"We banned assault weapons, but our laws only go so far when an AR-15 can be obtained in a state with weak gun laws and brought into New York to commit mass murder."

Said New York Governor Kathy Hochul, quoted in "Even New York’s Strict Gun Laws Couldn’t Prevent the Midtown Shooting" (NYT).

"Terry Long, football gave me CTE and it caused me to drink a gallon of antifreeze.... Please study brain for CTE. I’m sorry. The league knowingly concealed the dangers to our brains to maximize profits. They failed us.”

Wrote Shane Tamura, quoted in "NYC mass shooter Shane Tamura found with note blaming NFL for giving him CTE — even though he never played pro football" (NY Post).

Terry Long, was a "former Pittsburgh Steelers player who was diagnosed with CTE after downing antifreeze to kill himself 20 years ago."

Tamura apparently intended "to shoot up the NFL HQ — but 'mistakenly went up the wrong elevator banks' and ended up on a higher floor."

Was Tamura influenced by Luigi Mangione?

By the way, "CNN’s Erin Burnett is being skewered for reporting that the gunman who opened fire in a Midtown skyscraper — killing an NYPD cop and three others — was 'possibly white' after viewing the initial security footage released immediately after Shane Tamura’s deadly rampage" (NY Post).

"... Mr. Haskell paid $500 to several day laborers to haul away several heavy black plastic trash bags from his home.... When they looked inside one of them, they found human body parts, prompting them to return the bags..."

"... and money to Mr. Haskell, whom they photographed — along with the bags — and reported to the police, prosecutors said. That same afternoon, investigators said, Mr. Haskell was seen in security camera footage removing a trash bag from the trunk of his Tesla and disposing of it in a dumpster in a parking lot in nearby Encino, Calif. A person sifting through the dumpster the next day found a beheaded torso.... During an initial criminal proceeding in December 2023, Mr. Haskell appeared shirtless in court, wearing a smock intended to prevent inmates from using it to hang themselves. At the time, his lawyer told Fox News that the Sheriff’s Department had forced him to appear that way, creating speculation that Mr. Haskell might harm himself...."

From "Son of Ex-Hollywood Agent, Jailed in 3 Murders, Dies by Suicide, D.A. Says/Samuel Haskell, 37, was accused of dismembering his wife and his in-laws. He was the son of Sam Haskell III, an Emmy-winning film producer and veteran talent agent" (NYT).

The father, we're told, "had several A-list clients, including George Clooney, Ray Romano and Whoopi Goldberg," was a producer of "several films and shows about Dolly Parton," and headed "the Miss America Organization until... he resigned amid reports that he and other pageant leaders had made misogynistic and derogatory comments about the competition’s contestants." The link on "resigned" goes to the 2017 HuffPo article, "The Miss America Emails: How The Pageant’s CEO Really Talks About The Winners/Internal correspondence reveals name-calling, slut-shaming and fat-shaming in emails between the Miss America CEO, board members and a pageant writer."

"A gunman deliberately started a wildfire in a rugged mountain area of Idaho and then shot at the firefighters who responded, killing two and injuring another on Sunday afternoon, in what the local sheriff described as a 'total ambush.'"

"Law enforcement officers exchanged fire with the gunman while the wildfire burned. Officials later found the body of a male suspect on the mountain with a firearm nearby.... The authorities said they believed the suspect had acted alone, but they did not release any information about his identity or motives. 'This was a total ambush,' Sheriff Norris said. 'These firefighters did not have a chance.'... Graham Christensen, a past president of the Lake City Trail Alliance, said the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department regularly performed brush clearing and fire suppression there, and said he did not know of a naturally caused wildfire there in the past two decades. He said the attack was a shock because the area had always felt so safe. 'Everybody feels comfortable up there,' he said...."

From "2 Firefighters Killed in Idaho Sniper Ambush/Firefighters were responding to a blaze in the panhandle of Idaho when the shooting happened, a sheriff said. The body of a suspect was recovered on Sunday evening" (NYT).

