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  1. #23
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    How We All Miss the Point on School Shootings

    May 27, 2014 • by Mark Manson•

    n 1998, a high school junior named Eric Harris from Colorado wanted to put on a performance, something for the world to remember him by. A little more than a year later, Eric and his best friend Dylan Klebold would place bombs all over their school — bombs large enough to collapse large chunks of the building and to kill the majority of the 2,000 students inside — and then wait outside with semi-automatic weapons to gun down any survivors before ending their own lives.

    “It’ll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, WWII, Vietnam, Duke and Doom all mixed together,” Eric wrote in his journal. “Maybe we will even start a little rebellion or revolution to fuck things up as much as we can. I want to leave a lasting impression on the world.”

    Eric was a psychopath, but he was also smart.

    Despite what media outlets would later claim, Eric Harris was not the victim of bullying any more than other students, he was not a goth or a member of the “Trench Coat Mafia.” Eric was a straight-A student. He read Nietzsche and Hemingway for fun. He had friends and girlfriends. He was charming and funny and had a disarming smile.

    But Eric also understood people. And because he understood people, he changed everything.

    By 1999, there had already been a series of school shootings across the United States. But Eric wasn’t interested in those. They were small-time jobs, amateur hour. Eric was far more interested in Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 and injured 600. Eric wanted to top that. But he didn’t just want to top the body count, he wanted to top the notoriety, the fame, the horror. He wanted to terrorize people and he understood that his best weapon was not the guns he secretly purchased or the bombs he built in his basement — it was television. He would not kill jocks or preps, he would kill indiscriminately, because that’s what caused the most fear and got the most attention. He wouldn’t just blow up the school, but he’d blow up the parking lot, the police cars and the firefighters and the journalists who rushed to the scene. He would, quite literally, go out with a bang, the shockwaves of which, carried by mass media and the internet, would reverberate through the world for decades.

    On April 20th, Eric and Dylan arrived at Columbine and opened fire at teachers, students, administrators, janitors and police officers. Eric’s largest bombs failed to detonate and bring the building down as he had hoped, but that did not prevent the ensuing carnage that would last for almost an hour and leave 15 dead and 24 wounded.

    As chaos engulfed the school in Colorado, it would quickly fan out across the country, commanding more or less 24-hour television coverage for weeks on end. The drama would be replayed endlessly — bloodied and crippled students climbing out of the library window, the heroic coach who lost his life saving dozens of kids. And then there would be the questions and the speculation. Why? First it was goth culture and Marilyn Manson. Then it was bullying. Then it was being social loners and outcasts.

    All of the explanations were later discovered to be untrue. The event truly seemed inexplicable. And because it was inexplicable the media and the viewers couldn’t let it go. Books were written. Memorials were built and ceremonies filled out. Eric Harris got his death wish: “Columbine” was a household name.

    This past weekend, a student named Elliot Rodger from Santa Barbara City College killed six and injured 13, the latest in a long series of school shootings that are all but becoming a normal part of American tradition. As usual, the killer left a cache of material behind to explain his intentions and milk as much publicity for his personal grievances as possible. This time, the focus was on women, and how they wouldn’t have sex with him.

    Like they always do, the media have descended to explain away the madness. And like a Rorschach Test, each outlet had its own pet cause primed and ready to be read into the situation.

    Gun control advocates used the event as an opportunity to campaign for stricter gun control, despite the fact that Rodger bought his guns legally and easily passed the background checks.
    Mental health advocates used it as an opportunity to urge better mental health care, despite the fact that Rodger had a small army of therapists and social workers working with him for practically his entire life.
    Feminists used it as an opportunity to promote awareness for violence against women, despite the fact that Rodger killed indiscriminately and the majority of the victims turned out to be men.
    Social justice advocates used it as an opportunity to rail against white male entitlement, despite the fact that Rodger was mixed race and a significant number of school shooters have also been minorities (Two examples: Seung-Hui Cho and Kimveer Gill).
    All of these issues are legitimate and deserve conversation. But they are not the singular cause. They’re not the point.

    Because of my book, I’m connected within the men’s dating advice industry. And many of them are scrambling right now. Elliot Rodger was a member of a number of sites, email lists and Facebook groups. And all of these authors and dating coaches — some of them legitimately decent men, others shady marketers — are all frantically trying to cover their tracks as best as possible.

