Huma Abedin Gets Police Protection After Being Threatened

Following up on my previous entry, "Rep. Michele Bachmann Wants Investigation of Huma Abedin, Aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

And this is wrong, "Weiner wife under guard":

Police and federal officials have placed security around ex-Rep. Anthony Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, after a New Jersey man threatened her, law-enforcement sources said.

An individual, described as a Muslim man, made the unspecified threat after Rep.

Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) last week claimed Abedin’s family had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and asked for a probe to see if she is helping the Islamist organization. The man was questioned by the NYPD and the State Department and has not been charged, sources said.

That said, it's a legitimate question about the potential influence of Abedin's parents on U.S. foreign policy. She's a top aide to the U.S. Secretary of State, for crying out loud. Find out what's up with that and be done with it. See Nonie Darwish, for example, at FrontPage Magazine, "Huma Abedin’s Mother and an Islamist Agenda":

Huma Abedin, Secretary Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff, could be the nicest woman with the greatest character, but that is not the issue nor should it be a reason to prevent ny inquiry into her family background and connection to the Muslim Brotherhood. Instead of attacking Representative Bachmann for raising important questions regarding Muslim Brotherhood penetration of the US government, the response from the media and Senator McCain should have been a statement to the effect that Abedin has already been vetted and has a sound security clearance. But instead, the response was: “How dare you, Michele Bachmann!”

Now let us examine Huma’s mother’s history and activities. Dr. Saleha Mahmood Abedin has been identified in Saudi Arabia as one of the founding members of the Muslim Sisterhood, a Muslim Brotherhood women’s group. This is the same group that half of Egypt was too scared to vote for and that was criminalized for many decades in Egypt for its subversiveness and terror activities. Dr. Abedin is no ordinary Muslim woman, but an activist who supports Sharia law. She is also a long-time chairperson of the “International Islamic Committee for Woman and Child” (IICWC). Now let us examine what that group is doing in Egypt today and why many Egyptians are afraid of its activities and are strongly denouncing it.

The last elections in Egypt have proved that half of Egypt is afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood and does not want to live under Sharia, but that is not the same concern of Abedin’s organization (IICWC), which is advocating Sharia law. The IICW contributed greatly to fear of its agenda after a recent publication in Arabic on its website. The following topics were discussed, among others, suggesting the annulment of Egyptian moderate laws, which would be replaced by Sharia laws. Below are some of the positions that appeared in the IICWC publication:

* The IICWC position that the current laws criminalizing female genital mutilation be revoked.
* The IICWC’s position demanding that the laws forbidding child marriage below the age of eighteen be revoked. No new minimum marriage age was given; the group stated that the marriage standard depends on the financial and mental ability and not dependent on a specific age.
* The IICWC’s positions, as reported, demanding that the laws forbidding marital rape be revoked and that polygamy is a right for men.
* The IICWC’s position that a health check-up before marriage be revoked since it is against religion and should not be part of the marriage contract.
* The IICWC’s position that criminal responsibility triggering at age 18 be reduced to age 15.
* The IICWC’s position revokes the right of a woman to register her newborn by herself for a birth certificate because Sharia states that a child’s lineage is given strictly to the father and his paternal line. The child belongs to the father even if it was the product of adultery.
* The IICWC’s position revokes the criminalization of physical and mental abuse of parents against children, so long as the punishment does not cause a permanent deformity or the beating is too extreme.

Above are the values that Huma Abedin’s mother believes in and that her organization is trying to impose on the Egyptian public after the revolution. Huma did not keep a distance from her mother’s activities when she introduced Secretary Clinton to her activist mother. During Clinton’s visit to Saudi Arabia, the US Secretary of State visited and spoke at the Islamic college of Dar El-Hekma together with Huma, where Dr. Saleha Abedin was a vice-dean and one of its founders.

See also the Center for Security Policy, "Ties That Bind? The Views and Agenda of Huma Abedin’s Islamist Mother."

Check that link.

At this point it's clear that Huma Abedin's mother is a woman whose agenda stands radically at odds with U.S. foreign policy. By all accounts, Secretary Clinton is personally close to Huma, and thus it's quite important that the public be reassured of no undue influence being exerted to disrupt U.S. protection of human and women's rights around the world.

