Anti-Obama Paranoia Leads Man to Kill His Family

I'd like to start this, by expressing my very sincere condolences to the friends and family of the slain. This was a terrible tragedy, no matter your politics or creed.
It should also never have happened.

As it says in this article, a Virginia man named Albert Peterson -- a defense contractor with a history of mental illness -- was so paranoid about the prospect of Barack Obama winning the November election, that he not only killed himself, but his wife and two sons. I'm prepared to be wrong about this, but I can't recall ever hearing about this happening before, at least in North America.

Clearly the man was already unstable, but I can't help but wonder if his paranoia was fed to an extreme degree, by the sort of insane rhetoric that we see from Fox News, right-wing talk radio, and the Tea Party. On Blogspot ALONE there are bloggers who blather about Obama being a scary Muslim socialist, out to kill grandma and retarded babies, who has already driven people to suicide over the economy, and who will "rightly" be kicked out in the election -- despite not a single one of those statements being true to date (and HIGHLY unlikely to ever be true). It is also why I find it galling, that Google has been slow to take down an anti-Muslim hate film that played a direct part in a global crisis that has killed 50 people to date, why it took the FBI several weeks to arrest any of the people responsible, that various blog moderators refuse to penalize users that post inflammatory material, and that the Tea Party is almost never held accountable for its long history of violent threats.

How many people have to die? When is enough, enough?

If you're not a liberal, fine. If you would never vote Democrat, fine. But remember, when someone says "I'd rather die, than see _____ in the Oval Office!" it's not supposed to be taken literally. As much as I loathe Mitt Romney, Stephen Harper, Tim Hudak, etc. it would take a lot more than their usual antics, for me to consider killing myself over them. I'd much rather try to vote them out.

And please, to anyone reading this, who knows someone THIS upset over the election, GET THEM TO A HOSPITAL RIGHT NOW. I don't care if they rave about "socialized health care", or if you normally don't trust it yourself -- it's either that, or more of THIS bullshit happens.

It's LONG past time, America, for you to get your act together. Your people's lives are now quite literally depending on it. Enough said.

Georgia vs. Troy Davis (and Justice)

So at 7 pm tonight, barring some attack of sense, the State of Georgia is going to execute convicted cop killer Troy Davis.

Despite most of the witnesses RECANTING their testimony.

And no murder weapon being found.

And there being no real evidence that Davis did anything wrong.

But plenty of evidence of racism in the police and DA's office.

...And of course, who is cheering for this, but the same holier-than-thou conservatives that claim to be pro-life, devoutly Christian, and very much against invasive government (unless they're trying to kill a black man, apparently). And lest anyone think I'm just another "bleeding heart" liberal playing the race card, take a look at execution statistics in America; not only are there many cases of innocent men being put on Death Row, but the vast majority of the people being sentenced to death, are black -- even when the crimes that sent them there are no worse than those of many white people who are spared the needle.

But I digress -- it looks a hell of a lot like the State of Georgia is out to get a conveniently present black man, for the murder of a cop. Even if these "fire and brimstone" assholes don't care that they are probably killing yet another innocent person, they should definitely care that they are effectively letting a real killer get away!

So much for being "tough on crime".

News Corp. Whistleblower is Dead

So if you haven't heard, Sean Hoare -- the former News of the World reporter who blew the whistle on the Rupert Murdoch tabloid hacking cell phones -- has been found dead in his home. The police -- fresh off of losing two top officers to the scandal, and being investigated for corruption -- say that the death is "unexplained", yet somehow not suspicious.

Well gee... Mr. Hoare had evidence that a major media company, several British policemen, and probably some politicians, were breaking the law in truly reprehensible ways. It has already shut down one newspaper, cost many people their jobs, and gotten a dozen or so powerful people arrested. This scandal has even touched the Prime Minister's office to such a degree, that David Cameron is facing calls for his resignation. That's not even getting into the damage this could do state-side to Fox News, given that there are allegations of 9/11 victims/survivors having their voicemails tampered with as well. And now the man responsible for all of that, has died under mysterious circumstances, and the police are showing no interest in finding out how and why he died.

Does anyone still think I'm just being paranoid?

Shame on Israel

Michael Jackson Murdered?

Road Rage/Moral Grave Robbers

This was originally posted on July 5, 2008.

Now onto more current events...

As a lot of people know, there was recently a horrible murder on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba, as Tim McLean was stabbed multiple times and then decapitated (among other things that I'd rather not print). The accused culprit was captured at the scene, apparently suffering from severe mental illness.

Even though I generally have a sour view of mankind, I was still stunned and disgusted by the way some fanatics are actually exploiting this tragedy for their personal gain.

PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) recently took out an ad that compares the murder to the slaughter of chickens for food (which is a really faulty premise to begin with). Not surprisingly, hardly anyone is running the ad. Now, I am fully in favour of animal rights and humane treatment of them under all circumstances (to be honest, the only reason I'm not a vegetarian is because I don't have a great pallete with vegetables). However, that does not mean that I support this tasteless and just plain stupid advertisement. It does not take a rocket scientist to see that this move would only piss a lot of people off, especially so soon after the murder -- so how can someone actually think that this was a good idea? Not only does it (rightly) cast PETA in a horrible light, but it completely distracts from any legitimate point it tries to make.

The second group exploiting this is one that -- sadly -- I've come to expect contempt for human life from: The Westboro Baptist Church. If you don't know who I'm talking about, this is small congregation in Kansas (largely a family, led by Fred Phelps) who is infamous for not only being dead-set against homosexuality and gay rights, but holds protests outside various funerals that pick-your-untimely-death is a sign from God that He hates homosexuals (their website is honestly "godhatesfags.com"). They have protested at the funerals of Iraq veterans, the victims and killer at Virginia Tech, Loretta King, and even attempted to demonstrate at Heath Ledger's funeral. Perhaps most appallingly, when Matthew Sheppard was beaten to death for being gay, this "minister" and his group protested outside the trial of his killers, saying that Sheppard got what he deserved.

Suffice it to say, these people are not popular at all, and the only reason they are free in the States is because the U.S. does not have a hate speech law. Since that is not the case in Canada, they have usually been turned down at the border when they attempted to cross -- making us a popular target of their hate as well.

BUT they are now attempting to get in to protest at Tim McLean's funeral, to shout that his murder is another perverse kind of divine vengeance upon our progessive laws and social policies.

Words almsot fail me; not only is this view absurd and disgusting, but they have no right to come into Canada and spread that horseshit around. These sort of monsters should be stopped at the border, and if they do manage to get through anyway, arrested the minute they open their mouths.