I don't want to spend a lot of time on this; it is out of my usual preoccupations, but I can't help but note how the media always seems to get these stories wrong, and always in a way to benefit the progressive narrative.
The "shooter," of course, is not a member of some right-wing militia, or of a neo-Nazi group, or even of a Tea Party group. He is not even white, not even born in the USA, and might not even be a US citizen. He is half-Asian/half-white born in the UK to British parents, one of whom is a mildly famous movie director, assistant director, and photographer, and the son of a genuinely famous photographer. This immigrant "shooter" was the child of Hollywood privilege. It seems from his YouTube "manifesto" that he wanted for nothing material; was full of self-regard and self-esteem; possessed an insufferable air of superiority; and had horrendous mommy and step-mommy issues--he posted a collection of nude photos of his step-mother taken by his father. He whined that women did not like him--perhaps they picked up the "gay vibes" he apparently gave off. He felt entitled to women's attentions and favors because, as he said, he was, "so awesome." Any honest poll of guys that age would find 97% agreeing with that sentiment, but not engaging in a killing spree because of it.
By the way, the reports of his having shot seven dead were wrong. He mortally knifed three male Asian roommates, fatally shot another man and two women, and injured several more people with his car before he either killed himself or died at the hands of the police. The headlines could just as accurately screamed, "Murderous Knifing Spree ends in Shooting." Journalists always seem to include the dead killer in the killer's total; I don't.
It seems he bought the guns legally in California, a state with some of the most draconian gun laws on the books, easily passed the background check and waiting periods, and then went on a knife and gun rampage in one of the most "gun free" towns in California, the ultra-liberal Isla Vista location of the ultra-liberal University of California, Santa Barbara campus. His "anti-woman" rampage cost the lives of four men--three of them Asian and one with an Hispanic last name--twice the number of white women, but the press focus is on the women angle and the shooting when, in fact, he killed as many people with a knife as he did with a gun. He killed fewer with a gun than were killed at the "gun free" Brussels Jewish Center by an unknown assailant the same day.
One, of course, can forgive the tearful outbreak of the bereaved father of one of the men killed for blasting the NRA and "lax" gun laws, but note that he's picked the wrong target. All indications I have read--and they might be wrong--are that the killer's family was a highly dysfunctional one in which the killer got little of the attention he craved and seemed to think he deserved. The father, of course, helped make an ultra-violent film fantasy, "The Hunger Games," which has a beautiful teenage girl slaughtering other good-looking teenagers for the entertainment of the crowd.
As we saw with the case of the Marin County jihadi, John Walker Lindh, another child of liberal privilege who wanted to engage in mass killing, ultra-liberal parenting produces weirdos. I will wager that when all is said and done, Elliot Rodger is one of those weirdos.
One almost comes to the conclusion that if we had abortion and a strict gun
I am inclined to agree with the statement that being anti-gun should disqualify firearm ownership, except for the fact that the 2nd amendment applies to all of us, including those who are anti-gun.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that there was no respect given to firearms. The father has stated, “We are a very anti-gun family”. Sort of like the preacher’s daughter and sexual repression. What is forbidden becomes coveted, and then expressed in the most scandalous manner. The problem is the preacher’s daughter gets pregnant, and the anti-gun son goes and murders people.
If all your life you are brought up to believe that firearms are nothing more than tools of slaughter. What pray tell will you do with one should you lay hand to one and you are a bit angry?
My observation is that those who are anti-gun are usually anti-gun because they personally feel that they have limited control over their own actions and emotions. They could envisage shooting someone in a moment of anger, therefore everyone else must be the same.
Deleterickw, Australia
It would also appear that he was on psychotropic drugs and seeing mental health specialists (who would have thought?)
ReplyDeleteThe Press, they just keep trying to beat that square peg into that round hole. Didn't work the first 5 times, but they keep getting a bigger hammer.
ReplyDeleteThe sad part is the fact the police can't do anything until the suspect does something wrong.
ReplyDeleteV
Our society is showing the scars of "liberal culture", not a gun culture. The mentally ill need to be identified and helped. Criminals are not heroes or victims. They should be locked away. It is liberals who should be registered long before guns.