Joe Paterno Statue Taken Down at Penn State University

At the Wall Street Journal, "Statue of Paterno Taken Down."

Suspect James Holmes' Rapid Descent

The Wall Street Journal reports, "Suspect's Rapid Descent: Holmes Bought Rifle, Bullets During Month After School Exit":

AURORA, Colo.—In early June, first-year doctoral student James Holmes stood before professors of neuroscience here for an oral exam that marked the beginning of at least four more years of intense study of how the brain works.

Days later, though, school administrators received an email from Mr. Holmes saying that he dropped out of the program. He didn't give a reason.

What happened over the next month is now the focus of law-enforcement officials who say Mr. Holmes entered a packed movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and shot 70 people early Friday. So far, they have learned that between the time he left school and the massacre, Mr. Holmes applied for membership at a shooting range, whose owner on Sunday described Mr. Holmes's answering-machine message as "incoherent, bizarre, freakish at best." The suspect also bought an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, a military-style gun popular with sportsmen since a federal ban on its sale expired eight years ago.

Meanwhile, police said, Mr. Holmes had bought thousands of rounds of ammunition via the Internet and received "high-volume" deliveries by mail to his home and school, for what authorities described as an arsenal of weapons and explosives.

Yet amid these developments, on July 9, Mr. Holmes also talked of furthering his education while sharing a beer with a neighbor at a local bar.

Interviews with investigators and people who knew Mr. Holmes, from his high-school years to his last days as a student, depict a cerebral, quiet man whom none thought capable of violence. He was described as a disciplined student—playing online videogames only after studying—and often joined group social events. But even those who shared stretches of intimate space with Mr. Holmes, in dorm rooms or graduate-school laboratories, say he was distant and enigmatic.

Notice two bits of new information here. Holmes, as reported elsewhere today, was turned down after looking to join a gun club. But note too that it's not true that Holmes was a completely isolated loner, which would fit more closely with a brooding outcast profile. Instead, he appeared to enjoy social events with other students, something that I focused on last night, as he seemed to be isolated on campus. That may still be the case, although it's not so clear now or to what degree. And the Journal's piece continues:

Mr. Holmes found a crew of studious students on his floor that appeared a good fit for him his freshman year, hallmates said. He became a fixture socially among the science majors and others. Often, he joined them for dinner and games of Guitar Hero or movie nights to watch Disney films, several recalled.

Still, Mr. Holmes remained a mystery to some. His freshman roommate said the two rarely spoke beyond small talk about "The Simpsons" or "Family Guy." Mr. Holmes often spent his lunch hour in the suite's common lounge watching a show called "How It's Made" on the Discovery Channel, which is about factory products.

Mr. Holmes was disciplined and kept his room tidy. He spent much of his time in the room with his books open or staring into a computer screen. Each night he played an hour or two of online computer games after the studying was done before going to bed early, his roommate said.

"He was very responsible," he said. "He had his quirks, which were that he didn't talk a lot."

Well, now it looks like a guy was, yes, something of a recluse but was attempting to fit in and find a social group. Frankly, he's not that abnormal. Lots of people are shy and reserved, and they hold back from aggressive socializing, staying within their comfort zone. Okay, but the Journal has more on Holmes' academic problems and abrupt resignation from the neuroscience program:

When classes ended in May, the students were required to pass a first-year test referred to as the "prelims." The school said students had to stand before three professors and answer questions.

Shortly after the tests were done, the classmate said, a neuroscience administrator took the group for drinks to tell them Mr. Holmes had dropped out. The administrator said she received a short resignation email from Mr. Holmes that didn't explain why. Some assumed he had gone back to California.

Mr. Holmes hadn't been on campus since June, though his program-cancellation paperwork remains unfinished, according to a university spokesman.

About the time he applied to leave the university, Mr. Holmes began buying thousands of rounds of ammunition via the Web and purchased four guns over the past 60 days, including the a AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, Glock handguns and a shotgun, police said.

Check the link for a few more details.

Here's my piece from last night: "James Holmes' Academic Frustration and Social Isolation."

