Reason Morning Links: Columbine Revisionism, Blago in the Jungle, Obama in Mexico

Radley Balko | April 15, 2009

• So as it turns out, everything you thought you knew about the Columbine shootings was wrong.

• Texas lawmakers want to reclaim the 10th Amendment.

• Latest calls to end the drug war: Clive Crook in the Financial Times, Mike Gray in the Washington Post, Stanley Crouch in the NY Daily News.

• Economic data clash with Obama, Bernanke claims that the recession is stabilizing.

• Drug war violence to top the agenda when Obama visits Mexico tomorrow.

• Scientists say Twitter can make you immoral.

• Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be one of the new reality show celebrities "dropped into the Costa Rican jungle to face challenges designed to test their skills in adapting to the wilderness."

Comments

|4.15.09 @ 7:43AM|#

This looks familiar.... ;)

jtuf|4.15.09 @ 7:43AM|#

I'm glad to see Texans standing up for the 10th Ammendment. I would like to see them legalize medical marijuana in solidarity to Californians who fought for the 10th Ammendment all the way to the Supreme Court and who continue express their 10th Ammendment right by running medical marijuana dispensories.

|4.15.09 @ 8:31AM|#

That article on Columbine was the best USA Today article I have ever read. Seriously, it was more than two collumn inches and very well written. I am of course left with the shocked sense of betrayal to learn that Michael Moore didn't tell the truth in one his movies.

High Every Body|4.15.09 @ 8:34AM|#

Columbine story:

Harris, who conceived the attacks, was more than just troubled. He was, psychologists now say, a cold-blooded, predatory psychopath - a smart, charming liar with "a preposterously grand superiority complex, a revulsion for authority and an excruciating need for control," Cullen writes.

Looks like Harris missed his chance at being a faculty partner to Bill Ayres, or a career at The Nation.

Cabeza De Vaca|4.15.09 @ 8:38AM|#

"The danger is that heavy Twitters and Facebook users could become 'indifferent to human suffering' because they never get time to reflect and fully experience emotions about other people's feelings"

I'm going to call BS on this, just another technology scare story.

High Every Body|4.15.09 @ 8:42AM|#

The danger is that heavy Twitters and Facebook users

The person you are quoting is most certainly a weightist.

Xeones|4.15.09 @ 8:44AM|#

Yes! Drop Blago into the Costa Rican jungle! And then drop the rest of our political class in their too! I know, it's cruel to do that to the Costa Ricans, but on the bright side, a significant amount of Congress would probably get consumed by jaguars.

Xeones|4.15.09 @ 8:45AM|#

Arg "there" not "their" i hate today

Taktix®|4.15.09 @ 8:45AM|#

Scientists say Twitter can make you immoral.

I didn't RTFA, but does it involve beheading all the other Twitter users? If so, sign me up!

VM|4.15.09 @ 8:46AM|#

d'oh. posted to the deleted thread...


I hereby nominate Blago to play the role of "Piggy" in this particular theater.

Hugh Akston|4.15.09 @ 8:47AM|#

From the Columbine Story:

"His limited salary probably limited the number of people who died."

If preventing domestic terrorism isn't a good reason for progressive taxation, I don't know what is.

Taktix®|4.15.09 @ 8:49AM|#

I am of course left with the shocked sense of betrayal to learn that Michael Moore didn't tell the truth in one his movies.

He what?

*cancels flight to Havana*

|4.15.09 @ 9:11AM|#

I know that nothing makes me more indifferent to other people than writing back and forth all day, looking at pictures they post, and watching their lives unfold on Facebook. Luddite crap.

"Mom! Grandpa's yelling at the TV again!"

VM|4.15.09 @ 9:15AM|#

Now, Now little Splenda. That's just what Epi and NutraSweet do from time to time.

No. Perfectly natural, dear. run along and play, "DHS body cavity search at Old Stapleton Airport"

T|4.15.09 @ 9:17AM|#

heavy Twitters and Facebook users could become 'indifferent to human suffering'

Meh. I was indifferent to human suffering long before I had a Facebook account.

Fascitis Necrotizante|4.15.09 @ 9:22AM|#

but maybe if Twitter had been around ten years ago, all Dylan Klebold's two or three friends could have been clued in to his emo pain:

Klebold, on the other hand, was anxious and lovelorn, summing up his life at one point in his journal as "the most miserable existence in the history of time."

"Me is a god, a god of sadness," he wrote in September 1997, around his 16th birthday.

Would've been some fun status updates.

