Althouse: "A far-left political extremist who was 'obsessed' with President Obama to the point of being off-putting."

February 15, 2010

"A far-left political extremist who was 'obsessed' with President Obama to the point of being off-putting."

Sound like anyone familiar?

88 comments:

KCFleming said...: "She was upset, but not overly emotional, approaching her appeal “like a game of chess,” he said."

She learned a different set of chess rules. I do not recall weapons being involved when one is checkmated.

But it's been a long time since I've played.; 2/15/10, 8:51 AM
Joaquin said...: OH, the horror!
A super-lib woman, packing heat, and going on a killing rampage!!! And an Obama-Bot to boot!
But, but, but that goes against the music of the universe!; 2/15/10, 8:53 AM
bagoh20 said...: Being an oddball is losing all it's charm.; 2/15/10, 8:54 AM
KCFleming said...: "...Bishop was a suspect in the attempted bombing of Dr. Paul Rosenberg, who received a double-pipe bomb in the mail on Dec. 19, 1993. ...She said Bishop “grinned” as she described being asked by cops whether she’d ever taken stamps off an envelope and fastened them onto something else. “I cannot tell you what the grin meant,” Fluckiger said."

'Spooky and evil', is what it meant.; 2/15/10, 8:56 AM
MadisonMan said...: It's Obama's fault!

And the mother of four kids to boot. I feel just tremendously sorry for her kids. To go through this kind of thing! (shudder); 2/15/10, 9:00 AM
Rialby said...: But Sully is a "conservative"; 2/15/10, 9:04 AM
paul a'barge said...: Bill Ayers; 2/15/10, 9:04 AM
LouisAntoine said...: Yo mama?; 2/15/10, 9:08 AM
flenser said...: Don't miss this story.

A former auto-body worker claims Amy Bishop put a gun to his chest and demanded a getaway car just minutes after she shot her brother to death 24 years ago in a controversial case that is now being reviewed.

This whole thing was some "accident"!; 2/15/10, 9:09 AM
DADvocate said...: This woman is emerging to be like the villain out of some psycho killer movie.; 2/15/10, 9:10 AM
Salamandyr said...: The more we learn about this woman, the stranger her story becomes. Why did the attorney general in Massachusetts protect her back then? Why did police not investigate further into the attempted mail bombing?

How is it this woman, who appears at least to be unbalanced and possibly psychotic, has remained free all these years?; 2/15/10, 9:11 AM
kjbe said...: An obsessive-compulsive, sociopath - Ted Kaczynski, maybe?; 2/15/10, 9:13 AM
AllenS said...: Yo mama?

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.; 2/15/10, 9:15 AM
rhhardin said...: A family source said Bishop, a mother of four children - the youngest a third-grade boy - was a far-left political extremist who was “obsessed” with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.

There's a nice phrase for that journalistic construction that I can't remember.

Unconnected stuff in subordinate clauses for the purpose of putting it all in.

A comma has been eaten by an em-dash.; 2/15/10, 9:16 AM
Meade said...: "An obsessive-compulsive, sociopath - Ted Kaczynski, maybe?"

I was thinking of a different Ted K.; 2/15/10, 9:18 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: How is it this woman, who appears at least to be unbalanced and possibly psychotic, has remained free all these years?

She worked in higher (so called) learning environments: an insular bubble full of left leaning liberal loons who are obsessive, narrow minded,lack social skills or any concept of reality outside of thier bubble.

Except for the fact that they have tenure and she didn't...she fit in quite well.

If she worked at the local diner or check out stand at the grocery store, she would have been canned long ago.; 2/15/10, 9:20 AM
garage mahal said...: Gregory Girard?

As we reported yesterday, Gregory Girard, a Manchester technology consultant, was found with a stash of military grade weapons, explosive devices including tear gas and pepper ball canisters, camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles, say police. They believe Girard, who pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, was "preparing for domestic and political turmoil," and feared martial law would soon be imposed.

I believe that the ONLY ----- ONLY ------ potential presidental (sic) candidate I have seen with the sheer force of will and God-insprined (sic) rightous (sic) determination to bringdown (sic) this "War Powers" evil is Sarah Palin.; 2/15/10, 9:22 AM
Wince said...: This woman is emerging to be like the villain out of some psycho killer movie.