    But this “witch hunt” we go through every time a school shooting happens is a total ruse. Elliot Rodger didn’t become a killer because he was a misogynist; he became a misogynist because he was a killer. Just like Eric Harris didn’t become a killer because he loved violent video games; he loved violent video games because he was a killer. Just like Adam Lanza didn’t become a killer because he loved guns; he loved guns because he was a killer.

    Every school shooting incident comes in the same dreary package: an angry, politically-charged rant, shrink-wrapped around a core of mental illness and neglect. These shooters leave behind journals, videos, diagrams, manifestos and treatises. They broadcast their plans and intentions to their friends and family. They email news outlets minutes before they start firing. They write down their plans and make checklists so that others may follow in their footsteps. They go on angry rants against materialism, hedonism, the government, mass media, women, and sometimes even the people close to them.

    And each time, as a culture, we work ourselves into a frenzy debating the angry exterior message, while ignoring the interior life and context of each killer. We miss the point entirely.

    Reality Check

    According to the FBI, mass shootings (defined as shooting events that kill at least four people) occur on average every two weeks in the United States. Yes, every two weeks. Yet we rarely, if ever, hear about most of them. The reason is because these shootings are easily explainable. In most mass shootings, the crimes occur at a private location and the victims are people close and well-known to the shooter — family members, neighbors, friends. Many of them are attributable to gang violence or illicit criminal activities. Others are a crime of passion.

    School shootings only account for 4% of all mass shootings and yet they dominate the news media and get the entire country talking about them for weeks on end.

    There are a few reasons for this:
    1.They occur in everyday public locations which are supposed to be safe.
    2.The victims are targeted and killed at random.
    3.The victims are innocent bystanders and often children.
    4.The killers leave behind large amounts of material about themselves for the media to share.
    5.The perpetrator and victims are generally upper-middle class, white, and privileged.

    These shooters know what they are doing. They’re not “crazy.” They don’t just “snap.” Most of them spend months or years planning their massacres. Elliot Rodger had apparently been planning his shooting for over a year. You don’t just show up with a 140-page manifesto and a large stockpile of weapons one day. You work at it for a long time. And you plan not only the violence, but the presentation for the audience, the performance — what they will see from you, what they will hear from you, the reasons why, the message. It’s all very conscious and deliberate.

    And it works. Their killing sprees are specifically targeted to generate the most fear and uncertainty from the public, because the more fear and uncertainty they generate, the more attention they get. They then use all of the attention as a platform to promote themselves or whatever complaints they may have against society. It’s the Columbine formula. It works. And as Eric Harris pointed out in his journal, it’s not about the guns. It’s about the television. The films. The fame. The revolution.

    If this sounds like a familiar strategy, that’s because it is.

    http://markmanson.net/school-shootin...ampaign=buffer
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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  3. #24
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    While Obama visits Oregon, LOOK what just happened in Chicago…

    Written by Michelle Jesse, Associate Editor on October 9, 2015

    Even President Obama himself has made no secret of his intent to politicize last week’s tragedy in Roseburg, Oregon. He declared as much last week in his first comments about the shooting, just hours after the victims were struck while people were still reeling from the shock.

    Today, as he heads to Oregon — where some families of victims have declined his invitation, saying they don’t wish to be used as “political props” — Obama claims the focus will be on condolences, not politics. (Oh, and also on the fundraising stops in Oregon and San Francisco that were already planned — for which he can now get us taxpayers to foot the bill.)

    Given Obama’s professed care for the victims and their families — beyond his own political agenda — Obama must be planning a similar visit to his hometown of Chicago soon, given what just happened there.

    Via Breitbart:

    Chicago reached 59 murders and 362 gunshot victims in September, marking the Democratic-run city’s deadliest month since 2002, according to analysis by The Chicago Tribune.

    The last month of summer featured more homicides than any other month this year, and more than any summer month since the prior decade.

    According to the Tribune, September ended with two consecutive weekends during which more than 50 people were shot. There more than 40 shootings each weekend in August.

    September ended on a deadly note not just for the city in general, but for one South Side family in particular.

    On Sunday the 27th, a Chicago family was gunned down as they were returning home. One of the family members shot was an young boy, who was rushed to hospital by a Chicago cop, likely saving his life. But the boy’s grandmother and mother were killed at 7:30 PM, when the five family members were fired upon after arriving home that evening.

