Psychopaths and Public Debate
The horrible story of senseless killings in Owosso, Michigan, clarifies social dynamics that were the subject of debate after the murder of abortionist George Tiller:
Harlan Drake or “Hale” as he is known to friends is now charged with 2 counts of 1st Degree Premeditated Murder for the killings of James “Jim” Pouillon and Mike Fouss. Police say that Harlan Drake has told detectives that he had a list of 3 people in his head that he wanted to kill.
Two of the people on his “list” have died as a result but the third, James Howe, was not attacked. Since he has admitted to a third person on his hit list, it is resulting in a charge of unlawful intent with a firearm. There is no motive behind Mr. Howe or Mr. Fuoss, who owned the Fouss Gravel Company. There is only one known connection between Mike Fouss and Harlan Drake, his mother used to work for Mr. Fouss.
As to the reason for the killing of pro-life activist Jim Pouillon, Harlan Drake has told police that he was “offended” by Pouillon’s anti-abortion messages.
The bottom-line, substantive fact is that Drake is a psychopath who decided to kill three people for random, personal reasons. A consideration on the periphery of that fact is that the nation in which Drake lived is in the midst of a decades’ long dispute about abortion in which those on the pro-abortion side often argue that the protests by those on the pro-life side are so egregious that their First Amendment rights ought to be denied. After George Tiller’s death, they also tarred the entire pro-life movement as culpable.
But those who advocate for abortion laws are not responsible for the murder of Jim Pouillon. The possibility that psychopaths might follow threads of the argument is an inevitable price of a free and open society and does not negate the rights or stain the morality of those who engage in the debate, much less those on one particular side or the other.
I mentioned on kmareka that I didn’t expect any moral outrage from the usual suspects over there,mainly one”klaus”,a pontificating know it all,who condemned those who “listened to Rush and watched O’Reilly”or words to that effect as somehow sharing responsibility with Tiller’s murderer and therefore not really being pro-life.Of course I got the rant about gun control and the whole nine yards.
Well,I didn’t see any diaries over there or on the “progressive” RIF blog about this.Those people are probably gloating that a man was murdered because someone didn’t like the sign he was holding.For that matter,our local left wing”moralist”Rhody has kept his trap shut also.
Nothing from the “leaders”in Congress or the White House who were ready to pratically portray Tiller as a sacrified saint.
Most left wingers are phonies through and through.They think they’re smarter and better in general than the rest of us.
If there ever were a hard left government in charge here,most of them would be purged pretty quickly as complainers and troublesome elements.Real communists don’t find duck suits amusing.Just check out what happened to the “intellectual”radicals after the Russian Revolution.
All the leftist regimes in history have been utter failures dashed like seashells on the rocky shores of time while the USA and other free republics have endured.
Anybody who thinks China is leftist is crazy.They are a military/industrial complex with a rapidly developing apolitical(key to survival)capitalist class.A Chinese lady recently bought the world’s most expensive dog for $582,000.Doesn’t sound much like a “worker’s republic”to me.
Poor Joe…just couldn’t resist the temptation to throw the gratuitous cheap shot. Sounds like someone woke up on the wrong side of the crypt this morning.
But let’s forget which side of the abortion debate the victim was on. This was a heinous act of violence committed by a thug who had no business being anywhere near a gun. Let’s hear the gun nuts defend this guy – given the sociopolitical view of the deceased, this should really be good.
Now if you want to excuse the action of the guy that shot Tiller…that defies comment. Not gonna go there.
Cheap shot?Everything you say is a cheap shot hiding behind an alias.
I hope you left wing pukes keep up the drumbeat on gun control-it got you all tossed on the trash heap in 1994.
Have you seen someone excuse the actions of Tiller’s murderer?Liar.
Joe, you have a unique gift for turning any thread into a jihad on me, even when I don’t participate in it (like I have any real power LOL).
And you really should take your PTSD (or whatever) medication before you post here. Gosh, you’d think I was one of the bad guys you used to arrest.
