The Other McCain

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

“Yes We Can” Didn’t Happen

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

But let’s be generous with #OccupyResoluteDesk:

He did do that to our economy.

via Brietbart

Update: linked at American Glob. Go, Aliester!

Update II: linked at Jackie Wellfonder.

Category: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney

Go for the Gold, Melissa Seidemann!

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | 14 Comments

Having previously made clear my enthusiasm for water polo — the Official Olympic Sport for Guys Who Like Full-Grown Women — I am pleased to report that the U.S. team won its quarterfinal match yesterday, defeating Italy 9-6, thanks to Our Favorite Player:

Melissa Seidemann scored on all three of her shots and captain Brenda Villa added two goals to lift the United States past Italy 9-6 in women’s water polo.
Kelly Rulon scored twice for the Americans and Betsey Armstrong came up with 13 saves.
“I think the staple of our team is the defense. We count on Betsey so much, she did an awesome job today,” said Seidemann.

Yesterday, I got a note from Dana at First Street Journal, who is angry that ESPN magazine didn’t think Melissa — 6 feet tall, with a reported weight of more than 180 pounds — was suitable for their issue featuring the Olympic women’s water polo team nude:

Miss Seidermann worked hard to excel in water polo, a demanding, exhausting sport, and perhaps you can say that these particular photos were demeaning to all of the women on the team, but if they were going to do a photo shoot like this, Miss Seidermann should have been included, or the shoot not done at all. Weight bias is one of the last things in our society it’s not politically incorrect to express, but Miss Seidermann demonstrates that you don’t have to be a size six to be an athlete.

Exactly! If ESPN is going to treat Olympic athletes as sex objects, why cheat the deluxe-size ladies out of their moment of nude glory?

Is ESPN discriminating against Melissa? Are only skinny women deserving of admiration at ESPN?

This sends a very harmful and negative message to larger women — and angers those of us men who don’t mind a little more to love.

Category: Rule 5, Sports

Obligatory Post-Massacre Finger-Pointing Scapegoating Blame Game Open Thread

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | 34 Comments

“Both CNN and Fox News cut away when the U.S. Attorney took the stage and launched a lengthy speech which sounded like an Obama campaign speech. . . . Politics never is far behind a mass shooting, unfortunately.”
— William Jacobson, Legal Insurrection

Mainly, I’ve tried to keep my focus on aggregating facts about the Oak Creek shooting as quickly as possible:

There was a brief period last night, after I saw the Twitchy post about the insane reaction of lefties — “Michele Bachmann did it!” — where I indulged in some sarcasm at the expense of such fools. Even that, however, felt a little cheap and inappropriate, so I tried to dial down the snark. Permit me to point out what I did not do: I did not flinch.

When I first logged on to gather information about this crime, I saw a quote from one of the survivors at the Sikh Temple who called the shooting a “hate crime,” and I made that the title of my post. When the police chief said at the press conference that the shooting was being investigated as “domestic terrorism,” I added that to the title. When the shooter was identified as an Army veteran, I blogged that, and when he was ID’d as a neo-Nazi skinhead, I blogged that, too.

The timid defensiveness of some conservatives — who run away screaming the minute they hear the word “racism” spoken aloud — is the exact opposite of political wisdom. Having been so often and so unfairly accused of “hate,” they have internalized their liberal antagonists’ worldview to such a degree that they pre-emptively fear the smear:

“Oh, let’s denounce the crime, then move on and ignore it, because we might be targeted with a guilt-by-association smear attempting to connect us with this tattooed skinhead freak we never heard of until he killed six people.”

Not only is this reaction gutless — needlessly defensive — but it makes conservatives look like shameless political opportunists: If the guy who killed the Sikhs had been an Occupier or an Islamic jihadi, the right-wing blogosphere would have been raising hell. So when the shooter turns out to be somebody categorized as a right-winger, conservatives are not going to score any points for integrity and courage by whining that this is unfair and then trying to ignore it.

When the Left does this, we automatically notice it, don’t we?

Liberals were all up in arms in September 2009, screaming that the Tea Party had lynched a Census worker in Kentucky, until I drove to Kentucky and started reporting that this suspicion wasn’t justified by facts on the ground. When it eventually turned out that the Census worker had committed suicide and faked it to look like murder, the Left said nary a peep about their earlier misguided accusations about Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Michele Bachmann.