ReplyDeleteI live in Santa Barbara and can sympathize with your description of IV, which the rest of us sane folks (all dozen or so) avoid like the plague. Several years ago we had another Hollywood child kill 4 people by plowing his Beemer into a group of students on the street. He was a freshman UCSB student on some cocktail of psychotropics and went off his rocker, if not his meds. No one seems to want to report the similarities but no surprise here.
ReplyDeleteHere is the link to the last Hollywood child gone astray: http://patdollard.com/2014/05/flashback-2001-i-am-the-angel-of-death-hollywood-directors-uc-santa-barbara-student-son-goes-on-killing-rampage-on-santa-barbara-streets-4-dead/
ReplyDeleteI have spared myself "The Hunger Games", but my understanding is that, through one miracle or another, the heroine is spared actually slaughtering anyone, except one so grievously wounded that he begs for death.
ReplyDeleteThis is sort-of like golf in which the wind, or a majestic bird, lifts your ball from tee to hole, miraculously--on every single hole.
It cannot be said that Jolly Rodger, Sr., was fixated on grainy black-and-white 8-millimeter handheld front-line wounded-while-you-get-the-shot realism.
Is that heritable?
The point was that daddy was a full participant in the violence as entertainment culture which somehow liberals can find as even partly culpable for violence in society.
Deletecan't find as even
DeleteNoted and agreed.
DeleteBut I was further pointing out a certain lack of reality, perhaps in general but certainly in connection with deadly violence, on the part of Rodgers Père that perhaps also informed Rodgers Fils.
Purely speculation, of course.
In All fairness, Step mom, like a lot of Moroccan women, has a dynamite body. Other than that this spoiled little snowflake can burn in hell along with every other leftist murderer .
ReplyDeleteRead an article in 'The Telegraph' regarding this. Turns out the perp was in therapy since age 8 and (surprise surprise) was on meds most of his childhood.
ReplyDeleteJust another example of the Progressive method of raising children...Medicate them, never say "NO," give them everything they want, stand around mystified when they turn out to be mal-adjusted little a-holes who can't handle the realities of adulthood.
And, deny the kids any meaningful life experiences, as in being of service to others, or working with others to achieve a meaningful goal. This isn't just children of privilege, it is now far too many of our children everywhere. Whatever happened to Outward Bound and similar programs.
DeleteAnd he started therapy at age 8 after his parents divorced at age 7. Parents are being brainwashed into thinking this has little effect on their children: "We can't get along, we don't want our kids to see people not getting along, so we should just divorce!"
ReplyDeleteThis guy's screed goes into detail about how his father was just an awesome man because he ditched his wife and had another beautiful girlfriend immediately after. He also points out that this split was the end of his happiness and the end of his happy memories.
No, not all children of divorce end up as mass murderers obviously, but divorce can definitely set kids off in the wrong direction. Why take that chance? Because the parents think they're missing out on their single life? Because some scam artist invents the word 'conscious decoupling' for it?
Just like everything else: If you ain't gonna see it through, don't take the friggin job.
We shouldn't want to be like progressive scumbags, we should aim to be like those marines in Ramadi.
http://www.businessinsider.com/john-kellys-marines-in-ramadi-2014-5
- reader #1482
I note what are to me excellent comments, remarkable actually, from a conservative psychiatrist, full fledged years of practice, over at http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/24356-Mad-or-bad.html puts a certain reality slant on it all, which covers a lot of things related, many of which I've sure seen through the years, to wit:
ReplyDelete“Psychiatry has little influence over evil. That's for theology. Evil fantasies are things we (and everybody, pretty much) deal with routinely, but actions are another matter.” The devil is stronger than we doctors are. Some evil is everywhere, from boardrooms to government to priests and pastors to teachers to cities to campuses. Please do not tell me that this kid had "PTSD," or an "anger management problem." Some people lack a moral compass almost entirely, but that moral compass spectrum spans from none to spotty to obsessionally scrupulous and fearful. We can deal with the latter relatively easily, but not the former.
The truth is that some people are born to be hanged, and, at the least, removed from the gene pool.
We too often piously imagine that happy and good are default settings for humans as if we could get everybody there with a rearranged psyche and a right environment (we term that "psycho-utopian"). It's an evil lie and an evil vision because it denies the existence of evil itself.
