1. The reaction to the San Bernardino shooting in which 14 people were killed and several more wounded is a textbook case of confirmation bias.
2. As it turned out, however, the guns used by Syed Farook and Tashveen Malik, the two perpetrators, were bought legally – and their weaponry consisted of a lot more than mere guns.
3. They just wanted to make a point – one which turned out to be not only wrong but also completely beside the point.
4. As the ethnicity and religious affiliation of the attackers came out, they ran with a simple two-word headline: “MUSLIM KILLERS,” with a modifying qualifier: “Terror eyed as couple slaughters 14 in Calif.” As more information came out, however, the editors pulled back, and the final edition was quite different: “MURDER MISSION,” read the headline, with a neutral supplementary: “Shooters slaughter 14 in Calif.” These two editions were published hours after the incident, and only a few hours apart – a testament to the dangers of jumping to conclusions.
5. This reversal is explained by the subsequent release of yet more information about the perpetrators: Syed Farook worked at the San Bernardino Department of Public Health, which had rented a room at the facility where the massacre took place.
6. The event was a holiday party, which Farook attended, but left early after a reported altercation of some kind.
7. He returned with Malik, his wife, armed to the teeth, and the slaughter commenced.
8. ’s initial edition, and so the imagery conjured by the new headline went from that of the rampaging “Muslim Killers” to the “Murder Mission” of what appeared to be a case of workplace violence.
9. My main reason was the nature of the target: why, I asked, would terrorists choose the Christmas party of the San Bernardino Public Health Department as the latest object of their wrath? In addition, reports of a dispute at the event involving Farook seemed to indicate that scenario: he got angry, came back, and started shooting.
10. However, as more facts came out, this explanation began to make less sense.
11. To begin with, a bomb – actually, three bombs taped together – had been left behind at the scene of the shooting.
12. We don’t yet know why the bomb failed to go off,.
13. Although reports that the couple came into the venue wearing body armor and Go-Pro body cameras turned out to be false, they were wearing “tactical” clothing, i.e.
14. And indeed they were carrying huge amounts, enough to let them reload on the scene, and continue firing up to seventy-five rounds for over 30 seconds.
15. This accounts for the large number of casualties.
16. Furthermore, the discovery of twelve “pipe-bomb type” devices, hundreds of tools for making more, and “thousands” of rounds of ammunition in the Redlands home rented by Farooq and his wife eliminates the workplace violence scenario.
17. This was, in effect, a bomb-making factory, and neighbors indicate that a number of people were involved: packages were received throughout the day, and activity was observed into the night.
18. Such training could have occurred during Farooq’s trips to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.
19. All that’s missing – as of this writing – is a claim of responsibility by some overseas terrorist outfit.
20. Yet questions remain: again, the target – a holiday party in a small city – hardly seems like the sort ISIS or al-Qaeda would zero in on.
21. Clearly the couple were planning on a much larger operation, but this plan was changed by something that triggered Farooq to act sooner.
22. And we still don’t have the whole picture: there could conceivably be some new information that could alter our whole perception of what motivated Farooq and Malik.
23. Which brings me to my point: our perception of the facts is shaped – and altered – by our preconceptions.
24. In short, people believe what they want to believe – and the facts be damned.
25. In this case, major media organizations didn’t wait for the facts to come in before they pronounced judgment.
26. They simply rushed into print with what were little more than editorials, bereft of any responsibility to their readers or the truth.
27. This is why those who proclaim that bias is inherent in all journalism, and that there’s no such thing as objective reporting, are dangerously wrong.
28. Yes, we’re all human; yes, everyone has opinions.
29. But some people wait for the facts to come in before giving vent to those opinions, while others don’t bother with such niceties.
30. Here at Antiwar.com, we have very definite opinions: yet that doesn’t mean we can’t be objective when it comes to either reporting the news or presenting our opinions.
31. We may not always achieve objectivity, but we do strive for it – and it is certainly worth striving for.
32. We aren’t preaching to the choir, or seeking to construct some alternate universe in which only the facts we approve of are reported and acknowledged: rather, we aim at making a credible fact-based case for a noninterventionist foreign policy and a domestic order based on the rights accorded to all citizens by the Constitution.
33. We won’t be able to do that if we selectively report the news – or make it up as we go along.
34. Nor will we convince anyone of anything if our analysis is divorced from reality.
35. The implications of that are very grave for those of us who oppose our crazed foreign policy of perpetual war, and the relentless assault on our civil liberties on the home front.
36. The pressure to “destroy them over there before they strike us over here” is going to increase a hundred-fold.
37. The advocates of universal surveillance are going to be empowered as never before.
38. That these tactics haven’t worked in the past – and, indeed, have backfired badly – won’t deter the usual suspects from insisting that war and repression are the answers to the problem of terrorism.