At this point I'm focused less on the social isolation variable and more on the academic frustration factor. The problem now, though, is that Holmes gave no reason for his withdrawal from the university. The Journal suggests that he'd taken his first-year oral exams. There's more to that than it sounds, that is, there's more to these than just having to "stand before three professors and answer questions." Depending on the department, the student will get to pick his oral examination committee. You're building mentor relationships by this time, and faculty have gotten a good look at you during the first year seminars. The department will usually not advance to candidacy those who've been struggling. The student receives some kind of grade, for example "passed with distinction" or "high pass," that signals a successful oral exam and advancement to the Ph.D. program. A student could get something like an undistinguished passing grade and then not be advanced. Perhaps the student could leave the department with Master's degree. And while that's not in evidence so far in Holmes' case, it's possible he just had an awful experience taking the orals. The committee is going to try to pin you down on your weakest area, forcing you to struggle to explain some area of the literature or big problem of method or so forth. It's not very fun to be harangued like that, and if Holmes had a bad time of it --- that is, if he was pinned down during the orals and didn't acquit himself on some topic --- it could have been a blow to his already questionable sense of self, his esteem. And if so, perhaps he couldn't face his colleagues.

Keep in mind it's not clear from the Journal's report whether Holmes even took the oral exams, so I'm just thinking out loud. If he took them, and then notified the department before the neuroscience administrator took students out for drinks, then the timing would be about right. But that's unclear without a more concise report on this timeline of events.

That's my take for now, then. Grad school is no cakewalk, especially that first year, which might be called "Darwinian." In this case, not only was Holmes perhaps not one of the "fittest," but his failure to survive the program could have sent him off onto a dark path toward becoming a psychopath.

More later...

U.S. to Focus on Forcibly Toppling Syrian Government

With the exception of Max Boot at Commentary, and Reuel Marc Gerecht at the Wall Street Journal, we've seen few voices advocating direct military intervention in Syria. (And Gerecht was calling for CIA-directed operations, quite short of full boots on the ground.)

An invasion of Syria would have worked better months ago, had there been enough foresight to realize that it was time for Assad to go and there weren't really other good options. Certainly, the U.N.'s engagement has once again made a mockery of that institution, especially with Russia protecting its balance of power interests in Syria, which include Moscow's only naval base outside of Russian waters. On Thursday this photo at the Los Angeles Times summarized --- like "a picture worth a thousand words" --- U.S. frustration with United Nations diplomacy toward Syrian President Bashar Assad (see, "Russia, China veto U.N. resolution on Syria"). Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin has his hands outstretched as he leans forward in a pleading stance, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice looks at him, arms crossed, seemingly angry and surely frustrated. It's an amazing shot.

But now here comes the New York Times with the very shocking headline, "U.S. to Focus on Forcibly Toppling Syrian Government." Notice how Memeorandum has the original headline, which has now been changed at the Times' website, to "Stymied at U.N., U.S. Refines Plan to Remove Assad." And from the article:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has for now abandoned efforts for a diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Syria, and instead it is increasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad, American officials say.

Administration officials have been in talks with officials in Turkey and Israel over how to manage a Syrian government collapse. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is headed to Israel in the next several days to meet with Israeli defense counterparts, following up on a visit last week by President Obama’s national security adviser Thomas E. Donilon, in part to discuss the Syrian crisis.

The White House is now holding daily high-level meetings to discuss a broad range of contingency plans — including safeguarding Syria’s vast chemical weapons arsenal and sending explicit warnings to both warring sides to avert mass atrocities — in a sign of the escalating seriousness of the Syrian crisis following a week of intensified fighting in Damascus, the capital, and the killing of Mr. Assad’s key security aides in a bombing attack.

The administration has had regular talks with the Israelis about how Israel might move to destroy Syrian weapons facilities, administration officials said. The administration is not advocating such an attack, the officials said, because of the risk that it would give Mr. Assad an opportunity to rally support against Israeli interference.

Administration officials insist they will not provide arms to the rebel forces. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are already financing those efforts. But American officials said that the United States would provide more communications training and equipment to help improve the combat effectiveness of disparate opposition forces in their widening, sustained fight against Syrian Army troops. It’s also possible the rebels would receive some intelligence support, the officials said.

Continue reading.