Something similar occurred with the Tucson massacre in 2011: The Left jumped up and down pointing the finger at Sarah Palin. Then, when it developed that Jared Loughner was a left-wing dopehead obsessed with the 9/11 Truther conspiracy-theory “documentary” Zeitgeist, the liberal media suddenly lost interest in the political dimension of the shooter’s motive. “Just a random schizo,” the media sniffed, and pretended they never cared about Loughner’s politics.

So if conservatives slink away in silence after the Oak Creek massacre, we’ll look like a bunch of insincere punks. In truth, we have nothing to fear. I’m pretty sure there is nothing in the Republican Party platform that endorses the random shootings of people who wear turbans, so what the hell is all this scaredy-cat defensiveness about?

Anyway, having tried to restrain any urge toward political pontification in previous posts about this incident — waiting, at least, until we had some firm biographical details about the shooter — now I’m willing to relax a bit and see what folks have to say. I’ll update to aggregate commentary elsewhere.

UPDATE: Speaking of guilt-by-association, it has become unfortunately necessary to link to a disreputable publication quoting a disreputable source. The New York Times:

Officials at the Southern Poverty Law Center said they had been tracking Mr. Page for about a decade because of his ties to the white supremacist movement and described him as a “a frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band.”
They said he played guitar and sang vocals for a band started in 2005 called End Apathy.
“This guy was in the thick of the white supremacist music scene and, in fact, played with some of the best known racist bands in the country,” said Mark Potok, a senior fellow at the center. “The music that comes from these bands is incredibly violent and it talks about murdering Jews, black people, gay people and a whole host of other enemies. It is music that could not be sold over the counter around the country.”

The SPLC, of course, has spent the past 15 years irresponsibly lumping together criminal freaks like this skinhead hate-metal dude with law-abiding conservative political activists. I’m pretty sure that the Sikh religion is as “anti-gay” as some of the family-values groups tarred with the SPLC’s “hate” label.

UPDATE II: Michelle Malkin:

I’ll leave the vulgar politicization of this evil massacre to others. The usual suspects are in full-blown Blame Righty Syndrome mode. They are as ghoulish and galling as the disgusting Westboro publicity hounds.

Click here to make a donation to help the victims’ families.

UPDATE III: In case you forgot, the blame-game drumbeat in September 2009 became so loud and incessant that Michelle Malkin finally confessed: “I killed the Kentucky Census worker — along with every conservative in America.”

UPDATE IV: Bill Quick at Daily Pundit: “At least he didn’t use an evil assault weapon.” Yeah, but you notice that the media makes sure to use the scary-sounding phrase “semi-automatic” every time they refer to his pistols, as if the victims would be slightly less dead if he would have used revolvers or a sawed-off shotgun.

This was one of my pet peeves about the media coverage of the 1999 Columbine massacre: Both Harris and Klebold carried 12-gauge shotguns, and Harris’s pump-action shotgun was the main cause of death in the school’s library. There was no public demand for a shotgun ban, however. Notably, the slaughter at Columbine High took place while the misnamed 1994 “assault weapons ban” was in effect, but this law did nothing to prevent Harris from getting a 9-mm Hi-Point carbine or Klebold from getting an Intratec 9-mm pistol.

Ordinary weapons firing ordinary ammunition — nothing exotic or illegal — and yet the victims were just as dead.

Maybe we should pass a federal law against evil.

UPDATE V: Mollie Hemingway at Ricochet notes that the major media were “somewhat cautious” in their reporting on this shooting, in contrast to the blatant irresponsibility of ABC News in blaming an innocent Tea Party activist for the Tucson massacre.

UPDATE VI: Linked by Bob Belvedere at The Camp of the Saints — thanks!

BTW, did you know that the shooter, Wade Page, was the product of what used to be called “a broken home”? And broken more than once, too. The Associated Press interviewed Page’s ex-stepmother — i.e., his father’s second wife, whom his father has subsequently divorced. That divorce has helped drive the downward mobility of working-class families over the past 40 years is one of the points made by Charles Murray’s most recent book.

However, it’s impossible to cite Murray’s research without being accused of racism — excuse me, RAAAAACISM! — and therefore the problems Murray addresses don’t get fixed.

