November 16, 2010

"Bristol Palin’s dancing on TV set off man in standoff..."

In Black Earth, Wisconsin.
According to the [criminal complaint filed in Dane County Circuit Court], [Steven N. Cowan, 66] and his wife were watching “Dancing with the Stars” when Cowan jumped up and swore as Bristol Palin appeared, saying something about “the (expletive) politics.” Cowan was upset that a political figure’s daughter was on the show when he didn’t think she was a good dancer, the complaint states....

Cowan went upstairs for about 20 minutes and returned, demanding his pistols, which had been taken by his daughter about a month ago for safety reasons. He was carrying a single-shot shotgun, which he loaded and fired into the television...
UPDATE: Bristol makes it to the finals.

78 comments:

Larry J said...

Just another member of the reality based community expressing a peaceful political opinion. Of course, it's Palin's fault the guy is a loon.

Quaestor said...

Those Palin critics are so balanced, subtle and nuanced, aren't they.

Anonymous said...

There's nothing wrong with firing a shotgun at your TV. It's perfectly sane and normal and more people ought to do it. I consider it "creative expression", not "reckless endangerment".

But then there's this:

Cowan continued to yell, demanding his pistols. He re-loaded the shotgun and pointed it toward his wife. She left the house and drove to Black Earth, where she called 911. She told police she was afraid for her safety.

While shooting your TV is a-okay, it is not appropriate to point your shotgun at your wife.

I do, however, think that a good case can be made for temporary insanity... a member of the Palin family is about as good as a trigger as you can get for inspiring a mental flip-out.

Or at least he could present the Dancing Palin as a mitigating circumstance. If I were on the jury I'd certainly understand that.

garage mahal said...

A mentally unstable crazy old armed man would definitely be a Walker/Johnson voter.

Automatic_Wing said...

Did he mention anything about high-speed rail?

Fen said...

Meh. My fav is still the Libtard who dared the train to run over his legs.

Fen said...

And Saint Pancake, of coruse.

Nora said...

Is he Sullivan's fan by chance?

garage mahal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
garage mahal said...

And if you look at the articles on the right in the link you can see the wreckage the election hath wrought.

Wisconsin: Backwards and Beyond!

Jason said...

a member of the Palin family is about as good as a trigger as you can get for inspiring a mental flip-out.

You're an idiot.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Norah stole my line ;)

Anonymous said...

This is good:

Speaking of his expectation that construction would move quickly on the presidential center following the groundbreaking, Cheney quipped that "this may be the only shovel ready project in America." The reference was to the Obama-supported stimulus package that Republicans have criticized as ineffective.


Glad to see Cheney poking at the empty suit.

Of course Obama doesn't know a shovel from a job so I doubt he gets it...

traditionalguy said...

Was that ID certain...this sounds more like what Karl Rove would do at home after hearing yesterday's news stories. Dancing on national TV as political gamesmanship is another Palin invention....she's everywhere at once. Clearly Palin's success comes from handlers, consultants and writers. As Sundance said, "who is this woman?" No stoopid woman could be that creative in communicating after graduating from Wasilla High School with a diploma in salmon fishing.

The Crack Emcee said...

Bwaaa-hahahahahahahaha!!!

Now that's my kind of guy!

chickelit said...

Garage Mahal wrote:
A mentally unstable crazy old armed man would definitely be a Walker/Johnson voter.

You got the guy's profile backwards there Garage. Black Earth is rural Dane County in America's Dairlyland. I prolly went to high school with the guy's kids.

Remember that special kinship you were saying that Russ Feingold felt for the dairy folk? Well there you go.

He's definitely one of yours.

By their fruitcakes ye shall know them.

SteveR said...

I generally avoid shows that might hack me off. Gee she's been on there since September, Wake up Rip Van Winkle.

garage mahal said...

I prolly went to high school with the guy's kids.

I thought you would have gone to high school with the guy?

dbp said...

It is, or rather was his TV, so I guess if he wants to shoot it that is okay. The remote would have been a more practical solution though.

chickelit said...

I thought you would have gone to high school with the guy?

Hey!!

master cylinder said...

That's a grand tradition-remember Elvis shot out the
TV....bonus points for who he was shooting at....

jungatheart said...

How close is Black Earth to Two Feather territory?

master cylinder said...

okay its Robert Goulet.
pins and needles.