I say The Bad Seed (1956).

wv-"spoomicac" = ask your doctor about spoomicac, in case you swallow by accident; 2/15/10, 9:23 AM
flenser said...: If she worked at the local diner or check out stand at the grocery store, she would have been canned long ago

She got away with murder when she was 19, long before she became an academic.; 2/15/10, 9:23 AM
AllenS said...: Had this woman supported McCain/Palin, she would have gotten the boot from academia immediately. Her obsession over Obama made her blend right in.; 2/15/10, 9:24 AM
The Dude said...: A far-left political extremist who was 'obsessed' with President Obama to the point of being off-putting, but that's just being repetitive...; 2/15/10, 9:25 AM
Anonymous said...: Now the usual suspects will be finding examples of nutcases with violent tendencies who have fastened themselves to one politician or another.

That is so dreary and stupid, and proves nothing, except there are lunatics out there, which, if you read comments on the internet enough, you will know full well.; 2/15/10, 9:29 AM
John said...: Andrea Sullivan comes to mind. Just add in a toxic obsession with other women's uterus and that would describe Sullivan perfectly.; 2/15/10, 9:29 AM
dbp said...: Pogo: "She learned a different set of chess rules. I do not recall weapons being involved when one is checkmated."

This is the new, improved Full Contact Chess; 2/15/10, 9:30 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: A far-left political extremist who was 'obsessed' with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.

President Obama?; 2/15/10, 9:31 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: If she worked at the local diner or check out stand at the grocery store, she would have been canned long ago

"She got away with murder when she was 19, long before she became an academic"

Just sayin'.....anyone in the 'real world' with these creepy and unpleasant personality traits would have been 'let go' from their job years ago.

Only in Academia, can someone this disturbed and loony fit in. Just imagine the future harm to students should she have actually received tenure. They would have been stuck with her FOREVER!!.

Now the State will be stuck with her forever, paying for her incarceration. This is why the death penalty should be mandatory for cases like this.

AND, also why tenure should be abolished for all teaching positions.; 2/15/10, 9:32 AM
flenser said...: the usual suspects will be finding examples of nutcases with violent tendencies who have fastened themselves to one politician or another.

In order for the analogy to work, two additional conditions will need to apply.

1) The nutcase in question will have to kill someone.

2) The nutcase in question will have to get away with his/her crime due to political interference.; 2/15/10, 9:34 AM
ricpic said...: The thing I don't understand is why failing to get tenure set her off. Apparently she and her husband had developed some piece of equipment (I don't pretend to understand the science of it) that needed funding to get off the ground. There was potentially big money if they could market it. Maybe this is naive of me but wouldn't shopping it around to companies succeed or fail independent of whether the academic behind the device had tenure?; 2/15/10, 9:34 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: ..was a far-left political extremist who was “obsessed” with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.

How was this nutcase allowed to teach anything I'll never know.; 2/15/10, 9:36 AM
Roger Sweeny said...: garage mahal,

Nice catch. And beautifully positioned after Dust Bunny Queen's comment.

Can we stipulate that there are crazies on both right and left?; 2/15/10, 9:40 AM
Anonymous said...: Well, flenser, tell that to garage mahal upthread, who nicely trotted out a Sarah Palin-obssessed and heavily-armed whackjob.

You know where this rhetorical trick is going: If an Obama-obssessed nutcase killed some people, why, just look at the violent crazies attached to the wingnut side!

Yawn.; 2/15/10, 9:44 AM
bagoh20 said...: It seems that the concept of tenure is not working since there is little diversity in faculty. How many far right Professors are there? You don't really need tenure when your colleagues mostly agree with you.; 2/15/10, 9:45 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: bagoh20:

It seems that the concept of tenure is not working since there is little diversity in faculty. How many far right Professors are there? You don't really need tenure when your colleagues mostly agree with you.

I'm not sure that's particularly pertinent here. She seems to have been a far-left wacko, after all, not a rightist at all. I don't see any reason to believe her politics had anything to do with the tenure denial.

