But don’t ever say guns might be a problem, or that racism might be a problem, or that Islamophobia [even misdirected] might be a problem. It’s all just ‘events that happen for no discernible reason’, as unstoppable as the tides and we should never say anything about it ever. A shooting in a temple and the inevitable ‘if only the victims were armed’ comes in three.. two.. one.
UPDATE: • The man who allegedly murdered six people at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee yesterday, identified in media reports as Wade Michael Page, was a frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band.
UPDATE: • OAK CREEK, Wis. – The suspect in a shooting that left six people dead at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee on Sunday, and who himself was killed by police, has been identified as Wade Michael Page, who served in the U.S. Army for about six years. According to sources in the Army, Page enlisted in April 1992 and was 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, N.C., attached to the psychological operations unit. The details of his discharge were not immediately clear.
Oak Creek Shooting:
• FBI: Motive in Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting unclear. By the time the shooter was done, six people lay dead or mortally wounded in what Oak Creek police said was being treated as a domestic terrorist incident – if so, one without precedent in Wisconsin. Counting the gunman – fatally shot by an Oak Creek police officer – the death count stands at seven. The most deadly U.S. attack on Sikhs – who often have been mistaken for Muslims and targeted in hate crimes – in recent memory. The mass shooting is being treated as an incident of domestic terrorism. But FBI representatives later backed away from that categorization, saying they were still investigating motive.
• Tattoos on the body of the slain Sikh temple gunman and certain biographical details led the FBI to treat the attack at a Milwaukee-area temple as an act of domestic terrorism, officials said Sunday.
• Officials told NBC News the suspect, who served in the U.S. Army, had many tattoos. The suspect had some kind of radical or white supremacist views but, as far as officials said they had heard, he was not in any kind of radical organization. His previous run-ins with law enforcement involved traffic offenses, they said.
Right wing flailing:
• Reince Priebus has zero evidence that Harry Reid isn’t telling the truth. If Priebus wants to prove Reid wrong, then tell Mitt Romney to release his tax returns. If Democrats are wrong, why hasn’t Romney released the proof that there is nothing in his tax returns? An innocent person does not hide the evidence that could exonerate them.
• Republicans are actually making things worse for Mitt Romney by calling Harry Reid a liar. When Republicans talk about Harry Reid, they are also talking about Romney’s tax returns, and Mitt Romney has put his party in a no win position.
US politics:
• “When he talked about Romney, aides picked up a level of anger he never had for Clinton or McCain, even after Sarah Palin was picked as his running mate. ‘There was a baseline of respect for John McCain. The president always thought he was an honorable man and a war hero,’ said a longtime Obama adviser. ‘That doesn’t hold true for Romney. He was no goddamned war hero.’” See the cover; pre-order the book $2.99 http://politi.co/PW4dfy
Science – good and evil:
• The Mars Curiosity has landed—a phenomenal success that completes an incredible journey against all odds. NASA still has the chops to make interplanetary magic happen.
• Fetal engineering experimentation is now being conducted to prevent LGBT babies. A new report details the dangerous experimentation that’s been going on in fetal engineering, in which doctors are using a synthetic steroid off-label drug to prevent LGBT babies being born. A new report out of Northwester University’s Feinberg School of Medicine details the dangerous experimentation that’s been going on in fetal engineering, in which doctors are using a synthetic steroid to prevent babies from being born with a propensity toward being LGBT.
Intelligence and Torture:
• New Document Shows FBI Interrogation Advice Draws on CIA Torture Manuals. A 2010 FBI interrogation “primer” (PDF), apparently a fifth version of earlier FBI manuals dealing with “Cross-cultural, Rapport-based” “intelligence-oriented interrogations in overseas environments,” repeatedly draws upon advice from two CIA torture manuals, the 1963 KUBARK Counter-intelligence Manual and the 1983 Human Exploitation Resource Manual.
• A secret high-level committee at Canada’s spy agency is tasked with deciding whether information received from abroad is tainted by torture, declassified records show. Internal Canadian Security Intelligence Service memos reveal the key role that the recently formed Information Sharing Evaluation Committee plays in determining if the spy agency makes use of the suspect material. The committee — whose existence was previously unknown outside the intelligence service — also helps CSIS decide whether to send information to foreign agencies in cases where it might lead to mistreatment.