"Mr. Boelter had served on a state economic board with one of the victims, State Senator John A. Hoffman, who survived the shooting, though it is unclear if they actually knew each other."

"Mr. Boelter was appointed to the panel, the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Board, in 2016 by a Democratic former governor, Mark Dayton. The board has 41 members appointed by the governor, and its members try to improve business development in the state. He was later reappointed by Gov. Tim Walz, also a Democrat.... Governor Walz has said that the shooting 'appears to be a politically motivated assassination,' though the exact motive for the attack is not yet clear. Voters do not declare political affiliation when they register in Minnesota, and a state report connected to the work force board listed Mr. Boelter’s affiliation as 'none or other' in 2016. A similar report in 2020 listed him as having 'no party preference.' But David Carlson, a roommate and close friend of Mr. Boelter’s, said Mr. Boelter voted for Donald J. Trump last year and was particularly passionate about opposing abortion...."

From "What We Know About the Minnesota Shooting Suspect/Vance Boelter, who is suspected in the attacks on two Minnesota politicians and their spouses, was taken into custody on Sunday, ending a major manhunt" (NYT).

I believe Carlson said those things after the shootings had taken place.

"U.S. Senator Tina Smith, Democrat of Minnesota, said in an interview that the gunman had a notebook with a list of names that included hers and those of other lawmakers, all of whom were Democrats. The list included about 70 potential targets, a federal law enforcement official said, including doctors, community and business leaders, and locations for Planned Parenthood and other health care centers. Some of the targets were in neighboring states."

Is Tina Smith the only source of this information? What's the basis of her knowledge? And why is the NYT presenting the information like that?

Why did it take so long to find Vance Boelter if he was right near his house with his getaway car parked in front?

Why did the big manhunt take 43 hours?

ADDED: Here's my other question. Boelter (it seems) attacked 2 political figures and also their spouse. Isn't it unusual for an assassin (if that's what he was) to go after the spouse?

“He sought out militant Islamists in order to share the gospel and tell them that violence wasn’t the answer.”

From “Who Is Vance Boelter? The Minnesota Lawmaker Shooting Suspect/The 57-year-old worked in security and as a pastor. A list found in his car included prominent abortion-rights supporters in Minnesota, according to an official” (WSJ).

"When we did a search of the [fake police car], there was a manifesto that identified many lawmakers and other officials."

Said Police Chief Mark Bruley, of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, quoted in From "'No Kings' protests in Minnesota canceled as authorities search for suspect who shot 2 lawmakers/Police in Minnesota are cautioning residents to avoid 'No Kings' protests after two state lawmakers and their spouses were shot early Saturday" (WaPo)(free-access link).

Melissa Hortman, a former Minnesota House Speaker, and her spouse were shot and killed early Saturday in their Brooklyn Park home. A second state lawmaker, Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, were shot multiple times in Champlin. Officials say both Hortman and Hoffman were mentioned in the suspect’s writings.....

State Patrol Col. Christina Bogojevic asked people “out of an abundance of caution” not to attend any of the “No Kings” protests that were scheduled for across the state on Saturday. Bogojevic said authorities didn’t have any direct evidence that the protests would be targeted, but said the suspect had some “No Kings” flyers in their car. Organizers announced that all of the protests across the state were canceled....

UPDATE: "A former appointee of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is being sought in connection with the assassination of a state lawmaker and the shooting of another, police sources said. Vance Luther Boelter...." (NY Post0).

"I went to Columbia for grad school. I saw the same thing in his eyes as I saw in the eyes of all the protestors at Columbia."

WOW. INCREDIBLE RESPONSE👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

CNN Reporter: “You said you looked the shooter in the eyes can you tell us what you saw in him? “

Eye Witness: “I went to Columbia for grad school. I saw the same thing in his eyes as I saw in the eyes of all the protestors at Columbia.”