39. Our answer to the War Party must be that their strategy has failed: the terrorists couldn’t recruit anyone if we weren’t over there bombing what remains of their cities and seeking to impose our will on a populace that will never accept our domination, no matter how many soldiers we send and bombing sorties we launch.
40. As for the authoritarians who want to use incidents like the San Bernardino attack as a pretext to abolish the Constitution and institute a regime of total surveillance and outright repression: where was their vaunted surveillance system in this case? We didn’t detect this plot – and perhaps that’s because watching everyone, and collecting everyone’s information, blinds us to the real villains hiding in our midst.
41. Then again, perhaps ferreting out villains isn’t the real purpose of government spying.
42. Our job here at Antiwar.com just got a lot harder.
43. After the 9/11 attacks, the nation was swept by a wave of war hysteria, and concern for basic civil liberties went right out the window: we will doubtless experience a similar phenomenon in the days and months to come.
44. Yet we are confident that when the history of our era is written, the advocates of peace and liberty will be vindicated, while the War Party will be discredited and disdained by future generations.
45. We must live in the future, in a sense, in order to fight for the future – if there is to be one, that is.
46. You can check out my Twitter feed by going here.
47. But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.
48. I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse.
49. George W.
50. Carey, a Foreword by Patrick J.
51. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).
52. An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N.
53. (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here.
54. And yet, the reporting still has been more reasonable than the reporting and reactions about whatever that was in Paris with every bozo from Hollande down screaming IS.
55. RRND - 12/04/15 - Thomas L.
56. Johnny in Wi.
57. This is very good analysis of a tough situation.
58. In my opinion this is the story of a terrorist coupe who met on the internet, got married in Saudi Arabia, the best friend a terrorist ever had.
59. He clearly had workplace problems.
60. Something triggered him at the party and he decided to start his personal war right then and there.
61. He especially must of hated some of his fellow workers.
62. If not this group it surely would be someplace else.
63. Our answer to the War Party must be that their strategy has failed: the terrorists couldn’t recruit anyone if we weren’t over there bombing what remains of their cities and seeking to impose our will on a populace that will never accept our domination, no matter how many soldiers we send and bombing sorties we launch.
64. How about telling the War Party to stop bringing them over here? What you call the War Party could just as easily be called the Open Borders Party since there is so much overlap between them.
65. They are both part of what Steve Sailer calls the 'Invade-the-World-Invite-the-World-In-Debt-To-the-World' policy that is driving us into the ground.
66. Though this punk was American-born, his wife was not, and looking at his parents one has to wonder why on Earth were they let in.
67. There is little if any benefit of taking in these immigrants from such dissimilar cultures.
68. At best we are extracting the best human resources they have, at worst we are importing another underclass to join our existing ones.
69. After 9-11, 7-7,etc., etc., etc…I want to see a timeline on this thing and all of its actors.
70. I'm so sick of the stylings of the masters of GLADIO 'realities' that I am simply not going to buy this or the vile responses of the 'Grand Wurlitzer'…what one wag described as the intelligence agency operated MSM…or, the ready-made prescriptions–from gun confiscations to war–that the Zio-N*zi Regime and its masters are trying so hard to sell.
71. The complex does look like it was picked out with an eye to controlling the venue…good approaches and good roads to get in and away…These people who allegedly attacked the facility seem to have been pretty well-heeled for a Health Department employee.
72. One wonders if their families fates were held over their head.
73. There is a tremendous reluctance to connect the dots – yes, there is radical Islam, but what the Hell is nurturing this radicalism.
74. The conservatives insist that the fault is Islam, itself.
75. The liberals (and I use "liberals" as shorthand for the sold-out Establishment types like Hillary) want to look even shallower and blame guns, mental health, and….
76. Islam.
77. The truth was last spoken by Osama Bin Ladin, who told us that the Muslims are infuriated and being radicalized by Western military presence in their lands, Western exploitation of their resources and, most directly, by the brutal treatment given the Palestinians by the racist Israelis.
78. This truth will never, never be uttered on mainstream media.
79. What you will hear from our crony capitalistic, Zionist controlled mainstream media is just bullsh-t.
80. There be no problem if America politicians would pass a law that USA military,CIA cease operating in foreign countries.
81. Not that I'm saying this is likely but what are the chances that the FBI was already involved with this couple? They have a long history of aiding these types and then busting them just before they act.
82. Did the FBI's timing of a bust get thrown off because of the altercation at the party? Why didn't the bombs go off? Sounds like faulty detonators to me and just where would they have gotten faulty detonators from? I know that it's most likely that they simply didn't know how to make a bomb, but given the history of the stings that are conducted I think that it's something that should be looked into.