Well, as Marc Gerecht indicated, we're already aiding the free Syrian forces with "a rudimentary, small-scale CIA covert action" now under way against Assad. And besides weapons of mass destruction, the next biggest worry is that Islamists will come to power after the regime falls. I can't think of a better way to prevent that, at least in the short term, than by installing an "American Caesar" to govern the country until direct popular elections are held. The biggest impediment to that, frankly, is the risk of open armed conflict with Russia, which would cause a further deterioration in U.S.-Russian relations to rival the worst points of the 20th-century Cold War. But the U.S. shouldn't rule out the option of military intervention for humanitarian purposes, especially amid the continuing refugee flows from the country.

A complete collapse of power in Damascus with no countervailing force is an even worse scenario, so it's going to take a lot of leadership, especially in Washington, to protect regional and international security in Syria in the weeks ahead.

'MIDNIGHT MASSACRE' — Media Coverage of the Colorado Theater Killings

I haven't been using anything like "Batman killer" in my reporting. It just doesn't seem right to reward the suspect with that kind of language. But see the New Statesman's roundup of news outlets that blared some variation of "BATMAN MADMAN" across their front pages: "How the media shouldn't cover a mass murder." (Via Mediagazer.)

And below is the image from yesterday's Los Angeles Times front page. The newspaper has had good coverage, via Yahoo, "Colorado shooting: How newspapers covered the 'Dark Knight' massacre." The caption at the picture reads: "TOM SULLIVAN hugs relatives at Gateway High School, where he was seeking information on his son, Alex, who went to see 'The Dark Knight Rises' for his birthday. Some victims remained unidentified Friday."

British Model Keeley Hazell Shocked at Colorado Shooter's Picture at 'Adult Friend Finder'

She's a Page 3 girl at the Sun UK, and here's the report, "Batman killer’s obsession with Keeley Hazell."

And see London's Daily Mail, "The model 'Joker' was obsessed with: Page Three girl's shock at appearing with gunman in picture posted on adult website weeks before massacre."

And no big news outlets have picked this up yet, but TMZ isn't holding back, "Colorado Shooting Suspect James Holmes - The Match.Com Profile."

Either way, the search for answers continues, at the Los Angeles Times, "Theater shooting suspect a mystery despite intriguing details." And, "Colorado shooting suspect worked for a summer as camp counselor in L.A. County." (Via Memeorandum.)

Beyond 7 Billion: The Biggest Generation

The Los Angeles Times is running a five-part series on global population starting today. The first entry focuses on India, "Fertility rates fall, but global population explosion goes on."

The politics of world demographics is extremely interesting, mainly because it captures most of the big partisan debates on global development and environmental protection, for example, debates on the earth's "carrying capacity," the relationship between population and poverty, family planning (in both the advanced and developing worlds), and climate change. Depending on who you talk to, the world is nowhere near its limit of human population sustainability. Indeed, the sky-is-falling naysayers, Stanford University demographer Paul Ehrlich, especially, were proved so wrong with their 1970s-era predictions, that international attention to population change dropped off the radar. Robert Zubrin talks about the hysteria here: "The Population Control Holocaust."

In any case, here's the key alarmist passage from the Times' piece:

The relentless growth in population might seem paradoxical given that the world's average birthrate has been slowly falling for decades. Humanity's numbers continue to climb because of what scientists call population momentum.

So many people are now in their prime reproductive years — the result of unchecked fertility in decades past, coupled with reduced child mortality — that even modest rates of childbearing yield huge increases.

"We're still adding more than 70 million people to the planet every year — which we have been doing since the 1970s," said John Bongaarts, a leading demographer and vice president of the nonprofit Population Council in New York. "We're still in the steep part of the curve."

Think of population growth as a speeding train. When the engineer applies the brakes, the train doesn't stop immediately. Momentum propels it forward a considerable distance before it finally comes to a halt.

U.N. demographers once believed the train would stop around 2075. Now they say world population will continue growing into the next century.

In India, a country of 1.2 billion people, women have an average of 2.5 children each, and the birthrate is projected to fall to 2.1 by 2030. At that point, parents will merely be replacing themselves.