Hugh Akston|4.15.09 @ 9:24AM|#

I think the Facebook study suffers from the same problems as any with a self-selecting sample. A more reasonable conclusion to draw is that the idiots who are on Facebook/Twitter are just indifferent to the suffering of the idiots who are on Facebook/Twitter. And really who can blame them?

|4.15.09 @ 9:31AM|#

I think if Facebook is going to do anything, it might reinforce tribalism. It ties you more tightly to people; I talk to people once a week on Facebook I might not talk to once a year otherwise. Tribalism can be used for good or bad, but it's got to be better than this "if you heart doesn't break with compassion for everyone, everywhere, all the time, you're just a monster" jazz that fuels collectivism.

I have no problem with a personal 1st Commandment of "Thou shall not fuck with me or mine."

|4.15.09 @ 9:37AM|#

Klebold, on the other hand, was anxious and lovelorn, summing up his life at one point in his journal as "the most miserable existence in the history of time."

"Me is a god, a god of sadness," he wrote in September 1997, around his 16th birthday.

I was not *actually* a bully (honest!) in high school, but this makes me want to travel back in time and stuff that widdle wost wamb into a locker full of dirty jockstraps.

High Every Body|4.15.09 @ 9:38AM|#

I talk to people once a week on Facebook I might not talk to once a year otherwise.

The ticking timebomb is amassing his disgruntled legions.

JP|4.15.09 @ 9:39AM|#

Re the Columbine story: The "new" version is almost identical to the explanation of the 2001 Dartmouth murders. (I don't know if that makes it more likely or less likely to be correct.)

|4.15.09 @ 9:40AM|#

I have no idea what you are talking about, HEB.

Xeones|4.15.09 @ 9:44AM|#

I deleted my Facebook a year ago, so i'm waay better of a person than all you goons.

|4.15.09 @ 9:45AM|#

this "if you heart doesn't break with compassion for everyone, everywhere, all the time, you're just a monster"

Uh-oh....

*checks for fangs in mirror*

|4.15.09 @ 9:52AM|#

"His limited salary probably limited the number of people who died."

Oh, I'm seeing a nice upside of the recession here....

|4.15.09 @ 9:53AM|#

*checks for fangs in mirror*

Like you can see yourself in a mirror...

Warty|4.15.09 @ 9:55AM|#

My life has improved hugely after I deleted Facebook. Shut the fuck up, yo.

High Every Body|4.15.09 @ 9:59AM|#

I have no idea what you are talking about, HEB.

Denial! We all know what that means.

|4.15.09 @ 10:04AM|#

It's not just a Texas thing. It is something that is being pushed all across the nation. For instance here is the equivalent Ohio resolution.

|4.15.09 @ 10:04AM|#

Their words reflect a new phase of the government response to the financial crisis and recession. Unlike a few months ago, the major policies meant to prop up the economy-- increased government spending, special lending programs and extensive efforts by the Fed to pump money into the economy -- are now largely in place.

Wait- after they terrorized people into supporting what they wanted to do, now they want us to think it worked?

Who could have foreseen this?

Kelso\'s Nuts|4.15.09 @ 10:05AM|#

I blog at length on the subject of Obama and Latin America perhaps because I live in a big city in South America and am appalled at how he's handled everything to do with the region. From continuing Plan Colombian and the full-on "War On Narcoterrorism" to his hideous hectoring words to Panama about "their party being over," and the need for the return of US military bases there and that being the reason he has taken a side in the Presidential election year. He does seek to remind Americans though that while he and Tim Kaine may favor Ricardo Martinelli over Balbina Herrera, you cannot donate money or you are committing a felony.

I want someone to tell me how exactly Barack Obama is a "peacemaker," unlike, say, George W. Bush. After committing to indefinite war in South Asia, maintaining a fighting force in Iraq, Obama seems to be shopping for a 3rd and 4th front. The 3rd front would appear to be Somalin/Madagascar.The 4th front would appear to be a pending war with Mexico once Obama appoints his DRUG, BORDER AND IMMIGRATION CZAR.

The man has no concept of personal freedom whatsoever, nor of state sovereignty.

I do not believe it is possible to find a politician less comfortable with the libertarian point of view than Barack Obsma is.

What I don't understand is why the Radical Christian Right hate him so much. He is them.

Fascitis Necrotizante|4.15.09 @ 10:06AM|#

Deleted Facebook about six months ago. One less useless Internet time waster.

Fascitis Necrotizante|4.15.09 @ 10:07AM|#

...unlike this one, which is fine cuz I can use it at work.

hmm|4.15.09 @ 10:10AM|#

Facebook is for 15 year-olds and people that want to get in 15 year-olds pants.

Social networking is becoming friends with the guy that convinced your completely hammered ass that sleeping on the park bench was not a good idea and offered a couch.

I'm also shocked to find out two people who murdered 16 other people were not just disaffected "yutes" and in fact completely screwed up psychopaths. Who woulda thunk it.

