Bowling for Montreal part 2

Another senseless American Canadian murder story.

The gunman who went on a shooting rampage at a Montreal college Wednesday apparently left an online journal with chilling comments and photos of himself brandishing a rifle.

Kimveer Gill referred to himself as the ‘angel of death’ in an online diary.

Kimveer Gill was the author of an online diary posted at the website vampirefreaks.com.

Gill, 25, was dressed entirely in black, wearing a trench coat and armed with a rifle when he arrived at Dawson College on Wednesday afternoon.

One woman was shot to death and 19 people were injured, at least six of them critically, in the rampage that followed. Montreal police said the victims ranged in age from 17 to 48.

On Thursday, police identified the dead student as Anastasia DeSousa, an 18-year-old from the greater Montreal area, who was a business student at Dawson College.

DeSousa was shot dead inside the building, said Montreal’s ambulance agency.

Police said the gunman died during the shootout. Preliminary autopsy results released Thursday showed Gill died of a self-inflicted wound, Quebec police said.

Clearly the answer is more Canadians leaving their doors unlocked and banning guns...uhh...more.  Than they already have.  They should outlaw murder too, that would certainly stop these kinds of things from happening.

OK, enough being flippant.  First of all, gun control is a failure.  Every time something like this happens, it puts the lie to the idea that taking guns away from the population will stop criminals from getting and using them.  It’s Prima Facie...at first view the truth is plainly evident.

Furthermore, this is actually a senseless tragedy and not something that should be jeered at or about.  That’s the problem with idiots like Michael Moore and the nitwits who follow him: They don’t respect or understand the crime or the criminal.

That’s right, I said respect the criminal.  Not the way you respect your dad or your wife or your local grocer...I mean respecting the threat that the criminal brings.  Respecting the threat means that you have to take it seriously and not cloud the issue with a lot of nonsense like, say, Lockheed Martin or what a bank does for promotional purposes.  It means you have to dig deep and find out why the criminal has done what, in this case he, has done.

That is, if you really want to help.  If you are actually interested in improving society, and you’re not just interested in lining your pockets off the blood of the dead.

Why did Kimveer Gill do this?  Was there anything that could have been done last year, five years ago, ten years ago to intervene in this kid’s life?  Was it bad wiring in his brain?  Were there signs?  Were those signs ignored?  Was anyone in his life engaged with him about his life?  At that age, he should know better, 25 is adult.  But how did he get to where he was when he shot himself?  How did he go from an innocent infant to a murderer who tried to be a mass murderer?

None of these questions can be answered by men like Moore.  Nothing about Bowling For Columbine will go one iota toward preventing something like this from happening again.  In fact, if you trust BFC, you would believe that this couldn’t happen in Canada.

It can.  It has, and it will again.  Gun culture is not the problem.  Heavy Metal is not the problem.  Lockheed Martin is not the problem.  Leaving children to fend for themselves emotionally is the problem.  Forcing kids to make adult decisions is the problem.  Exposing them to the seedy underbelly of the world and walking away is the problem.  Kimveer Gill was an adult, but Kimveer Gill was also made.  Someone fell asleep on the job when that kid was building his way of looking at the world.  The press is touting his “stable, middle class” family life.  Let me tell you something right now: Do not be fooled by that artificial construct.

The middle is a myth.  Normal is a myth.  Average does not exist.  EVERYONE has a story, everyone’s life contains trials and hardships no matter how great it looks on paper.  The “stable middle class” is a breeding ground for emotional abuse.  People like Kimveer Gill did not have stable, middle class upbringings.  They had the appearance of stable, middle class lives.

Do you think it’s a coincidence that all the really nasty serial killers and mass murderers of the 20th and 21st centuries are from these so-called “stable, middle class” lives?

Going forward, I urge you to ignore any and all aspects of this story that don’t involve finding out why.  Anything else is absolutely useless and designed to sell papers or get ratings or sell movie tickets and DVDs.

Let me clarify one thing now that I’m sure some of you reading this have misinterpreted: I am not excusing Kimveer Gill’s actions by saying it’s not his fault ‘cuz his mommy & daddy didn’t love him enough.  At his age, it is his fault.  He chose to act.  Goth style didn’t make him do it, Marilyn Manson didn’t brainwash him, the vampirefreaks.com website did not pick up a gun and put it in his hands.  What I am saying is that to prevent another Kimveer Gill, another Eric Harris & Dylan Klebold, another Luke Woodham - In Canada, the U.S. or anywhere else - we have to know why.  We have to know what went wrong and how we can try - maybe we can’t succeed, but we can try - to see the signs before it gets this far the next time.