But even then, India's population will continue to grow because of momentum. It is on track to surpass China's and is not expected to peak until 2060, at 1.7 billion people.

Momentum isn't the only factor in population growth. In some of the poorest parts of the world, fertility rates remain high, driven by tradition, religion, the inferior status of women and limited access to contraception.

Population will rise most rapidly in places least able to handle it: developing nations where hunger, political instability and environmental degradation are already pervasive.

The African continent is expected to double in population by the middle of this century, adding 1 billion people despite the ravages of AIDS and malnutrition.

Even under optimistic assumptions, the toll on people and the planet will be severe.


Today, about 1 in 8 people in the world lives in a slum. By midcentury, with the population at more than 9 billion, the ratio would be 1 in 3, assuming poverty and migration to cities continue at their current rates.

Now nearly 1 billion people are chronically hungry, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, and at least 8 million die every year of hunger-related illnesses.

By midcentury, there will be at least 2 billion more mouths to feed, and no one can say where the food will come from.

It's not just that the population will be larger. It's that hundreds of millions of newly affluent people, mostly in Asia, will want to add dairy products and grain-fed beef and pork to their diets.

To meet the projected demand, the world's farmers will have to double their crop production, according to calculations by a team of scientists led by David Tilman, a University of Minnesota expert on global agriculture.

William G. Lesher, a former chief economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said the brightest minds in the field haven't figured out the solution.

"We're going to have to produce more food in the next 40 years than we have the last 10,000," he said. "Some people say we'll just add more land or more water. But we're not going to do much of either."

Most of Earth's best farmland has already come under hoof or plow, and farmers are losing ground to expanding cities and deserts. Soil erosion, chemical contamination and salt buildup from irrigation are despoiling prime acreage.

Climate change will make all of these challenges more daunting. Higher temperatures and violent weather will stunt or destroy crops. Increased flooding will imperil millions living in low-lying regions. More severe droughts could displace masses of people, leading to conflict.

By 2050, the United Nations predicts, there could be as many as 200 million "climate refugees."

Despite these trends, population growth has all but vanished from public discourse.

In Europe, Japan and North America, leaders are worried about having too few young people to care for aging populations and to fund benefits for the elderly.

In developing countries, leaders often consider large youthful populations a source of economic vitality and political strength.

In the U.S., contraception has become entangled in acrimonious battles over abortion, causing some environmental and humanitarian groups to retreat from family planning initiatives.

Under the best conditions, it's hard to get contraceptives into the hands of impoverished women who want them. In developing nations, family planning programs open and close at the whim of autocrats. Aid from wealthy nations rises and falls with political currents.

The result: Nearly 20 years after 179 nations signed a pledge to provide universal access to family planning, supplies of contraceptives remain erratic in much of the developing world.

Population growth gets less attention than it did in the late 1960s, when there were half as many people on the planet.

And check back at the article for some cool graphics.

RELATED: From Bjørn Lomborg, at Foreign Affairs, "Environmental Alarmism, Then: The Club of Rome’s Problem -- and Ours and Now."

Eat Like You Mean It

The ad's for Hardee's at the clip, but on the West Coast we've got Carl's Jr.

FLASHBACK: "Kate Upton's Smokin' Ad for Southwest Patty Melt at Carl's Jr."

Released: First Video of Alleged Colorado Theater Shooter James Holmes

ABC News has the report, "ABC News Exclusive: First Video of Colorado Shooting Suspect James Holmes Emerges" (via Memeorandum and at YouTube). The clip, showing the suspect James Holmes at a science camp in San Diego six years ago, confirms what we already know about the man: he was a typically normal teenager and pretty much a geeky science guy. According to the article:

By most accounts, Holmes lived the life of a normal teen -- with a particular interest in science.

The video shows him being introduced at the seminar as someone whose "goals are to become a researcher and to make scientific discoveries. In personal life, he enjoys playing soccer and strategy games and his dream is to own a slurpee machine."

Though Holmes was apparently a gifted scientist who had received a federal grant to work on his Ph.D. at one of the most competitive neuroscience programs in the country, he was a loner who -- oddly for a young scientist -- seemed to have no Internet presence.