CNN… https://t.co/yxURFVj4Hr

— Jeremy Kamali (@JeremyKamali) May 23, 2025

"But they did not create this horrific shooting"/"They gave it permission. They have called for intifada revolution, which is the same thing he (the shooter) yelled last night.”

"The event in Washington DC where two Israeli embassy workers were shot dead was aimed at alleviating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, in 'brutal and tragic irony'....

"... according to an Israel-based aid group. 'All participants came together to find practical solutions to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza,' IsraAid, an Israel-based international emergency response group said in a statement. The event was a reception for young Jewish diplomats and foreign policy professionals, and was hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum. The event 'focused on delivering aid to Gaza through Israeli-Palestinian and regional co-operation. It was driven by humanitarian values and a belief that collaboration is the only path forward for all people in the region,' IsraAid said."

The London Times reports.

Was the murderer misinformed? It seems more likely that he — along with many others —  opposes "practical solutions," "regional co-operation," "humanitarian values," and "collaboration" as "the only path forward." 

Look at the hopeful faces of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who are now dead. Perhaps they were smiling so beautifully because they believed in humanitarian values.

The arrested man, Elias Rodriguez, "had been waving a red keffiyeh, which is often associated with the Marxist–Leninist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)."  He asked for the police to be called, and, as you can hear, in video at the link, he shouts "Free Palestine! Free Palestine!" after he is handcuffed. 

"President Donald Trump pressed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to protect White Afrikaner farmers from violent attacks in an extraordinary Oval Office conversation..."

"... in which Trump made no mention of the African nation’s long-standing epidemic of violence against both White and Black people, nor its violent and discriminatory history of White rule. Trump amplified false claims that White Afrikaners have been victims of a genocide, even showing video of crosses and earthen mounds that he said represented more than 1,000 grave sites of murdered farmers. The mounds were in fact part of a protest against the violence, not actual graves. Ramaphosa stared straight ahead, wiping his face and occasionally moving in his seat and looking over at Trump, who wouldn’t make eye contact as a clip played of crowds repeatedly shouting, 'Kill the Boers,' a reference to White farmers descended from colonists who built and led the nation’s racist apartheid regime...."

WaPo reports.

"We will never forget the names of precious American souls like Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and many others who were savagely killed by illegal alien crime."

"Last June, 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray was brutally assaulted and murdered by two illegal aliens in her home state of Texas. To memorialize her young life and love of nature and animals, I proudly renamed the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge in Texas to the Jocelyn Nungaray National Wildlife Refuge. May this be Jocelyn’s little piece of Heaven on Earth."

From "National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, 2025," a proclamation by President Trump (at whitehouse.gov).

"While in [Justice] Kavanaugh’s neighborhood, Roske kept the gun, unloaded, in a locked box in the suitcase."

"When police searched the luggage, they also found 37 rounds of ammunition, according to earlier court filings, along with a tactical flashlight with a laser that could be mounted on the gun, a 'James Bond' lock pick set, a black face mask, a pair of 'hard-knuckled' tactical gloves, four black zip ties and hiking boots with padded soles affixed to their bottoms that police earlier said were for stealthy movement...."

From "Man accused in 2022 Kavanaugh assassination plot to plead guilty, lawyers say/Nicholas Roske, 29, was accused of flying from California and approaching Brett Kavanaugh’s Maryland home with a gun before turning himself in" (WaPo).

A quote from Roske: "I was under the delusion that I could make the world a better place by killing him."

"I am very sorry. I didn’t mean to. But I really don’t know. I don’t know what happened, but I’m very sorry for that woman."

Said Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, quoted in "Man Charged in Subway Burning Says He Was Drunk and Remembers Nothing/Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, confronted with video of the immolation of Debrina Kawam, told detectives he was blackout drunk at the time. He pleaded not guilty to murder on Tuesday" (NYT).

