The more one learns about the Oslo terrorist, the less it makes sense. A “right-wing fundamentalist Christian” who supports gay rights? I’d also like to know what he’s been writing since October, and if he’s changed.
I’m wondering if they were to give him an exam, they might find some kind of brain abnormality. It’s possible that it could be a case like Charles Whitman, the man who committed the University of Texas clock tower massacre. Upon autopsy, he turned out to have glioblastoma, which some speculated may have led to his snapping.
A “right-wing fundamentalist Christian” who supports gay rights?
Well it is Scandinavia.
…so…New Scandinavian Testament with Really Gay Vikings…(?)
C’mon Titus, they wore horns on their heads. Obviously they were trying to look fabulous.
“The” question: how’d he get a gun in very-gun-controlled Norway?
Hoe’d he get good enough at shooting moving targets to hit/kill ~80 kids? It’s tougher than it might seem.
Of course, it’s Bush’s fault… 😉
It could be a tumor, a drug reaction to anti-depressants, or just going berserk. These types of attacks seem to occur at a pretty contant rate through history, until a recent spate of media inspired copy-cat events around the time of the Columbine massacre.
My personal theory is that some dark tribal warfare part of the human brain occassionally resurfaces, possibly due to damage to the higher brain functions that normally suppress it, leading to obedience to the urge to kill as many people in a “different tribe” as possible, which at times was a pretty good evolutionary strategy.
We may also find out that he was being treated for schizophrenia or something similar, or was developing symptoms not yet evident by his online comments.
There is nothing wrong with this guy. Think John Brown.
or just going berserk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker
Pamela Geller has some interesting info at Atlas Shrugs.
You know, maybe the guy was just plain mentally ill and, because of that, nothing he said makes any sense at all. After all, its not the normal thing to do in setting off car bombs and mowing down dozens of people with a gun.
…its not the normal thing to do in setting off car bombs and mowing down dozens of people with a gun.
Well, from his point of view, it’s not the normal thing to witness the destruction of the 1500 year Norwegian civilization.
This isn’t the act of a crazy man. He’s a political actor, and the question he posed isn’t going to go away.
Where the attack doesn’t fit the mold of a political one like John Brown, John Wilkes Booth, or Guy Fawkes is the systematic murder of all the kids at the summer camp. That’s more in the realm of Jared Lee Loughner or the Texas Tower Killer.
However, since it was a political party’s summer camp, it could’ve been rage on the level of “I will kill you, eat your heart, and murder all your children.”
I could say that maybe he didn’t like Mondays, but instead I’ll just say: what reason do you need?
There are a number of good posts and comments at Gates of Vienna:
What Do We Know?
For the Record: Once More With Feeling
“The Norway Attacks, 2011” — A View From Ireland
Thanks, rickl.
This one was especially informative Google translate link to Aftenposten.no
This both does and doesn’t surprise me. It surprises me in that it is a new and unusual European reaction to Islamic immigration and terrorism. It doesn’t surprise me in that it is the historically normal and expected European reaction to any perceived cultural threat.
This will get interesting, because though Europe still cringes from the Nazi era, Muslim immigrants need to think clearly about the periodic, bizarre, and extremely violent European reaction to “socially undesirable people.” They nearly exterminated the Jews and the Jews weren’t murdering anyone.
Will this attack cause Muslims to stop and wonder whether more Euorpeans will get on board? Will the attacker spend the next 10 or twenty years as the media poster boy for why such questions must never be asked? All I can say is that this will not end well. Of course I could’ve said that in 1950 when Europeans went looking to the Muslim world for cheap labor and a population boost.
From some quick scanning, I get the impression the laws regulating firearms in Norway are somewhat less restrictive than those in Canada.
I have seen an image of the suspect holding what looks like a Ruger Mini14 rifle, with about 7 pounds worth of gadgets and geegaws attached in full Mall Ninja style.
I suspect the Mini14 is legal in Norway and was the rifle the suspect used to kill his victims.
If you want to read his whole 1,518 page manifesto, including his day-by-day diary leading up to the attacks, there’s a PDF of it here:
http://www.kevinislaughter.com/wp-content/uploads/2083+-+A+European+Declaration+of+Independence.pdf
His command of English is spectacular, and the whole thing is very professionally done.
It’s not a toomah!
It’s probably not lupus either.
Did anybody follow up on Gellar? She points out that ‘christian conservative’ was added online after the fact.
The nut case stated in his manifesto (see Pat Flannery link above) that he is “not very religious”.
rickl: while I sympathize because the whole case is just so deranged, the notion that the Norwegian government and state media are conspiring to invent a persona to cover up a mass slaughter is even crazier. The man is in custody, he’s apparently claiming responsibility while refusing to acknowledge that there was anything criminal in his atrocities, and presumably it’s the same guy as the one in the pictures.
Occam’s razor requires us to accept him as the sociopathic lunatic with embarrassing opinions which he appears to be, unless actual, incontrovertible evidence proves him otherwise. It’s a hell of a method actor who maintains his character right through a twenty-one year sentence. Even if he does have the head-shots of an aspiring actor-waiter…