Wouldn’t you love to go me professionally or at my family like the fellow with a problem on that other blog does when posters offend him? Not gonna happen.
Back on topic, this whole incident sounds like it might be right-on-right violence. Still doesn’t make it right. Laugh at the guy with the fetus poster, kids – don’t shoot him.
Rhody,
Say what??? “Back on topic, this whole incident sounds like it might be right-on-right violence.” Wow, you liberals never cease to amaze me with the breadth of your nonsense.
Rhody-you are a lowlife.I wouldn’t break the law or even consider “going after” you -who are you that I would do such a thing and risk breaking the law, or even wasting my time on such an annoying twit?I don’t know about the other guy,and could care less.
And your family?What kind of an a**wipe are you to suggest such a thought could cross my mind?This is why I call you a liar.You make up scenarios out of whole cloth.Like accusing me of threatening Shana Kurland.I thought out loud how nice it would be for her to meet a real terrorist.She’d have to do that on her own,since I don’t know any.
I’ve met face to face with many people I oppose on blogs-a whole roomful of them at Drinking Liberally a number of times as a matter of fact.No big deal.
My family was the target of a serious threat by a group of drug dealers I bumped heads with.The FBI took it very seriously.So did I.I had to send them out of state.The people who made the threat wound up regretting it very much.
You don’t have any clue about me other than I think you’re a phony annoying individual who acts like he is morally superior.
The PTSD remark sucked,even though I don’t have it.Some people get it and some don’t.
Since you don’t seem like you’d have done anything that could have resulted in such a condition,you really should STFU about it.
Joe, if I offend you that much, you really should just ignore me (my ego doesn’t require your 24/7 attention). I’m cool with that. Gratuitously calling people out on threads they haven’t even commented on is NOT a smart use of cyberspace. The time you wasted on that response would’ve been more wisely used relaxing and enjoying that Pats rally tonight.
And Bobc, no matter their political pursuasion, people shouldn’t be walking around armed to the teeth shooting other people for sport. If that’s just moralistic lefty nonsense to you…my humblest apologies.
Rhody-accusing non-public figures like myself of being mentally disturbed without a shred of evidence is not a bad way to invite adverse legal action.I dislike lawyers enough to not want to use one,but saying I’m full of crap is discourse-saying I am mentally is slander because in fact,I’m not.My medical records reveal such emotional disturbances as cancer,coronary artery disease,and diabetes.Being crazy isn’t part of the mix.Don’t worry,a##hole,I’m sure you’ll outlive me by decades.
Funny, I thought conservatives wanted a less litigious society.
This is recreational for me.Making “progressives”uncomfortable by asking them to answer REAL specific questions elicits such interesting diversionary behavior.I just wanna see how fast you jump on the public option if it becomes a reality.
I can’t get a straight answer out of the kmareka crew on questions that challenge their logic and consistency of positions.
I never back off from calling out a conservative if they come across as an idiot.You leftists seem to be congenitally impaired when it comes to criticizing a racist or bomb thrower in your ranks.
Joe Wilson owed Obama a personal apology for interrupting him-we do that in everyday interactions with others(I hope),but NOTHING to a POS like Nancy Pelosi and her venal crew.What apology is due a criminal tax evader like Rangel?
Wilson did apologize the next day, and this all would’ve been forgotten by now if he could’ve just stood up to Limbaugh. Unfortunately, the only guy I’ve seen stand up to him lately was the Cambridge cop in the Gates incident (and is he even Republican)?
As for Pelosi, I’m not wasting bandwith defending her. She lost me after the ’06 election when she wouldn’t lift a finger to press Bush on getting us of Iraq, although she did press hard to get access to corporate jets. And you read RIF a few days ago, her act is wearing thin with an increasing number of liberals.
Around the RI blogosphere
Justin and Marc at Anchor Rising have some thoughts about what Mary Ann Sorrentino and N4N said about