Althouse: "It kind of threw me off the first time I climbed down in there."

February 2, 2013

"It kind of threw me off the first time I climbed down in there."

"He said, 'Climb down in there and holler, see if we can hear you.' That was a little bit of a red flag."

24 comments:

YoungHegelian said...: To those who don't come from that part of the world, the notion of a "bunker" would seem kind of strange. But let me assure you, the only thing peculiar is that this guy went all-out on his.

This guy lives in a trailer, for God's sake, in a rural area in tornado alley. Many farms in Alabama have tornado shelters, because when that tornado comes, you've got no where else to go.

While being an unfriendly, paranoid, dog-beating, perimeter guarding, SOB will make you stand out in rural Alabama, having a duded-up tornado shelter won't.; 2/2/13, 4:19 PM
Methadras said...: This will not end well. I pray it does. These people knew this fucking lunatic lived among them and did nothing or very little.; 2/2/13, 4:19 PM
Synova said...: Heh... they've changed it to "long gun" now.

The paragraph reads like the screen shots I saw that showed the change from him patrolling his property at night with a "shotgun" to an "assault rifle" and then back to "shotgun" and now I guess they decided that they don't know so they're saying "long gun". The man is known to have a shotgun and the only suggestion of something else is neighbors "hearing" something that sounded semi-automatic.

But yes... crazy dude in any case. Hopefully they talk him down and get the little boy back.; 2/2/13, 4:22 PM
Synova said...: And thanks to Young Hegelian for the insight on the bunker.; 2/2/13, 4:23 PM
Mogget said...: Yeah, we are going to have to make it "normal" to intervene when folks display these kinds of mental health issues, just like we have learned to intervene at certain signs of child abuse or neglect.; 2/2/13, 4:40 PM
Synova said...: Part of the problem, Mogget, is that it ought not be illegal to be a crazy paranoid recluse.

The trick is figuring out which crazy paranoid recluse is actively dangerous and which one just wants to be left alone.; 2/2/13, 4:54 PM
John henry said...: A bit off topic but this is something that drive me up a wall like fingernails on a chalkboard:

Supposedly he beat the neighbor's dog with a "lead pipe".

Has anyone here ever seen a lead pipe? I have not and have been working with various kinds of pipe and tubing for more than 45 years.

Not only have I never used it, I have never even seen it.

I once, out of curiosity, tried to find a source. It is available but from specialty supply houses. It has very poor mechanical properties. Can't be threaded, won't hold a shape and so on. Unless required for some special chemical resistance, it is pretty much useless for piping.

I run across this "lead pipe" meme in the media almost weekly. Perhaps reporters are too stupid to know that lead pipe is almost non-existent.

And that is John R Henry's pet peeve of the day.

John Henry; 2/2/13, 5:08 PM
John henry said...: A bit off topic but this is something that drive me up a wall like fingernails on a chalkboard:

Supposedly he beat the neighbor's dog with a "lead pipe".

Has anyone here ever seen a lead pipe? I have not and have been working with various kinds of pipe and tubing for more than 45 years.

Not only have I never used it, I have never even seen it.

I once, out of curiosity, tried to find a source. It is available but from specialty supply houses. It has very poor mechanical properties. Can't be threaded, won't hold a shape and so on. Unless required for some special chemical resistance, it is pretty much useless for piping.

I run across this "lead pipe" meme in the media almost weekly. Perhaps reporters are too stupid to know that lead pipe is almost non-existent.

And that is John R Henry's pet peeve of the day.

John Henry; 2/2/13, 5:12 PM
John henry said...: A bit off topic but this is something that drive me up a wall like fingernails on a chalkboard:

Supposedly he beat the neighbor's dog with a "lead pipe".

Has anyone here ever seen a lead pipe? I have not and have been working with various kinds of pipe and tubing for more than 45 years.

Not only have I never used it, I have never even seen it.

I once, out of curiosity, tried to find a source. It is available but from specialty supply houses. It has very poor mechanical properties. Can't be threaded, won't hold a shape and so on. Unless required for some special chemical resistance, it is pretty much useless for piping.

I run across this "lead pipe" meme in the media almost weekly. Perhaps reporters are too stupid to know that lead pipe is almost non-existent.

And that is John R Henry's pet peeve of the day.

John Henry; 2/2/13, 5:12 PM
john said...: A bit off topic, but how can it be that a 5-year old boy has been diagnosed with both Aspergers and ADHD? And be on medication.