Middle East
• Syria’s prime minister Riyad Hijab has defected to Jordan, officials said Monday, in what is the highest-profile departure from the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
• President Bashar al-Assad fired his prime minister on Monday, Syria’s official media reported, as activists countered that he defected to neighboring Jordan in what seemed a further indication of disarray among loyalists following a series of high-level defections and a rebel bomb attack last month that killed four of the Syrian leader’s closest security aides.
• Egypt will impose full control over the Sinai, its new president has pledged, as the Israeli government warned of a deteriorating security situation after gunmen killed around 15 Egyptian border guards and hijacked armoured vehicles to launch an attack across the border in Israel. Mohamed Morsi said: “Those who carried out this crime will pay dearly.” In a speech on Egyptian state television, he added: “Clear orders have been given to our armed forces and police to chase and arrest those who carried out this assault on our children. The forces will impose full control over these areas of Sinai.”
Sharks:
• French officials have canceled a plan to open the water off Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to shark fishing after an increase in attacks on humans. The island government had announced a bounty on bull sharks in response to the attacks, but the Victorin Lurel, France’s Minister for Overseas Territories, revoked the plan in response to protests from environmentalists. Kurel said bull sharks were a protected species and killing them would violate French law.
• Sharks at Cape Cod – don’t panic: As a parent, what seems to be an increase in animal population extremes is both something to be aware of — we want to be prepared for animal encounters and make plans that will avoid ones that would put the kids in obvious jeopardy — and a learning opportunity. When there are great white sharks cruising the beaches where seal populations have gathered, it’s probably a good parenting decision to either avoid those beaches altogether and swim elsewhere; or go ahead and visit the beach, but at the same time limit water access to shallow wading. This is the visit to build sandcastles, pick up stones and watch for interesting wildlife instead of getting out into the surf. We don’t want to take the approach of demonizing the sharks, or of making our kids terrified of them. They’re a part of nature and if they happen to be inconvenient at the moment, well you just make the best of it. The idea is to mitigate the risk and take advantage of the situation to explain ecosystems. …Sharks don’t tend to specifically hunt humans (especially when there are thousands of much bigger seals to be had), but have been known to attack a human after mistaking them for a seal. So, you stay out of the ocean when it’s frequented by seals.
F.D.Brightly
UPDATE – Yet another act of terrorism [Shorter Question Everything]
But don’t ever say guns might be a problem, or that racism might be a problem, or that Islamophobia [even misdirected] might be a problem. It’s all just ‘events that happen for no discernible reason’, as unstoppable as the tides and we should never say anything about it ever. A shooting in a temple and the inevitable ‘if only the victims were armed’ comes in three.. two.. one.
UPDATE: • The man who allegedly murdered six people at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee yesterday, identified in media reports as Wade Michael Page, was a frustrated neo-Nazi who had been the leader of a racist white-power band.
UPDATE: • OAK CREEK, Wis. – The suspect in a shooting that left six people dead at a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee on Sunday, and who himself was killed by police, has been identified as Wade Michael Page, who served in the U.S. Army for about six years. According to sources in the Army, Page enlisted in April 1992 and was 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, N.C., attached to the psychological operations unit. The details of his discharge were not immediately clear.
Oak Creek Shooting:
• FBI: Motive in Oak Creek Sikh temple shooting unclear. By the time the shooter was done, six people lay dead or mortally wounded in what Oak Creek police said was being treated as a domestic terrorist incident – if so, one without precedent in Wisconsin. Counting the gunman – fatally shot by an Oak Creek police officer – the death count stands at seven. The most deadly U.S. attack on Sikhs – who often have been mistaken for Muslims and targeted in hate crimes – in recent memory. The mass shooting is being treated as an incident of domestic terrorism. But FBI representatives later backed away from that categorization, saying they were still investigating motive.
• Tattoos on the body of the slain Sikh temple gunman and certain biographical details led the FBI to treat the attack at a Milwaukee-area temple as an act of domestic terrorism, officials said Sunday.
• Officials told NBC News the suspect, who served in the U.S. Army, had many tattoos. The suspect had some kind of radical or white supremacist views but, as far as officials said they had heard, he was not in any kind of radical organization. His previous run-ins with law enforcement involved traffic offenses, they said.
Right wing flailing:
• Reince Priebus has zero evidence that Harry Reid isn’t telling the truth. If Priebus wants to prove Reid wrong, then tell Mitt Romney to release his tax returns. If Democrats are wrong, why hasn’t Romney released the proof that there is nothing in his tax returns? An innocent person does not hide the evidence that could exonerate them.