My life, and history, has taught me that sin has great power. For all we know, violence, deceit, and destruction of good cheer are the default settings, and civilized behavior a special, difficult undertaking. That happens to be what Freud concluded, and he was smarter and a deeper thinker than I am. Not to mention many prophets, and Christ himself.
It is a positive comment on our level of Western civilization that we are surprised by gross acts of evil rather than taking them for granted. Quite remarkable in human history.
Good and evil remain the basics, as they always have done."
She comments now and again about a number of things related to her specialty and being conservative in life. Also explains the evil ones who are commanded in the koran and hadiths to emulate even worse actions and examples of the master devil crazed criminal of all, mohammad himself.
She says my two cents worth re: loser Rodgers, et al.
Jack
I forgot to add, according to this report, http://cnsnews.com/news/article/sheriff-calif-gunman-killed-3-people-home 3 were knifed dead as male roommates, 4 were injured by automobile as weapon intentionally to presumably kill, and others were KIA and injured by gunfire, totaling 13 or so apparently according to the sheriff's office.
ReplyDeleteDip's analysis provides a high level of insightfulness. Combined with this article, it is a ridiculous tale of woe, as Dip outlines. Tragedy of course, but when you see the details Dip points out, truly a ridiculous life lived and lost at home, with a family clueless still. Another tragedy is the thought of the existence of so many more such clueless families.
Jack
How is it Jack "we realize from Same" I'll never guess - or try to. Explains the lack of an Interrogative grammatical
ReplyDeleteQuestionmark - Liberally speaking.
http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2014/05/the-problem-gun-culture-or-liberal-culture.html
With the decay in society that seems to be out of control, I think it would be reasonable to be concerned that there will be more mentally deranged people walking around the streets and that for some of them, violence will be a potential outcome. This raises the question - Is it unreasonable to keep guns out of the hands of people who are known to have mental issues? Of course, restricting the flow of legally obtained weapons is not going to necessarily keep the nuts from getting them, but I think that there should be some effort/system check in place to red flag anyone who has serious mental issues, however that may be defined. My fear is that if the right deny that this is a problem, they will lose ground to the real anti-gunners who have a much wider range to their agenda. Yes, these killing sprees have nothing to do with guns, but with more and more incidents, it seems to me that any effort to keep guns away from the deranged, makes sense.
ReplyDeleteThe theory is good; the practice is the problem. Should any contact with a mental health professional disqualify you from second amendment rights? That will discourage people from seeking help. In addition, given the sort of abuse we see of data bases, there is little to no hope that this information wold not be used for other purposes. It is just giving bureaucrats and "health professionals" even more control over our lives.
DeleteI can't disagree with anything you've said above, which makes this whole subject quite a challenge. I can't imagine a scenario or a society in which mental health and gun ownership would not be a legitimate concern. The rights and liberties question will, no doubt, be front and center in any debate or discussion on the subject, but it seems to me that doing nothing is only empowering the anti-gun lobbyists.
DeleteI know someone who worked at the Pentagon, he thought having ADHD was a job requirement for the area he worked in, with all the different things you had to worry about at the same time. He told me no one would go see a shrink, it would put the kiss of death on your career.
DeleteSeems like there is an effort to keep those with PTSD from having guns. The problem is not people with mental illness having guns, it is in finding the 1% of 1% who will kill themselves or others. When we emptied the mad houses, many were able to live productive lives. Yet many are now the homeless, or in prison because the only place you get help now is after you commit a crime and are sent to jail. We gave mental illness civil rights.
I know how difficult it is for parents of an adult with mental illness. If they don't want to take medication there is nothing you can do to make them. If we are going to do anything useful from this, it is in asking do we make it easier to lock someone up because they MIGHT be dangerous. Who decides?
Was at an interesting presentation at a church a few years ago. It was on the subject of mental health. A pastor was described as bi-polar (manic-depressive for us older folk). The speaker explained that the pastor was a wonderful asset when manic, producing all kinds of good things, which others benefited from. Of course during crashes.... It reminded me of the old joke of the woman who complains to her doctor that her brother thinks he is a chicken, and then when the doc suggest he come in to be treated says: "but we need the eggs."
