And Not Just Mom, US

And Not Just Mom, US

We will continue on this as long as there is interest. We could perhaps attribute one, or two, of these snaps to severe psychological trauma, perhaps more, but more important is the question of why we seem to have perhaps 15 to 50 times the number as other developed countries. A couple of ideas come to my mind right now and those are the availability of firearms in the country, certainly their abundance, and the obvious nature that we glorify violence. If you disagree with me, “C'mon, make my day!” We can perhaps say that about a few, but all of them? The argument seems similar to one made by Nate Silver when talking about statistics. Do steroids produce more homers? Well, you can not say that any particular home run was caused by steroids (I might if I was there), but if a player who regularly gets 30 starts getting 60 each year, you can reasonably attribute it to steroids.

But, to your comments:

Hugh seems to have take some issue with my discussion of attribution. He wrote:

About 10 years back, there was a young man named John Segretti from
California, staying with his aunt in Houghton and she was really
worried by his behavior- prowling around the house all night. She kept
her door locked. She asked the police to do something and they said
they couldn't unless he did something wrong in public. Later he did do
something on the local bus, but still nothing was done by the cops.
Then in the winter, in a snow storm, he entered the Houghton National
Bank with a shotgun. The Police chief's wife ran the bank and was on
the phone when he entered and gave warning before hanging up. The
Police station was on the same street and the chief Raffelli was
outside the door with gun drawn in seconds. I don't know if John got
any money, but he wanted a hostage - he was also supposed to be wired
with a bomb around his torso. Raffelli's wife volunteered, but the
shotgun accidentally went off as she proceeded him and it blew away
her arm at the elbow. His fate was sealed at that moment. Another
woman became hostage and they proceeded across the street to a covered
parking lot to her car. Snow storm remember. When the car came out
down to the intersection, someone shot the tires out with a rifle. I
think they had a sniper in place already on the top floor of that
building or one across the intersection. Then they had this long stand
off while reinforcements came in - state police and who knows? They
didn't communicate with him as far as I know. I do know his cousin- a
local CPA, and friend - asked to be allowed to approach the car and
talk to him but was denied. I don't know what the sharpshooters waited
for, maybe that he release his hold on the supposed detonator, and
then shot him in the head. He probably wanted to die. I wish the Cohn
brothers would do this story as a sequel to Fargo.
Now I have a local friend whose son lost it when he went off to school
in Bozeman. He didn't take care of himself - not eating, not sleeping,
not properly clothed, found wandering around in the cold winter night
with not much on. At first they said maybe Apsbergers syndrome;later-
bi-polar disorder. This kid lost his best friend his freshman year of
college to spinal meningitis. And he had a near fatal experience
mountain climbing when for some reason he was alone and took a fall in
a crevasse and had to drag himself 5 or 10 miles. His mother- my
friend- blames herself for his condition because she got divorced-
after the youngest son went to college 5 years after - all kids out of
the house before divorcing. He was working on a post grad degree in
Montana. Of course she is Roman Catholic.
Then there is this personality disorder woman whom I met when I first
moved back up here in 1990 -single mom living on welfare or SS
disability- she was certified a nut. This son became schizophrenic in
his senior year of High School. Some blame that and Raspberry on the
immunization shots all kids get now when they are babies. I don't
know. It works out for her and maybe him- that there they still both
are living free in a house provided by the state, getting food stamps
and a stipend. She I discovered was a secret drinker of vodka and
orange juice. I don't know what his life is like now. When he was 10,
he watched the weather channel and wrote down temps and such. Now with
INTERNET, who knows? h

Well, I'm not about about to contribute to the folklore around mental illness.  The last one does seem like a genuine case of Autism, possibly a form of undifferentiated (can't find the damn spell check here) schizophrenia.  It is almost impossible to say, never having seen him or talked with the people involved.  Bi Polar never grows out of Asperger's, however.  It used to be called manic-depressive and the term is still used (not professionally), and there are hyper-types, hypo-types, so on.  I once had a bit of a problem with an insurance company by diagnosing depression and another had used bi-polar, hypo-type.  We had to tell them together that the two are indistinguishable for up to three weeks at a time.  

About all the wife, mother, etc., can do is to file charges and try to have him committed.  Also, a professional can "96" someone, as we used to call it, lock him in for 96 hours for observation.  

A lot of the problems started with R. D. Laing and the like wanting to "liberate the oppressed," not realizing that someone like Ronnie Ray Gun would come along and agree.  Cheaper.  Too bad 70% of these people are unable to dress or feed themselves and many cant find their way back to their beds. 

Matt, who wrote on the D.C. Madame, says:

A dysfunctional family and culture. The relatives and neighbors and so-called friends should save the trouble about how wonderful the mother was, how "responsible" she'd been with her guns. The fact that 20 kids and six adults are now dead proves that this is a moronic assumption or contention on their part, more self-serving lies, the idiots. Reminds me of John Wayne Gacy's fucking neighbors saying they never noticed anything wrong--right, they were as fucked as him in their own way, outlaw nation built on a layer of dead bodies like all the rest. Brion Gysin compared Gacy to a Norman baron, and he was correct.

Let us focus on the culture here – the mother took the kid to rifle ranges, according to two accounts, because she was trying to bond with her son. He didn't need bonding with someone like that. Neighbors are almost universally saying that “he was a nice, wuite, polite, sort,” in just about every one of these cases. I can't think of an exception. Of course, you[re right, the facts over-ride the opinions.

As far as any of the Normans are concerned, I am still pissed off at them for invading England in 1066 and thus screwing up English spelling forever. And “John Wayne Gacy”? The name tells it all – that and the fact that Michelle Bachmann identified herself as having been born in the same place. That was erroneous, but hey, they word is meaningless around her.