The tragedy in Aurora, Colorado is of course causing anxiety and angst throughout this country, laden as it is with weaponry and ammunition within reach of any citizen. James Holmes appeared weird to some, smart to others, and just a tad off kilter. One young woman who lives in his apartment building said he had a “stay away” quality about him, a feminine instinct she said. More likely it is that hair-standing-up-on-neck reaction we sometimes get being close to psychopaths. I remember clearly having that reaction to a much younger Dick Cheney as he spoke to reporters when we attacked Panama in 1989. Creepy.
Holmes’ lone recorded offense is, as I read it, a traffic citation.
Irony abounds. President Obama:
We never understand what leads someone to terrorize their fellow human beings like this. Life is very fragile and it is precious.
Obama, of course, never has to look into the eyes of his victims, the countless Afghanis and Pakistanis he has murdered, along with a few Americans. (“They were all bad guys!” said Schwarzenegger, speaking of Palestinians in his movie “True Lies.” Yes, dear reader, movie themes are coming to mind today. Just the fact that they are calling it the “Movie Massacre” rather than the “Dark Knight Massacre” speaks of the power at work behind the scenes to protect the franchise.)
Obama is, as Hannah Arendt coined a term, a “desk murderer.” He loves his own children beyond words, as we all do, and kills those of others with reckless indifference. And he cannot see it because just like the pilots who drop the ordnance, he is murdering from afar.
Further curiosity on my part: Why has no one mentioned the most grotesque scene of blood and mayhem in American film history, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, where a theater was sealed and everyone inside murdered. It came instantly to mind for me, along with the words “Ah, that’s just Tarantino.” Quentin, you should realize that not everyone out there is normal, like you. Be careful please.
And finally, we learned that Warner Brothers is “deeply saddened.” It is true then! Corporations are people.
Piece of Mindful 
This author makes a similar point with one exception, The US warlords are the only ones killing, raping, torturing.
Let’s set aside the “obviously insane” conclusion for now [Fritzworth]
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.)
LikeLike
Even more irony! You’re not aware that Schwarzenegger’s words, “they were all bad guys,” was his way of defending his own psychopathic behavior based on comparative evil, as you just did.
Priceless.
LikeLike
When movie scripts become reality things like Aurora happen.
LikeLike
Can’t help remembering the Rolling Stones’s song, “Sympathy for the Devil,” which says, “I shouted out, / ‘Who killed the Kennedys?’ / When, after all, it was you and me.”
Can psychological distancing, and declaiming any and all responsibility wipe away all blame for increased communal risk? It’s one of the nice things about believing in #1. To accept responsibility implies there is a world out there beyond self. A toxic combination of “I don’t want to” and maintaining plausible deniablility at all times seems to rule our day-to-day neo-feudal existence.
Wonder what would Obama do if confronted with a situation where he had to choose between himself and his daughters? Loving when times are good lays nothing on the line.
LikeLike
I imagine that Obama, like most of us, would give his own life for his children. But life in Foggy Bottom with retreats in Camp David, never seeing victims, leads to insularity. It happened to Clinton as well, although he strikes me as too glib to be a normal person. He creeps me. His administration murdered half a million kids, and when he was actually confronted with it (one time only ever, by Amy Goodman) said that Saddam had dunnit.
LikeLike