83. Re your last sentence, it was reported yesterday Farook's brother is a decorated veteran of our armed services.
84. That said, it is long past time that we shut down immigration, legal and illegal, until such time there is a rational national need for foreign workers.
85. But then you still have to account for the home grown nut cases of which we seem to have our hands full of.
86. Listening to foaming-at-the-mouth neotard talk radio this a.m.
87. Said Christian co-worker was among the fourteen dead.
88. Meanwhile, as Justin notes, the amount of ammo and bombmaking materiel found, and the alleged sighting of as many as six shadowy "middle-eastern" figures going in and out of the Redmond(?) address, indicates, the investigators believe, that a much larger terror plot was afoot.
89. Perhaps the larger plot went off the rails because Farook decided to teach this alleged Christian antagonist a lesson on the way to executing the main attack, whatever that was intended to be.
90. Just speculation.
91. The "facts" of this case make no sense.
92. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but satisfying some that their ambitions towards the American public will be achieved: a military-style police force, and a population largely disarmed.
93. The rest is commentary on a lame thriller plot.
94. When, not if, the US intensifies the Syrian War, terrorist attacks at home will also increase.
95. For every action there is an opposite reaction.
96. No doubt many American Muslims, who would otherwise not be, are being radicalized by what the US is doing over there, and also by the fact that they are now all being looked at with even greater suspicion.
97. This sure seems to be the case with Farook.
98. Increased US intervention inevitably leads to greater repression and loss of freedom on the home front.
99. Yep, the fetid stink of the GLADIO-lus and similar fleurs-du-mal is all over the major global terrorist atrocities of living memory, the ivories of the Mighty Wurlitzer are wearing thin, and, I agree, the timeline and all the actors should be rigorously scrutinized, but at this point I think the San Bernardino Massacre is not wholely synthetic.
100. Anotherwords, the neoconservatives have finally brought about their long cherished Clash Of Civilizations and brought it home to our shores.
101. What we should fear more than the false flags that brought us here, monumentally evil as they are, is the rise of genuine revenge-driven terrorism in America as America continues to lay waste to the world.
102. After Paris one of the Sunday shows began with the camera focused on the (literally) smiling, laughing face of William Kristol.
103. His face said it all — We've won — Israel's problems are America's problems — you, America, cannot escape the fundamental trap of the Global War On Terror that we neoconservatives have laid for you — the butcher's bill for your blundering in the Middle East at our behest will never be paid.
104. Hotel California, indeed.
105. I expect this Sunday Kristol will be splooging all over the screen.
106. The worst mass killing of students in US history was in Bath, Michigan, when a BOMB was used.
107. No guns.The killer blew up the high school with students in it.
108. It was rather like the Oklahoma City mass killing, which also used a bomb with no guns.
109. Note the worst attack ever was done without guns, 9/11 used box cutters to hijack airplanes.
110. Gun control, whatever its merits, is also in practice a distraction from the bigger problems.
111. The deadly neighborhoods and the terrorist impulse are our problems.
112. Guns are just one tool of many, and not even the most dangerous tool based on numbers killed to date.
113. I totally agree.
114. Its what Ron Paul told us about 8 years ago.
115. "As it turned out, however, the guns used by Syed Farook and Tashveen Malik, the two perpetrators, were bought legally – and their weaponry consisted of a lot more than mere guns.
116. Precisely the point, no? Yet Raimondo claims "…editors of the Daily News didn’t wait for the facts because they didn’t care about the facts.
117. They just wanted to make a point – one which turned out to be not only wrong but also completely beside the point." Huh? How did they turn out to be "completely wrong" and "beside the point? Maybe I don't have enough caffeine in me yet but can someone please explain why the "liberal" gun control advocates are wrong in their reaction? Yes indeed, these weapons were legally purchased.
118. And many a nutjob is able to get them, and they can, and they do.
119. And the results are always the same.
120. Right, it was said that he got into an argument with his coworker(s) about Islam.
121. I think this ha much more to do with the very hostile,bullying , and poisonous work environment than any thing else.In many past incidents,individuals and groups were found to have stockpiled huge amounts of ammunition,guns,semi and automatic weapons,bombs and bomb making materials,a very recent one was the Los Angeles area.This incident is quickly being turned into something that would further certain agendas,goal, and objectives by multiple parties.
122. ..The year 2013 was a turning point for both Farook and Thalasinos.
123. That year, Farook went on a hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia that is required of all Muslims.
124. That same year, the widow said, Nicholas became a “born again” Messianic Jew, devoting himself to Jesus.
125. “He wanted to serve the Lord and bring more people to the Lord,” Jennifer said.