However, there's a second segment at ABC News, available at the YouTube clip here, in which correspondent Pierre Thomas reports that a computer was found in the suspect's apartment. I'm interested to hear more of Holmes' academic record and work product, as I mentioned last night at my report: "James Holmes' Academic Frustration and Social Isolation."

I'll be updating throughout the day, so check back.

Meanwhile, check PJ Media, "Fox: No Body Armor for Aurora Theater Shooter" (via Memeorandum).

Politicizing the Colorado Shootings

James Taranto appears on this Lou Dobbs panel on Fox New, from Friday:

Lou Dobbs makes a good point as well, that where are all the cries for gun control as the urban areas, like Obama's Chicago, are just awash in blood?

And previously, "When Even Sick Left-Wing Sites Like 'Wonkette' Want Brian Ross Fired, Despicable Hate-Blogger Repsac3 Attacks Michelle Malkin as 'Whiney Wingnut Victim'."

California Democrats Give Pay Raises to Assembly and Senate Staff, While Voters Being Asked for Tax Hikes in November

The Democrats control both chambers of the legislature, and I'm betting they don't expect repercussions from this decidedly bad political move. And since the reports came out, the Senate pay raises have been put on hold. But that's not cooled some of the public outrage, and the Assembly pay hikes are still going through.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Lawmakers give raises to aides before cutting other workers' pay":

SACRAMENTO — Lawmakers gave raises worth $4.6 million annually to more than 1,000 of their aides before cutting the pay of most other state workers, newly released records show.

The lawmakers said they were trying to make up for several years without staff pay increases.

"Modest adjustments based on individual performance were appropriate," after pay and hiring freezes during the previous four years, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said in a statement.

But the raises, at least 10% for some top staffers in the last 11 months, have been disclosed at an awkward time for Steinberg and his fellow Democrats, who control the Legislature. They are gearing up to help Gov. Jerry Brown to convince the public that the state is desperate for money in the aftermath of a deep recession and should pass billions of dollars in tax hikes in November.

Opponents of the governor's tax plan wasted no time in painting the Democrats as hypocrites.

"It's an outrage that they did this when the governor is asking voters to approve a tax initiative because he says we can't pay our bills," said Lew Uhler, head of the California-based National Tax Limitation Committee.

And state workers hit with a 4.62% pay cut to help balance California's budget were enraged by news of the raises.

"My membership is reeling from it,'' said Rocco Paternoster, executive director of the 7,000-member Assn. of California State Supervisors. "It's really a slap in the face not only [to] the employees but also the public."

He said a flood of angry emails from workers is believed to have contributed to the crashing of the group's website Thursday.

A spokesman for Steinberg said he would seek a pay freeze for the Senate staff during the current fiscal year. An Assembly spokesman said the lower house had no such plan.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez (D-Los Angeles) declined to comment on the raises in his chamber since Dec. 1, 2011. Most of the them were given to Assembly workers who had not received any in at least three years, said Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the lower house.

Records requested by The Times indicate that at least 1,090 staffers in the Legislature received raises during the last fiscal year. More than 110 of those were earning six-figure salaries; 13 now make more than the $173,987 paid to Brown.

The highest-paid aide to receive a raise was Christopher Woods, chief budget consultant for the Assembly speaker. Woods' pay grew 3.6%, to $193,476. Catherine Abernathy, chief of staff for Assemblywoman Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), received 37%, for a salary of $65,832 a year, after taking on additional duties.

Raises and promotions went to 533 Assembly staffers at an annual cost of $3.1 million, according to a Times analysis. About 200 employees changed jobs, with the vast majority of those — 163 workers — seeing at least a 10% bump in pay.

Unemployment's still over 10 percent, although that's down from nearly 12 percent a year ago. See Governing, "Jobless Rates Rise as California, Ohio, North Carolina Add Most Jobs." Either way, I don't think Democrats can justify these pay raises, but we'll see. It's up to the voters in the respective districts.

The Predictable Banality of the After-Massacre Media

From Rick Moran, at PJ Media:

I would like to propose that anyone and everyone who writes anything about the massacre in Colorado save their work and, when the next mass killing occurs, simply republish the article, plugging in the new names, dates, and places where appropriate.