I facilitated a support group for parents with kids with severe emotional problems. We had a cop explain most cops had no training in dealing with the mentally ill, so it was dangerous to call the cops because they didn't know what to do.
Most mental illness is more likely to keep you from acting. The OCD that Howard Hughes suffered from kept him from normal contact for decades. Churchill suffered from depression (what he called the black dog). Should he have been kept from a position of power?
We don't understand the brain. We are still at the alchemy stage, where we say try this pill, if it doesn't work we will try another. Yet at least we are at the alchemy stage, we have some pills that might help. Howard Hughes, one of the richest men in the world, all his money could not buy what someone today can buy at the local drug store.
Two years ago I got horribly, horribly drunk. I called someone and told them I wanted to die. Next thing I know, two policemen came to my door. I was coming out of the shower and heard a great commotion. My dog Ty, a pit bull, was out front with the policemen with a ball in his mouth barking and wanting to play. One of the officers had his gun drawn and was about to shoot my dog.
DeleteThey placed me in handcuffs and did not allow me to even turn the TV off in my home or to get a shirt! They put me in a psychiatric lock up. A net was thrown over me and I was injected in both arms with something that caused me to pass out. I woke up strapped to a gurney. It was freezing cold in there and all I had on was a pair of shorts and a teddy. I sat huddled in a blanket with nothing to eat or drink for 36 hours. Finally a psychiatrist interviewed me. He wanted to know why I didn't know my husband's cell phone number. My husband was out of the country at the time. I told the shrink that I wasn't good at number combinations, the only thing I could think to say at the time.
The fact is that my husband's numbers are on speed dial. All I need to do is call "Andy office" or "Andy cell". I have never needed to memorize his cell phone or office number. I don't know them to this day... The shrink thought that significant. Anyway, neither of those numbers work when he is out of the country.
I know I am rambling but, having been detained and done that. I can tell you it is one big load of crap. Do you actually think that the "medical professionals" that man these places actually give a damn? Hell, they didn't even feed me! I think the only reason they released me in 36 hours was because I became demanding of my medications, thyroid and high blood pressure.
I am so terribly sorry that I got drunk. I will never again say anything to anyone that will bring the police to my door.The bruises on my wrists from the handcuffs and the restraints on the gurney took two weeks to go away, I sought legal recourse. No one would touch it.
I think my greatest regret was putting my dog's life in danger. He is the sweetest baby dog you would ever want to meet. Unfortunately, he has a mouth like a croc... A soft mouth but it is huge.
DeleteMy second regret is to my husband. He showed up about one hour after I was dragged away to a house wide open (the cops didn't allow me to lock the doors) a dog beside himself and the TV on. I told the police repeatedly that my husband would be home in an hour, he had already landed at JFK. They didn't care.
I have waking nightmares to this day of the police coming to my home.
I would also like to say that we have no guns in our home. We have never had guns. The fact that I was dragged off to the psy lock up because I was drunk makes it illegal in the state of NY for us to ever own a firearm. I am not now on any kind of psycotropic drugs. Yes, when my mother died and I was involved in 2 car crashes involving illegal immigrants did I seek psychiatric care to help me get over the rage. And yes, medication was used to help with my PTSD from the car crashes that came within 6 months of my mother dying...
DeleteThe most lethal weapons we have in our home is the knife set my husband bought in the early hours while watching infomercials by Ron Popiel! The knives came with a wooden block to house them and a sharpening tool. We have had them for many years.
So a 22-year-old son of Hollywood privilege goes on a murder spree, killing 6 and then himself. People who write for a living mount their favorite hobby horses and tell us “what it all means.”
ReplyDeleteSince we are all critics now, I want to get in on the action. What do we know? Quite a lot, actually. The killer wrote a “manifesto:” apparently a must-do for people who want to go out with a bang, and who have the time and leisure to chronicle their lives. I read the whole thing and it's fascinating because it reads like a movie script for a really bad film.
It seems that his hang-up is that he couldn't get girls. Living in Hollywood, rich, and couldn't get to first base. Which is strange, but also quite revealing. He lived in the epicenter of getting girls. Hollywood is all about getting girls. It is Jannah, the Islamic Paradise of girl getting. Men go there to find sexual objects – both female and male. Women go there to be gotten, advertising their attributes, real and enhanced. They are not shy or demure about it. Miley Cyrus rides an inflatable phallus and gets rich and famous for doing so. Some of the town’s hottest starlets made their debuts starring in their own home-made porno-flicks.
