Giffords shooting

[Canadian_watcher]

I'm not the only one.
Is that McCain?

[IanEye]

I'm not the only one.
Is that McCain?

actually it's Paul McCartney's double. they switched them out when McCain was doing his "man cur ian" thang in 'Nam in '67.

And honestly annoying, cos its like turning someones death into a game of numbers, but then we do that all the time.

no matter where you go, there you are! - go where you no matter, are you there?

[Project Willow]

makes me contemplate the schizophrenic thing and how it literally looks like two people reside in that one body.

Please explain. Schizophrenia does not equal DID.

While we're on the subject however, the photos made me think of the studies documenting hemispheric asymmetry in people with dissociative disorders. It also made me think of the studies that traced minor physical differences between twins to differential stresses or deficiencies in utero.

[anothershamus]

Somebody mentioned the occult: From: The NY Daily News, via ofgoatsandmen.blogspot.com

Gabrielle Giffords shooting: Frightening, twisted shrine in Arizona killer Jared Lee Loughner's yard
From The NY Daily News.

A sinister shrine reveals a chilling occult dimension in the mind of the deranged gunman accused of shooting a member of Congress and 19 others.

Hidden within a camouflage tent behind Jared Lee Loughner's home sits an alarming altar with a skull sitting atop a pot filled with shriveled oranges.

A row of ceremonial candles and a bag of potting soil lay nearby, photos reveal.

Experts on Sunday said the elements are featured in the ceremonies of a number of occult groups.

Investigators have focused on Loughner's online anti-government ramblings as the chief motivation for the shooting Saturday of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.).

The discovery of the shrine raises the possibility that Loughner, 22, may have been driven by other forces.

[justdrew]

I wonder if it's really shriveled oranges or rather maybe pomanders?

[SonicG]

It is being reported that he had built a shrine in his back yard. Pics & info here:

ny daily news - shrine in backyard

LOL. That one's a joke compared to the ones you can find in half the houses in Little Havana.

(from upthread)

And that comment gave me a LOL esp. when you see the pic. of the shrine but I doubt any "serious" news outlets will make much hay out of it, nor will the authorities 'cuz even the most spurious official "occult" expert would have to laugh at that. Dried oranges and a bag of potting soil for focks sake!

ETA: Pomanders! Just heard that word for the first time a few days ago! Coincidance? Methinks naught...

[surfaceskimmer]

"Federal Judge John McCarthy Roll was the Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Arizona who this past Friday issued what is called a “preliminary ruling” in a case titled “United States of America v. $333,520.00 in United States Currency et al” [Case Number: 4:2010cv00703 Filed: November 30, 2010] wherein he stated he was preparing to rule against Obama’s power to seize American citizens money without clear and convincing evidence of a crime being committed.

[Case Number: 4:2010cv00703 Filed: November 30, 2010] LINK http://dockets.justia.com/docket/arizon ... 03/568697/

The case being ruled on by Judge Roll, was about bulk cash smuggling into or out of the United States that the Obama administration claimed was their right to seize under what are called Presidential Executive Orders, instead of using existing laws....."

[Joe Hillshoist]

I just can't figure out what sort of politics would lead someone to assassinate Giffords and strike

It's probably emblematic of the times that's it's not clear at all, but people, for purposes that say more about them than loughner, not least of which is a desire for simplicity, will try to cram him into some sort of pigeohole.

Yeah, the politics of this are fairly emblematic of America's confusion. And I've already pigeon-holed the guy as a poorly-educated dude who took pride in his high school reading list, who looks very much like he suffered from adult onset schizophrenia, exacerbated by an interest in truly unintelligible pabulum, further aggravated by some species of occult practice. To what and whose ends, well, I don't know, but I haven't ruled much out yet. Then again, I'm not a detective or a journalist, so don't hold your breath for me.

What is strange to me is that the linguistic dementia this guy subscribed to has a sort of "community" of followers, like someone already mentioned upthread. What's stranger is that they seem to have some vague politics to it (mostly right-populism of some sort), and act on it. It's like canned insanity. I'm indulging in some fantasy here, though, so don't take this suggestion too seriously.

Actually, on second thought, I'm speculating about someone in a lab somewhere, cooking up "culling songs" designed to initiate schizophrenic breakdowns among a certain percentage of the population for the sake of violence. But that means I postulated some malignant agency somewhere, and that doesn't make any sense, because the people who treat this word-salad as a science are charlatans and fabulists like Jordan Maxwell and this :David-Wynn: Miller character... which means it isn't malignancy, it's negligence. They don't care if the crap they spew to resembles the sort of paranoid ideation from which psychiatric careers are built. It's a self-satisfied cleverness for them, like a crossword puzzle they know all the answers to b/c they wrote it; and for people like Loughner, it's an obsession that rots the mind.

I ripped this little exchange and stuck in the comments of a rationalist lefty (only just) blog in Australia.

I didn't attribute anything or name anyone or link it, as it is they haven't let it out of moderation anyway.

I just want to say that you have both done a better job of summing up this individuals potential motivations and highlighted the dangers of doing that as well (woo hoo metanathpanhandle) than pretty much anything I've seen.