When some broken and desperate soul commits a heinous crime like this, we aren’t supposed to mention how it relates to the Great Unraveling of our society, which continually gets worse because it is unacceptable to suggest that what is nowadays called “Progress” looks suspiciously like decadence.

Category: Crime, Wisconsin

PRESS CONFERENCE: ‘Heroic Actions’ of Police Saved Lives in Oak Creek Shooting UPDATE: Shooter Reportedly Played in Hate-Metal Rock Band ‘End Apathy’

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | 18 Comments

Oak Creek, Wisconsin, Mayor Stephen Scaffidi praised “the heroic actions of our officers” during a press conference about the Sunday shooting at the Sikh Temple in the Milwaukee suburb. The officer critically wounded in the incident — shot nine times, as the city police chief said — has been identified as Lt. Brian Murphy, 51.

UPDATE: Oak Creek Police Chief John Edwards confirmed that the shooter, who was shot dead after firing on with police, was Wade Michael Page, 40, who served in the Army 1992-98, received a “general discharge” and “was ineligible for re-enlistment.”

UPDATE II: Chief Edwards said Lt. Murphy, the first officer on the scene, was “ambushed” by Page and shot nine times “at close range.” The chief said the next two officers who arrived at the Sikh Temple, unaware of what had happened to Lt. Murphy, then confronted Page with “squad rifles” (which I would assume to be M-16s). The officers commanded Page to drop his weapon; instead, Page fired at the officers, striking one of their cars, and was shot dead by the officers’ rifle fire. The officers then located Lt. Murphy, who attempted to “wave them off” — urging them to assist the wounded worshippers at the Temple first. Lt. Murphy had a “very serious” neck wound.

UPDATE III: The names of the six people killed by Page: Bhai Seeta Singh, Bhai Parkash Singh, Bhai Ranjit Singh, Satwant Singh Kaleka, Subegh Singh and Parmjit Kaur Toor. Three others were reportedly wounded, two of those critically. Abby Rogers of Business Insider reports from the press conference:

Teresa Carlson, the FBI’s Milwaukee Special Agent is now speaking. The FBI has no reason to believe more than one person was involved in the shooting, according to Carlson.
Carlson held up a photo of a man she called a “person of interest” in the case. She asked that anyone with information about this unnamed person call the tip line. . . .
According to Edwards, the unnamed person of interest was on scene after the shooting. Some on the scene thought he looked suspicious, but he left before officers could speak with him.

UPDATE IV: This doesn’t come from the press conference, but from Business Insider and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: The suspect, Wade Michael Page, is reported to have spent more than a decade in the racist skinhead/metal rock scene and performed with the band End Apathy. Page was reportedly interviewed in April 2010:

End Apathy began in 2005 and the concept was based on trying to figure out what it would take to actually accomplish positive results in society and what is holding us back. A lot of what I realized at the time was that if we could figure out how to end peoples apathetic ways it would be the start towards moving forward. Of course after that it requires discipline, strict discipline to stay the course in our sick society. So, in a sense it was view of psychology and sociology. But I didn’t want to just point the finger at what other people should do, but also I was willing to point out some of my faults on how I was holding myself back. And that is how I wrote the song “Self Destruct”.

UPDATE V: Summary of the interview with the reported shooter:

[Page said] he had been a part of the white power music scene since 2000, when he left his native Colorado on a motorcycle. He attended white power concerts in Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia and Colorado. At various times, he said, he also played in the hate rock bands Youngland (2001-2003), Celtic Warrior, Radikahl, Max Resist, Intimidation One, Aggressive Force and Blue Eyed Devils. End Apathy, he said, included “Brent” on bass and “Ozzie” on drums; the men were former members of Definite Hate and another band, 13 Knots.

Via Memeorandum.

UPDATE VI: More on the shooter:

FBI Special Agent in Charge, Teresa Carlson, said a motive is still under investigation, and noted that authorities are looking at Page’s “ties to white supremacist groups.”
Carlson said the shooting is being investigated as a “possible act of terrorism.” She said the suspect “had contact with law enforcement in the past,” but said there was no reason to believe he was capable of such violence.
“Nobody knew that this guy was a threat,” Carlson said.
Reuters reported that [Page’s less-than-honorable] discharge [from the Army in 1998] was for “patterns of misconduct,” including being drunk on duty.
Page served at Fort Bliss, Texas, in the psychological operations unit in 1994, and was last stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., attached to the psychological operations unit. He was an E4 psychological operations specialist, but was never deployed. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct award, the National Defense Service Medal, Humanitarian Service Medal and Parachutist Badge. . . .
A woman who says she was a neighbor of the suspect tells FoxNews.com that last week she heard yelling coming from the apartment she believes is the same one the FBI is now searching.
The neighbor says, as she understood it, the suspect had lived in the apartment with his girlfriend until their recent break-up. The suspect had then moved into another apartment nearby two weeks ago. She says he had returned to the old apartment and was banging on the door of his old apartment, demanding to be let in.