That said, the portrait that emerges is kind of weird and contradictory. She's said to have had no friends, to have been kind of creepy, etc. etc., but, well, she got married at some point, and has a bunch of children. And she and her husband seem to have been reasonably successful to boot -- not dysfunctional. How odd and friendless can she really have been?; 2/15/10, 9:50 AM
flenser said...: Can we stipulate that there are crazies on both right and left

Can we stipulate that crazies on the right get prosecuted to the full extent of the law while crazies on the left get away (literally in this case) with murder? And do so with the aid of lefties in high places?; 2/15/10, 9:50 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: How was this nutcase allowed to teach anything I'll never know.

Bill Ayres? I mean she kinda fits right in there.; 2/15/10, 9:51 AM
Anonymous said...: And, of course, the very premise of threads like this is to allow maximum tongue-clucking at the crazies attached to one side or another.

I think I need a nap.

WV = dictu

Mirabile dictu, the Althouse commentariat has left off smug moralizing.

Only a sample to use WV word. Not holding my breath otherwise.; 2/15/10, 9:51 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Wow! I didn't hear about this Girard character.

Did he have tenure (and a guaranteed for life job) as a member of the faculty at a University? Or is he an independent (and whacked out) businessman who will probably never have another job in his field?

And...yes, I concur.

There are loonies everywhere. They just seem to be more concentrated in the academia setting. Maybe that's a good thing. Keep them corralled together.; 2/15/10, 9:52 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: You know where this rhetorical trick is going: If an Obama-obssessed nutcase killed some people, why, just look at the violent crazies attached to the wingnut side!

Well according to the article, it doesn't appear he was charged with killing anyone.; 2/15/10, 9:54 AM
Peter V. Bella said...: ""A far-left political extremist who was 'obsessed' with President Obama to the point of being off-putting.""

People obsessed with Obama must be watched. They are dangerous!; 2/15/10, 9:55 AM
Skyler said...: I think that again people are knee jerking to calling this a left wing/right wing matter.

She was a looney toon. They come in all flavors.

For every Bishop there is a McVeigh. I don't want to be associated with either one.

Then again, I don't like being associated with any political party or movement.; 2/15/10, 9:56 AM
flenser said...: I think that again people are knee jerking to calling this a left wing/right wing matter.

The point, which people keep determinedly missing, is not merely that this woman is a crazy killer.

It's that she got away with murder with the aid of the Democratic machine in Massachusetts, including a current Congressman, which covered up her crime. That's what the "there are crazies on both sides" fetishists are not getting.; 2/15/10, 10:02 AM
AllenS said...: RE: Gregory Girard

stockpiling weapons. Is there a limit on how many weapons a citizen can own?

stash of military grade weapons. What does that mean?

camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles. This is all illegal?; 2/15/10, 10:02 AM
flenser said...: For every Bishop there is a McVeigh.

If McVeigh had gotten away with murder with the assistance of a Republican Congressman, sure. But he didn't.; 2/15/10, 10:04 AM
AllenS said...: I hope I'm not over the limit on steak knives.; 2/15/10, 10:06 AM
Salamandyr said...: Skyler,

Anything more than a cursory skim of McVeigh's ideology shows him not to be right wing in any legitimate sense of the word. He was anti-American, who identified with the Iraqi's he fought. Our government was immoral for all the usual reasons, money, we don't actively "help the poor", of course the undercurrent of all of it is that it would require a much more authoritarian government than we have to do all the good things McVeigh, and the Anti-American nutjobs want.

That isn't to say McVeigh was left-wing either. He didn't have enough of a coherent philosophical belieft to qualify as one or the other, but he seemed to want a similar Mommy style government as Kaczynski.; 2/15/10, 10:08 AM
MadisonMan said...: Yes, because we all know that Right-wingers never get away with murder.

(eyeroll)

I will further stipulate that the extreme left and the extreme right are one in the same.; 2/15/10, 10:10 AM
flenser said...: Yes, because we all know that Right-wingers never get away with murder.