I can offer this piece of advice that I know for a fact can help: If you are involved with a young person - as a parent, teacher, guardian or relative - get in that kid’s life.  Find out what they do, what they think, how they feel.  Learn as much as you can about them, and for God’s sake listen to them.  Don’t lecture, don’t yell or demand or expect: Listen.  Kids want to talk to you...it’s when adults stop listening that kids clam up and turn inward.

And for the love of Christ, don’t ever feel like you can’t look around a kid’s room.  There’s privacy and there’s letting your kid build pipe bombs...you see what I’m saying?

Get involved.

A thought experiment

Pop over to my site and see what you think.  I’m going to ask that you comment over there to keep the conversation all in one place...danke.

Michael Moore Unveils New Film, World Still Unchanged From Last Attempt

Here we go.  The entire article is archived after the jump for...well, archival purposes.  :)

Michael Moore Unveils New Film, ‘Sicko’
Saturday, September 09, 2006
By Roger Friedman

Controversial filmmaker Michael Moore unveiled two new projects last night in Toronto: a documentary about the health insurance business called “Sicko” and film that chronicles the aftermath of the 2004 election, entitled “Slacker.”

Moore showed clips from both films as part of a special two-hour presentation at the famed Elgin Theater. Larry Charles, director of the new comedy “Borat” and well-known from his work on the TV show “Seinfeld,” conducted the program that also consisted of a long, funny and intimate live interview with Moore.

Read the whole thing.  Then pop back up here for why this is relevant:

Mikey, you asked what Tom Cruise’s crime was.  I’ll tell you: He went on TV many times and used his role as a famous actor that millions of people idolize and he told them that medicine that will keep them sane or in some cases ALIVE was a scam.  He told them that psychiatry was a fraud.  He encouraged people to put themselves at risk because of his own intense insanity.  He preyed on people who already have a hard enough time making good judgements due to chemical imbalances and other issues.  All to increase the rolls of his “church.”

One would think that a person who claims to despise that type of behavior would recognize the dangers represented by a religious zealot like Cruise, except that you’re too blinded by his Hollywood status to see what is right in front of you.  He’ll never accept you, Michael, give it up.  You’ll have to become a high-ranking Scientologist before he treats you as an equal.  Save your sucking up for a Hollywood player who can help you. 

Also?  If the “missiles into Iraq” comment was supposed to be some kind of slam against the U.S., it’s stupid, like so many of your ill-founded criticisms.  It paints a picture of us sitting in Kuwait lobbing missiles over the border, which is asinine and absurd.  Of course, it’s also the way your allies in the Middle East - Hezbollah, Hamas and the Iranian and Syrian governments - actually do business.  I know that you do tend to project...so it’s no surprise you got confused between the actions of your own country and the actions of the terrorist with whom you so strongly identify.

*cough* Minutemen. *cough*

Speaking of sucking up, could Friedman Kiss Mikey’s ass a little more?

Breakin’ the (bad) law

In defiance of the blatant attack on everyone’s First Amendment rights, this website will run any ad for any politician seeking election this November, from now until Election Day.

FOR FREE.

McCain/Feingold is a blight on our free society and this site stands in defiance with thousands of other sites who refuse to take one more day of this.  This far and no further.  The buck stops here.  We will stop at nothing less than a repeal of this un-Constitutional law.

If you are a candidate, of ANY political stripe, Democrat, Green, Republican, Independant...I don’t care.  I will not refuse anyone.  During this period of civil disobedience, i will run any ad from any politician who is legally and officially in a race.  Email me at the address to your left and I’ll give you a special code for BlogAds, or we can discuss a custom ad banner or text ad.  All free.  I’ll even create your graphics if you need that done.  Again...free.

Why am I doing this?  For one very simple reason.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

McCain/Feingold silences any and all advertising by candidates until the election as of today.  This leave ONLY special interest groups with the ability to manipulate and flood the airwaves with whatever message they decide voters should hear.  Groups like MoveOn.org, America Coming Together, The Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, and yes, even the NRA has a 527.  Whatever side you are on, you cannot want these groups to be the sole voices in the media for the next two months straight.