So, according to the FBI, this ex-military skinhead covered with neo-Nazi tattoos who had previously “had contact with law enforcement” was not viewed as a “threat.” Then he broke up with his girlfriend and became a mass murderer. Just another random coincidence.

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Crime, Wisconsin

Panic Time in Hopeville: GOP/Romney Report Record July Fundraising

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | 14 Comments

OK, the important thing here is $185.9 million cash on hand for the Republican team, because we know that (a) DNC fundraising is in the toilet, and (b) the Obama campaign’s “burn rate” in June was already unsustainable. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Team Obama was already more than $20 million down on cash-on-hand after June’s numbers, and with their burn rate, even a showing of fund-raising parity in July would probably put them further behind the eight-ball.

Three weeks before the GOP convention, the Romney campaign is clearly positioned to go toe-to-toe with Obama after Labor Day, when most people actually start paying attention. Now, if we can just talk Mitt into making Paul Ryan his VP pick . . .

 


Category: Election 2012, Mitt Romney

‘Who’ Is First of 5 W’s; ‘Why’ Is Last UPDATE: Wade Michael Page … MORE: Reported Discharged From Army in 1998

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | 37 Comments

This ABC News story annoys me:

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms Special Agent Thomas Ahern said the suspect had tattoos and that authorities were investigating whether he was a “skin head or “white supremacist” as two ABC Sources said.
“It is being investigated. And what his tattoos signified is being investigated. They are all pieces of a possible puzzle to learn what was his motive in carrying out such a horrific act,” Ahern said.

Who, What, When, Where, Why — it is irresponsible to present a speculative motive, until we have the name of the suspect.

UPDATE: Jana Winter of Fox News reports:

CUDAHY, Wis. – The man authorities say killed six in a Milwaukee-area Sikh temple before police shot him was a heavily-tattooed, 40-year-old ex-Army soldier, sources told Fox News, but what triggered his rampage remains unclear.
Sources identified the dead suspect as Wade Michael Page, who was at one time attached to the Fort Bragg Army installation in North Carolina. Local authorities have scheduled a 10 a.m. press conference, where more details may emerge about Page and what the FBI is treating as an act of domestic terrorism in the temple, in the Milwaukee suburb of Oak Creek. Six people were killed and four wounded, including a police officer, before the man being identified as Page was shot dead by a police officer.

UPDATE II: Fort Bragg is home to the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as to an elite Special Forces unit, but we do not yet know whether Page was a member of either of those outfits.

UPDATE III: Headline at Wizbang:

Sikh Temple Investigated As Domestic Terrorism,
Ft. Hood Shooting Is Still Just “Work Place Violence”

When Army troops are killed in a shooting spree by a guy named Nidal Hassan — no, that can’t be “terrorism.” But let a guy with an Army background commit a shooting spree . . .

UPDATE IV: There is a report, attributed to military sources, that Page served six years in the Army, from April 1992 to October 1998, and was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, before subsequently being stationed at Fort Bragg. This is an unconfirmed report, however.

UPDATE V: OK, now CBS News has it confirmed:

According to sources in the U.S. Army, Page enlisted in April 1992 and given a less-than-honorable discharge in October 1998. He served at Fort Bliss, Texas, in the psychological operations unit in 1994, and was last stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, attached to the psychological operations unit. The details of his discharge were not immediately clear.

This is intriguing for three reasons: First, “psy ops”? Hmmm. Second, it is known that there was an investigation in the 1990s of soldiers at Fort Bragg involved in white supremacist activity. Third, what was the cause of his “less-than-honorable discharge”?

UPDATE VI: Here’s a 2005 Pentagon report (PDF) about possible security risks presented by extremists — including both white supremacists and Islamic jihadis — in the armed forces. Please see “Appendix A” for some disturbing evidence about how many neo-Nazis boast of their military status.

