Baltimore Sun op-ed from sociologist Katherine S. Newman: School shootings: why they do it

Instead, the perpetrator is looking to change the definition of his public personality from "loser" to a notorious anti-hero. The "Trench Coat Mafia" in Columbine had an image in mind, and they weren't its authors. They had plenty of popular culture to lean on that connects masculinity with violence. Those movie magazines that feature Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, those rippling muscles and outsized shotguns — they are the epitome of what young men believe we admire. When rampage shooters kill or maim, sadly, they are hardly giving any thought to who they will hurt. They are thinking about how a dramatic act will change the way their classmates think about them later.

From the "OMFG you must be kidding me" department: Deaf Three-Year-Old Not Allowed to Sign His Name Because It Violates Preschool's Weapons Policy (Gawker)

A deaf preschooler in Grand Island, Nebraska, has been prohibited from signing his own name because school administrators believe the gesture he uses looks too much like a gun.

The attempt by some Republicans to smear Obama as some sort of "anti-colonialist" is deeply bizarre for two reasons. First, it's not based on any facts; second, it suggests that being opposed to the exploitation and bloodshed of colonialism is somehow a bad thing.

The anti-colonial accusation is at the heart of far-right talking head Dinesh D'Souza's light-on-facts, heavy-on-paranoia film 2016: Obama's America. D'Souza has been beating this drum for a while; he seems to believe that Obama became President as part of some plot to destroy American in revenge for its colonial sins. (Or, quite possibly, he does not actually believe this tripe but knows it will rile up the racist and nationalist elements in the GOP base.)

Now it seems to me pretty bizarre to accuse someone who has kept U.S. troops occupying foreign lands for almost four years, and has claimed the imperial power to designate people for death without trial, review, or any legal process at all, as some sort of grand opponent of colonialism. He might be less of a proponent of it than D'Souza and his ilk, but like every other Americans president of the past century and half or so, Obama is a colonialist who sees the main purpose of the world outside the U.S. as being to serve American interests.

As Lamar W. Hankins notes,

...An anti-colonialist would have already ended the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan by American military forces. An anti-colonialist would not have joined NATO in the bombing of Gaddafi’s forces in Libya. An anti-colonialist would not be using drones regularly in Pakistan, Yemen, and elsewhere. An anti-colonialist would not be continuing the decades-long involvement of this country in Colombia. An anti-colonialist would not maintain the 50-year embargo against Cuba. An anti-colonialist would not be funding the expansion of military bases in the Middle East. An anti-colonialist would not continue funding the wide-spread violation of human rights by the military in Colombia. An anti-colonialist would not be maintaining 900 military installations in 130 countries around the world. An anti-colonialist would not be expanding the military, whose primary use historically has been colonial expansion on behalf of American commercial and economic interests.

D’Souza, Gingrich, Ricketts and all the other anti-Obama zealots seem incapable of seeing Obama for what he really is – a mainstream, American exceptionalist with a colonialist mentality. Every president in my lifetime has pursued a colonialist agenda, some more than others. Obama fits right in the middle of this group – not the most expansionist, but not anywhere close to being the least expansionist. Unlike the earlier colonialism, where we actually controlled the apparatus of government in other countries, we now use our military might and economic leverage (directly and through the World Bank and the United States Agency for International Development) to control the policies of other countries. None of this has changed under Obama.

Pretty much unthinkable 25 years ago, even though guns were just as available back then: a student at my old high school, Perry Hall High, brought a shotgun with him to the first day of school, assembled it, walked into the cafeteria, and and shot another student, critically wounding him.

A teacher lunged at the student to stop the shooting and before pinning the boy against a wall a second round was discharged, police said.

...

The victim, who also was not identified, was 17. He was medevaced to Baltimore Regional Hospital Shock Trauma where he is listed in critical condition.

Very, very brave teacher.

From the OMG WTF department: four soldiers are accused of plotting to take over the U.S. Army base at Fort Stewart, do a little domestic terrorist bombing, and assassinate the president. One of them has already pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in slayings of former soldier and his girlfriend, for knowing too much about the scheme.

Prosecutors say a murder case against four soldiers in Georgia has revealed they formed an anarchist militia within the U.S. military with plans to overthrow the federal government.

People concerned about software freedom have been disappointed, to say the least, about the recent legal victory of the patent-abusing bastards at Apple. How, in the presence of large amounts of prior art, could the jury have found in Apple's favor?

It seems the answer is simple: they skipped those key arguments because they were "bogging us down".

So while America is showing the world how ignorant of basic science our leaders are, Chinese peasant farmers are making their own prosthetic limbs out of scrap metal. 1) We're doomed, and 2) doesn't this guy sound like a character from a William Gibson cyberpunk novel?

Chinese Man Builds His Own Bionic Hands from Scrap Metal After Losing Limbs in Explosion

Sun lives in Guanmashan, Jilin province, northern China, and desperately needed to be able to work on his family’s farm. ”I survived but I had no hands and I couldn’t afford to buy the false hands the hospital wanted me to have – so I decided to make my own,” he explained to the Daily Mail. The DIY bionic hands are made from scrap metal wires and pulleys Sun found lying around, which make the hands quite heavy.

So, what was first thought to be a mass shooting at the Empire State Building turns out to be a simple murder followed by ill-trained police wounding citizens (CNN) as they shoot the murderer. I have to wonder if the politicians who were so quick to try use the apparent mass shooting to push for more gun control laws, will instead now call for laws requiring better training and higher standards for police. Probably not.

And you certainly won't hear and discussion about how downsizing and an economic system that screws the worker to the benefit of the 1%, can drive people to such despair that, in response to losing their job, they will engage in this sort of murder/suicide-by-cop.

Despite his reprehensible comments on rape, Todd Akin, the Republican candidate for Missouri's Senate seat, was still leading incumbent Claire McCaskill in the polls by a slim margin. Not anymore -- he's now down by ten points. (And that's in a poll by Rasmussen, who have shown if anything a pro-GOP bias.)