Closer to home, the killer’s father was not only in the movie industry, but sold “art” pictures of naked women. So what’s a 22 year old virgin to do when the thing that's at the center of his entire culture is denied to him? When his sexual pressure-cooker gets overheated? He blows up. And takes six people with him. His victims were the victims of a nut, made crazy by a culture where sex is literally everything: money, power, validation, gratification and identity. At one point he concludes that the route to sex is more money, lots of it, so he buys lottery tickets. He urges his mother to marry one of the wealthy men she knows so that he can be part of a uber-rich family and blames her for his sexual failure.
In other times and other places, people like Elliot Rodger may have become a hermit, a priest or found another objective. But he was living in a place and time where sex was the center of everything. In a strange and inverted way, Elliott Rodger, insane killer, was made by Hollywood.
Excellent commentary. You said it much better than I did.
DeleteMy two cents: I think he was gay and didn't want to admit it.
DeleteROTFLMAO...my Gaydar was so pegged on this guy.
DeleteHe wanted to be an Alpha Male...a GOD!!!!
Now he will forever be known as the "Couldn't get laid in a whorehouse killer."
Some anon on the weapons board of 4chan made the priceless observation that someone should have introduced this kid to cocaine. Not only would he have gotten an immediate self-esteem boost whenever he wanted one, he'd have chicks crawling all over him at any party he attended.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is this item, in the tangled web of ‘Oh what ? we weave’:
ReplyDelete"MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR, ONE OF A PAIR OF LESBIAN LOVERS, WHO MURDERED IN THE BATHTUB HER EX LOVER'S 2 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER, TRIED TO MURDER HER OWN 10 YEAR OLD SON.”
From Happy Acres, and Daily Mail, see details: http://happyacres.tumblr.com/post/87011520104/lucas-and-jamason-are-both-licensed-mental-health http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2640660/Mental-health-counselor-Kymberley-Lucas-murdered-lesbian-lovers-2-year-old-daughter-bathtub-breakup.html
And for an additional viewpoint and details of the ridiculous nature of life and times we are stuck in:
https://medium.com/@lucyinglis/eaee5b1fe1f3
It’s a reality viewpoint based on the Rodgers mess, and a bit like a tour of a septic tank, which can be said about much of our society, these days.
Jack
Is the real question the “gun”? Not at all! What about how he got the knife that he killed-murdered three roommates with first, (and how’d he get away with murdering three roommates, not one roommate had a gun or knife with which anyone effectively did anything to take out the attacker), and what about the attempted-murder weapon, namely the lethal car, very expensive, he tried to kill several others with, and so far at least injured those 4 others with???
ReplyDeleteHow did his totally fouled up family (including production of sick-themed movie features-hunger game and whatever else imaging and rehearsing and homework that we don’t know of yet, which is likely because you don’t produce perfected one off movies or shows without additional footage to be edited down, and a lot of practice rehearsing in the genre of craziness) lead to his behavioral mental condition, including porn or naked pictures, taken by his dad of his stepmother, which somehow Elliot had access to and posted on the web for all to behold? This style of childhood living conditions is often in the psychology-sociology community referred to as abusive or emotionally disturbing conditions of childhood, (not even remotely stable and secure and anchored to reality and goodness, and other good people of society) which times are ideally supposed to be secure in love and stability and guidance (rarely are such things so these days, I’d guess), or consequences will have to be dealt with, effectively, or not. The not part is why such a significant percentage of adults are dealing with baggage and issues, of consequence to their work and social life. And yes, gross overweight is often one type of overt symptom among a number of minor to major less than desirable realities of childhood-hint]
What’s the conclusion of the whole mess of reality? People screw up, things happen, plans and good intentions get crossed up, ignorance or laziness allows bad happenings. Unexpected tragedies occur. Sometimes good things come out of it all in spite of it all, and also, the opposite occurs.
It gets really bad, however, when people organize to make all the things go wrong, intentionally, and make it a cult to invite evil and the devil itself to reign—really, really, bad.
