What's the frequency, Colorado?

[Stephen Maturin]

The Colorado Court of Appeals held yesterday that six Colorado Day of Prayer proclamations issued by governors from 2004 to 2009 violated the Preference Clause of the Colorado Constitution. Freedom From Religion Found., Inc. v. Hickenlooper (pdf, 74 pages). Big ups to Judges Bernard, Loeb and Lichtenstein.

[Angakuk]

Which one of those judges is not an atheist Jew?

[lisarea]

This is beautiful.

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Mitt and The Birther

[Stephen Maturin]

Loloradans will miss Ed Quillen.

[Stephen Maturin]

Sadly, I missed the festivities at the annual Western Conservative Summit in Denver. The event, put on by the spectacularly wingnutty Centennial Institute of Colorado Christian University, featured the likes of Glenn Beck (who still refuses to comment on allegations that he raped and murdered a young girl in the 1990s), Gov. Jan "Don't Call Me A Nazi After My Father Died Fighting Hitler" Brewer of Arizona, and perennial in-state wingnut favorite Bob Beauprez, a former member of Congress, who actually said "It is Mitt Romney’s moment, to be this generation’s Abraham Lincoln." (History well and truly recalls that one time when Lincoln terrorized a badger into shitting itself by strapping the hapless animal to a buckboard and careening down a cobblestone street at 7 mph.)

But this year is special, being a presidential election year and all, so it just wouldn't have been prudent or fair to confine the lunacy to domestic whackadoos. Thus did Watser?'s favorite legislator, Geert Wilders, bring his special brand of anti-Islam conspiracy theory crazy to Denver.

[Watser?]

So there is a place where he can still go, huh? And people actually listen and don't laugh?

[godfry n. glad]

Originally Posted by Watser?

So there is a place where he can still go, huh? And people actually listen and don't laugh?

What? You mean other than the Nether regions?

Sure...Talk radio should have been a dead giveaway. But not only do folks listen and not laugh, they pay them exorbitant sums to do so and sometimes elect too many of them to public office. Just look at Michelle Bachman. It's all part of some "developmentally disabled employment program", I think.

[Stephen Maturin]

Some lunatic named James Holmes exercised his Second Amendment remedies last night during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises at a theater in Aurora, CO, killing 12 people and wounding 50 more.

Morning radio is abuzz with wisdom about how this tragedy could have been prevented if only the theater patrons had been armed. With the U.S. free-falling toward Third World status, about the only thing we could do to make things worse is to fully arm an already frightened, depressed and/or angry populace.

[SR71]

Gun sales

[ImGod]

Originally Posted by Stephen Maturin

Some lunatic named James Holmes exercised his Second Amendment remedies last night during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises at a theater in Aurora, CO, killing 12 people and wounding 50 more.

Morning radio is abuzz with wisdom about how this tragedy could have been prevented if only the theater patrons had been armed. With the U.S. free-falling toward Third World status, about the only thing we could do to make things worse is to fully arm an already frightened, depressed and/or angry populace.

I heard an interview this morning and someone said the gunfire was happening in the theater and on the screen at the same time so it was confusing at first. (But it's the media and they were pulling stuff out of every orifice to get you to watch their channel.) Now take that confusion and have 100 or so armed people start shooting in the dark at gun flashes going off in the theater. If they were all armed I doubt anybody makes it out alive.

It's easier to identify who's the crazy gunman when there is only one person shooting.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by ImGod

If they were all armed I doubt anybody makes it out alive.

That's exactly right, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear one of the wingnuttier radio people I listened to this morning make the same point. The problem was compounded in this case by the fact that the shooter set off two canisters of tear gas or something similar before he opened fire.

This fucker entered the theater wearing a gas mask and full body armor, packing two gas canisters, an assault rifle, a shotgun and a handgun (haven't seen anything about whether the handgun was a pistol or SMG). Call me a moonbat, but I don't think allowing crazy people access to that kind of gear is an acceptable price for living in a "free society."

[Ari]

Sad. And now the News plays the blame game. He's white so clearly there's no terrorist agenda... Maybe movies made him do it! Or Comics, evil comics!
One report said there were military officers in the crowd, clearly if they couldn't do anything to stop this guy, I doubt arming random people will (especially arming them with weapons that go through walls).