126. Nicholas’ posts from that year are filled with anti-Islamic vitriol.
127. “On behalf of this guy . . .
128. You can stick your Million Muslim March up your asses,” Nicholas posted on Sept.
129. 11, 2013, with a photo of an office worker plummeting to his death from the blazing World Trade Center on 9/11.
130. A post from October 2013 also included a photo of a man falling to his death from the trade center.
131. References to Israel and “turbanheads” began to fill Nicholas’ pages.
132. While threats and plots against Muslims and heavily armed people surrounding a mosque terrorizing people going to mosque is not treated the same.Even when the plot is uncovered that qualifies as terrorism is treated and covered ,if at all gets covered,much differently.
133. "A heavily armed anti-Islam activist, Jon Ritzheimer, posted a profanity laden video to his personal Facebook page which outlined his plans to “confront” a Muslim newspaper in New York City.
134. Ritzheimer claimed he was headed to New York as he brandished a gun.
135. The anti-Islam activist is said to be heavily armed and was being tracked by the FBI.
136. However, the FBI claims they have lost track of Ritzheimer in Pennsylvania after he became upset and refused to continue talks with the agents.
137. Therefore, the FBI took unusual steps in contacting local authorities in New York City of the potential threat.
138. "Earlier this year, a one-time congressional candidate from Tennessee–Robert Doggart–was accused of plotting an attack on Islamberg’s mosque and school, using automatic weapons.
139. Doggart reportedly contacted a militia group for help with his plan.
140. The 63 year old suspect pleaded not guilty, and his trial has been delayed until January.
141. He’s also been released from jail, pending the trial..
142. Robert Doggart was later released .
143. We are all different cultures.
144. I am a white, fourth generation American citizen and I doubt I share much in common with you.
145. He went to Saudi Arabia to get married ,nothing more.Some want close mosques,because e he went to this mosque or that,others call for rounding up Muslims and put them in interment camps,some even want to make Islam illegal and banning the Quran.
146. It is the other way around,some of his fellow workers must hated him and made the work environment very hostile towards him for being a Muslim.Some discovered their own religion only when they found out that he was a Muslim.From that on ,hostilities,confrontations,ridicule,and bullying began.The work atmosphere became very poisonous.
147. Nicholas Thalasinos was not just a Zionist but of Messianic Judaism faith combining Christianity and elements of Judaism.He,Nicholas Thalsinos ,became furious with some one who did not agree with him.There are many stories of mothers in the USA who have done many insane thing ,like killing their children by drowning them or shooting them,this one did not kill her child.Explaining something does not mean agreeing with it nor excusing it.
148. He went to Saudi Arabia to get married ,nothing more.Some want close mosques,because e he went to this mosque or that,others call for rounding up Muslims and put them in interment camps,some even want to make Islam illegal and banning the Quran.
149. It is the other way around,some of his fellow workers must hated him and made the work environment very hostile towards him for being a Muslim.Some discovered their own religion only when they found out that he was a Muslim.From that on ,hostilities,confrontations,ridicule,and bullying began.The work atmosphere became very poisonous.
150. Nicholas Thalasinos was not just a Zionist but of Messianic Judaism faith combining Christianity and elements of Judaism.He,Nicholas Thalsinos ,became furious with some one who did not agree with him.There are many stories of mothers in the USA who have done many insane thing ,like killing their children by drowning them or shooting them,this one did not kill her child.Explaining something does not mean agreeing with it nor excusing it.
151. Given the history of fake FBI inspired plots, this is something that should be investigated as well.
152. The whole problem was the failure to follow the law .
153. The Christian was breaking the law if he debated with a Muslim about Christian superiority .
154. In the United States the Christian should have immediately been arrested and given his 1 yr prison sentence .
155. In a Islamic country the Christian would have been killed .
156. If we are going to take in Muslim people we have to learn how to get along with them .
157. And what in my opinion is "synthetic" as opposed to "organic" terrorism? Both of them exist on a continuum.
158. GLADIO is an example of pure synthetic terrorism, a totally manufactured NATO atrocity aimed at the people of Western European states to drive them away from communism.
159. To the extent that the U.S.
160. As more and more of these more-or-less synthetic acts of terrorism occur at an ever increasing tempo in the West, I fear the rise of (an) "organic" terrorism whereby nativist and otherwise credulous Americans, long steeped in the stew of Islamophobia that has poured out of the MSM for at least the last several decades, blindly lash out at peaceful, loyal, Islamic-American communities, thus beginning a neverending cycle of reciprocal terrorist violence in our backyards.