(eyeroll)

Was there supposed to be something resembling a thought going on behind your rotating eyeballs?; 2/15/10, 10:13 AM
Bob From Ohio said...: "Gregory D. Girard, 45, was arrested Tuesday night and charged with storing several tear-gas grenades and explosive pepper-ball projectiles. He was also charged with illegal possession of four police batons."

Oh, scary. How many batons could he use at one time? How long to kill three people with them?

He had permits for the actual weapons.; 2/15/10, 10:25 AM
AllenS said...: I'll bet Girard had more than one bread knife.; 2/15/10, 10:28 AM
Anonymous said...: MadisonMan --

"I will further stipulate that the extreme left and the extreme right are one in the same."

I have to agree with you on this one. It's like the equator. Go far enough in either direction and you wind up at batshit crazy.

Now that I've said that, my personal experience is there seems to be a larger march headed east.; 2/15/10, 11:06 AM
Unknown said...: One of the points not yet mentioned is the fact that a great many of the head cases posing as faculty on college campuses regularly talk of so-and-so ought to be shot, blown up with his own bombs, etc., going all the way back to the Vietnam War (I had a couple of profs like that). Amy Bishop was unstable enough, violent enough, and immoral enough to go the next step. Which says a lot about the corruption of the Kennedy machine; cops in the People's Republic have to check with Hyannispawt before they run in a jaywalker.

As for garage and his 'for every one on the left, there's one on the right' business, it doesn't seem to hold water. As noted, the righties get prosecuted regularly, sometimes on the mere appearance of an indication. More to the point, the righties have to hold a real job, so they get spotted a lot sooner.

In regard to Ann's challenge to guess the nameless Obamatron, the list appears to be getting shorter and shorter, largely due to some people finally waking up. The ones left after November, however, will probably be a scary lot.; 2/15/10, 11:08 AM
campy said...: camouflage clothing, knives, handcuffs, bulletproof vests and helmets, and night vision goggles.

This is all illegal?

Well, it is illegal to wear camouflage clothing in Barbados.

At least that's what the cruise line told me when we stopped there.; 2/15/10, 11:11 AM
Anonymous said...: This sounds like most of Obama's followers - guys like Bill Ayers, who, if they can't get what they want, will bomb or murder anyone standing in their way to get what they want ... to make America in their image.

That's the Chicago Way ... no? Kill people? Harass, yes, bully yes ... but in the end, if you have to, fucking whack 'em?

Isn't this why Obama is their leader?; 2/15/10, 11:12 AM
Balfegor said...: It's that she got away with murder with the aid of the Democratic machine in Massachusetts, including a current Congressman, which covered up her crime.

I don't think this has anything specifically to do with Democrats. It's easy to imagine, say, Huckabee doing the same kind of thing. If there's a political angle there, it's common-or-garden machine politics, of the Chicago or New York schools.; 2/15/10, 11:30 AM
former law student said...: The thing I don't understand is why failing to get tenure set her off.

Academia -- at least science and engineering academia -- is a ruthless winnowing process. You have to be very bright and hardworking to get into graduate school, vbh to get your PhD, vbh to get a tenure track job, vbh to get tenure. If you miss a step, you have failed. Amy Bishop, despite her Harvard PhD, is a failure because she did not get tenure. (She would again be a failure if she didn't get promoted to full Professor.)

But getting tenure is tough. Of the eleven assistant profs in my dept. when I was in graduate school, only one got tenure. Another one got tenure at a lesser school. If you don't get tenure at UAH, there is no lesser school, unfortunately.; 2/15/10, 11:32 AM
Anonymous said...: "
I don't think this has anything specifically to do with Democrats. "

Sure it does.

Nuts like this populate the Democrat Party.

Your friends at lefty sites such as Talking Points Memo certainly seem to want to paint every lone whacko even remotely associated with the Tea Party as representative of the whole.

So, when a lefty nut like Amy Bishop starts whacking people, Barack-Obama-Bill-Ayers-Chicago-Way-Style, then it behooves us to talk about why Democrats are so violent.

It behooves us to have a conversation about how politics in the United States has devolved into mere lefty violence against innocent professors and whatnot.; 2/15/10, 11:34 AM
KCFleming said...: The PhD-tenure pyramid is a scam that needs to be ended. Good people waste considerable effort being kindling for the University kiln.

