Gabby Gifford (AZ rep) shot

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Link please.

http://www.godhatesfags.com/

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Link please.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/09/westboro-baptist-church-arizona_n_806319.html

[Phox]

Ofuck. America over.

[The Ingenuous Hidalgo]

Come on folks, a sense of proportion please.

WBC is a small group of extremists, basically a large family, that picket US service personnel funerals and basically spend their lives acting like complete douche bags. They love getting taken to court, they love being hated. I sent a donation to the Patriot Guard Riders a couple of years back so they could buy some gas and ride out to funerals and blockade the WBC nutters.

Whilst repugnant the WBC hardly seems to be representative of anything other than the narrowest of narrow minded hate mentality. They cower behind the First Amendment. Here in the UK they would be prevented from publishing such vitriol because of our 'incitement' laws, which try and balance the right to free speech with the responsibility to not shout fire in a crowded room.

I doubt Robert Anton Wilson would be surprised by that reading list. Reading only that which reinforces your prejudices, and failing to take in other viewpoints, is a recipe for closed mindedness. Unfortunately in this case it seems that the individual was working with a faulty processor, and rather than getting clarity was instead locked into a fucked up ego fueled delusion. The media pundits and rent-a-expert will fill the airwaves with psychoanalysis for months to come.

Remember that Philip K Dick, Robert Anton Wilson and Kerry Thornley all navigated the labyrinth of Chapel Perilous. Dick received a cosmic message and produced the Exegesis, VALIS etc; RAW became an ultra-agnostic; and Thornley went from seeing everyone as a friend to fearing everyone as an enemy.

[BabylonHoruv]

Unless mentally ill, which is a rarity in and of itself, terrorists do not spring out of nowhere.  They are a product of the political environment in which they are situated.  There have been a number of violent attacks against minorities and liberal targets within America within the past few years, like the Glen Beck fan who shot up a Unitarian Church, or the Freerepublic poster who killed a guard at the Holocaust Memorial museum.  The judge who died recieved a number of death threats because he allowed illegal immigrants to file a lawsuit and rightwing radio stations kicked up a storm over it and encouraged the hysterial reaction.  There has been steady talk for years blaming every kind of imaginable and overblown ill on "the liberals" and equating liberal politicians and their supporters as traitors, fifth columnists and terrorist kissers.  Every time a "lone nut" like this gets slapped down, another ten take his place because no-one is interested in dealing with the root causes of terrorism, it's so much easier to play to the crowd and use it for short-term political gain.

I know if I lived in the current political climate in America, I would refuse to be drawn on political talk with strangers, invest in decent home security and practice with a gun frequently.

Judging by his youtube this guy certainly seems mentally ill.  However even the mentally ill are influenced by their environments.

[Suu]

Every time I see the WBC acting up, I always try to tell myself that they're just trolling us. 

[Phox]

Come on folks, a sense of proportion please.

WBC is a small group of extremists, basically a large family, that picket US service personnel funerals and basically spend their lives acting like complete douche bags. They love getting taken to court, they love being hated. I sent a donation to the Patriot Guard Riders a couple of years back so they could buy some gas and ride out to funerals and blockade the WBC nutters.

Whilst repugnant the WBC hardly seems to be representative of anything other than the narrowest of narrow minded hate mentality. They cower behind the First Amendment. Here in the UK they would be prevented from publishing such vitriol because of our 'incitement' laws, which try and balance the right to free speech with the responsibility to not shout fire in a crowded room.

I doubt Robert Anton Wilson would be surprised by that reading list. Reading only that which reinforces your prejudices, and failing to take in other viewpoints, is a recipe for closed mindedness. Unfortunately in this case it seems that the individual was working with a faulty processor, and rather than getting clarity was instead locked into a fucked up ego fueled delusion. The media pundits and rent-a-expert will fill the airwaves with psychoanalysis for months to come.

Remember that Philip K Dick, Robert Anton Wilson and Kerry Thornley all navigated the labyrinth of Chapel Perilous. Dick received a cosmic message and produced the Exegesis, VALIS etc; RAW became an ultra-agnostic; and Thornley went from seeing everyone as a friend to fearing everyone as an enemy.

Thing is, approximately 60% of the churches in the area I live ascribe to the same set of beliefs as the WBC yahoos. They just keep it in their vile little chapels, until they find out you don't agree with them. So... yeah.

And the second half of your speech is, erm... confusing. To be blunt: What's your point?

[the last yatto]

To offer a counterpoint:

Books:
I had favorite books: Animal Farm, Brave New World, The Wizard Of OZ, Aesop Fables, The Odyssey, Alice Adventures Into Wonderland, Fahrenheit 451, Peter Pan, To Kill A Mockingbird, We The Living, Phantom Toll Booth, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Pulp,Through The Looking Glass, The Communist Manifesto, Siddhartha, The Old Man And The Sea, Gulliver's Travels, Mein Kampf, The Republic, and Meno.

ETA: Quote fixt.

Guess MKu dropped catcher and the rye from their zombie's reading list

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Every time I see the WBC acting up, I always try to tell myself that they're just trolling us. 

It's actually hard for me to believe that they're not trolling. I just can't quite wrap my brain around it.

[Chairman Risus]

I've been keeping up with this through this collection of links.
http://thedailywh.at/post/2670544452/arizona-shooting-news-round-up-university

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Project GabbyGASM: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=27979.0

[BadBeast]

According to the sheriff they think he had an accomplice.

IMPOSSIBLE! THE FORENSICY GUY SAID THAT THERE WAS NO WAY HE WOULD HAVE A PARTNER! AND HE'S AN EXPERT!

They can't roll with the "Lone Nut" scenario if there was a partner. Otherwise it would have to be, . . . .erm, Political, and they don't want to have to examine her Politics too closely, or she'll end up a Martyr for all those "Civil Rights" Lunatics. Can't have that, so they'll go with "Lone Nut". And it is Tuscon, after all.
The only thing I can compare that with that happened here recently, was when some  LibDem MP was attacked in his office, by someone with a Samurai sword. Who'd already chopped his secretary into bits on his way in. But that wasn't Political, that was a "Lone Nut" too. It's hardly ever to do with Politics, it seems. At least, not for Politicians.    

[BadBeast]

According to the sheriff they think he had an accomplice.

IMPOSSIBLE! THE FORENSICY GUY SAID THAT THERE WAS NO WAY HE WOULD HAVE A PARTNER! AND HE'S AN EXPERT!

They can't roll with the "Lone Nut" scenario if there was a partner. Otherwise it would have to be, . . . .erm, Political, and they don't want to have to examine her Politics too closely, or she'll end up a Martyr for all those "Civil Rights" Lunatics. Can't have that, so they'll go with "Lone Nut". And it is Tuscon, after all.
The only thing I can compare that with that happened here recently, was when some  LibDem MP was attacked in his office, by someone with a Samurai sword. Who'd already chopped his secretary into bits on his way in. But that wasn't Political, that was a "Lone Nut" too. It's hardly ever to do with Politics, it seems. At least, not for Politicians.    

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

The fact that the forensics guy was so quickly willing to make sweeping statements about the guy's mental health, and denounce the possibility of an accomplice, just screams "shill".

[Jenne]

...well, now we have our "Second Amendment Solution" that the Tea Partiers rallied to with such fervor.  Cain's point about the shepherd and the sheep is spot-on, and it's lovely to watch the George Wills of the talking bobbleheads blame the Jon Stewarts for this sort of uh polemic tragedy.