Kelso\'s Nuts|4.15.09 @ 10:13AM|#

You can laugh all you want about Rod Blagojevic. I, for one, am looking forward to hearing the trial. From what I gather he's entitled to a speedy trial, to face his acccusers, and to hear all the evidence agaisnt him.

Well, if Fitzgerald had his phone tapped for god knnow's how long and Jesse Jackson, Jr, #4 in the Obama campaign was wearing a wire for Fitzgerald for god knows how long, this will end up being very embarrassing for President Obama. What do successful youngish men with money do when they're away from home? Well, the three G's I'd imagine: Girls, Gambling and Getting Fucked Up.

Considering that eveyone involved in this is far to Obama's left ideologically, the "vast right wing conspiracy" won't fly. Maybe he'll swtich to the more suitable Republican Party and claim a "vast left-wing conspiracy."

Abdul|4.15.09 @ 10:13AM|#

Scientists say Twitter can make you immoral.

I thought the point of this story was that you can now get bullshit about moral dangers from scientists if you're tired of getting it from theologians.

Hipster Reasonoid|4.15.09 @ 10:15AM|#

I deleted Facebook because it's SOOO proletarian. Facebook is for people who drink Miller Lite. True aficionados of elite culture only drink Double IPAs (like hopheads like me).

Oh, also, I don't have a TV. TV is so...ugh...pedestrian.

Citizen Nothing|4.15.09 @ 10:19AM|#

When layoffs happened at my newspaper, Facebook proved a good way to monitor the situation.
Most of the editorial staff accessed a central site we had set up on Facebook at the bar during the previous evening's wake. When the layoff announcements were e-mailed out beginning at 4 a.m., most folks left personal status reports at the site.
Later, the site became a kind of employment central, where folks would leave info about appropriate job openings in the region.
So, there's that...

Brandon|4.15.09 @ 10:36AM|#

If there was any doubt that today's tea party protests aren't protesting big, powerful, expensive government, but rather big, powerful, expensive government being controlled of the other party, many of them will be attended by GOP members of Congress.

Picture George III being invited to participate in the original Boston Tea Party.

Not in the links or thread, but I throw it out there...

Brandon|4.15.09 @ 10:41AM|#

controlled by the other party

T|4.15.09 @ 10:47AM|#

When layoffs happened at my newspaper, Facebook proved a good way to monitor the situation.

That's how some of my wife's ex-coworkers are using it after her former employer imploded.

Facebook is actually useful for seeing what the younger generation of the family is doing. I am seen as mostly harmless and more importantly non-parental, so the kiddies have no problem adding me. Then I can grab them by the ear and point out that perhaps posting pictures of yourself in your underwear on the internet is not the best idea evar.

Gilbert Martin|4.15.09 @ 10:53AM|#

"Yes! Drop Blago into the Costa Rican jungle! And then drop the rest of our political class in their too! I know, it's cruel to do that to the Costa Ricans, but on the bright side, a significant amount of Congress would probably get consumed by jaguars."

And then all the jaguars would die of food poisoning.

|4.15.09 @ 11:00AM|#

perhaps posting pictures of yourself in your underwear on the internet is not the best idea evar.

Spoilsport.

Creech|4.15.09 @ 11:23AM|#

Brandon, I'll let you know how the noon tea party I'm attending turned out. Attendees were explicitly told it was non-partisan so I left a "Vote Libertarian" message off my sign.
Maybe I'll keep a Libertarian sticker in my pocket in case the GOP turns out in force.

|4.15.09 @ 11:23AM|#

If there was any doubt that today's tea party protests aren't protesting big, powerful, expensive government, but rather big, powerful, expensive government being controlled of the other party, many of them will be attended by GOP members of Congress.

The tea parties weren't organized by the GOP, and many of them target GOP Congressmen. Sure, the GOP is trying to hop on the bandwagon, but that doesn't mean that the tea parties are GOP astroturf. Quite the opposite, in fact. They are, to some significant degree, an expression of frustration with the GOP.

|4.15.09 @ 11:26AM|#

Happy tax day all! I owed $46. That't the closest I've ever come to paying the amount I owe during the year.

So as it turns out, everything you thought you knew about the Columbine shootings was wrong.

What? the press is guilty of crappy irresponsible reporting, merely regurgitating every goddam rumor they hear as fact, no matter the source? Say it ain't so!

Latest calls to end the drug war: Clive Crook in the Financial Times, Mike Gray in the Washington Post, Stanley Crouch in the NY Daily News.

How much do you want to bet that rational thinking based on reality and experience is completely ignored or pooh poohed when

Drug war violence to top the agenda when Obama visits Mexico tomorrow?

I'll bet 6 months income.

Scientists say Twitter can make you immoral.

Color me skeptical to the point of yelling BULLSHIT! at the top of my lungs.