“Sometimes when I drink and erase the memory and I don’t know,” he told investigators. “When I wake up, I’m already in the house, already sleeping. I wake up when I’m already at home. Or there are times when I wake up and I’m already at the train station.”...

As his interrogation wound down later that day, investigators at the 60th Precinct station house in Brooklyn showed him the grisly video of Ms. Kawam’s death. They asked him: Did he recognize the man setting her on fire?

“Oh, damn,” Mr. Zapeta-Calil replied. “That’s me.”

Zapeta-Calil was in the country illegally and housed in a shelter. He'd been deported in 2018.

"The Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck that a man used to kill at least 14 people Wednesday on Bourbon Street and the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel on the same day..."

"... were both rented through the [Turo] car-sharing platform, which allows owners to list their vehicles to drivers.... Turo touts the unique nature of its vehicles as opposed to traditional rental car fleets; the value of its pricing; and the option for a 'personalized experience' that allows users to coordinate with local hosts and skip a 'cold, impersonal' rental car counter...."

From "What is Turo? Car rental app was used in New Orleans, Vegas incidents/The peer-to-peer car-sharing company said it is 'devastated' and working with law enforcement" (WaPo).

Insurance detail: "Customers get liability insurance when they book on Turo, which covers property damage or physical harm to another person if the driver is responsible...." 

Both men chose a truck, but I hadn't noticed until now that the New Orleans terrorist, like the Las Vegas terrorist/"terrorist," chose an electric truck. That isn't an odd choice for someone seeking to cause maximum damage. The electric truck is much heavier. A gas F-150 weighs 4,021 to 5,540 pounds. An F-150 Lightning weighs between 6,015 to 6,893 pounds. That's an extra ton.

(I wondered whether gasoline, like the battery, adds much weight. The weight of the gasoline in a full tank of an F-150 is 139.68 pounds or 218.63 pounds, depending on whether you have the 23 gallon tank or the 36.)

An electric vehicle may have been chosen because of the potential for fire — not that the EV is more likely to catch fire, but the fire is more difficult to extinguish:

IN THE COMMENTS: Two additional features of the electric truck: 1. It is quieter, giving less warning to the victims to clear out of its way, and 2. It accelerates faster, especially from 0. Thanks to Breezy and Narayanan for immediately raising these points.

"Love you always brother! You inspired me every day, now you get to be with me in every moment. I got this family, T, don’t worry."

Wrote Jack Bech, to his brother Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, who played football for Princeton and died in the Bourbon Street massacre.

Quoted in "Who are the 15 victims of the New Orleans attack?/The dead have not been named by the authorities but some families, schools and businesses have confirmed that their friends and loved ones are among the victims" (London Times).

"Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, from Houston, had an ISIS flag strapped to the rented Ford F-150 Lightning EV truck he used to carry out an act of premeditated terror on New Year’s Day...."

"In a YouTube video he posted in 2020 for his real estate business, a clean-cut Jabbar described himself as a reliable, trustworthy native Texan who spent 10 years in the military, which taught him 'the meaning of great service.' But when he carried out the terror attack — one of the deadliest since 9/11 — Jabbar lived in a squalid trailer park on the outskirts of Houston that is home to mostly Muslim immigrants.... Jabbar traveled to Egypt for 10 days last year, officials told the Post...."

From "Inside terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s squalid home where sheep and goats roam his yard — after his financial ruin" (NY Post).

From the Washington Post, there's this: "FBI says driver may not have acted alone in New Orleans attack that killed 15": "During a news briefing Wednesday afternoon, Alethea Duncan, an FBI assistant special agent in charge, said investigators 'do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible.' Authorities did not elaborate... The FBI said investigators found an Islamic State flag in the vehicle used in the attack, along with additional weapons and a possible improvised explosive device. Other potential IEDs were located elsewhere in the city’s French Quarter...."

I note the discrepancy about the placement of the ISIS flag. Was it "strapped to the rear" or "in the vehicle"? 

