March 13, 2010

"A few months before disappeared, her stepfather says he confronted her: 'What are you going to do, strap a bomb on and blow up something?'"

"He recalled that she responded: 'If necessary, yes.' 'She never liked who she was,' her mother said. 'She was always looking for something.'"

A second American woman, Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, 31, has been arrested in that plot to murder a cartoonist who depicted Muhammad. The other woman is Colleen R. LaRose, 46, AKA "JihadJane."

I find it especially hard to understand an American deciding to kill a cartoonist. I can understand how someone coming from our culture could become consumed with anti-government passion adopt a violent path aimed at government targets. And I understand the religious path toward violence and can see that strand in American culture too. And I know converts can be the most passionate religionists. Religionists might aim at private citizens. (I'm thinking of the pro-lifers who've targeted abortion doctors.) But still, going against a cartoonist. How can that happen?
On Sept. 11, she suddenly left Leadville, Colo., a small town in the Rocky Mountains, for Denver, then for New York, to meet and marry a Muslim man she connected with online, her family says. Ms. Paulin-Ramirez, who is 5-foot-11 and blonde, phoned her mother and stepfather in Leadville, providing them with an address in Waterford, Ireland, they say.
I suppose she was drawn in by the passionate intensity of the man, and he came up with the specifics. Killing a cartoonist... it was exotic... erotic.

55 comments:

Daniel Fielding said...

The zeal of the new convert. Wahabbi terrorist recruiters search out vulnerable people,and then get them converted to their version of Islam,and then con them into getting involved in terrorist schemes.

I'm Full of Soup said...

"I don't understand how someone can be driven to kill a cartoonist".

Yeah but you don't have to read the predictable cartoons in my local paper :).

AllenS said...

Relatives of Ms. Paulin-Ramirez said they're distressed because her son was with her in Ireland. The boy's father is Mexican and hasn't seen the child in about 5 years, said George Mott, Ms. Paulin-Ramirez's stepfather, who lives in Leadville with her mother. Mr. Mott, a convert to Islam himself, says he went to Denver to find his stepdaughter but couldn't track her down.

I'm beginning to see a pattern.

1775OGG said...

AJ: You get the Red Star (Mpls Star Tribune) newspaper?

Anonymous said...

"I don't understand how someone can be driven to kill a cartoonist".

In the United States, if you draw an editorial cartoon of Barack Obama as a monkey, you will understand really quickly how many liberal Democrats in this country wish to kill the editorialist.

Liberals and Islamist militants share almost precisely the same beliefs. Neither group believe in freedom of speech or the right to criticize their chosen one.

(Revenant makes a comment in 3 .... 2 .... 1)

Wince said...

But still, going against a cartoonist. How can that happen?

Obviously, you have never seen Freddy Got Fingered.

Coincidentally, it's a story of an artistic younr man who seeks his creative muse through cartooning after dropping-out of mundane work. Ebert's Review.

Anonymous said...

"I'm beginning to see a pattern."

Yea, me too: Stupid fucking whore.

Take her kid. Put her under in Guantanamo. Let them at her.

Richard Dolan said...

"Killing a cartoonist .. it was exotic ... erotic."

But the religious zeal came before she hooked up with the Algerian, and it seems that he was husband #4. The article says that she wanted to wear a hajib to her father's funeral in Kansas, and that all happened before she took off to meet Mr. Wonderful. The religious zeal explains how she came to hook up with him, not the other way around.

Exotic/erotic doesn't fit. She sounds like someone who was desperate to believe in something, and latched on to Islam to fill the bill, after having tried some other stuff.

Reading this, I was wondering how much this woman's personality might have in common with another midwesterner woman who famously marched to an equally odd drummer, ended up attached to a Muslim man and took off for a strange life in a strange land -- Obama's mother. In the '60s, her story played out differently -- jihadi terrorism and murder weren't all the rage then, but Franz Fanon and others like him were.

Ann writes another post today about the hippie-dippie '60s. But that one and this one share a common if weird connection.

Beth said...

Something here makes me think of those women who marry serial killers in jail.

Anonymous said...

Richard Dolan wrote: "In the '60s, her story played out differently -- jihadi terrorism and murder weren't all the rage then ...

Dick, you're not much of a student of history, are you? Barack Obama's friends were terrorists and did kill people and did bomb the Pentagon and it was all the rage then.

I respectfully beg to differ. Jihad was all the rage then.

AllenS said...

That's a good point, Beth.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

People who want to do something big and violent, then go looking for reasons.

Richard Dolan said...

NewHam: You don't seem to know what 'jihad' refers to. Hint: the weathermen and other '60s radicals weren't jihadis and their motivation wasn't religious.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Doug:

The Philly Inquirer has a far-left cartoonist named Tony Auth.

Jeff with one 'f' said...

"She never liked who she was,' her mother said. 'She was always looking for something.'"

Epitaph for leftists in general. It also explains the CHANGE slogan...

Anonymous said...

