Wherever you stand on the current attack, recall Hitchens’ words about the scourge of theocracy.

[A]ny government that imagines it has a divine warrant will perforce deal with its critics as if they were profane and thus illegitimate by definition…

Reminds me of Japan’s wartime soft theocracy, which mired them in a bloodbath despite the voices of many rational and humane leaders there who argued for surrender. Only by nudging the country’s all-powerful, silent divinity to speak up was Japan able to save itself from possible extinction.

Nice example of ambiguity.

UD has zero interest in his motives, but Minnesota’s governor lazily presided over a fraud-ridden state, and he has certainly done the right thing by dropping out of the next election.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/minnesota-fraud-schemes-what-we-know

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“A really bad thing happened, and it demonstrated a real failure of public management that has to be addressed. And the scale of it was just incredible,” said Harold Pollack, a social sciences professor at the University of Chicago and longtime defender of safety net programs. “The Trump people are going to take this thing and they’re going to run with it so aggressively, it becomes a little bit easier for us to overlook the important substance here.”

He also killed multiple people and then, aware the FBI was close, killed himself in a secret location. It seems likely he killed (and Valente killed) because both were

1. insane; and
2. murderously jealous of successful people.

They have things in common with Phil Hartman’s 1998 death at the hands of his angry, substance-abusing wife. An argument apparently preceded it; he was talking about divorce. A very public argument preceded the Reiner patricide/matricide. Hartman’s wife killed him while he slept in their bed; Nick Reiner did the same. She killed herself after killing Hartman (the Reiner son is on suicide watch). Jealousy was a huge issue in both cases; both killers wanted the entertainment success other family members achieved. Both had mental health problems.

I’d say that massive drug intake was what separated maybe physically abusing people from being unhinged enough to shoot and stab them.

It’s the fourteenth, and they keep on coming.

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Support for the legalisation of assisted dying has been steady for several decades in many nations throughout the world, with about two-thirds of those polled supporting its legalisation. No jurisdiction that has legalised assisted dying has subsequently ended the practice, and public support for the practice tends to grow once legalised. In addition, when assisted dying is not available, many will seek it out at considerable expense or inconvenience to themselves. The Swiss organisation Dignitas has assisted in several thousand deaths for individuals willing to pay significant fees and travel expenses (currently estimated at $20,000), as well as to risk possible legal ramifications in their home countries. There is a high demand for enjoying freedom over one’s death.

Password to Louvre’s Video Surveillance System was ‘Louvre’, According to Employee

Headline of the day.

Republican Mike Lawler plugs ‘lying sack of shit’ Andrew Cuomo for NYC mayor — as ‘lesser of two evils’ over Mamdani

… but close.

Visiting Harvard Law prof was firing a pellet gun at rats, not the Brookline temple he was standing outside [of] at the start of Yom Kippur, police say

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Wow. Details at once disturbing and hilarious.

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He shot at and shattered a car window!

So… to get serious for a moment. There are a number of sad possible explanations.

1. Friday night. He was very very drunk/high. He’s lonely, missing Brazil, missing girlfriend who stabilizes him, whatever.
2. Psychotic break. Shooting at car windows at night because you think there are rats outside your house is a very psychotic breaky thing to do.
3. Of course it’s possible it had something to do with hating Jews.

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OTOH: A rifle-packing Harvard prof could go far toward bridging the cultural gap between the Trump administration and that school.

Tyler Robinson, resident of Utah (death penalty? yes), seems to be the dude. “A family member saw the photos of the suspect and turned him into police,” says here. 22 years old.

Apparently his father (a pastor? not all of this information is confirmed) turned him in. He seems to have won a big fancy scholarship to Utah State University a few years ago.

WAY Story of O.

‘Corporation for Public Broadcasting Will Shut Down’

… that it’s not pronounced Gizzlane. All of America will learn the delicate French pronunciation. Gheelen.

Can fun and guns mix at Utah events following deadly shootings?