    When officers arrived they found the severely injured boy and instead of waiting for an ambulance they made the snap decision to drive the child to the hospital on their own. “The officer saw a seriously injured 11-month-old child and made a decision to transport that child immediately to a hospital,” Chicago Deputy Chief Eugene Roy said. “He made the right call, and he is somebody we are very proud of.”

    Police think that the targets were two men of the family who were both wounded in the drive by shooting. It is assumed the shooting was gang related.

    Last Friday, Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy laid out the CPD’s plans to attack illegal guns, including a new program that assigns a dedicated detective to gun cases who will track the “origin and flow” of the firearms involved.

    Notice the focus on illegal guns. Under some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, Chicago’s gun violence highlights the fact that laws don’t necessarily stop those people most likely to commit crimes. And even liberal rags like the Daily Beast acknowledge that there’s much more than guns to point at in this issue: troubled individuals — and communities even — are behind the guns that kill, citing interviews with Chicago residents and activists working to address the problem.

    Tio Hardiman, president of a non-profit that works to prevent minor beefs from turning into mass shootings says, “They’re killing babies, shooting mothers, shooting kids… The mentality is, ‘If I don’t like myself there’s no way I’m gonna like you.’”

    Community organizer Askari Ali puts it more bluntly.

    “They don’t appreciate life because they feel like their life not shit,” said the 26-year-old of kids coming up now. “So they got no problem taking your life.”

    Both Hardiman and Ali suggested a slew of fixes for the systemic violence plaguing their communities, which neighbor one another on the city’s West Side: jobs programs, community centers, intervention from people who can speak the same language as the 13- and 14-year-olds with no hope and easy access to guns, drugs, and street life.

    “A lot of these young people, all they have is their respect. They have nothing else,” said Davis. “And if someone disrespects them, they settle the score with guns.”
    But weren’t things for blacks supposed to get so much better under Obama, our first black president? It’s no wonder President Obama doesn’t want to “politicize” what’s going on in Chicago; it certainly doesn’t fit his agenda. Moreover, it lays bare his failure to address the root issues in the black community, even in his own hometown.

    Even so, if we’re to believe the president that he’s not just about politics — he ALSO cares about consoling victims and their families — surely he can swing Air Force One by Chicago on his way back from the West Coast, right? Granted, he would have to rent a hotel ballroom to fit all the victims and their families from the 59 murders and 362 gunshot victims in September alone.

    I guess maybe he couldn’t whip up enough Democrat fundraisers to make his trip worthwhile.

    http://www.allenbwest.com/2015/10/wh...ed-in-chicago/
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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    I don't understand how this thread can have 2,492 "views" and I am the only one commenting.
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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    Attention America: What REALLY Went Down in Roseburg!



    Tami Jackson on 10 October, 2015


    first hand report from a NATIVE Oregonian…

    Friday promised to be a splendid day: blue skies, a sunny 84 degrees, and a small town in Oregon busting at the seams with patriots.

    I was invited to the event by my friend and event co-organizer Casey Runyan (working with Michelle Finn), a former 0331 Infantry Machine Gunner Team Leader in the U.S. Marine Corps. I was excited to be at what many of us knew could be a seminal event, a gathering of real Oregonians who love America and her Constitution.


    This was our chance to show the nation the Oregon that exists outside the progressive enclaves of Multnomah County (Portland) and Lane County (Eugene), which bully the entire state. Those socialist activists are not the Oregonians I’ve known my whole life growing up in this stunningly beautiful state, but rather are Lefty imports largely from our neighboring state to the south.

    Getting ready for the day, my loadout consisted of my custom IWB JM Custom Kydex holster and Glock™ 19 Gen 3 — those of us who carry were encouraged to do so. Though I have a CC license, I tucked my t-shirt for an open carry display rather than the usual low profile.

    I made the 2 and 1/2 hour drive to Roseburg early, noting the traffic becoming thicker and slower as I neared the venue. It soon became clear that a motorcade (I’m told it was Governor Kate Unelected Brown’s convoy) impeded the route.

    Note: No, the police escorts will not allow drivers to pass on the right of motorcades. I can attest. And my friend, State Senator Kim Thatcher and hubby are my witnesses!

    I arrived at the corner of NW Stewart Parkway and NW Aviation Drive an hour or so early, and the crowd was already assembling. Smiling but determined people, many citizens of Douglas County and Roseburg, others from all over the state.