This will not only save time and effort, but, since we’ve already read what pundits have to say and we know all the arguments by heart, we won’t have to read it again. Thus, the news-consuming public will be spared the angst-ridden diatribes against guns, or immorality, or our broken mental health system, or violence in the media, or how it’s the left’s fault or the right’s fault — even articles like this one that complain about pundits writing about the same subjects every time a mass shooting occurs.

The post-massacre media environment gives true meaning to the cliche “deja vu” — “already seen” according to Wikipedia. I challenge anyone to come up with anything original written by anyone in the last 24 hours that didn’t follow the now traditional meme-making and narrative-setting path that every major public bloodletting has followed in the last decade.

Well, personally I like the media reporting on the specifics of a case --- what caused the shooter to act the way he did. No two gunman are the same, although theories of psychology can provide answers. And reporting on the reporting is certainly appropriate. Any big news event is a national media event. We can't divorce ourselves from it, or from criticism of the coverage. I do think folks can just hold off on the policy ramifications a bit longer, and the sick justifications for the politicization. That is indeed too much.

Rick also has this, "Why Is Brian Ross Still Working for ABC News?" The short answer is he made a mistake, corrected it and apologized. It was a really bad mistake so perhaps ABC News should take action? I wouldn't. But lots of folks are asking why is Ross still employed, even quite a few on the left.

James Holmes' Academic Frustration and Social Isolation

Folks can make what they want out of this New York Times piece, "Before and After Massacre, Puzzles Line Suspect’s Path." Most of the information is already public, although the Times mentions that sketchy news that Holmes trolled adult sex sites (and notes that the adult finder information is unconfirmed). But I thought this part was interesting:

Apart from a speeding ticket, Mr. Holmes had no previous encounters with the police in Aurora. He had no history of trouble with the police at college in California. He left no easily identifiable online messages or videos that might offer any insight to his mind-set. It also remained unclear how Mr. Holmes was able to afford the large amount of weapons, ammunition and protective gear he had, and how he learned to booby-trap his apartment. He was being held away from other inmates at the Arapahoe County Jail on Saturday because of the case’s high profile, Sheriff Grayson Robinson said. Mr. Holmes is due to make his first court appearance at 9:30 Monday morning.

There will be lots more coming, but I expect the graduate school angle that will be increasingly crucial. For example, the Times notes that Holmes:

...had an appointment at the university under a one-year Neuroscience Training Grant from the National Institutes of Health, a spokeswoman for the university said. The federal grant pays for six pre-thesis doctoral students in the university’s neuroscience program at the Anschutz Medical Campus. Such grants are usually quite difficult to obtain, going to only the top students.

Now, this was at the University of Colorado at Denver, which is a medium-ranked doctoral institution in neuroscience (the prestigious National Research Council rankings are here). The university has a medical school as well. No doubt it's highly competitive. Earlier reports said Holmes was struggling. If so, he probably started having problems right way, the first semester, which might track with his strange behavior. Especially important is Holmes isolation. People at the apartments said they never saw him with anyone else. He didn't have a girlfriend or a love interest, and he spent a lot of time online, apparently --- not just for the adult websites, although we'll have more on that later, but for the bomb-making information, and so forth.. He planned both the theater shooting and the booby traps meticulously.

So at this point, it's academic frustrations combined with social and emotional isolation. Besides that, I'd like to know what kind of family support he had. How often did he talk to his parents? Did he go home to San Diego to visit and how often? What kind of social activities were available in his academic department and did he make use of them? Surely the university had loads of intramural and professional support programs, and Holmes had to be working with academic advisers. Somewhere he slipped though the cracks, and people in Denver and back home in San Diego have some soul-searching to do. You can't prevent everything, but it looks like signs of loneliness or social introversion were in evidence.

That's my take for now. Check back for more.

Six-Year-Old Veronica Moser-Sullivan Killed in Colorado Theater Massacre

I read about this little one yesterday, but more information is coming out.

At London's Daily Mail, "Pictured: The tragic six-year-old girl shot dead in Dark Knight massacre as America mourns 12 victims murdered in cold blood."

All 12 of those who died in the tragic cinema shooting in Aurora, Colorado on Thursday night have been identified - they range from 51-year-old Gorden Cowden to Veronica Moser-Sullivan, who was just six years old.