161. This way lies disaster, this way we become what we hate.
162. Exactly.
163. America was diverse enough with just its various European ethnics.
164. There was no need to throw more fuel on the potential fire by bringing in even more diverse populations.
165. Diversity is not a strength, it's a potential powder keg waiting to explode.
166. You make some good points.
167. However, keep in mind that islamophobia, as you put it, is not wholly irrational.
168. One must realize that islam has spent the better part of 1000 years trying to conquer Europe.
169. And they have had major success.
170. They occupied large parts of Iberia for close to 700 years.
171. They occupied large parts of SE Europe for close to 450 years.
172. Their raids into Ukraine and Russia took almost 2 million slaves.
173. And their raids in the Mediterranean region took another million.
174. This is not to say that Europeans did not fight back.
175. They most certainly did.
176. But it does suggest that it is probably not a good idea to import massive numbers of people from a culture that has a history of trying to subdue yours.
177. This would be akin to asking South Korea into taking millions of Japanese.
178. Or asking Ghana to take in millions of Europeans.
179. These unfortunate murders happened because the federal government failed to enforce an immigration policy that should be scrutinizing potential terrorists coming into America more closely..
180. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc.
181. These two criminals had explosives in their possession.
182. Who made them, who trained the couple on how to use them, how were they going to be used and against whom? Homeland Security has a lot more investigation to do because this heinous act is just the tip of the iceberg.
183. At the initial reporting and after the deaths of the married shooters, I concluded that it was more than 50% probable that it was terrorist inspired, likely an ISIS lone wolf attack.
184. So it seems.
185. However the intimate workplace interactions make this unique and initially, confusing.
186. So far as I know no Islamic terrorist has yet attacked his co-workers en masse before.
187. As for "military" training, perhaps only via the Internet or some articles.
188. The attack was mostly a bust given the surprise, lack of armed security (and unarmed victims) and abundance of firepower.
189. None of the supposed bombs went off.
190. Having boxes of unused ammo at home is wasteful and stupid, not evidence of intelligent training or planning.
191. They didn't seem to be suicide killers, though their inept getaway also seems amateur hour.
192. One problem with shooting co-workers: they know who you are and where you live.
193. While this half baked massacre could have been worse, these deluded wanna-be terrorists had no real plan or clue.
194. Throwing out a fake bomb at mobs of pursuing cops isn't some fancy tactic, just desperation.
195. No one gets out of that w/o being killed or captured.
196. Of course CNN immediately went into full GUN CONTROL NOW mode.
197. Citing phony stats on the number of "mass killings" which evidently include every drive-by gangbang that ever happened.
198. Few if any of these killer types would be stopped by firearms restrictions.
199. In countries where this exists, these killers use knives, clubs, fire, explosives, beatings, etc.
200. Or simply steal guns from police or military.
201. On CNN and major networks other than Fox, the Rahm Emmanuel dictum of "never let a tragedy go to waste" was in full force.
202. Obama was front and center on this exploiting the shootings.
203. Funny how the statist media don't try to shame him for doing that.
204. Of course they are all gun banners.
205. The only real defense against most of these killers is armed self defense, More guns, not fewer.
206. As the evidence stands now, there were the makings of a much larger terrorist attack (ammo, bombmaking materiel, half a dozen unknown shadowy accomplices) in the works, which was derailed by a smaller attack at the IRC — unless you believe the conference center was the one and only target of Farook and all those unused accomplices and all that unused weaponry — that also reportedly bore some of the hallmarks of workplace violence (recent beef with a co-worker, one of the fourteen dead).
207. And you find some kind of pro-Muslim, anti-Christian bias in this line of inquiry? News for you, trying to establish specifically what, if anything, set a terrorist off (and most particularly off on the wrong path in this instance) is not the same thing as justifying what a terrorist does.
208. But you know that.
209. The investigators are asking these questions to determine if there is anything else related to this act of terrorism that the people of California should be worried about, not to absolve Farook of his undoubtedly despicable terrorist act.
210. Then move.
211. When compiling the data for mass shootings (where four or more people have died as per FBI definition of mass murder) under the last five presidents, clearly there's a startling outlier under the Obama administration.
212. Largest push for gun control in American history just so happens to coincide at a time when there are more mass shootings than ever before in American history.
213. We should enforce the laws already on the book, or put up a wall with a sign that reads "Closed.
214. Under Assimilation".
215. Our job here at Antiwar.com just got a lot harder.
216. It's even that much harder when you completely fail, or worse refuse, to recognize the false flag that 9/11 obviously was.
217. Better to stick your head in the sand and ignore the 2,350 Architects and Engineers who are explaining to you in plain english why the physics and chemistry completely disprove the NIST report on the 'collapse' of the three WTC skyscrapers.