@Richard Dolan, who wrote: "You don't seem to know what 'jihad' refers to. Hint: the weathermen and other '60s radicals weren't jihadis and their motivation wasn't religious."

Oh, I understand all too well what "jihad" refers to.

Jihad refers to "the struggle" and the Islamist jihadists and the Weather Underground and the liberals all share the same struggle. They all wish to destroy the United States and everything it stands for.

That is their jihad.

They share the same religion: The Cult of Death."

And they share the same means to that end: terrorism and murder.

Drew W said...

Jihadists: They want our blondes.

If two more American blondes were to be recruited to kill a Danish cartoonist, I’d keep these two under special surveillance.

Chip Ahoy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Chip Ahoy said...

Had a repeaty sentence up there ↑.


It goes something like this, I think:

Ew, that Lars Vilks, he draws a skritchy-skratchy picture of Mohammad, PBUH, as an rondellhund and that flat pisses me off. Blasphemy! He knows how offensive that is. Does the man have no morals? No ethics? I'm going to pop a cap in his ass and teach EVERYONE a lesson. Plus this Algerian guy, whatshisname here, told me to.

traditionalguy said...

Legalism is the easy way to grab some pride in one's self worth and identity as a person. That is why it is the enemy of the message of his sacrifice brought and performed by the Jewish prophet Jesus, and since then desperately hidden and slandered by every legalistic, miserable, iron cruel religion such as the revelation by the angel given to Mohamed in a cave. Christians have to win their own ongoing war with this false way to relate to God. Nobody ever keeps that "Law of Sin and Death", but they will murder others as a substitute work to win credit with the condemning god that put them under that law without knowing the free way of escape.

William said...

I'm reading the Simon Montefiore biography, Young Stalin. In his youth Stalin was a rather romantic revolutionary figure, robbing banks, living as a fugitive, even pirating a ship. It would seem to be a miserable existence, but the plus side of the underground is that everyone had an active and exciting sex life. There's something about the presence of mortal danger and unlawful activities that heightens the libido Perhaps these sad, confused women should be looked upon not so much as terrorists, but as perverts.

Unknown said...

ann the psychologist.

Lance said...

They share the same religion: The Cult of Death.

The Big Toe says, "Lighten up, Francis."

EnigmatiCore said...

"Hint: the weathermen and other '60s radicals weren't jihadis and their motivation wasn't religious."

Their motivation was not Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish et al.

It was most certainly religious.

somefeller said...

Something here makes me think of those women who marry serial killers in jail.

That plus the zeal of the new convert phenomenon probably sum it all up.

ricpic said...

Is a cartoonist a cartoonist if his work never, not once, elicits a laugh? Garry Trudeau fits that bill.

Richard Dolan said...

E-Core: 'Religious' is not the same as 'ideological', even though both of them can be faith-based. It's a false equation that obscures more than it illuminates.

somefeller said...

'Religious' is not the same as 'ideological', even though both of them can be faith-based. It's a false equation that obscures more than it illuminates.

Agreed. Confusing the two is the same sort of logic that, for example, Christopher Hitchens uses to claim that Communist totalitarianism was a religious movement and therefore should be considered to be a mark against religion rather than atheism, because (to use his phrase) religion poisons everything.

kentuckyliz said...

The girl likes her some strange.

Perhaps she joined the Religion of Peace to find peace.

I suppose it would be a peaceful moment to find oneself blown into a million bloody smithereens on a Danish street. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Boom Boom Fizz Fizz
Oh what a relief it is!

Lance said...

Is a cartoonist a cartoonist if his work never, not once, elicits a laugh? Garry Trudeau fits that bill.

Yes. Cartooning isn't just about getting laughs. Trudeau for example uses his art for propaganda, like most political cartoonists.

Fr Martin Fox said...

I'll be d***ed if I'm going to start typing PBUH after Muhammad's name.

ricpic said...

Jesus saves; Moses invests; Mohammed violates.

kentuckyliz said...

Well, looking at her picture, maybe she wanted to be part of a group that would love her heavy eyeliner and feature it more prominently with the hijab.

F said...

I especially like her on-line comment "stop calling Muslims TERRORISTS." Then she left Colorado to learn how to murder a Danish cartoonist.

Titus said...

Muzzie guys are hot.

I fantasize about strapping on a bomb and doing it with them.

I find them both erotic and exotic.

The fact that they feel guilty as shit doing it with a guy is hot too. I would love to do one that had the whole sheet ensemble thing going on.

Titus said...

Oh and the danger factor is also very hot.

Like anytime when we are doing it he is going to slit my throat or cut off my head because I am a fag-totally hot.

Titus said...

One time I did a really hot Morrocan cab driver. He dropped me off at my house and asked if he could use the bathroom.

I knew we were going to do it because we were looking at each other the entire time in the cab.

He took a piss and came out of the bathroom with his pants down.

It was totally hot.

I asked him to talk Muzzie while we were doing it and he did which made me blow like in a minute.

J said...