UPDATE VII: This story illustrates why it is so important to wait for facts before jumping to conclusions based on partial information or, even worse, politically-motivated speculation.

Before we knew anything about the perpetrator, some liberals rushed to blame this atrocity on Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann (who had called for investigation of alleged Muslim Brotherhood influence at the State Department). Last night, we had a report that the suspected shooter recently had broken up with his girlfriend. And now we have the report that the suspect was less-than-honorably discharged from the Army.

Meanwhile, the usual suspects continue to play “Pin-the-Tail on the Republican” — as if the only important thing about any news event was what political purpose it might serve: “Natalie Portman Wedding: Is This Good News for Anti-Gay Marriage Movement?”

Why the hell must we politicize absolutely everything?

Look: If it were to turn out that Wade Michael Page was chairman of “Wisconsin Neo-Nazis for Romney,” and that the last Web site found on his computer’s browser was RushLimbaugh.com — or even my own blog — I would report that fact, and let the chips fall where they may.

Facts are more important than politics, at least in the news business.

UPDATE VIII: PRESS CONFERENCE: ‘Heroic Actions’ of Police Saved Lives in Oak Creek Shooting

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Crime, Wisconsin

LIVE AT FIVE: 08.06.12

Posted on | August 6, 2012 | 3 Comments

— compiled by Wombat-socho


TOP NEWS
FBI: Motive In Oak Creek Sikh Gurdwara Shooting Unclear

Amardeep Kaleka, son of the slain gurdwara president, prays in the parking lot

Seven dead, including the shooter; possible white supremacy angle?

PRC Calls In Senior US Diplomat Over South China Sea Remarks
Chicoms unhappy about recent State Dept. comments


Jamaica Gets Rain As Tropical Storm Ernesto Passes By
No casualties and little damage



POLITICS
NASA’s Global Warmening Guru Ties Heat Waves To…You’ll Never Guess

James Hansen, NASA climate alarmist

Heat waves so severe they’ve never been seen in human history! Well, okay, since the 1930s, anyway…

Rice, Haley, McCain Announced As Speakers At GOP National Convention

Battles Over State Voting Laws Head To Court In Ohio And Elsewhere

Video Shows Senator Kirk’s Progress In Recovery From Stroke

Kansas Conservatives Seek To Purge Obstructionist Moderates In Tuesday’s Primary
Related: At Red States Gathering, Tea Party Ready To Flex Muscle Again



THE ECONOMY, STUPID
Oil Slips After Weekend Surge; NYMEX $91.17, Brent $108.47
Knight Capital To Get $400 Million Lifeline, But At Steep Cost
US Hiring Picked Up In July. So Did Unemployment.
Monti Warns Germany: Eurozone Crisis Threatens Europe’s Future
Facebook & Twitter Set Off New Platform Wars
One Year Later: What US Downgrade?
Apple’s Fancy E-Commerce Could Trump Facebook’s
Blackberry Boss: “Our Platform Isn’t Burning”
Social Engineering, Weak Tech Support Make Strong Passwords Useless
Amazon Instant Video Now Available On iPad
Amazing “This Is Now” Website Shows Live Stream Of Instagram Pix In Major Cities



SPORTS
Rain Hits At Perfect Time For Pocono Winner Jeff Gordon

Jeff Gordon celebrates with his family

Gets first victory at rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400
Related: One killed, 9 injured by lightning strike after race

Ninth Straight Loss A Nightmare For Tribe

Gonzalez, Crawford Power Sox To 6-4 Win Over Twins

Lincecum, Giants Beat Rockies 8-3

…And Some Stuff Happened At The Olympics

Strasburg Rebounds On The Mounds As Nats Fillet Fish 4-1



FAMOUS FOR BEING FAMOUS
Natalie Portman Gets Married

Benjamin Millepied & Natalie Portman

Hitched after two-year engagement

Kristen Stewart Hysterical Over Cheating Scandal

Amanda Bynes Accused Of Another Hit & Run

Nick Jonas Hoping For “American Idol” Judge Nod

Unlike Senate Majority Leader, John Travolta Denies Sexually Assaulting Other Men

Lindsay Lohan Signed For “Scary Movie 5” With Charlie Sheen

Stevie Wonder Files For Divorce

Karina Smirnoff Weighs In On All-Star “Dancing With The Stars”