She's a nut, no doubt about it.

But that process is ruthless and needs some, uh, ruth.; 2/15/10, 11:43 AM
Balfegor said...: Your friends at lefty sites such as Talking Points Memo certainly seem to want to paint every lone whacko even remotely associated with the Tea Party as representative of the whole.

That's a different point, though -- that's not the the Democratic or Republican party, per se, but ordinary activists of the Right, Left, or (with the Tea Party) of the anti-Left. And yes, there's a bias in media presentation there -- if Ayers had been an abortion clinic bomber rather than a man out to kill the "right" sort of victim, Obama would have been an untouchable in national politics -- but that's not what I'm talking about.

Delahunt may have intervened to help her out in a partisan way, but I don't think that has to do with Democrats. There's nothing about the Democrats that makes them more willing to countenance murder, or sweep it under the rug. That's just machine politics and corruption, not a Democrat/Republican thing. Because of the Democrats' strength in degenerate urban politics, it's possible that there's more Democrats involved in this sort of thing than Republicans, but that still doesn't make it somehow a Democratic party thing.; 2/15/10, 11:44 AM
flenser said...: I don't think this has anything specifically to do with Democrats. It's easy to imagine, say, Huckabee doing the same kind of thing.

No. No, it's not. It's not easy to imagine Huckabee or anyone else covering up a murder. And it's a pathetic to see how some commenters here are willing to brush a murder and its coverup under the rug.

Crimes were committed here. Serious crimes, not infantile bullshit like somebody having a flaregun in their house. Crimes committed by people currently free and clear and sitting in high office.; 2/15/10, 11:51 AM
flenser said...: Delahunt may have intervened to help her out in a partisan way, but I don't think that has to do with Democrats. There's nothing about the Democrats that makes them more willing to countenance murder, or sweep it under the rug.

Some people have a staggering ability to not see what's in front of their eyeballs.; 2/15/10, 11:53 AM
Unknown said...: "Can we stipulate that there are crazies on both right and left?"

Yes, we can. As long as we stipulate it every time - and not just when it's convenient.; 2/15/10, 11:59 AM
Balfegor said...: No. No, it's not. It's not easy to imagine Huckabee or anyone else covering up a murder.

Huckabee, specifically, is easy for me to imagine, because in his zeal to show clemency, he let go at least one murderer over the objections of harder hearts. One recidivist murderer. He is not a man with sound judgment in these matters.

And it's a pathetic to see how some commenters here are willing to brush a murder and its coverup under the rug.

Is anyone saying we should brush this under the rug? If Delahunt did intervene to help out a political ally's child, then sure, he should be raked over the coals. And the woman here -- if she's a fratricide along with being a triple murderess -- ought to be executed.

But this isn't an indictment of the Democratic party, or Democrats, or Leftists in general, any more than one of those increasingly rare abortion clinic bomber is an indictment of the Right as a whole. It's idiotic when the media start hyperventillating over the risk that Rightists with their guns and their oppressive conservatism will turn to violence. And it's idiotic to hyperventillate over the prospect that Leftists with their, uh, pipe bombs and their demented social theories will turn to violence. Sure, there have been violent leftist movements in the past (see, e.g. Obama's chum, the despicable William Ayers). But that doesn't mean that every Leftist or Leftist movement is pregnant with violence.; 2/15/10, 12:00 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: If you don't get tenure at UAH, there is no lesser school, unfortunately.

There's always Auburn.; 2/15/10, 12:04 PM
flenser said...: Huckabee, specifically, is easy for me to imagine, because in his zeal to show clemency, he let go at least one murderer over the objections of harder hearts. One recidivist murderer. He is not a man with sound judgment in these matters.

1) Huckabee did not "let go at least one murder over the objections of harder hearts" You are presumably thinking of Maurice Clemmons. Clemmons was in jail for assault, not for murder. So you have your basic facts wrong.