218. If you misdiagnose the disease, its gonna be really hard to cure the patient.
219. You correctly can grasp the the war party is capable of all sorts of violence and deciept…EXCEPT when it comes to 9/11? They lie to you about everthing else but somehow you swallow hook line and sinker what they are peddling about 9/11.
220. Why? It is my country.
221. If you are so intent on living in a diverse, multicultural paradise, then you should move to any of the diverse areas of the world that suit your tastes.
222. What gives you the right to impose your values upon the rest of us? You have no more right to invite people from around the world to inhabit the commons as I do to invite strangers into your home.
223. At this point in the game immigration should be stopped.
224. It is estimated that we took in around 42 million, mostly European immigrants from 1607 (Jamestown) until 1960.
225. Since 1965 we have taken in nearly 50 million, mostly non-European immigrants.
226. So in all fairness the non-European world has gotten more than its fair share of immigration slots.
227. The only reason Europeans outnumber them is because they've been here reproducing for 400 years.
228. However we no longer are an unsettled nation.
229. We no longer have endless assembly lines in multiple factories needing warm bodies.
230. The free traders have seen to that.
231. Additionally further automation will cut future labor demands as well.
232. Therefore, we aren't operating under the same conditions we were at the turn of the 20th century when we needed warm bodies for the factories and farms.
233. We have now reached 320 million people.
234. We are the third most populous nation on Earth, and the two above us are trying to reduce their numbers.
235. There is no gold medal for being the most populous nation.
236. It is not something we should pursue.
237. So yes, it's time to halt these ridiculous levels of immigration which are now exceeding a million per year.
238. Just a quick comparison.
239. We had 132 million people in 1940.
240. We fought WW2 with that number and were able to put 12 million people in the armed forces and fill out the factories to produce all that war material.
241. If we had 132 million people today, we would still be in the top 10 list of most populous nations.
242. So we were basically fully settled with 132 million people.
243. At 200 million we were more than settled.
244. Now with 300 million and expecting to hit 400 million by mid century, we've jumped the shark.
245. The end result is to further infringe on our rights to defend ourselves and our right to be left alone.
246. The predictable part is how the left, the right and neoreactionaries were all hoping that the shooters were their enemies so they can engage in Soviet/Al Sharpton style group blaming and punishment.
247. People are too stupid to ask why Muslim terrorist never attack most infidel countries like Costa Rica or Argentina.
248. If they could face the answer they would know how to stop the Muslim attacks on the USA.
249. They attack the USA because the USA attacks them.
250. Angela Merkel must have failed European history if she took it in school.
251. Now she's let in up to a million Middle Easterners, and, if the pictures are to be believed, most appear to be military-aged men.
252. Perhaps a stupid question: We know Farook was at the meeting.
253. We know he and his wife were shot four hours later after a pursuit.
254. If we are going to take in Muslim people we have to learn how to get along with them .
255. You mean they don't have to assimilate to our ways? I don't know if your post was serious or tongue-in-check, but I would hate to see someone advocating for curtailing our 1st Amendment on a libertarian site like this that has proudly supported the free exchange of ideas and thoughts.
256. What that Christian said or didn't say is immaterial.
257. I understand what you are saying about the Post being bias in their article, but would agree with the News that it is still a problem of people being able to easily get guns in this country, even though they got them legally.
258. Even if these people were connected with other groups, it is still a major issue in this country how easy it is for people to get guns, so I'm concerned that the focus on them being terrorists overshadows that serious problem we have here.
259. Then we need to stay out of other countries, and stop perpetuating wars to displace others, so maybe we won't have some people come here with violence in their minds.
260. But Europeans occupied other countries, and wiped out so many people, such as what happened here in the U.S.
261. Your stats? More people have been killed in this country by guns than bombs or other weapons.
262. The most deadly individual incidents have been with bombs and airplanes/boxcutters to hijack them.
263. I called them more dangerous because they can and have killed more people in one incident.
264. It takes more time and trouble to shoot people one by one than to destroy a whole building full of them.
265. As for total numbers, if it is to be guns vs all other weapons, you'll find "all homicides" considerably exceed murders by gun alone.
266. There are so many ways to kill, it adds up.
267. If we include suicides, about 2/3 of those are other than guns, basically being almost all women and about 1/3 of men using some method other than gun.
268. Whether or not we include suicides is important, because there are twice as many suicides as homicides.
269. As for terrorists, they use a lot of bombs, especially if we include suicide vests.
270. Don't get me wrong, guns are extremely dangerous.
271. They just are not the whole problem, far from it, and we can't solve it just thinking of it as a gun problem.
272. The heat of gun controversy tends to distract from the whole problem.
273. Its still a numbers game folks.
274. Fourteen victims.
275. Everyone wrong; yet, one of the goals of terrorism is to force over reaction.
276. I don't get the line of reasoning that because Europeans occupied other countries it somehow gives the entire world an invitation to come live in the West.