Just Like A Teenage Crush: Devoted Beyonce Decorates Fingernails With Portrait Of Jay-Z

Octomom – The Topless Album Cover



FOREIGNERS
Syrian Rebels Hold Iranians Prisoner
Gaza Gunmen Killed After Murder Of Egyptian Border Guards
Ambassador Oren Ties Iran To Border Crossing Attack
Hiroshima Marks Anniversary Of Atomic Bombing
Israel Upgrades ABM Systems
Suicide Bomber Kills 45 At Funeral In Yemen
Sudan Oil Deal Hits snag On Security
Karzai Moves To Reassure Allies After Security Ministers Dismissed
Turkish Security Forces Kill 115 Kurdish Rebels On Syria/Iraq/Turkey Border
Spanish Judge Chrges, Jails Two Russians On Terrorism Charges
Massive Rallies By Philippine Catholics To Oppose UN-Backed Birth Control Bill



BLOGS & STUFF
Weasel Zippers: Harry Reid Has Obama Campaign’s Blessing To Repeat Bogus Romney Tax Claims
Charlie Mahtesian: GOP Tells Reid “You’re Next”
Joshuapundit: Axelrod Walks Back DOJ Suit Against Ohio’s Military Voting Extension
Hit & Run: Roseanne Still Running For President
Blazing Cat Fur: Can’t Be Worse Than Obama
Atlas Shrugs: Anna Ringstrom of Reuters Thinks Freedom Equals Racism
PJ Tatler: Obama Campaign Spends $400 Million In 18 Months
Daily Pundit: Too Late 2
Israel Matzav: Tom Friedman’s Quid Pro Quo?
Power Line: Green Weenie Of The Week – Thomas Friedman

Category: Live at Five

Patch.com Reporter Jessica McBride Gets Scoop on Sikh Temple Shooting Suspect UPDATE: More Details Emerge

Posted on | August 5, 2012 | 12 Comments

Earlier I linked the report that the suspect in the Oak Creek Sikh Temple shooting had reportedly just broken up with his girlfriend. I urged caution because the source is secondhand: The mother of the suspect’s landlord. But kudos to Jessica McBride of the Patch for her resourcefulness in getting this scoop, the first personal information reported about the shooter, who police said was shot dead at the scene.

UPDATE: More details from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

A source familiar with the investigation said the shooter was a white male in his 40s who had been discharged from the Army. . . .
Kurt Weins said he rented the upper flat of the duplex authorities were searching to a single man in his 40s about month ago. Weins lives across the street from the duplex.
Weins said he had just been interviewed by law enforcement authorities and said he was uncomfortable providing much detail. However, he said, he was surprised by the attention his tenant has attracted.
“I had him checked out and he definitely checked out,” Weins said. “The cops told me they don’t want me to say nothing right now.”

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that it was the gunman’s tattoos that caused the FBI to declare this a “domestic terrorism” case. What kind of tattoos? We don’t know yet.

UPDATE II: OK, there are unconfirmed reports (including in the Hindustan Times) that the gunman’s tattoos referenced the 9/11 attacks, which is kind of confusing to me. If the guy was a military veteran, then a “Remember 9/11” tattoo would have a more or less patriotic symbolism. However, if the guy was military, he almost certainly would have understood that Sikhs had nothing to do with 9/11.

UPDATE III: A little more detail:

According to CNN, two semi-automatic handguns were recovered at the scene, and member of the temple described the gunman as tall male with what appeared to be a “9/11 tattoo.” Officials told NBC the suspect, who served in the U.S. Army, had many tattoos.

This report of a military veteran with a “9/11 tattoo” is, as I say, confusing. There are probably lots of military guys — and, for that matter, cops and firefighters — with tattoos of a patriotic “Never Forget” sort of message, none of whom would ever go on a murderous rampage.

Many have suggested that the attack on the Sikh Temple was, in fact, misdirected rage against Muslims, but as I said previously, it seems to me that someone from a military background would not make that kind of misidentification. Of course, going on a terroristic shooting rampage against Muslims would be equally senseless, but we cannot expect deranged killers to act on any logical or rational basis in choosing their targets.

UPDATE IV: The suspect has been identified as Wade Michael Page, 40.

Category: Crime, Wisconsin
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