"I find it especially hard to understand an American deciding to kill a cartoonist"

A drycleaner maybe, but not a cartoonist.

Anonymous said...

"I especially like her on-line comment "stop calling Muslims TERRORISTS." Then she left Colorado to learn how to murder a Danish cartoonist."

They don't see their murderous ways as being terrorism. To them, it's a means to an end.

Look at Victoria, the commenter a few posts above. I've linked her to authoritative sources demonstrating to her that real live domestic terrorists ... people who have actually bombed the Pentagon ... people who have murdered for their cause ... these people are walking free in her community and she's scared not of them in the least.

She's scared of commenter on the internet instead of a real live domestic terrorist who is a friend of her President.

Because she's one of them, she doesn't fear them.

That's how fucked up Democrats are in this country.

dbp said...

Fr Martin Fox said...

I'll be d***ed if I'm going to start typing PBUH after Muhammad's name.

I think Chip meant it ironically, but I see your point.

Cedarford said...

Ann Althouse goes on a trip with Meade.

At the airport, they are met with a big sign -

"Great news! Now that we have body scanners, all most none of you heroic passengers need to remove your shoes! For now though, all Muslim males and blonde females need to continue the practice."

Fen said...

I find it especially hard to understand an American deciding to kill a cartoonist. I can understand how someone coming from our culture could become consumed with anti-government passion adopt a violent path aimed at government targets.

"Ah yes, the white sepera... er white supremists."

And I understand the religious path toward violence and can see that strand in American culture too.

"Those ignorant rednecks with their guns and their religion"

And I know converts can be the most passionate religionists. Religionists might aim at private citizens.

"Those wingnuts that murder doctors"

But still, going against a cartoonist. How can that happen. How can that happen?

"Muslims are barbaric, and Americans are too sophisticated to be so stupid.

Ann, you're straining your Indocrination. Just remember that Islam is a religion of Peace and everything will be fine" - CNN/NYTs/WaPo

Ralph L said...

Trudeau has paid someone else to draw his comic strip for decades, so I wouldn't call him a cartoonist. You'd think with the time saved he could come up with something amusing.

WV - doacab - just for Titus.

1775OGG said...

Doonesbury is still published. Haven't seen it in the Red Star or Pioneer Lies for years!

Lyle said...

The Baader-Meinhof complex. Desperately wanting to be "the Other", and/or desperately wanting to be an actual Nazi killer, yet when they're are no Nazis, thereby making themselves the Nazis in the end.

Freder Frederson said...

We ll no, maybe not cartoonists, but Cedarford's buddies certainly not beneath murdering radio talk show hosts.

Don't any of you remember the murder of Alan Berg by white nationalists in 1984?

Sometimes I think you had your memories purged of everything that happened prior to 9/11

EnigmatiCore said...

"'Religious' is not the same as 'ideological'"

True.

"even though both of them can be faith-based."

This is where we differ. When ideology is faith-based and fervent, it is, in all meaningful aspects, a religion.

bagoh20 said...

My first impression after reading it was: "What does her being blonde have to do with anything?" Then, after my first cup of Joe, the obvious came into view. Still, I cant see Goldie Hawn doing this.

KCFleming said...

"But still, going against a cartoonist. How can that happen?"

Ernie Bushmiller's Nancy comic strip often filled me with existential dread, especially the "Three rocks" phenomeneon.

But the compulsion it elicited was more toward suicide than explosives.

paul a'barge said...

Religionists might aim at private citizens. (I'm thinking of the pro-lifers who've targeted abortion doctors.)

This is of course vile slander against right-thinking and right-behaving pro-life activists, virtually all of whom have never, ever threatened violence against anyone, much less engaged in violence.

You know full well that despite the intensity of emotion around the murder of unborn babies, pro-life activists have been virtually spotless in their behavior.

How could you possibly equate or relate in any way pro-life activists with Muslim/Islamist nimrods who would travel across the Atlantic Ocean the the intent to murder a cartoonist? This is moral and intellectual nonsense of the highest order.

You can cut off your thumb and three fingers of your right hand and then use the remaining fingers to count the number of acts of violence perpetrated by so-called pro-life activists. And you know this.

Really, Althouse ... you must have been thinking with your vagina to make this kind of conclusion.

Lynne said...

Eat, pray, loathe.

Blue@9 said...

Killing a Cartoonist.


Sounds like a Smiths song.

From Inwood said...

Grandma says: "[Grandkid told her] they taught him how to shoot a gun . . . We're Democrats. We won't even buy him a toy gun."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,589203,00.html

H/T Instapundit

From Inwood said...

I agree with paul a'barge

Nonsense & gratuitous cheap shot for prof A to smear pro lifers here.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Sometimes I think you had your memories purged of everything that happened prior to 9/11

Or its just because the rash of white supremist killings has abated somewhat in the last 25 or so years.

But yeah Freder, bring up some obscure murder by some white guys 26 years ago to make your lame point that we're no better than the jihadists. And you wonder why people question whose side you're on.