2) There is a world of difference between a governor exercising his pardon power on a person guilty of a crime, and a person who conspires to cover up a murder. Among other things, the second case is a serious crime while the first is perfectly legal.; 2/15/10, 12:24 PM
Balfegor said...: 1) Huckabee did not "let go at least one murder over the objections of harder hearts" You are presumably thinking of Maurice Clemmons. Clemmons was in jail for assault, not for murder. So you have your basic facts wrong.

And Wayne Dumond, who was rape not murder. So fair enough -- they weren't murderers, just violent criminals who turned to murder once he let them out.; 2/15/10, 12:28 PM
Anonymous said...: "There's nothing about the Democrats that makes them more willing to countenance murder, or sweep it under the rug."

You say there's nothing about Democrats that makes them willing to sweep murder under the rug, but that's true of just about all political parties.

There is something about Democrats, however, that makes them believe that violence is a means to their ends.

That's why people such as Bill Ayers and Bernadette Dorn and the union thugs find hearth and home in the Democrat Party.

The Chicago Way isn't a Republican slogan ... it's a Democrat slogan.

The Chicago Way is about using violence to get what you want, in life and in politics.

Democrats are the Party of Violence. And that's why we need to take the instruments of violence - power - away from them.

They aren't responsible enough to wield power responsibly.; 2/15/10, 12:29 PM
former law student said...: Now the State will be stuck with her forever, paying for her incarceration. This is why the death penalty should be mandatory for cases like this.

A distinction without a difference, sometimes. A prisoner on death row in Arizona just died of old age. The 94 year old Viva Leroy Nash was sentenced to death in 1983, for a murder he committed at the age of 67. He filed appeals from 1985 to 2006.; 2/15/10, 12:34 PM
Anonymous said...: "Can we stipulate that there are crazies on both right and left?"

People on the right do. We assume it.

But then we look at the lefty web sites and see what the folks at - to use one example - Talking Points Memo are doing.

They're specifically using Yellow Journalism to try to paint membership in the Tea Party as the Scarlett Letter of nutjobbery. Every lone whackjob they can find to try to paint the entire organization as the home of the nutty right is made a poster boy.

And so, two can play at that game. If you Democrats want to play that game, then we're happy to play it.

Game on.

There's only one political party that is home to the Chicago Way of violent politics - where terrorist bombing is seen as a way to introduce yourself politically (ala Bill Ayers). And that's the Democrat Party. If you're a violent scumbag, then the Democrats have a place for you in their tent.

The Democrat Party is the party of murderers like Amy Bishop and the party of her enablers like Bill Delahunt.

If you don't mind beating a black man like a yard dog at a Democrat Town Hall meeting, or killing people who won't grant you tenure, then the Democrat Party is the place for you.

Barack Obama and his Chicago friends would like you to join them.; 2/15/10, 12:35 PM
flenser said...: they weren't murderers, just violent criminals who turned to murder once he let them out.

Which sort of ruins your attempt at constructing an analogy between those cases and the instance under discussion here in which a murderer was allowed to walk free in blatant defiance of the law.; 2/15/10, 12:35 PM
former law student said...: The Chicago Way isn't a Republican slogan ... it's a Democrat slogan.

Is David Mamet a Democrat? He's the one who created the slogan and put it in Sean Connery's mouth.; 2/15/10, 12:36 PM
Peter V. Bella said...: That's the Chicago Way ... no? Kill people? Harass, yes, bully yes ... but in the end, if you have to, fucking whack 'em?

Isn't this why Obama is their leader?

As a Chicagoan, I can speak from experience. That is the Chicago way.; 2/15/10, 12:37 PM
Phil 314 said...: So are we arguing over which side is less crazy

Now there's a fight I want to get in!; 2/15/10, 12:49 PM
former law student said...: Al Capone flourished while the Republican Thompson was Mayor of Chicago -- it took the Feds like Ness to take him out of commission.; 2/15/10, 12:50 PM
Mian said...: The party at fault here, clearly, is Academia, which has been known to discriminate against obsessive "far-left political extremists" for years.; 2/15/10, 1:17 PM
Meade said...: Ness did not take Capone out of commission. The IRS did.; 2/15/10, 1:42 PM
AllenS said...: That, and syphilis.; 2/15/10, 2:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Sounds like this teacher was a one-woman death panel.; 2/15/10, 2:20 PM
mariner said...: Balfegor,
Huckabee, specifically, is easy for me to imagine, because in his zeal to show clemency, he let go at least one murderer over the objections of harder hearts.

