The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Random Tragedy’ Not So Random: Socialist Serial Killer Amy Bishop

Posted on | February 13, 2010 | 25 Comments

“It’s always baffling to me when people try to politicize random tragedies — usually while they’re breaking news stories with little real information.”
– James Joyner, Outside the Beltway

Joyner is (a) from Alabama and (b) has a Ph.D., and I’m sorry if that caused anyone’s head to explode — “An intellectual? From Alabama?” — but he doesn’t seem to be the kill-everybody-in-the-faculty-meeting type of intellectual, so he’s OK with me.

Joyner is correct about the unfortunate tendency toward instant politicization of major news events. We’ve seen Michael Moore blame the 1999 Columbine shootings on Charlton Heston. We’ve seen Robert Kennedy Jr. blame the 2005 New Orleans flood on Haley Barbour and George W. Bush.

Having recently seen liberal bloggers make fools of themselves by hasty conclusions — “Send the Body to Glenn Beck!” — I certainly wasn’t going theorize about Professor Amy Bishop’s murder spree at the University of Alabama-Huntsville in the absence of facts.

Well, the facts are now starting to pile up like the corpses of Amy Bishop’s victims, so let’s go there, shall we?

  • Bishop was an alumna of Harvard University, which is also the alma mater of Ted Kaczynski.
  • As Instapundit noted last night, at least one of her students described Bishop as a “socialist.”
  • The UAH massacre wasn’t Bishop’s first homicide: “The Boston Globe reported at the time that Amy Bishop had accidentally shot her 18-year-old brother, Seth M. Bishop, an accomplished violinist who had won a number of science awards, in Braintree. Braintree Police Chief Paul Frazier confirmed today at a news conference that Amy Bishop had shot her brother in 1986. But Frazier offered a different account of the shooting, saying Bishop had shot her brother during an argument and was being booked by police when the chief at the time ordered the booking process stopped and Bishop released to her mother.”
  • Via Dan Riehl and Gateway Pundit, there’s now this news: ”Braintree officers who remember the 1986 shooting said that former police Chief John Polio dismissed detectives from the case and ordered the department to release Amy Bishop after a telephone conversation with former district attorney William Delahunt. Delahunt is currently a U.S. congressman from Massachusetts.”
  • Moe Lane is just askin’ questions: “Polio was not forthcoming about why then-DA Delahunt decided not to press charges, or why the documents in the case are apparently not available. Given the circumstances, perhaps the Congressman from MA-10 would like to fill in the blanks, as it were?”

You know who else might want to start asking questions? Republican Joe Malone, who is reportedly considering a challenge to Delahunt in MA-10:

In [the Jan. 19] special election Scott Brown won the 10th Congressional district 59.8% – 39.3% over Martha Coakley . . .
Worth noting is that Brown’s senior team, before they were Romney’s senior team, were Malone’s senior team. Eric Fehrnstrom, Beth Lindstrom, and Priscilla Ruzzo were instrumental in Malone’s runs for Treasurer. The Brown machine is revved up and Joe Malone may reclaim them for his next run.

Polls show Delahunt is in trouble, he’s reported to be considering retirement, and the news that Delahunt was responsible for releasing a Harvard-educated socialist serial killer . . . well, that’s not so good for Bill Delahunt, is it?

The Other McCain: Politicization You Can Believe In!

UPDATE: Professor William Jacobson:

One thing about Bishop’s politics seems likely, however. And that is that she must never have attended a Tea Party or said something nice about Sarah Palin, or we would have heard about it by now.

The BlogProf coins a new term, “Going Professorial.”

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Category: Alabama, Crime, Massachusetts, Politics

Comments

  • victoria_29

    It is amazing how these stories are unwinding. I find the ties to MA sort of ironic considering our election situation right now.

  • victoria_29

    It is amazing how these stories are unwinding. I find the ties to MA sort of ironic considering our election situation right now.

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  • http://maggiesnotebook.blogspot.com Maggie M. Thornton

    Convenient that the files on the shooting of her brother have been missing since 1987, but police still on the street have not forgotten the incident, or that the Chief stopped the booking.

  • http://maggiesnotebook.blogspot.com Maggie M. Thornton

    Convenient that the files on the shooting of her brother have been missing since 1987, but police still on the street have not forgotten the incident, or that the Chief stopped the booking.

  • MikeT

    I noticed she has a profile on campusreform.org

    http://reform.campusreform.org/faculty/amy-bishop

    Apparently she also has a history of violence in the classroom.

  • MikeT

    I noticed she has a profile on campusreform.org

    http://reform.campusreform.org/faculty/amy-bishop

    Apparently she also has a history of violence in the classroom.

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  • http://grandpajohn.blogspot.com/ Steve Burri

    Is a life sentence without the possibility of parole considered a tenured position?

  • http://grandpajohn.blogspot.com/ Steve Burri

    Is a life sentence without the possibility of parole considered a tenured position?

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  • Chris Mallory

    Aside from a very short period of time around 1776, has any thing good ever come from Mass?

  • Chris Mallory

    Aside from a very short period of time around 1776, has any thing good ever come from Mass?

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  • http://dad29.blogspot.com dad29

    Massachusetts is rapidly becoming the Center of the World for prosecutorial misconduct.

  • http://dad29.blogspot.com dad29

    Massachusetts is rapidly becoming the Center of the World for prosecutorial misconduct.

  • Timetester

    MikeT
    February 14th, 2010 @ 12 21

    That is a hoax.

  • Timetester

    MikeT
    February 14th, 2010 @ 12 21

    That is a hoax.

  • ThomasD

    Delahunt’s career appears over.

    Strange though, this time it is over a dead boy, and a live girl.

    Go figure.

  • ThomasD

    Delahunt’s career appears over.

    Strange though, this time it is over a dead boy, and a live girl.

    Go figure.

  • http://podblanc.com Craig Cobb

    Amy Bishop Anti Semitism
    http://bit.ly/9tcWzj

  • http://podblanc.com Craig Cobb

    Amy Bishop Anti Semitism
    http://bit.ly/9tcWzj

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