Quaestor said...

@ master cylinder

Robert Goulet.

Quaestor said...

I was typing while you were posting!
Elvis probably hated that rich baritone

master cylinder said...

Priscilla liked him-too much

Choey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Choey said...

I thought only conservatives have guns. Did they happen to find a bible too? Maybe he's a plant...

Anonymous said...

True Palin Derangement Syndrome!

Quaestor said...

At bit more research suggests the vicarious Goulet-icide is mere factiod. Here.

MadisonMan said...

Elvis lives!

master cylinder said...

I see....bigger tradition than I thought.

Anonymous said...

Another of those headlines that takes a while to snap into grammatical focus. I almost didn't manage to get past "Bristol Palin's dancing on TV set."

chickelit said...

I thought only conservatives have guns.

Ahem

chickelit said...

Maybe only conservatives should have guns.

chickelit said...

Ahem

What?

chickelit said...

Garage are you implying that the guy is a Palin-loathing Cedarford type of "conservative"?

garage mahal said...

I have no idea what political stripe this guy is.

madAsHell said...

Well....ya!

Isn't this why we keep firearms??

chickelit said...

Well that's not how the thread reads pal.

garage mahal said...

Well look how the thread started...

Unknown said...

Sounds like HD finally lost it.

Anonymous said...

Clinging to their guns and their Bibles as they are wont to do, it is hard to see how so many people were able to dial the phone to vote for Bristol.

bagoh20 said...

HD patented the less used N.S.R. (Nilson Shotgun Rating) technique in 1929 and lives off the royalties to this day.

Mary Beth said...

I want to know if he bothered to vote for his favorite dancer.

AlphaLiberal said...

Ameri-fucken-cana.

AlphaLiberal said...

How Palin Conservatives Are Cheating The DWTS Voting System

Yeah, I just don't know where to begin but, more importantly, why.

If it keeps the trolls busy, WTF.

chickelit said...

Alpha, the best line from your link is:

I'm voting like a democrat, all night long…

I don't doubt that many more people are voting than normally do because of Bristol, but you're forgetting that there are the panel judges too. How do you explain the 9?

I suppose you're working on a theory that SP bought off the judges using money from her book that she wrote after she quit her day job.

How long before Sullivan picks up this nutty conspiracy theory? Anybody been over there lately to check?

chickelit said...

See this tweet Alpha? Link.

That's the kind of sentiment that you and your ilk are incapable of feeling. That is why you and your leaders are so out of touch with ordinary Americans.

rcocean said...

And that man was... Keith Olbermann.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Good Day.

Titus said...

I love the new Bristol and "Situation" Safe Sex Commercial.


totally fab.

Alex said...

garage is officially off the deep end. Don't swallow that shotgun mahal.

David said...

Liberals with guns--not a good combination. (But constitutionally protected.)

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

Conservatives attempting to make use of speech--not a good combination. (But constitutionally protected.)

Ritmo Re-Animated said...

That was a nice Smoking Gun link, Chickie. It led me to this fascinating gem:

NOVEMBER 16--The West Virginia woman who last month pulled a knife on two men and announced, “Somebody is going to eat my pussy or I’m going to cut your fucking throat,” pleaded guilty today to assault and was sentenced to 90 days in jail.

BTW, thanks for the "Salt of the Ordinary Earth" tweet. That Sarah. She sure knows which side of her bread is buttered. How humble. If only we could treat our fame-makers and ass-kissers as deferentially as she does. What an example! What an incredibly ordinary (in a good way) American!

Ritmo Re-Animated said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Penny said...

"Garage are you implying that the guy is a Palin-loathing Cedarford type of "conservative"?"

Does Cedarford really loathe Palin, or does he loathe the stars in the eyes of her supporters?

Penny said...

Not sure if anyone else watched the eliminations tonight, but I have a feeling that we haven't heard the end from Brandy about this.

AllenS said...

garage mahal said...
A mentally unstable crazy old armed man would definitely be a Walker/Johnson voter.

11/16/10 6:39 PM

garage mahal said...
I have no idea what political stripe this guy is.

11/16/10 8:41 PM

That in a mere 2 hours, 2 minutes.

Roger J. said...

Since a family member removed two pistols, looks to me like the family had concerns about the man's mental stability a while back.

Sound like dementia to me whatever happened to be the trigger (no pun intended)

AllenS said...