We, along with candidates for office, are The People, and we are peacably assembling.  I think it goes without saying that each of us has a grievance against the government for one thing or another.  We have the right to speak about candidates and to have candidates speak to us.  This is where left and right, Republican and Democrat, Conservative and Liberal, gay & straight, men & women, we all come together and say “No.  You will not destroy our right to share ideas and talk in the public square so that we may determine who we wish to choose as a leader.”

If you have a website, I urge you to do the same.

It’s Officially Propaganda When the Enemy Uses It!!

According to a report from ABC News, Moore’s own words are being used as propaganda by Iraqi terrorists.
Moore/Terrorist Propaganda

Now, here’s the strange thing, there is no mention of this on Moore’s own site. 
Moore’s site
I mean, the guy often claims how “on top of things” he is.  And we all know how much he “loves his country”, right?  So where is the outrage?  Why isn’t he defending his work?  But the most important question is, why isn’t he suing these people like he threatened to do if anyone misused his work??

SGT Mike Stokely, a year later

Last December, I wrote about SGT. Mike Stokley over at Moorewatch.  His father, Robert Stokely, graciously responded to me via email to thank me.  Unfortunately, I let other mail pile on top of them, and I only just found the two emails he sent me again.

Last night I went through a lot of old mail to delete things that were just taking up space.  Email with attachments, spam I missed, messages from servers, auto-responses...the clutter that accumulates.  I get around 250-500 messages a day depending on spam levels, and things often get lost or buried.

I’m kind of ashamed that I let these two slide by.  I was reminded of SGT. Stokely just the other day from this post at Blackfive.  I suppose it was serendipity that led me to re-discoverthose two email a couple of days later.

When I wrote at length over the last year about Casey Sheehan and his mother, and by extension about how I felt a parent could - not should, but rather could - grieve for their child and not cross lines of taste, decorum, honesty and sanity, Robert Stokely was the man I kept in mind.  The things he said about Mike, the way he talked about him as a person, they way it was always about Mike and not any political agenda...these are the kinds of things that struck me as good and decent and above all, honorable.  Whenever I read an email that Robert sent to someone for their site, I felt like he was honoring his son as a person and a soldier.

It is sad that a man who inspired such love and pride in his father was lost to us, but at the same time if anything good can come from this kind of loss, it’s that sense of honor, dignity and love.  I hope other people can see it.

Nothing illustrated it more than this story:

It is an irony that you can have so much grief interspersed with such pride swelling in your heart even as tears well in your eyes, and still be able to laugh.  The memory of the very loved we had lost was caught in a moment Mike would have found humorous, and laughed himself that special laugh he had.  As we traveled the highway through Loganville that day of his “welcome home parade”, and again to the church for his funeral, many businesses had posted a tribute to Mike on their sign boards.  Our favorite and one to be remembered for all time, was at a small meat market and said this:

“IN HONOR OF MIKE STOKELY”
pork ribs $1.69 lb.

Although they probably didn’t mean it to come out that way, we loved it, and laughed a much needed, deep down laugh.  Mike would have loved it and probably thought this business was the only one with any sense left, given all the fuss being made over him.  Forever more, whenever I see pork ribs, I will think of that day and what we now call the “Mike Stokely Special”.

A few days past a year later, and I still think about Mike Stokely and everyone else who gives up time, health, safety and sometimes their lives in service to their country as warriors.

I only hope that we can someday deserve what they do for us.

Mr. Stokely, if you should see this, I apologize for my lack of response and lack of respect in not paying more attention to your email.

Army Meets Its Retention Goal

You often hear from the media (and coincidentally, the left) that the U.S. military is stretched thin and can’t staff the positions they need staffed.  Not exactly true.

Both the Army National Guard and the Army Reserve expect to meet their re-enlistment goals for this fiscal year, which are 34,875 and 17,712, respectively. Both totals are slightly higher than last year’s goals.

Granted, this is re-enlistment and not recruiting, but the recruitment picture is no less optimistic when you get past the political rhetoric.  Regardless of how you feel about the war, the fact - that is an important word, fact - the fact is that the military branches are meeting thier goals.

Another far-left/mainstream media meme shot down.  Look for headlines to never appear anywhere, ever.