    I felt a special affinity for this community since I had lived here once as a little girl, and in fact my mom worked at KPIC TV in Roseburg. Interestingly, anchor John Doyle worked with my mom and at one point gifted me a cowgirl outfit that I loved and I believe it included a holster! Shades of things to come?

    I made my way down the block shaking hands, fist-bumping friends new and old, a virtual sea of happy, but determined to “take-it-no-more” patriots surrounding me. People waved American flags, smiled and called out, “Molon Labe!” The now famous “No-Bama” truck was prominently parked, easily visible to traffic on both streets.

    [IMG]http://barbwire.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/no-bama-truck-e1444503942779.jpg[IMG]
    © Tami Jackson Photography


    So many signs were everywhere, homemade and proudly held by kids, teens, adults and the elderly. I spoke to them all: every last one a kindred spirit hoping for a seachange in America. Hoping that others across our beloved nation will take our cue and begin to tell Obama and his ilk “NO MORE TYRANNY!!”


    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography



    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography


    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography

    And ALL of us were united in our disgust that Obama planned his visit in spite of the community NOT wanting him here (to the tune of millions of taxpayer dollars)! The message to Obama was loud and clear:


    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography



    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography



    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography

    And the Second Amendment message was equally loud and clear: it is our God-given, constitutionally-protected right. No occupier of the White House can strip us of our inalienable rights!



    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography



    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography

    Another recurrent theme of the signs and the sign-bearers was whole-hearted support for Second Amendment Champion, Sheriff John Hanlin. Further, I heard hundreds of folks thanking the police and state troopers who were present. Those police and troopers responded in kind, most of them thanking US for being there and standing up to the Administration and for our Second Amendment rights.

    In fact, one state trooper stopped me and thanked ME for carrying! He mentioned that it sent a terrific message to other women and citizens concerning the right to bear arms.



    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography



    © Tami Jackson Photography
    © Tami Jackson Photography



    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography


    © Tami Jackson Photography

    © Tami Jackson Photography

    There was an abundance of Mainstream Media present, looking for interviews with the attendees. I gave a few such interviews, although a couple entities turned me down when I answered honestly that yes, I was media. It soon became clear these so-called journalists were seeking to do the usual hit piece with their own narrative.

    I consented to do an interview with KATU Channel 2’s Emily Sinovic. Emily was gracious, and led me through a series of questions for about 5 minutes. I will never again trust ANY MSM unless the interview is live! Here’s the final video and my 6 allotted seconds:

    What I actually said?

    Emily: What is the purpose of this Roseburg event?

    My answer: We are Oregonians, patriots who love America and her Constitution. We disagree vehemently with the President’s policies and actions and we are outraged that he would dare to visit when the community made it clear he was not wanted here.

    Emily: What would you have done if you had been carrying and at Umpqua Community College that day?

    My answer: Without hesitation I would have stopped the threat.

    Emily: What would you say to those who might believe you’re being disrespectful to a sitting president?

    My answer: That’s nonsense. We wish him no harm. We just believe that when someone puts their hand on the Bible and swears to protect our Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and then with every action appears to be said domestic enemy of the Constitution, we want that person out of the White House. We want someone in the oval office who has the same love of country and allegiance to the Constitution that we all have. Period.

    Emily: What was the point of your being armed today?

    My answer: Casey asked any and all who do carry, to please carry as a show of Second Amendment solidarity. You might notice that this is an In the Waistband holster, intended for concealed carry, but I tucked my t-shirt in today so it would be evident I was packing.

    Emily: What would you say to those who believe that all of you are doing just what you’ve accused President Obama of doing — politicizing a tragedy?

    My answer: We are all standing with the people of Roseburg. They are in our continued thoughts and prayers and our outrage is due to Obama suggesting this should be politicized for more aggressive gun control and gun registration laws.
    That was most of the questions that I remember, none of which made Emily’s “highly edited” footage that focused on gun violence, with the parting shot being 2 lone Obama supporters in full biking regalia and helmets, holding an “I support Obama” sign and judging the hundreds of other attendees to be very disrespectful.

    I did manage to get a few shots of Obama’s motorcade and limo:



    © Tami Jackson Photography




    © Tami Jackson Photography
    Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?

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