Guns, Girls, And WoW

Apologies, I paraphrased poorly by adding in an implication you did not state.

Nonetheless, I find your point weak. Everyone who makes it through to adulthood managed to survive the ravages of puberty and the miseries of other adolescents. It's not being a teenager that is at fault here, any more than it is Asperger's syndrome. Both Rodgers and Lanza were apparently diagnosed, so they knew they were different. For the majority of aspies out there, that knowledge is freeing and it is lack of that knowledge which tends to make us deeply uncomfortable.

If someone knows they socialize differently but still opts to resort to capital murder, the system (whatever that means) cannot be said to have failed. Psychology experts examined Lanza and Rodgers and offered sound assessments. In Lanza's case, it appears his mother enabled his sociopathy. In Rodgers's case, my personal assessment is still out on the culpability of the parents, but they actually contacted the police not long before this incident, so I'm disinclined to lay a lot at their feet.

No one could reasonably predict what these two men did because what they did was not reasonable. Insane people like these two are notably adept actors when it comes to fooling people, too. If a mental serial killer alarm went off in normal people's heads every time one of them walked past, we'd never have mass murders. And it's not as though people don't instinctively pick up on other negative qualities (there's been a lot of research done into perception of trust and honesty and it has had some remarkably consistent results between gut feeling about someone and the actual behavior of the person in question).

Sometimes awful things happen and no amount of hindsighting is going to find a good reason. It doesn't really do much good to attach superficial explanations. At least, it does no good for me, since I don't personally get any solace out of having something to blame. I am, admittedly, an unusual person, so this may be symptomatic of that.

If we really want to talk about possible hindsight assessments, though, both Lanza and Rodgers were fans of first-person shooter games. And play-acting violence only increases violent tendencies (those pop psychologists who told patients to punch a pillow or something eventually found that their patients grew steadily more violent as they unleashed their outbursts). I think it's ridiculous to "blame" video games, but at what point do realistic hunter-killer murder games become culturally worrisome enough? I've had to explain to several people down the years that when I say I play online games, I mean that I'm bloodlessly killing dragons since the popular perception is that I'm talking about Call of Duty or Halo.

If you read this kids manifesto, it's not like he didn't know what he was doing was wrong. He doesn't cackle on about taking lives just for the hell of it but justifies his actions through perceived wrongs against him on account of society. His inflated ego a means to protect himself against any amount of self-analysis regarding his strategies. Social awkwardness at its finest. Everyone else is *** up! Not me, no way!

I don't see how the 'media' is at fault here when he clearly lays out this is base revenge both to be remembered and to finally air his grievances with those sorority chicks who didn't fall into his lap. He fixated upon one specific type of woman and when they didn't reciprocate what he was looking for, he snapped.

If this was merely about sex, there were multiple avenues to solve that little problem.

Logic isn't allowed on the internet.

It doesn't matter if you were a jock, a nerd, a nobody, a goth, a pervert, or whatnot. We all went through it all, that's just life.

How we dealt with it is what defines us, and what makes us different.

Authorities did not know that Elliot Rodger, whose shooting rampage left six dead and more than a dozen injured in a California college town, owned firearms despite three interactions with the police within the year, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Rodger had legally purchased three firearms leading up to the shooting spree, a fact that authorities could have discovered by searching law enforcement databases, the Times reported on Friday.

"The issue of weapons did not come up," sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Hoover told the Times. "We had no information that he had weapons or reason to believe he had weapons."

Yeah. But this the information age. The surveillance state.

Automatic software should have linked this all this together and spat out at the local cops.

If we can't give up liberty for security WTF are we giving it up for?

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but I'd rather my police state be inefficient, blind, and incompetent. I'd lobby for crippled, brain-dead, and unarmed to be added to the list, too.

Yeah. But this the information age. The surveillance state.

Automatic software should have linked this all this together and spat out at the local cops.

If we can't give up liberty for security WTF are we giving it up for?

So close, but you were just a little off.

Can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not, but I'd rather my police state be inefficient, blind, and incompetent. I'd lobby for crippled, brain-dead, and unarmed to be added to the list, too.

Its a legitimate compliant but I have always been a sarcastic wiseass. Therefore the tone.

We have the surveillance state. We have no right to privacy any more. There are files on all of us mouldering in so many computers they can't be counted.

But we are not more secure. Indeed we are less secure.

And what are you going to do about it?

Action speak louder than bitching and whining.

Although bitching and whining can be considered actions....but I digress.

How about you don't support people who's agenda is to create a police state and support people who's agenda is to encourage freedom for all?

Not trying to hijack the thread, but if you think police state agenda was created and kept up solely though the dems...... you might want to come out from under that rock a little bit.

Not trying to hijack the thread, but if you think police state agenda was created and kept up solely though the dems...... you might want to come out from under that rock a little bit.

Rodger had legally purchased three firearms leading up to the shooting spree, a fact that authorities could have discovered by searching law enforcement databases....

The news comes a day after the sheriff's office revealed new details about a welfare check the police conducted on the night of April 30 on Roger outside his apartment, following a concerned call from a county mental health worker....

That night, just weeks before the killings in Isla Vista, California, a half dozen officers responded to the call and asked Rodger about disturbing videos he had posted online....

"They did not view the videos or conduct a weapons check on Rodger," a statement from the sheriff's office said....

The sheriff's office has maintained that the responding officers acted professionally and within state law and the department policies.

So in order to avoid scrutiny, the allowed themselves to be scrutinized.

King, where do I find those "people who's agenda is to encourage freedom for all"?

Apologies, I paraphrased poorly by adding in an implication you did not state.

Nonetheless, I find your point weak. Everyone who makes it through to adulthood managed to survive the ravages of puberty and the miseries of other adolescents. It's not being a teenager that is at fault here, any more than it is Asperger's syndrome. Both Rodgers and Lanza were apparently diagnosed, so they knew they were different. For the majority of aspies out there, that knowledge is freeing and it is lack of that knowledge which tends to make us deeply uncomfortable.

Sometimes awful things happen and no amount of hindsighting is going to find a good reason. It doesn't really do much good to attach superficial explanations. At least, it does no good for me, since I don't personally get any solace out of having something to blame. I am, admittedly, an unusual person, so this may be symptomatic of that.

If we really want to talk about possible hindsight assessments, though, both Lanza and Rodgers were fans of first-person shooter games. And play-acting violence only increases violent tendencies (those pop psychologists who told patients to punch a pillow or something eventually found that their patients grew steadily more violent as they unleashed their outbursts). I think it's ridiculous to "blame" video games, but at what point do realistic hunter-killer murder games become culturally worrisome enough? I've had to explain to several people down the years that when I say I play online games, I mean that I'm bloodlessly killing dragons since the popular perception is that I'm talking about Call of Duty or Halo.

the casualty count in this incident would have been reduced if Rodgers hadn't had a firearm.