Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.
Posted on 01/09/2011 4:31:34 PM PST by worst-case scenario
A longtime friend of Jared Lee Loughner, the suspect in custody following the murder of six people in an apparent assassination attempt on Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, said there was a mysterious, significant change in him a year before the shooting. More Video 1 2 3 4 PreviousNext VIDEO: A total of 19 people were wounded by gunman Jared Lee Loughner's attack. Watch: Tragedy in Arizona: Timeline of Rampage VIDEO: Dr. Steven Rayle and Ken Penner describe the scene at the Safeway supermarket in Tucson, Arizona. Watch: Eyewitness Accounts of Arizona Shooting VIDEO: Tilman Fertitta talks about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' personal side. Watch: Giffords' Close Friend Speaks Out
"He was a good person that just somehow changed so much," former classmate and friend Tong Shan told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "I don't know what the hell happened to him."
When she heard news reports of Loughner's arrest in connection with the deadly attack, she said, "I was shocked, but I believed it was him."
According to court documents released today, authorities discovered a safe in Loughner's home with a thank you letter from Giffords for attending a Congress on Your Corner event in 2007 -- the same kind of event Loughner allegedly assaulted Saturday. Another envelope said "I planned ahead," "My assassination" and "Giffords" and bore what appears to be Loughner's signature, the documents said.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
There appears to be definite evidence of premeditation, that he intended to assassinate the Congresswoman as far back as 2007.
Not legally. This was a deliberate premeditated act. If you are legally insane you are incapable of forming a mens rea. The fact that this was plotted out carefully is clear evidence that he was not legally insane.
Do you believe we should execute the mentally ill?
Everyone is mentally ill to one degree or another. So my answer is... Yes.
Perhaps more will come out about Loughner's condition and whether or not he had been seen by mental health professionals. He certainly seemed to be exhibiting classic schizophrenic behavior. There's even an interview with friends of his from a few years ago who said he changed relatively recently. Based on what we know now, I'd be shocked if he wasn't diagnosed with schizophrenia. He parents probably didn't know what to do since they could not force him to get treatment.
But the thing is, in the 1960's Democrats pushed for repeal of laws that allowed mentally ill people to be committed by relatives or the state. While I understand the motives for doing so, I think in 2011 we can devise commitment laws that are humane, protect fundamental rights of patients, and still keep potentially dangerous people off the streets.
“is that just a correlation, or did they establish a mechanism of causality?”
It’s a safe bet that NZ didn’t randomly assign 15 year olds into a marijuana user “treatment” group and a non-using “control” group. This is the problem with observational studies. It establishes a correlation worth further exploration, but it certainly does not establish causation. Only a randomized controlled trial would do that, but so long as MJ is illegal, that’s a pretty unlikely study to get funded, don’t you think?
Think of what the informed consent form would look like regarding risks of participation: “there is a risk that participants in this study will be jailed for their marijuana use. If subpoenaed, study researchers will be compelled to turn over all research records demonstrating frequency and amount of marijuana use by study subjects.”
Patient Zero.
And no quarantine...
Insane is not a medical diagnosis.
A legally insane person can be quite capable of planning and executing even a complex plan.
All one has to do to meet the legal definition of insane is be unable to distinguish right from wrong.
Not a lawyer, but just my 2¢ based on what I’ve absorbed by osmosis over the years.
Let me guess, the New Zealanders did their research in California.
That’s probably what’s wrong with my ex brother in law. The guys nuts, not as nuts as Jared but, nuts. Been smoking weed since he was a young teen. Now in his early 50’s and still smoking.
And no quarantine...
Pretty much, yup.
And get institutionalized for the rest of his life.
FWIW, IMHO, my very armchair Dx of the shooter is Mixed Drug induced Acute Schizophrenic Episode, paranoid type. We'll see. . .
That’s why the sheriff is blaming everyone but himself. I swear if I hear this mantra one more time... “vitriol in political and media discourse”— I think I heard that 10 times today and i am not even watching the boob tube
I don’t know, having a permit and being around a Congress Critter is asking for trouble sometimes. Would not want the hassle, who knows what you could get charged with? Kind of like when Obama was in town, I didn’t go because I didn’t want to become a “Person of Interest” in case anything happened. Call it risk avoidance.
There was someone there who was armed. One of the guys who tackled him.
Don’t ask because I don’t know.
You’ll notice the interviewer didn’t bring up anything political. They’ll leave that for the reporters to make up.
His parents should never have meant.
I think you’re right. Schizophrenia appears to be a likely cause of this shooting. Very interesting recent article on schizophrenia here:
http://discovermagazine.com/2010/jun/03-the-insanity-virus/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C=
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