Cowan kept sheriff’s deputies at bay outside his home until 11 a.m. Tuesday, when he surrendered without incident

That is when he sobered up. The hatred of the Palins knows no bounds. An honorable man would have shot himself.

marklewin said...

Sounds like Palin's DWS advancement is affirmative action for WASP's.

MadisonMan said...

Palin seems to be the Sanjaya of DWTS -- advancing because of a fan base, not necessarily because of dancing talent. This according to my fb friends who dance -- I don't watch the show -- but they comment that better dancers are being left behind.

Phil 314 said...

I believe the professor does a daily search on the word Palin; searching for all things weird and wonderful in Palin-land. Why?

Because she know the mere posting of the word generates hit after hit after hit


SQUIRREL!!

Hoosier Daddy said...

Cowan kept sheriff’s deputies at bay outside his home until 11 a.m. Tuesday, when he surrendered without incident

I'm really tired of the whole lone nutter keeping the police at bay for hours on end. If I am elected dictator, the new rule will be you have 60 seconds to come out with your hands up otherwise the use of live ammunition will be authorized and we will light you up like a cigar.

AllenS said...

Me and you, Hoosier, me and you.

WV: deadmis

Uncanny, isn't it?

Hoosier Daddy said...

Palin seems to be the Sanjaya of DWTS -- advancing because of a fan base, not necessarily because of dancing talent.

Wait...are you suggesting that on these types of shows that they may be actually rigged or manipulated?

Excuse me while I compose myself.

AllenS said...

MadMan,

I don't watch the show, but from what I can gather, the contestants dance, and then there is a way to phone in your preference. It has always been this way, yes? Should the rules be changed now, to get a more preferable outcome that you would like?

AllenS said...

If you don't like the way this is working out with “Dancing with the Stars”, please shoot your TVs.

Brian said...

You know, there's no scenario in which a conservative would have shot his TV and threatened his wife with a gun if Biden's son had somehow made it to the finals of DWTS.

We would simply shrug our shoulders and said "oh well, it's a popularity contest."

Brian said...

We watch the show. I felt sorry for Brandy, it would have been good to see her in the finals. It's obvious the Palin fans are voting to keep Bristol in this, since week after week she would wind up in the bottom two.

Which is puzzling to me, because Alpha and others have consistently told us Sarah Palin has high negatives and the polls show she isn't really popular.

MadisonMan said...

Excuse me while I compose myself.

That was basically my reaction too. Producers are going to look for contestants who have two legs -- although it wouldn't surprise me to have a war amputee on there sometime soon -- and who generate interest and calls. Is there a VFTW website for DWTS like there is for Idol?

On Idol, though, eventually more than a modicum of singing talent is required.

Hoosier Daddy said...

Producers are going to look for contestants who have two legs --

I don't watch any of those shows but that one season when Cloris Leachman was on my first reaction was: "She's still alive?"

AlphaLiberal said...

chickelit:

See this tweet Alpha? Link.

That's the kind of sentiment that you and your ilk are incapable of feeling. That is why you and your leaders are so out of touch with ordinary Americans.


Wha? Now because I don't care about Dancing With The Stars, I'm a bad person?

Look, chicke, not everybody needs to be into what you are into. We're all free to pursue our own interests.

That's the kind of sentiment that you and your ilk are incapable of feeling. That is why you and your leaders are so out of touch with ordinary Americans.

AlphaLiberal said...

SQUIRREL!!

It's sad when your dog is too old to get excited by that word anymore.

Now if I can teach the cat "CHIPMUNK" the buildings will suffer less gnawing.

MadisonMan said...

Cloris is even on a weekly TV show now, Raising Hope. I watched it once, and didn't really like her character. But Raising Hope has Martha Plimpton in it, and I love the movie Goonies and Martha can do no wrong.

Martin L. Shoemaker said...

MadisonMan said...

Producers are going to look for contestants who have two legs -- although it wouldn't surprise me to have a war amputee on there sometime soon -- and who generate interest and calls.

I don't get network shows, so my knowledge of this show is third hand at best. But didn't this show (or some reality show) have Paul McCartney's ex-wife on? And isn't she an amputee?

I could swear when I heard that story, it was a dance show. How many are there?

The Crack Emcee said...

One can only imagine what this country would be like if it's interests were mature.

Bristol Palin.

Incredible.