If you're talking about the bozo that shot several cops in the Northwest, you're mistaken.

When Huckabee paroled that guy it was at the unanimous recommendation of the parole board.; 2/15/10, 4:23 PM
former law student said...: The IRS did.

Ness cut Capone's cash flow by closing down his breweries. But Ness's Treasury colleagues in the IRS were the ones who proved that Capone had evaded taxes.; 2/15/10, 4:41 PM
knox said...: There's nothing about the Democrats that makes them more willing to countenance murder, or sweep it under the rug.

Ted Kennedy.

Sorry; I know that is going to piss off Theo, who understandably despises the tit-for-tat nature of these threads.

But I know, and have known, many democrats who thought Ted Kennedy was a virtual saint/savior. The posts that showed up on Facebook when he died ... "what a great man" "I cried today" etc. etc.

There was a hell of a lot of countenancing and sweeping going on. Maybe it's just an exception for the Kennedys. But then there's Bill Ayers, so...; 2/15/10, 5:42 PM
Cedarford said...: Depresing how many idiots here seize on the political construct - as if someones politics somehow explain abhorrent acts.

Madison Man had a different perspective that I will respond to:

MadisonMan said...
It's Obama's fault!
And the mother of four kids to boot. I feel just tremendously sorry for her kids. To go through this kind of thing! (shudder)

I believe to the contrary. If there is any small mercy, any silver lining in this madwoman's bloodbath - it is her kids and to a much lesser degree, her students - that are now spared of her malignant influence.

The optimal thing would have been if she was stopped when she should have been stopped - up in Massachusetts.

Stand by for the "digging and fascination effect" media effort. This case has legs. Mystery, powerful Mass people covering things up, corrupt police, bombs, brilliant but ugly women (Hollywood will fix the ugly part when the movie comes out), bizarre behavior, Lefty politics, campus bloodbath, perhaps a multimillion dollar invention that will add to the plot.......

Ted Kaczynski, but with tits and a far lusher background of train wreckage and lost potential and bad cops, politicians, campus tenure barons....; 2/15/10, 6:02 PM
knox said...: Depresing how many idiots here seize on the political construct - as if someones politics somehow explain abhorrent acts.

That's rich, coming from you. Really.; 2/15/10, 6:09 PM
Kirk Parker said...: dbp,

I suppose you think you were joking about Full Contact Chess?; 2/15/10, 7:46 PM
Methadras said...: Why does Bush hate murdered people?; 2/15/10, 8:02 PM
Methadras said...: I wonder if in her interrogation if she was asked if she hates Bush.; 2/15/10, 8:03 PM
former law student said...: many democrats who thought Ted Kennedy was a virtual saint/savior.

Was Teddy a basically decent man who panicked in an emergency? Or was he a cold-blooder murderer who drowned a lover who had become inconvenient, trying to make it look like an accident?

I'm inclined to think he was a one-time fuckup, probably drunk on his ass, with the deficit of coping skills that entails, because a murderer would not have tied himself so blatantly and thoroughly and permanently to Mary Jo's death.

What would have been his motive? What was the worst that could have happened had Mary Jo lived? That she would have popped out a baby? She could have given it to the nuns, who would have found it a loving home. She could have married some schlub who didn't mind a ready-made family. Imagine the secret joy of a Kennedy groupie to actually give birth to a Kennedy baby. Would someone pollinated by Mick Jagger complain?; 2/16/10, 12:08 AM
knox said...: ... and THERE you have it!!!

He thought about his own fortunes rather than saving her. Was her death premeditated? I guess not, but it was a conscious choice. jeez.; 2/16/10, 9:33 AM
knox said...: Was Teddy a basically decent man

What I have heard/read about his drunken routs, his partying and waitress groping with his dumbass nephews and Chris Dodd, I'm guessing "no."; 2/16/10, 9:35 AM