I remember growing up, if somebody had tinfoil on their windows, we thought it was a "drug house" but I don't really understand why they would attract attention like that. You noticed it  yesterday, so do you think he had just recently done it? It's not something you normally see done, the tinfoil, on a big, two-story house. More of a crappy apartment type thing.

The explosion was pretty big, looks like about half the house immediately blew out, and the other half collapsed within seconds. I wonder how he got so much explosive material, I thought the government had things like that pretty locked down, after incidents like Oklahoma.

This is something you definitely think only happens "somewhere else" ..wherever that is. I guess everywhere is somebody's "right by me" ...

Are you okay? How are you feeling?

Last edited by Flint (12/05/2023 6:30 pm)

Holy crap. I'm glad he didn't manage to take anyone with him. It would appear he was hoping to kill some First Responders even a wellness check would have gone South. Be safe dwellar!

So I guess the guy was trying to attract attention to himself. I wonder how long he had to plan on doing this.

Flint wrote:

So I guess the guy was trying to attract attention to himself. I wonder how long he had to plan on doing this.

Its always the question that is never answered.  Why would anyone do something so illogical?

How much explosives (what kind and where did he get them) were necessary to take out his house and the attached duplex?

Clearly it was no accident.  But why so much planning for something that otherwise makes no (apparent) sense?  Never answered.  So many Timothy McVeighs.

It might have been answered in The Cellar.   Stated quite clearly was a need to "fuck things up".  Extremists endorse such philosophies.

Last edited by tw (12/07/2023 12:00 pm)

Apologies for the thread drift, but, there are some thing in our society which are considered illogical, but not delusional-- because they conform to our social norms of morality. And other things which are considered delusional, despite having a perfectly consistent logic-- because they are morally incomprehensible.

I struggle with the line being drawn from morally reprehensible acts connecting to mental illness via their measure of logic. If I were, for instance, an FBI profiler trying to eliminate a harmful actor, I wouldn't benefit my investigation by imagining the suspect as incomprehensibly illogical.

Obviously this house guy was a cuckoo, but in general I don't think it benefits our collective safety to relegate immoral acts to mental illness, essentially banishing them to the realm of incomprehensibility.

If morally and logically incomprehensible acts are occurring with regularity, and the morality is something we're not willing to reconsider, then the logic purported to be behind them is our only chance to understand how to eliminate their causes.Otherwise we're playing whack-a-mole. And I guess that's why I feel the label "mental illness" is not really helpful in regards to a solution.
 

Last edited by Flint (12/07/2023 1:42 pm)

I don't want to spend too much time learning about this guy and making him human, because fuck HIM.  But the little I learned before I stopped looking was that he was a security professional, and he had his neighbors under surveillance as his little hobby.  I have to think that people who train their brains to look for threats will see them everywhere.  It's simply how a plastic brain works.  You build up these neural pathways and then they become superhighways for your thoughts.  It's similar to law enforcement professionals and the attitudes they develop over time after being exposed to the worst segments of society through their career.  I might even go so far as to say it's related to the firefighters who set fires.

I don't know how we don't have more problems considering the number of soldiers, law enforcement, etc. and various professionals who have training that have all built pathways in their brains that are a little horrifying. Add to that the gun nuts who are training for WW3 and it's surprising how peaceful the world is.

glatt wrote:

... it's surprising how peaceful the world is.

We carry a sensitive cargo
Below the waterline
Ticking like a time bomb with a primitive design
Behind the finer feelings, the civilized veneer
The heart of a lonely hunter guards a dangerous frontier

Neil Peart, 'Lock and Key'
from the 1987 Rush album, 'Hold your Fire'

Has it gotten worse since 1987, or has it always been this way?

I try not to think about the world.



 

at least we're no longer experiencing the terrible trauma of the Cola wars

I think it had a basement.  The houses are cookie cutter and you can see the neighbors have a basement.

glatt wrote:

I'm better today.  I only noticed the tin foil on Monday, maybe it was there a little sooner and I just didn't see?  But I walked past the house every commute, so 6 times a week,  I feel like I would have noticed it sooner if it was there sooner.

I also wonder about stockpiling.  I don't know if the type of material tim mcveigh used can still be bought at home depot, but even if it's in smaller quantities, a patient and methodical person can get a lot done over time.

It's not difficult to acquire enough gas to level a neighborhood. The logistics of acquisition is easy, the logistics of using it are not for a neighborhood. But one house you're in, piece of cake. 

Red is the color of valentines .... and violent death.

We need more colors to avoid such confusion.
 

Last edited by tw (2/14/2024 6:40 am)