277. If you take that line of reasoning, then a lot of Asians should be allowed to enter Japan.
278. Spaniards and Portuguese should be allowed to enter North Africa.
279. Greeks, Serbs, Bulgarians and others should be allowed free rein of Turkey.
280. As for wiping out the Indian tribes of North America, how is it any different than what happened to the Indians of Latin America? Yet I hear no calls to open up Brazil, Argentina or Mexico to mass immigration.
281. Johnny in Wi.
282. This couple deliberately set out to murder as many innocent people as they could.
283. No real mother would abandon her child for such a mission.
284. The way some of these terrorists just blow themselves up in bomb attacks and kill many, including many Muslims is absolute lunacy.
285. How they obtained their firearms is also intriguing.
286. One wonders if the official story would begin to unravel further if someone were to look real close at the local yokels involved with the whatever anti-terrorist outfit hooked up to Washington and started looking at those nice folks who served a certain special little country in the Middle East who were uncovered a few years back spying on Americans in another California municipality.
287. Now that the boycott movement is catching on fire they really need to turn public opinion and, as usual these b*stards are one trick ponies…all they know is false flags…aside from buying prostitute politicians like Rubio, Cruz, et al…..
288. How they obtained their firearms is also intriguing.
289. One wonders if the official story would begin to unravel further if someone were to look real close at the local yokels involved with the whatever anti-terrorist outfit hooked up to Washington and started looking at those nice folks who served a certain special little country in the Middle East who were uncovered a few years back spying on Americans in another California municipality.
290. Now that the boycott movement is catching on fire they really need to turn public opinion and, as usual these b*stards are one trick ponies…all they know is false flags…aside from buying prostitute politicians like Rubio, Cruz, et al…..
291. Exactly – it is as simple as sunshine — we have crossed the street to kick a dog and the dog bites us.
292. But our reaction is not "stupid" – it is an agenda.
293. Check this out from the same source.
294. Just in case you weren't sure, the dog is definitely being wagged in San Bernardino.
295. There's an organization responsible for more terrorism plots in the United States than al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab and ISIS combined: The FBI.
296. How? Why? In an eye-opening talk, investigative journalist Trevor Aaronson reveals a disturbing FBI practice that breeds terrorist plots by exploiting Muslim-Americans with mental health problems.
297. No.
298. I am not of English ethnicity, though I do have some ties to the British Isles.
299. Yes, and the first modern people, Africans, out of Africa, wiped out the Neanderthals.
300. And the Europeans and everyone else should have left America to its native peoples, who are the ONLY people entitled to live here according to current orthodoxy.
301. The point is that historical retribution and entitlements is an irrational political tool for erasing nations.
302. Most importantly this includes the nations or peoples who tried to achieve the idea that governments should represent the interests of their citizens, not their overlords.
303. That invention is now derisively attributed to the white founding fathers, and no one wants to hear what they said because they were white, they owned slaves, the wiped out the indians.
304. These same people discarding our nation have nothing to say about the atrocities being currently committed by their solution to nations the One World Order.
305. If you look at recent news reports, the "Christian" co-worker you mention was an Orthodox Jew and the arguments also involved the legitimacy/morality of the State of Israel.
306. Not that it matters all that much.
307. But comments about Christianity, etc.
308. Of course whatever arguments about Israel, etc.
309. Syad may have been amped up about the topic right before the shooting.
310. This Jewish co-worker was supposedly one of the first people to be killed.
311. Recall the wisdom of this old adage: don't argue religion and politics.
312. Then it really isn't your country.
313. Maybe the diversity should have stopped before your ancestors arrived.
314. 1) Were they being trained to attack a higher value target, like a mall or holiday parade? But he got upset with something at work and decided to attack the Christmas party against orders? So the terrorist/workplace violence meld.
315. 2) An FBI sting gone wrong? They lost control.
316. Explains the dud bomb perhaps made from faulty instructions, and possibly the AR-15 police model, a la Fast and Furious.
317. Iif that story is still in play.
318. 1) Were they being trained to attack a higher value target, like a mall or holiday parade? But he got upset with something at work and decided to attack the Christmas party against orders? So the terrorist/workplace violence meld.
319. 2) An FBI sting gone wrong? They lost control.
320. Explains the dud bomb perhaps made from faulty instructions, and possibly the AR-15 police model, a la Fast and Furious.
