One would think we have learned nothing from the 20th century.

Among the various news reports and statements by officials today, in the wake of the Aurora shootings, is a constant refrain that the shooter himself, James Holmes, is obviously insane, deranged, or otherwise non compos mentis -- indeed, that only a person so afflicted could carry out this act.

Horseshit. And I use that word very deliberately.

Did we somehow forget the tens of millions of people imprisoned, tortured, experimented upon, savagely raped, and/or killed in a variety of manners by Communist, Imperial (Japan), and Nazi governments? That this mass torture, rape and murder required extensive planning and prolonged effort by thousands of men and women who were otherwise well-educated, sane, rational, and from long-established civilizations? That people of high sanity and cultural refinement are capable of ordering, overseeing, and even carrying out absolutely horrific acts? The fact that equally horrific acts -- though on a smaller scale -- occur on a daily basis throughout much of the world, often approved or even carried out by the local government officials? (And let's not get into the child sex traffic among UN peacekeepers.)

Why, then, do we immediately assume Holmes is insane, when frankly all the evidence indicates otherwise? You do not complete an undergrad degree in neuroscience -- and then get accepted to grad school for a PhD in the same -- while being unable to understand exactly what you are doing.

Now, I am willing to grant that Jared Loughner -- shooter of Rep. Giffords and murderer of several bystanders -- may well be wacko. His history during the months leading up to the shooting strongly indicate bizarre behavior and strange obsessions. And besides, man, just look at him.

I am far less convinced that Holmes is crazy or insane. Unlike with Loughner, no one interviewed to date who has had contact with Holmes at various times in his life, including currently, has noticed anything peculiar or unusual about Holmes -- quite the contrary.

This was a very well-planned and executed attack. resulting in what I believe is now the largest mass shooting in US history. And it could have been far, far worse. There is speculation -- well founded, I believe -- that the reason Holmes left his apartment meticulously booby-trapped, with a single song playing loudly over and over again over his stereo system, was in the hope that someone (landlord, police, neighbor) would open the door to his apartment, set off the explosions, and thus draw all the first responders in the area to his apartment complex before he began his shooting rampage -- thus giving him more time to kill more people.

These are not the acts of someone who has lost touch with reality or who is otherwise delusional. They are, instead, the acts of someone who is very methodical and rational in his evil. If Holmes were truly crazy, he probably would have blown himself up while rigging his apartment or otherwise given away his plans. Instead, it is only through the providence that no one did, in fact, open his apartment door before his attack began that we are not dealing with an even more horrific list of casualties, both at the theaters and at his apartment complex.

Thinking on Holmes, I am reminded of the character Harold Lauder in Stephen King's novel The Stand: someone who is bright, capable, but for whatever reason comes to a decision to inflict his will on others through violence -- and yet clearly to the end is rational and has both choice and opportunity as to which path to pursue. However, so far at least, there is no indication that Holmes was ever overweight, pimply, unpopular and teased/rejected by his peers (as was Harold) -- most indications appear to be to the contrary.

When Sandra and I first spoke on the phone this morning about the Aurora massacre, while I was in the DFW airport en route to Denver, she wondered out loud what could have made Holmes do this. Knowing almost no details about Holmes at that point, I simply quoted Alfred from "The Dark Knight": "Some men just want to watch the world burn." Given Holmes reported self-identification as the Joker (though I will point out, as everyone seems to overlook, that the Joker usually has green, not red, hair), that statement may have been unconsciously prophetic.

And, no, the Joker (at least in "The Dark Knight") was definitely not insane -- he just was willing to operate well outside the norms of civilized society to achieve his ends.

As, apparently, was Holmes. ..fritz..

Posted by: Open Blogger at 06:32 PM | Comments (249)
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Evenin' morons. I'm a bit under the weather but as they say the show must go on. If the ONT sucks, who cares. Evidently, I Didn't Build It Anyway. So I guess all complaints should be sent to the White House.

Last year Washington state voters approved the privatization of liquor sales so they could finally buy the good stuff at the grocery store. Well, the state of Washington in its infinite wisdom added an additional 10 percent distributor fee and 17 percent retail fee to replace money the state lost when it shut down its state-run liquor stores. Gee, I wonder what happens next. Ta da! Washington's Newly Privatized Liquor Stores Sending Business To Oregon.

Oh, evidently Think Progress is calling for a boycott Of These Companies. Guess I know which businesses to give my money to! more...

Posted by: CDR M at 06:00 PM | Comments (400)
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-Warden

Not-American critic of U.S. constitutional rights, Salman Rushdie, has a big giant brain and wants you to know it.

And so upon hearing about the slaughter in Aurora, Rushdie raced to Twitter to drop this thoughtful insight:

The ‘right to bear arms’ is the real Bane of America.

Rushdie, fretful that everyone might be too focused on the horror of a baby being shot in the back at point blank range to properly appreciate what he'd done, capitalized Bane just to make sure everyone got the clever wordplay.

Surprising to no one whomever, Rushdie has a different take on guns when it's his own safety that's on the line.

Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born author whose novel ''The Satanic Verses'' prompted Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to call for his death, has spent the past six months living in British intelligence safe houses, cut off from friends and protected by armed guards, friends have said.

Ms. Wiggins has been quoted as saying she and her husband are keeping diaries, stay in touch with their families and with world events, and always have at least one armed bodyguard with them.

I guess a woman who's being stalked by an abusive ex-husband who's vowed to kill her should just hire a couple of 24 hour a day armed bodyguards, huh?

Same goes for the guy running a convenience store in a bad neighborhood.