Three are believed to have been members of the military, while two died trying to save their girlfriends from the hail of bullets sent out by alleged shoot James Holmes, who launched his vicious attack during a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises.

Veronica, the youngest victim, was a 'delightful' girl who was looking forward to starting swimming lessons this week, according to her grieving family.

Details about the 12 victims emerged on Saturday, the day before Barack Obama planned to travel to Aurora to meet with those affected by the massacre.

More here.

Tiki Barbar Remarries Just 4 Days After Finalizing Divorce From First Wife

I used to have a lot of respect for this guy, but he divorced his wife when she was pregnant with their third and fourth children, twin daugthers. I personally don't have that big a problem with divorce. I do have a problem with ditching your wife for a 23-year-old hottie while your ex-wife bears your newborn child.

In any case, at London's Daily Mail, "NY Giants star Tiki Barber marries 23-year-old pinup wife days after divorcing mother of his four children."

Check that link. He was cheating on his wife before they divorced, as his lawyers house. His popularity has taken a big hit, so I guess that's a comeuppance.

Mossad Reportedly Fears Iranian Attack on Israeli Athletes at Olympics

At the Times of Israel:

Israel reportedly fears Iran or a proxy organization may seek to attack Israelis during the Olympic Games, set to begin later this week, The Sunday Times reported.

Israel had already planned for beefed-up security for its delegation at the Games in London, but now harbors concerns that the terrorists responsible for last week’s bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Burgas, Bulgaria, will strike again, the paper reported Sunday.

According to the Sunday Times, agents from the Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security service, who flew to Bulgaria in the wake of the bombing, have hurried to try to identify the bomber and his helpers in an effort to counter any possible threats on Israel’s delegation to the high-profile event.

A Mossad agent in Bulgaria has reportedly been in close contact with Britain’s security service about possible threats. According to the report, special Mossad agents have been dispatched to capitals around Europe where members of Iran’s Quds Force are known to be working out of embassies.

More at the link.

Israel Defense Forces: Medical Delegation Arrives at Bulgaria

From the IDF news desk:

Using Twitter to Identify Psychopaths

From Kash Hill, at Forbes (via Instapundit):

People’s nasty traits have a way of revealing themselves on social networks: in writing. Or rather in how they write. That means an analysis of how someone tweets could reveal whether he or she is narcissistic, Machiavellian, or psychopathic, according to researchers who plan to present their findings at DefCon next week.

What are some of the Twitter stylings of these undesirables? Curse words. Angry responses to other people, including swearing and use of the word “hate.” Using the word “we.” Using periods. Using filler words such as “blah” and “I mean” and “um.”

(I suspect that an analysis of the Twitter streams of many a blogger would suggest they are potentially a narcissist, a psychopath or an avid reader of “The Prince.” Which may well be an accurate assessment.)

“The FBI could use this to flag potential wrongdoers, but I think it’s much more compelling for psychologists to use to understand large communities of people,” says Chris Sumner of the Online Privacy Foundation, which collaborated with Florida Atlantic University and big-data competition site Kaggle to conduct the study. He imagines the algorithmic models his team developed could be used to compare character traits between different countries based on Twitter.

Continue reading.

The Syria Endgame

A leader on Syria, from The Economist, "Towards the endgame":

IN EVERY revolution, there is a moment when the tide turns against the regime. In Egypt it came on January 28th last year, when protesters occupied Tahrir Square and torched the ruling-party headquarters. In Libya it happened on August 20th last year, when people in Tripoli rose against Qaddafi. In Syria it may have happened on July 18th, when a bomb struck at the heart of Syria’s military command.

If the attack shifts the balance of power decisively against President Bashar Assad, that is greatly to be welcomed. But a year or so after their revolutions, both Egypt and Libya remain unstable; and Syria, which borders Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, is an exceptionally complex and pivotal part of the Middle East. Those who wish Syrians well now need to focus not just on how to bring about Mr Assad’s swift fall from power, but also on how to spare the post-Assad Syria from murder and chaos and how to prevent violence from spreading across a combustible region.

Continue reading.

Shooting Suspect James Holmes Allegedly Trolled Sex Site 'Adult Friend Finder'

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