321. If that story is still in play.
322. One must realize that islam has spent the better part of 1000 years trying to conquer Europe.
323. And they have had major success.
324. They occupied large parts of Iberia for close to 700 years.
325. The USA is more than a geographical spot of land.
326. It is the political, legal, economic and other institutions created by the English derived Founders.
327. That is what makes the USA unique in the world.
328. That is what makes the USA so desirable for immigrants.
329. It has nothing to do with what you call the so-called native Americans.
330. They might have been living here before the English, but what did they build? Immigrants, especially the current crop, are not coming here because of anything the so-called native Americans built.
331. They are coming here for what the English built.
332. Exactly.
333. This nation was built by the English and I am not English.
334. I am grateful that the English saw fit to allow my ancestors the opportunity to enter this land, adopt their enlightened ways, and help contribute to the making of this great nation.
335. My ancestors could have chosen many destinations, but they deliberately sought out the English-derived portion of the New World because they correctly concluded the English created better institutions than the Spaniards or Portuguese.
336. Well over a century later today's immigrants must be concluding the same thing as Latin America still seems to lag behind in attracting them..
337. Just think at how dynamic Latin America would be if only the English had founded those lands.
338. Actually I've heard of the Crusades.
339. The Crusades took place because the muslims conquered much of what had been the Christian middle east.
340. Had there been no muslim conquest of the Holy Land, there would have been no need for the Crusades.
341. Now I would like to point out that I am not supportive of all the follow-on Crusades, especially #4 which sacked Constantinople.
342. But the original Crusade did not just happen on a whim.
343. It was a response to an aggression.
344. And keep in mind the First Crusade not only happened after the muslims took the Holy Land, but well after they took Spain and Portugal too.
345. So by the time the First Crusade began, the muslims had been very aggressive towards Europeans.
346. But getting back to the original point that I think you were responding to.
347. I suggested it was a bad idea to import into Europe people who have had a 1000 year history of trying to conquer Europe.
348. Uh, no, Hydrated Ferric Oxide Dude, the English murdered the natives and stole their land (as did the other European colonizers, for that matter).
349. But the natives weren't pale-skinned like I am, so I guess they don't count in the eyes of HFOD.
350. How do you know the various peoples living in what is now the USA prior to European settlement were native? Did they originate here, or did they migrate here from somewhere else? Were there others here that they displaced? What about any conflicts among those groups you label as native? We know that various tribes fought over land and some prevailed and some were vanquished.
351. You mention that all European colonizers stole land from the so-called natives.
352. The last time I checked I lived in the United States of America.
353. I don't recall ever living in Sioux nation, the Cheyenne Peoples Republic or any other such nation.
354. If I did then I suppose I would consider the Sioux or Cheyenne as natives.
355. But since I live in the USA, I consider the English to be the natives.
356. As this nation was setup with their ideals, political outlook, language, laws, it's a reflection of their culture, and thus they are the true natives.
357. Justin is an idiot.
358. He is so "anti war" that he can't see terrorism because it would show him that his antiwar rhetoric is stupid, so he avoid saying the T word so he can still feel good about his stupid opinions.
359. I agree it was.
360. It's a bad idea to let large numbers of any foreign culture into your land if you intend on keeping your own culture.
361. We should learn from their mistake.
362. Also, others besides the indians have repeated this mistake.
363. The Romans made this mistake too, and look what happened to them.
364. BTW, were the indians racists and xenophobes for trying to oppose the Europeans? Just food for thought when others say that Europeans are racists for opposing mass immigration today.
365. It's just amazing how 'terrorism' is so wonderful for Lockheed Martins bottom line.
366. There is none so blind Orelindel as those who will not see what is really going on here.
367. It's amazing how we are in bed with the 'moderate' rebels like the free Syrian army but the Free Syrian Army is in bed with iSIS.
368. Or how about the close tight working relationship between our intelligence community and the Pakistani ISI (going all the way back to the arming and funding of the Mujahadeen in the eighties) and the tight close working relatiionship between the ISI and al Qaeda and the Taliban.
369. I keep getting this feeling of deja vu – that we are witnessing a rebroadcast of the history of the early 1930s, and fascism is being re-born right here in America and not in Germany.
370. The same fears, the same demagogues, the same ignorance.
371. "Never again" – yeah right – "never again , TO ME, that is".
372. Actually, the latest report I've seen is that the gentleman is a Messianic Jew (believes in Christ) with, confusingly, a seemingly Greek or Russian Orthodox name ('Nicholas' something).
373. I am not sure at this point if this man was among the dead or injured.
374. Fox tolled a list of the deceased yesterday, but I don't recall anyone named Nicholas among the dead — I admit I may have missed it.
375. You must be logged in to post a comment.
376. Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com, and a senior fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute.
377. An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N.