liturgy revolve around her.

The crucial concept here is substitute. Narcissism is not merely injected into worship. It replaces God with oneself. It is the purest, most heinous blasphemy. And it goes far further than just wanting â€œinclusiveâ€ language.

Churches can be divided into two groups: Those who view worship as worshipping God, with God at its center; and those who view worship as affirmation of oneâ€™s essential goodness, in which God plays no real part.

That’s applicable in realms broader than religion.

Obamacare Repeal Bill

Instapundit is covering it, but it passed with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. It’ll be interesting to see how this fares in the Senate. Obviously Reid is going to protect the President’s agenda, but he might not be able to stop a vote. We’ll see.

UPDATE: It occurs to me this happened with the Assault Weapons Ban too. The House voted to repeal it, but the Senate, which was controlled by Bob Dole, at the time, never took it up. It’s worth pointing out that Dole lost his Presidential bid.

Overheard at Chili’s

Bitter: “Why do I hear screams of a child coming from the kitchen?”

Me: “How do you like that chicken quesadilla? Taste like chicken?”

Bitter: “I didn’t think were cooking children! I figured someone might have bought their kid for some reason.”

You never know what they are putting in the quesadillas. But it turns out there was a party of screaming kids in the other section of the restaurant, that was resonating through the doorway that leads to the kitchen from the section were were in. I was surprised, because usually if there’s screaming kids in a restaurant, we somehow manage to get seated next to them.

Body in a Dump

My first thought on this issue was agreement with Tam, and a chuckle over her characterization of the issue of the former DoD guy found dead in a landfill. But now it seems like some are saying this may not be a homicide after all:

William Fleisher, an ex-cop who co-founded Philadelphia’s murder-solving Vidocq Society, said that the discovery of eyewitnesses and surveillance video of a disoriented Wheeler before he died suggests that the 66-year-old man had suffered a head or brain injury.

And that apparent disorientation, Fleisher speculated, could have caused Wheeler to voluntarily crawl into a trash Dumpster – either seeking shelter, as happens sometimes among the homeless, or perhaps looking for his reportedly lost papers.

“He may have crawled into the Dumpster looking for his briefcase, or simply to get warm,” said Fleisher, who runs a Center City investigations firm, Keystone Intelligence Network.

Fleisher also agreed with increasing speculation that Wheeler – who was filmed Dec. 29, two days before his body was found, in a downtown office with no overcoat and holding a shoe – was the victim of a traumatic event such as a mugging, or a stroke.

Apparently homeless people sometimes shelter in dumpsters to keep warm, as sad as that is. So this kind of thing is not apparently unheard of. Still, my first thought of a body showing up in a landfill that doesn’t have a bottle of hooch clutched in its hands would generally be murder.

Even if this was a mugging, the mugger, in this case, could be charged with murder if his disorientation was caused by a blow to the head. You could make a pretty good police/legal drama with a story like this.

ATF Power Grab Delayed by White House

John Richardson has the details, including this tidbit:

At the heart of this “delay” is stiff opposition from gun rights groups and their allies – including Democrats – in Congress. The Montana delegation has been particularly vociferous on the issue.

That’s because Tester and Baucus were out there in front telling people Obama wasn’t anti-gun. They have the most to lose if Obama makes them into liars. Tester is up in 2012, and Baucus in 2016. Tester, particularly, has a lot of credibility that can be flushed down the toilet if Obama decides to pick a fight with us, especially since both he and Baucus voted yes on Obama’s court picks, which we opposed.

I agree with John’s conclusion that it’s time to turn the heat up. The White House may be looking for a face saving way to say no to ATF. I would focus on the fact that they lack Congressional authority to act in this area, and are statutorily prohibited from doing what they are proposing.

How To Buy a Gun Shop

Craigslist, apparently.