At 5, he would barely be in the clutches of the public school system and their unfailing expertise in diagnosing this in boys. So it must have been his parents (or mother and grandmother as the article seems to indicate.)

Well, there is something much more immediate to save this boy from, but hopefully he and his caregivers will come to grips with the medical diagnoses when this crisis has been safely resolved.; 2/2/13, 5:25 PM
Levi Starks said...: I think you might find a lead pipe in the library with Colonel Mustard...; 2/2/13, 5:29 PM
Baron Zemo said...: Well it is a lead pipe cinch that they do exist.

In fact in NYC they are often the pipes that from the water main to the individual houses. I remember when a whole block of them had to be replacedd. You see they last about 100
years and they all seemed to break at the same time.; 2/2/13, 5:44 PM
edutcher said...: Unfortunately, this is one of those scenarios that sounds like the war in the Pacific.

If they want him, they have to go in after him.

Assuming the boy is still alive.; 2/2/13, 5:48 PM
Anonymous said...: Okay, I was all for the idea that this was a deranged maniac until I got to this, at the end of the penultimate paragraph of the piece:

Friday night’s vigil began with announcements: a reminder to eat at the local Ruby Tuesday, which was making donations to the family.

WTF?!!!

Is this a corporate-sponsored hostage situation?

Paging the dead Mister Huxley... Cleanup, aisle of Alabama... Huxley? Huxley? Time to be reincarnated, Aldous!!!

This is FUCKED UP!!!

...and in a way that is only possible in America.; 2/2/13, 5:49 PM
Mark said...: "Other neighbors said they had heard Mr. Dykes firing what sounded like a semiautomatic weapon in the field behind his property."

In what way, pray tell, does a shot from a semi-automatic rifle sound different from, say, a pump-action rifle?

Morons.; 2/2/13, 5:58 PM
ErnieG said...: Mark said...

"Other neighbors said they had heard Mr. Dykes firing what sounded like a semiautomatic weapon in the field behind his property."

I thought that sounded preposterous at first, but five rounds in three seconds would be too slow for full auto, and too fast for bolt action, but semi-auto? Makes sense. Unfortunately the AP didn't describe the sound further, so my bullshit flag is still up.; 2/2/13, 6:28 PM
Levi Starks said...: It's not that hard to tell the type and caliber of a gunshot by it's sound.
In the group I deer hunt with only one shoots a 30-06
And when he gets his deer everyone knows it was him.; 2/2/13, 6:32 PM
Expat(ish) said...: @earnieG "five rounds in three seconds would be too slow for full auto, and too fast for bolt action, but semi-auto?"

I can put five rounds downrange on my 1908 era K-Swiss Mauser. I promise you any of the WWI era guys could do it faster and with higher accuracy.

-XC; 2/2/13, 6:41 PM
Wince said...: He knows what he thinks he has to do.

He just doesn't have the balls to let the kid go because next he'll have to blow his own brains out.; 2/2/13, 6:46 PM
McTriumph said...: No one in rural Alabama would discharge a firearm on their own property, nor object to neighbors driving around on that property.

Why would authorities provide the child with sedatives, have they never baby set an over active five year old boy in a small space, it was their ace in the hole.

Bunker? laughable.

This dude is nuts, but it has nothing to do with bunkers, long guns, lead pipes. or PVC pipe.; 2/2/13, 6:46 PM
McTriumph said...: Expat(ish)
I've got a couple of hunting shooting buddies that can fire pump rifles and shotguns faster than I can my semi-autos.; 2/2/13, 6:55 PM
Mark said...: It's not that hard to tell the type and caliber of a gunshot by it's sound.

Caliber, yes. But I defy you to tell whether a 30.06 fired from a semi-automatic of a given barrel length is different from one fired from a bolt-action rifle of the same barrel length. The only difference between the two is the mechanism that loads the cartridge into the firing chamber.

(And yes, I do know that some of the energy from the bullet is used to drive the semi-automatic's loading mechanism. Unless you build guns for a living, I'm saying you're not going to hear a difference.); 2/2/13, 7:06 PM
Unknown said...: Believe me if your child has Asperger’s syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder you know it by the time they're 5 without a teacher having to figure it out. Sounds like the Ransom of Red Chief.; 2/2/13, 7:58 PM
Kirk Parker said...: John Henry,

Thank you!; 2/3/13, 12:31 AM