So which is better, an imperfect society of a lot of failed upbringings and random tragedies, or an intentional cult, bent on all being brainwashed to excuse and authorize all the death and destruction workable, in very large numbers?
Jack
Ah, yes. My father was a psychiatrist in the 1960s and I remember when he would say the Sheriff had brought him some "crazy" guy for observation. They could lock him for a couple of days and see what was what. That all disappeared and both conservatives and liberals are to blame for it.
DeleteI spent a summer working in a VA psych hospital when I was a medical student in 1962. The inmates called themselves "crazy," too. "That's when I was really crazy."
DeleteThe chief said, "Anybody who wants to get into a nut house is crazy." And they did.
I blame Jack Nicholson ("One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest")
DeleteThe Australian leftwing 'public' broadcaster SBS ran this as their first item on the evening news: the *second* sentence out of the anchor's mouth was about 'America's lax gun laws'. The next story was the shooting at the Brussels Jewish Museum. Funnily enough, not one word about 'Belgium's lax gun laws'. Next day, leftwing ABC radio was refusing to 'speculate' on the possible motive of the Jewish museum shooter. If he had shot up a gay bar, or an abortion clinic, or a women's centre, they would be 'speculating' like crazy about the motive.
ReplyDeleteSaw this comment elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteGiven that with a notable exception (1927 Bath School disaster), every school massacre in US history occurred after the Community Mental Health Act of 1963 (CMHA) was passed, it used to be fairly easy. That is, it was until just about every possible bizarre human behavior imaginable was excused because everyone is a "precious little snowflake, no two of whom are alike".
Cops used to be able to tell -- if you looked batshit crazy to a cop, who didn't spend an awful lot of time studying abnormal psychology, you were pretty darn crazy. Batshit people were taken to the ER or the psych hospital where they could be helped by trained professionals. Now that's nearly impossible. In the 51 years since CMHA passed we've had several generations of cops and courts unlearning common sense, and and learning the futility of applying common sense. Yes, they could have taken batshit-crazy "Precious Snowflake" Rodger in for a psych exam, but it would have been a waste of time, and Rodger probably would have sued them.
Instead of locking up dangerous people in cages, normal people need to lock themselves in cages now.
I'm just ranting. We're not going back to 1962. The politicians have better ways to spend tax dollars to buy votes than even paying for inadequate state psychiatric care. I expect homeless crazy people to live in boxes under bridges, and generations future Rodgers to massacre their roommates with tools they could buy at Sears ... well, forever. It's cheaper and easier for the politicians.
I heard on the news last night that Kalifornia is looking at additional guns laws.
ReplyDeleteFreakin' BRILLIANT...
If only we had a Law against killing people.
DeleteWait....what?
http://maverickphilosopher.typepad.com/maverick_philosopher/2014/05/guns-ten-important-observations.html
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday, radio report mentioned the "mass shooting"....
ReplyDeleteStrangely, no mention of the "mass stabbing" or the "rash of pedestrian injuries".
"Mass" = THREE
So, if I give the writer three jelly beans, I can brag about the largess of my "mass" gift, likewise if I have a three baseball caps I therefore am the owner of a "mass" of caps.
Gee, this new fuzzy math is really fun! And to think I wasted 10 hours of college math, up through Intermediate Calculus, and missed this stunning discovery.
Leave it to our Liberal Journalists to properly educate the masses. OH! There's that word again "masses," meaning, I suppose, that at least three people follow them?
Hmm....
Ha!
DeleteThe truth is that if this played out in say, Compton, it would not have been called a "mass shooting" and would have been lucky to be reported on page three of the local rag, but do it to some cracker kids from the 'burbs serving their four years at the Special Snowflake Warehouse & Indoc Center and the nation just loses its collective shit. Bottom line is that busting caps in three people's asses is a lot bigger deal if you do it out the window of an '08 Bimmer instead of a '94 Caprice. Clearly, the MSM are totally racist.
ReplyDeleteSo the kid owned three brand name handguns plus a BMW.
ReplyDeleteHe could have easily paid for a full semester of sex training from a prostitute.
Obviously, the punk wasn't thinking straight.
http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-you-didnt-do-that-society.html
ReplyDeleteDan Greenfield with an incredible summation of the farce, of course a worth read.....
Jack