I’ll roshambo you for it.
Archive for October 10th, 2002
What Have We Become?
There comes a time in the life of every blog when we must look at ourselves and ask, “What have we become?” That moment came for me today when I realized that one person googled their way to our site by looking for “Penis Amputation Vietnam War.” That should put us on the literary equivalent of what you might find by googling with “Tonya Harding Monster Trucks” or “Beastiality Kitchen Appliances.”
I have seen what we have become……………..and it ain’t pretty.
The Color of Fear
I am tired of hearing about new threats towards the United States. The government is now analyzing new videotapes which have caused them to issue new warnings for the citizens of the U.S., yet the warning code has remained the same. Personally, I am tired of hearing this over and over. I don’t care if the warning label is green, blue, orange, yellow, red or damn polka dots.
America, here is our warning: People want to hurt us, be alert and be careful while noticing your surroundings.
Other than that what good do these warnings serve other than to scare us? Tell us when and where an attack is planned and we can do something about it, until then EVERYONE PAY ATTENTION…………………let’s be careful out there.
Is Anyone Asking These Questions?
So far the majority of thought on the Maryland shootings have assumed that choice of victims has been random. That’s maybe correct, but is anyone asking questions under the assumption that it might not be? I think the evidence as it is now points to a pair of disaffected loners, not one.
There are persistent reports of two men involved in the shootings. What we know of serial murderers and spree killers argue against this, since they tend to be loners. This may be why profiling experts are having such trouble with the case. However, there are at least two cases of spree killings committed by pairs of murderers, those of Charles Starkweather & Caril Fugate and Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. In each case, some murders were random, but others were not.
What if it’s not terrorists, or a older loner with respect issues. What if this is a pair of teenagers who looked at Columbine and thought “We can do better than that.”
James Martin, the first victim of the apparent Maryland spree killer, was a Vietnam vet and a Boy Scout troop leader. I don’t know the # of the troop he led, nor have I been able to determine how long he had been involved in scouting. At least one troop in the are of Silver Spring, where he lived, has a hunting program. Could he have taught the shooter, or shooters?
He lived about 23 miles from Benjamin Tasker Middle School. Why would the shooter pick that particular school? Could he have attended? Was any student there ever a member of James Martin’s Boy Scout Troop? Has anyone asked the staff at Benjamin Tasker, “If you had to pick two kids who would return here and shoot up the place, who would you pick?”
James Buchanan was an volunteer at the local Boys and Girls Club. He also lived about 23 miles from Benjamin Tasker Middle School. Did any alumni of that school ever attend that club?
Lots of comic book stores sell tarot cards. Has anyone called them?
The above story on the profiling difficulties also talks about the hours of the killings;
Except for a nighttime slaying of an elderly man on a Washington street corner and, if it is linked, this latest shooting, the killer has kept banker’s hours?a shooting spree in the mornings and afternoons late last week, off for the weekend, then back at 8:09 Monday morning.
Most of the white vans one sees are worker’s vans. Could it be that the killings take place at the times the do because the van is being used for legitimate purposes from 9 to 5? Does someone need to get it back before one of his parents goes out to do maintenance or construction work?
I think the evidence points not to one disaffected loner, but to two disaffected youths, from a lower middle or working class background, former scouts and possible high school dropouts. Certainly they exist on the fringes of the social mainstream in whatever school they attend or did attend.
I’ve been wrong before, though. Wouldn’t mind being wrong this time either, as at least that would mean we’ve caught someone.
Update on the Jennifer Short case
This ran in today’s paper, making me glad that I have not posted the “evidence” which may implicate Bowman, if only circumstantially. If I were authorities, I might start looking at the landlord, however. One thing strikes me from the above story. The story suggests that the landlord could have planted the Virginia maps in Bowman’s trailer. The story also states that police seized marked maps, but not from the trailer. They seized maps from a home that Bowman owned in another area of the county. So I don’t know if Bowman is exonerated just yet. Plus, I don’t know how much weight to give to the information that I have second hand.