Of course all of these "solutions" are after the fact, someone has to be shot or killed before he can be stopped with lethal force and that doesn't seem like much of a solution. Better mental health screenings and support might do it, but that's hard and complicated and no one wants to do that. Considering the guy was not only loaded down but wired his apartment up with traps, I'm guessing there were signs that could have been seen to get him help before this. After all, contrary to most news reports, people rarely "just snap."

[ImGod]

My father in law carries an assault rifle, shotgun, pistol, and fishing pole in his pickup.

I'm not sure why, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt on everything but the rifle since he lives in a low density populated area, hunts and fishes. The rifle is some sort of military leftover thing from his years in Vietnam.

He too could have been shot in such a situation as this, since his guns would have been in his truck. Of course, you wouldn't see him in a big city with talkie movies either.

[LadyShea]

Originally Posted by Stephen Maturin

That's exactly right, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear one of the wingnuttier radio people I listened to this morning make the same point. The problem was compounded in this case by the fact that the shooter set off two canisters of tear gas or something similar before he opened fire.

This fucker entered the theater wearing a gas mask and full body armor, packing two gas canisters, an assault rifle, a shotgun and a handgun (haven't seen anything about whether the handgun was a pistol or SMG). Call me a moonbat, but I don't think allowing crazy people access to that kind of gear is an acceptable price for living in a "free society."

Well, since he was most recently a neuroscience graduate student and doesn't appear (yet) to have been on anyone's nutbagdar, I think the whole "crazy" part was probably undetected

[Ari]

While I'm just guessing, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a mental illness component to this. The stress of being knocked off track by dropping out of a long term program like a PHD could easily push mental problems to the foreground and make them harder to ignore. And while he was in college for Neuroscience, medical colleges don't have any higher degree of spotting mental troubles or providing help.

[ImGod]

I think mental illness should be the default position regarding anyone who kills or injures 70+ people in a crowded movie theater.

[ImGod]

In other irony.

Warner Bros. pulled the trailer for the film "Gangster Squad," which had been running before showings of "The Dark Knight Rises." That film trailer features scenes of men armed with machine guns attacking a movie theater.

from cnn

[Janet]

Originally Posted by ImGod

I think mental illness should be the default position regarding anyone who kills or injures 70+ people in a crowded movie theater.

I tend to think that's wishful thinking. I think most of us would really like to believe that you have to be crazy to kill people, but the facts don't bear that out.

[Watser?]

Meanwhile in the Netherlands they are arguing whether this cartoon by Belgian comedian/comic artist Kamagurka, published in the usually respectable NRC (an evening paper) crossed the line:



Where's Superman when you need him?

[Ari]

Originally Posted by Janet

I tend to think that's wishful thinking. I think most of us would really like to believe that you have to be crazy to kill people, but the facts don't bear that out.

Certainly, although most people require personal justification to do it especially when it's planned. There are plenty of ways to justify it, some extremely convoluted but the justification is almost always there, especially when it's supported or egged on by others (if others agree, it can't really be wrong. Right?). Having 'others' in your head that constantly offering justifications and agreeing with you or each other is a great place to find that justification, especially if there's nowhere to escape too, no off button.

[ChuckF]

BBC has a not-so-good headline.

[Janet]

I am a horrible, horrible person. I have started thinking it would be a great conspiracy theory if the shooter was a Marvel employee trying to make sure The Avengers remains top blockbuster of the year. Sorry to burden you with my evilness, but I had to get that thought out of my head.

[Stephen Maturin]

Sometimes it seems like the universe is straight-up out to get certain people. One of the folks killed in Aurora last night escaped a similar incident at a Toronto, Canada shopping mall on June 2 when a "weird feeling" caused her to exit the area just before the shooting started.

[Clutch Munny]

Fuck.

[The Man]

Colorado shooter allegedly modeled himself after the Joker

gods FUCKING damn it

Media do not make people snap. People snap because they are crazy, or because they are simply shitty human beings. Playing Grand Theft Auto is not going to make someone go out and kill hookers, reading From Hell is not going to turn someone into Jack the fucking Ripper, watching Taxi Driver and reading Catcher in the fucking Rye did not make that asshole go shoot Ronald Reagan to impress Jodie Foster. They did it because they are shitty people.

The media shitstorm that is inevitably going to occur from this already has my blood boiling, and I haven't even heard any of it yet.