• Republicans are actually making things worse for Mitt Romney by calling Harry Reid a liar. When Republicans talk about Harry Reid, they are also talking about Romney’s tax returns, and Mitt Romney has put his party in a no win position.
US politics:
• “When he talked about Romney, aides picked up a level of anger he never had for Clinton or McCain, even after Sarah Palin was picked as his running mate. ‘There was a baseline of respect for John McCain. The president always thought he was an honorable man and a war hero,’ said a longtime Obama adviser. ‘That doesn’t hold true for Romney. He was no goddamned war hero.’” See the cover; pre-order the book $2.99 http://politi.co/PW4dfy
Science – good and evil:
• The Mars Curiosity has landed—a phenomenal success that completes an incredible journey against all odds. NASA still has the chops to make interplanetary magic happen.
• Fetal engineering experimentation is now being conducted to prevent LGBT babies. A new report details the dangerous experimentation that’s been going on in fetal engineering, in which doctors are using a synthetic steroid off-label drug to prevent LGBT babies being born. A new report out of Northwester University’s Feinberg School of Medicine details the dangerous experimentation that’s been going on in fetal engineering, in which doctors are using a synthetic steroid to prevent babies from being born with a propensity toward being LGBT.
Intelligence and Torture:
• New Document Shows FBI Interrogation Advice Draws on CIA Torture Manuals. A 2010 FBI interrogation “primer” (PDF), apparently a fifth version of earlier FBI manuals dealing with “Cross-cultural, Rapport-based” “intelligence-oriented interrogations in overseas environments,” repeatedly draws upon advice from two CIA torture manuals, the 1963 KUBARK Counter-intelligence Manual and the 1983 Human Exploitation Resource Manual.
• A secret high-level committee at Canada’s spy agency is tasked with deciding whether information received from abroad is tainted by torture, declassified records show. Internal Canadian Security Intelligence Service memos reveal the key role that the recently formed Information Sharing Evaluation Committee plays in determining if the spy agency makes use of the suspect material. The committee — whose existence was previously unknown outside the intelligence service — also helps CSIS decide whether to send information to foreign agencies in cases where it might lead to mistreatment.
Middle East
• Syria’s prime minister Riyad Hijab has defected to Jordan, officials said Monday, in what is the highest-profile departure from the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad.
• President Bashar al-Assad fired his prime minister on Monday, Syria’s official media reported, as activists countered that he defected to neighboring Jordan in what seemed a further indication of disarray among loyalists following a series of high-level defections and a rebel bomb attack last month that killed four of the Syrian leader’s closest security aides.
• Egypt will impose full control over the Sinai, its new president has pledged, as the Israeli government warned of a deteriorating security situation after gunmen killed around 15 Egyptian border guards and hijacked armoured vehicles to launch an attack across the border in Israel. Mohamed Morsi said: “Those who carried out this crime will pay dearly.” In a speech on Egyptian state television, he added: “Clear orders have been given to our armed forces and police to chase and arrest those who carried out this assault on our children. The forces will impose full control over these areas of Sinai.”
Sharks:
• French officials have canceled a plan to open the water off Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean to shark fishing after an increase in attacks on humans. The island government had announced a bounty on bull sharks in response to the attacks, but the Victorin Lurel, France’s Minister for Overseas Territories, revoked the plan in response to protests from environmentalists. Kurel said bull sharks were a protected species and killing them would violate French law.
• Sharks at Cape Cod – don’t panic: As a parent, what seems to be an increase in animal population extremes is both something to be aware of — we want to be prepared for animal encounters and make plans that will avoid ones that would put the kids in obvious jeopardy — and a learning opportunity. When there are great white sharks cruising the beaches where seal populations have gathered, it’s probably a good parenting decision to either avoid those beaches altogether and swim elsewhere; or go ahead and visit the beach, but at the same time limit water access to shallow wading. This is the visit to build sandcastles, pick up stones and watch for interesting wildlife instead of getting out into the surf. We don’t want to take the approach of demonizing the sharks, or of making our kids terrified of them. They’re a part of nature and if they happen to be inconvenient at the moment, well you just make the best of it. The idea is to mitigate the risk and take advantage of the situation to explain ecosystems. …Sharks don’t tend to specifically hunt humans (especially when there are thousands of much bigger seals to be had), but have been known to attack a human after mistaking them for a seal. So, you stay out of the ocean when it’s frequented by seals.