"The accused firebug, who has not yet been charged, first entered the US illegally at the Arizona border in 2018, but was nabbed just days later and shipped back home."

That's the New York Post, using the cutesy word "firebug," in "Fiend accused of burning woman to death on NYC subway is illegal migrant from Guatemala who sneaked into US after he was deported."

I guess that's the way the New York Post has been talking for a long time. "Fiend" is another example.

By the way, the word "firebug" was originally used to refer to a firefly — AKA lightning bug — but it became a slang word for "arsonist" in the mid-19th century. I note that it would be highly abnormal to use "arsonist" to refer to a person who murdered someone with fire — not unless a building were set on fire and the death happened as an unintended consequence.

"Firebug" connotes pyromania — a crazy fascination with fire. The New York Post unwittingly helps this accused man with his insanity defense.

Much more could be said about the practice of likening a human being to an insect — a bug — but I will stop here... out of respect for the dead.

Biden just commuted "most federal death sentences" — that is, 37 of them — but in all this mercy, he left 3 men doomed.

I'm reading "Biden commutes most federal death sentences before Trump takes office/Thirty-seven inmates will serve life without parole. Three others, involved in cases of 'terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder,' still face execution" (WaPo)(free-access link).

Who were the 3? 

Those he did not spare are: Dylann Roof, the white supremacist convicted of killing nine Black parishioners at a South Carolina church in 2015; Robert Bowers, who carried out the country’s deadliest antisemitic attack when he killed 11 people at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018; and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber.

What made those 3 stand out in that collection of 40 murderers? Oddly enough, the link on Dzhokhar Tsarnaev goes to at 2020 article titled, "Death sentence overturned for Boston Marathon bomber." Bowers and Roof are alike in that their victims were chosen based on the group they belonged to and the killings took place in a house of worship. But what makes Tsarnaev like them?

What puts the 3 in one set is their fame. Anything else? Who were the 37 who received commutations? It's easier to spare nobodies.

Biden is, it seems, trying to rack up achievements. (Did you hear the one about the Equal Rights Amendment?) Should he be doing that after we've learned so much about how not there he is these days? His party has been voted out, he's already gone, and we don't know who is acting in his name. That's the real outrage here.

"In the manifesto, called 'War Against Humanity,' the author writes that they have 'grown to hate people, and society' and calls their parents 'scum.'"

"The author also writes that they acquired weapons 'by lies and manipulation, and my father's stupidity' and describes wanting to die by suicide, but feeling like carrying out a shooting was 'better for evolution rather than just one stupid boring suicide.'"

Writes Newsweek, in "Natalie Rupnow's Reported Manifesto: What We Know" (about the school shooting that took place in my city yesterday).

The use of the word "scum" in a manifesto makes me think of "SCUM Manifesto," a 1967 feminist document. I discussed it back in 2017, when Facebook was banning some women who wrote about men as "scum." The "SCUM Manifesto" begins: "'Life' in this 'society' being, at best, an utter bore and no aspect of 'society' being at all relevant to women, there remains to civic-minded, responsible, thrill-seeking females only to overthrow the government, eliminate the money system, institute complete automation and eliminate the male sex."

And yet, this new manifesto — what I'm seeing of it, anyway — uses the language of gender neutrality: "Humanity... people... society... parents." There is, however, "father." I see that Newsweek is using they/them pronouns for the killer.

Newsweek also reports President Joe Biden's hasty response: "We need Congress to act. Now. From Newtown to Uvalde, Parkland to Madison.... Congress must pass commonsense gun safety laws: Universal background checks. A national red flag law. A ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines...."

But when he pardoned his son Hunter for violating existing gun laws, Joe Biden attacked the prosecution as unfair and biased. One might have thought he'd refrain from calling for more gun laws when he so recently and conspicuously treated a gun law as not justifying enforcement. And yet didn't we all expect it — expect that next time there's a school shooting, Joe would indignantly cry out for more gun laws? #hypocrisy