Just about every loudmouthed gun control advocating celebrity has similar access to firearm-toting muscle. But you? Well, tough titty if you can't afford to hire out your protection.

They're leftists, they're rich, and they think correct thoughts, you see. And membership has its privileges.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 04:43 PM | Comments (94)
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The theory seems to make sense. It didn't work, but it agrees with his narcisstic "Joker" fantasy.

nvestigators now believe that Holmes used a timer to set off loud techno music at the apartment just before midnight. It was meant to spur a noise complaint to police. The ruse theoretically would have drawn them into the apartment building, detonating a firebomb and then drawing all available police and rescue units to the other side of town before the shooting at the theater started. That would have allowed him more time to kill more people and left a much smaller police response to the theater shootings.

Corrected: I initially thought an Adult Friend Finder page highlighted by Reddit and Mediaite actually listed the name "Jim Holmes." Turns out it doesn't; it only says "Jimbo."

I really have no strong reason to think this is the killer, so rather than being a Brian Ross, I'm deleting this link until there's confirmation.

Via JammieWearingFool.

Posted by: Ace at 04:22 PM | Comments (111)
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Well, I started to just lose my mind this week and asked my beloved cobloggers if there was any way they could handle the site for a week. They kindly told me they could.

Jammie Wearing Fool, Ben Howe, and even Damned Dirty RINO will be pitching in too. Plus the Weekend Bloggers, and plus the Open Bloggers.

But mostly it's going to be the cobs.

When you have a "business" like this, you never really feel comfortable going on vacation. I'm sure business owners get that. But I find myself more and more taking "unofficial, undeclared vacations," phoning it in, working short hours, and so on.

Which is all the drawback of a real vacation (in as much as I'm not doing good work) with none of the benefit of one (in as much I'm still pretending to work).

So, I figure, I need a break, and it's been a long time since I had one, so. I'm on vacation.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:26 PM | Comments (307)
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Since, after all, this comic book killed some people.*

Excellent post, with great links, from Instapundit. Even archliberal Kevin Drum thinks it's time for Brian Ross to find another job, and even Gawker calls him "breathtakingly reckless."

He should be working for reality tv or Jerry Springer. He has that huckster mentality.

Oh: See RD in the sidebar. Something I wanted to link all day. But I can't actually link a sidebar item.

Therein linked is Elizabeth "The Anchoress" Scalia's thoughts on "enthrallment" to political tribes.

* It's of course just speculation at this point that the killer was inspired by this similar scene from The Dark Knight Returns.

But let's ban comic books, and all movies which contain any amount of violence, just to be sure.

Posted by: Ace at 01:56 PM | Comments (118)
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A man walked on the surface of the moon. 43 years ago today, and a mere 66 years after Kitty Hawk.

66 years from the sands of North Carolina, wood, cotton fabric and a small gasoline powered engine, to the massive rockets of the Saturn V. Quite a leap.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 01:30 PM | Comments (151)
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Great video.

Here's the background:

Mohamed Elibiary is that hottest of commodities: The moderate Muslim who will stand forthrightly against terrorism. Youthful, engaging and well-spoken, ElibiaryÂ’s star has been on the rise for years. In October 2010, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano named him to the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

..

Investigative journalist Patrick Poole reported at PJ Media last week that “Elibiary may have been given access to a sensitive database of state and local intelligence reports, and then allegedly shopped some of those materials to a media outlet.” According to Poole, Elibiary approached “a left-leaning media outlet” with reports marked For Official Use Only that he said demonstrated rampant “Islamophobia” in the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS). The media outlet declined to do a story, but what was Elibiary doing shopping them Official Use Only documents in the first place?

Poole checked with Steve McCraw, Director of the Texas DPS, who “confirmed that Elibiary has access to the Homeland Security State and Local Intelligence Community of Interest (HS SLIC) database, which contains hundreds of thousands of intelligence reports and products that are intended for intelligence sharing between law enforcement agencies.” Said McCraw of Elibiary: “We know that he has accessed DPS documents and downloaded them.”

Questioned last week about Elibiary’s activities by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R.-Tex), Napolitano professed ignorance and didn’t even seem to know who he was—which strained credulity, because she swore him in to the DHS Advisory Council.

Gomert did not refer to him as a "terrorist." What he asked Napolitano about, repeatedly, was if he had in fact downloaded the sensitive files. Napolitano refused to give a straight answer, and instead offered a series of "Have you, at long last, no shame at all?" rhetoric.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:10 PM | Comments (81)
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A dozen states here, a dozen states there, and pretty soon you're talking about a serious number of states.

Unemployment rates rose in 27 states last month, the most in almost a year.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rates fell in 11 states and Washington, D.C. — the fewest declines since August. Rates were unchanged in 12 states.

As far as swing states -- Wisconsin lost jobs, but Ohio gained them.

Posted by: Ace at 11:35 AM | Comments (212)
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I was wondering what they were warning about -- was it the "red hair" thing? (No, as it turns out.)

It seems they mean this hoax, claiming that James Holmes was goaded into the shooting by lulz site 9gag.

Seems to be entirely made up, in order to knock 9gag.

Screencap of the post -- which was almost certainly made up after the shooting -- here.

BTW: Check out Supply Side Politics for a side-by-side comparison of Holmes and Lougher. Same psycho eyes (too much white showing at top and bottom), same barely-suppressed psycho laugh turning their mouths into a knowing smile.

Thanks to AltonJackson for that.

Posted by: Ace at 11:11 AM | Comments (127)
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