Anyway they seem really keen to use this event to criticise the rhetoric of the teabag right, which could really be done on its own terms without confusing this into the argument.

HOpefully they'll read it and take note.

(I didn't ask permission cos I'm a rude jerk, but you know. We all have our crosses and whatnot. Cheers tho. Well said.)

[Crow]

A good analysis from a feminist perspective.

[Canadian_watcher]

makes me contemplate the schizophrenic thing and how it literally looks like two people reside in that one body.

Please explain. Schizophrenia does not equal DID.

While we're on the subject however, the photos made me think of the studies documenting hemispheric asymmetry in people with dissociative disorders. It also made me think of the studies that traced minor physical differences between twins to differential stresses or deficiencies in utero.

Makes me think if that, too. While the psychiatric defnition of schizophrenia doesn't include identity divisions the etymology of the word does. The roots are 'split' and 'heart or mind.'

It would be really interesting to know if the functioning of the two brain hemispheres, if impaired (or enhanced) could lead to physical differences in the two sides of the body.

[§ê¢rꆧ]

Loughner's lawyer is 'One-Woman Dream Team

By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY

Judy Clarke is known in legal circles as "the patron saint of criminal defense attorneys" and "the One-Woman Dream Team."

Now, the nationally known criminal defense lawyer is adding Tucson mass shooting suspect Jared Loughner to an already long list of high-profile defendants that included "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and South Carolina mother Susan Smith, who drowned her two sons.

Clarke appeared with Loughner during his first court appearance at the Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Courthouse in Phoenix on Monday.

...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... 1_ST_N.htm


Caption: Judy Clarke is considered one of the nation's leading experts on death penalty cases.

§ § § ]

Moussaoui just kind of jumped out at me, there. And of course Kaczynski, too.

A third possiblity, somewhere between lone nut and mind-controlled assassin occurs to me, where, Loughner is clearly homicidal, ready to shoot up his school, workplace, family, whatever, and is then goaded by some kind of black operator into this particular action.

I don't know. Damn story has me interested.

As propaganda, this tragedy makes anybody with vaguely conspiratorial, anti-gov ideas look really, really bad though.

[Canadian_watcher]

@CROW

From the article you linked to:

Because, no matter what frame of mind he was in, he was demonstrably influenced by some right-wing rhetoric. “Federalist laws” were mentioned in one of his YouTube videos. Also, “a currency backed by gold,” which is (a) straight from Ayn Rand, who he apparently read and liked — We the Living is among his favorite books, though that’s as scattered and weird as any “favorites” list, and especially any weird dude’s “favorites” list, and it includes Ayn Rand next to The Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf and then just straight-up Peter Pan, because even murderers cannot resist some childlike whimsy — and (b) in line with Tea Party rhetoric.

I am not right wing in the US current meaning, but I also think that some of the Federalist Laws should be done away with in favour of state power, I believe that coming off the Gold Standard was a mistake, and my reading list is "weird" too.

Actually, to go back to that “favorite books” list, what it demonstrates most clearly is not that Jared Loughner is mentally ill, but that Jared Loughner is stupid. The things he likes are not just varied, but in direct opposition to each other —

It seems to me to be a good habit to read things that contradict your established belief systems from time to time - I don't think doing so makes anyone stupid, I think it makes him/her well-rounded. Besides, these are fiction books, in large part, and it's quite possible to enjoy the writing, the characters, the tensions without worrying too much about the assigned political leanings of the heroes.

There are some good comments attached to that editorial, though.

[Joe Hillshoist]

A good analysis from a feminist perspective.

Crow I have to disagree. palin is a shit for doing that and deserves a fair bit of criticism, but its not enough evidence, either is the rest of the stuff.

by all means criticise Palin and the rwdb media in the US tho.

pillory them - they deserve it. (Pardon the inflammatory rhetoric, its contagious.)

[vanlose kid]

Loughner's lawyer is 'One-Woman Dream Team

By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY

Judy Clarke is known in legal circles as "the patron saint of criminal defense attorneys" and "the One-Woman Dream Team."

Now, the nationally known criminal defense lawyer is adding Tucson mass shooting suspect Jared Loughner to an already long list of high-profile defendants that included "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph, 9/11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and South Carolina mother Susan Smith, who drowned her two sons.

Clarke appeared with Loughner during his first court appearance at the Sandra Day O'Connor Federal Courthouse in Phoenix on Monday.

...

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... 1_ST_N.htm


Caption: Judy Clarke is considered one of the nation's leading experts on death penalty cases.

§ § § ]

Moussaoui just kind of jumped out at me, there. And of course Kaczynski, too.

A third possiblity, somewhere between lone nut and mind-controlled assassin occurs to me, where, Loughner is clearly homicidal, ready to shoot up his school, workplace, family, whatever, and is then goaded by some kind of black operator into this particular action.

I don't know. Damn story has me interested.

As propaganda, this tragedy makes anybody with vaguely conspiratorial, anti-gov ideas look really, really bad though.

and McVeigh.

http://www.newser.com/story/109393/unab ... ghner.html

*

[yathrib]

Have you seen the latest photo of the assassin? Compare with people who take a lot of meds. Supposedly he's 22, but he looks about twice that.