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich could be one of the new reality show celebrities "dropped into the Costa Rican jungle to face challenges designed to test their skills in adapting to the wilderness."

I want him to face a real survival test, dropped into Detroit's east side, penniless and wearing only jockey shorts.

Naga Sadow|4.15.09 @ 11:34AM|#

Oh yeah? Well I've never even SEEN a facebook page. I am clearly the superior reasonoid! All bow before me!

T|4.15.09 @ 11:38AM|#

I want him to face a real survival test, dropped into Detroit's east side, penniless and wearing only jockey shorts.

Any denizen of the East Side is going to know better than to mess with the crazy guy wandering around in his underwear. He got no cash, no drugs, and nothing they'd want, so why bother? Drop him there in his nice suit and see how long he lasts.

|4.15.09 @ 11:44AM|#

Dress him like john mcclain in die hard with a vengeance?

Brandon|4.15.09 @ 11:45AM|#

They are, to some significant degree, an expression of frustration with the GOP.

I'd like to believe that. The Drudge headline article goes out of its way to stress they're not proxy GOP rallies. Mike Steele was denied permission to speak in Chicago and another organizer is barring all politicians

But I'm skeptical that the rallies demonstrate a realization on the part of participants that the problem is not Obama and Democrats, but politicians and government in general. Most will go on voting in 2010 for the same parties and candidates they always vote for.

|4.15.09 @ 12:23PM|#

Oh yeah? Well I've never even SEEN a facebook page. I am clearly the superior reasonoid! All bow before me!

Pah. I don't even know how to spell facebook!! On your knees, Naga!

the innominate one|4.15.09 @ 12:29PM|#

"Facebook is for 15 year-olds and people that want to get in 15 year-olds pants."

I prefer 16 year olds, thank you very much. Also, I'm not indifferent to human suffering, I'm in favor of it.

LarryA|4.15.09 @ 1:06PM|#

It's not just a Texas thing. It is something that is being pushed all across the nation. For instance here is the equivalent Ohio resolution.

OTOH, Texas is writing legislation so they can back the threat up. HB 1863, by Berman, "Relating to exempting the intrastate manufacture of a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition from federal regulation."

Facebook is for 15 year-olds and people that want to get in 15 year-olds pants.

And 40-something cops looking for the latter.

new reality show celebrities

I tried to figure out how many ways this is oxymoronic, but my calculator shorted out.

|4.15.09 @ 1:16PM|#

The newshine of the Intertubes wore off a while ago. Now? Daily pictures of drunk skanks and frat boys acting like retards, vapid teeners giving everyone up-to-the second updates of their equally vapid existences, and people who wouldn't stop text messaging(LOL BRO THESE GUYS ARE PISSED LOL!) if they were being actively fired upon by terrorists.

I don't fucking get it. Why the fuck do so many people feel they have to be in constant contact with so many other people? What's the fucking benefit? Is a few minutes of silence and solitude per day really that unbearable?

And then all the jaguars would die of food poisoning.

winnar

Creech|4.15.09 @ 1:20PM|#

Just back from the rally. I saw one partisan sign: for Ron Paul. Seemed like grass-roots conservative types for the most part. None of the county big-shot GOPers was in sight. Action suggested: join a study group on the Constitution. However, no doubt conservative Republican types are going to come looking for these voters the next time around...most will be fooled again.

|4.15.09 @ 2:05PM|#

Oh yeah? Well I've never even SEEN a facebook page. I am clearly the superior reasonoid! All bow before me!


I've never even used a computer before!

T|4.15.09 @ 2:17PM|#

Is a few minutes of silence and solitude per day really that unbearable?

That gives people time to be alone with themselves. And given what utter twunts most people are, who wouldn't want to avoid that?

lunchstealer|4.15.09 @ 3:05PM|#

Speaking of Obama in Mexico, its utterly irresponsible that US has watered down its gun laws to the point the Mexican drug cartels can get their hands on anti-aircraft machineguns! At least, NPR says we're to blame.

Ahem.

|4.15.09 @ 4:43PM|#

US has watered down its gun laws to the point the Mexican drug cartels can get their hands on anti-aircraft machineguns!

Fuck the Mexicans- I want to mount one of those on my deck. Maybe I can "encourage" my neighbor to put a new muffler on his pickup truck.

|4.15.09 @ 7:35PM|#

Speaking of Obama in Mexico, its utterly irresponsible that US has watered down its gun laws to the point the Mexican drug cartels can get their hands on anti-aircraft machineguns! At least, NPR says we're to blame.

I often wonder how many NPR listeners think you can get hardware like this at Texas and Arizona gun shows.

As for me, I suspect they got them it the same place they get all those M16s. Which it seems a lot of NPR listeners seem to think you can just pick up at Texas and Arizona gun shows.