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Newsweek has this article on America's skewed definition of terrorism:
What is terrorism? According to the FBI, animal activists who stole two piglets from a farm were terrorists. As of now, Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 people at a country music concert in Las Vegas two weeks ago, has not been labeled a terrorist by the federal security organization.
In a viral story posted on The Intercept, journalist Glenn Greenwald details an account of federal agents investigating animal activists and scouring farm-animal sanctuaries to find two missing piglets that allegedly had been stolen from a farm. The FBI devoted such resources to finding these two piglets because their alleged theft and the capturing of undercover videos of the farm's conditions count as terrorism.
Why is the piglet theft classified as terrorism, but not the Las Vegas shooting? The distinction is rooted in the definition of the term. In spite of the emotions the word "terrorist" might elicit, the definition is not "mass killer" or "Muslim extremist" or "very bad person." The legal definition of terrorism is "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property in order to coerce or intimidate a government or the civilian population in furtherance of political or social objectives."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @02:56PM (4 children)
According to the official line, they cannot find a motive for why he did it. From the official recounting, he may have been suffering from a psychosis or was a latent psychopath. That he so meticulously planned things does not mean that he was sane, it could be an obsessive/psychopathic or delusional sort of thing that left his technical skills intact.
Terrorism is defined by motive, a injurious act, done to scare people into submission for some political motive. Since we have no known motive yet with Las Vegas, that has been officially acknowledged, we cannot with certainty classify it.
Rescuing the Piglet, I think, classifying that as terrorism goes too far. I do agree, that animals should not be mistreated or abused and I see here someone genuinely concerned about the well being of the animals, and I would say what is happening in the factory farms is actual animal abuse. So its a rescue, out of concern for the animals, from an abusive situation. I know they will argue it was property damage, and therefore since these people advocate for policy changes, that makes it terrorism, but given it was a piglet, a sentient being, and its flagrant animal rigths abuses happening, that changes things, than if it were an inanimate object. I do actually beleive animals have rights not to be abused. I am not saying that they cannot be slaughted for food, but they have to be raised in the most humane ways possible.
If the goal is to stop the abuse of animals, sometimes PETA doesnt do much of a service by presenting their radical vegetarian ideology (which isnt really doable or practicle, most vegetarians end up nutritionally deficient). Maybe they would get more accomplished if they would settle for strongly enforced humane treatment laws by an independant agency that cannot be influenced by agribusiness.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 12 2017, @06:08PM (1 child)
I'm not a big Ann Coulter fan, but she may be onto something in this editorial,
http://www.vdare.com/articles/ann-coulter-las-vegas-massacre-the-story-is-coming-apart?content=lemonade%20stand.%20%C2%A0 [vdare.com]
tl;dr
She speculates that Paddock was playing poker slots to launder money. I don't know for sure, but she claims that the best machines return a pretty high percentage over the long term.
Then she goes a bit off the deep end when guessing where all that cash came from.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @05:57AM
The silly-looking stuff at the end of the URL, starting with the question mark, is not vital to the URL.
Next time, chop that off and see if the URL is still valid.
It almost always is.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday October 12 2017, @08:14PM (1 child)
Charles Whitman had it.
He left behind a note requesting an autopsy of his brain.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 13 2017, @06:03AM
...but the reports that I saw about the LV shooter said that he died of a self-inflicted pistol shot to the head.
Probably not enough of his brain left intact to check for tumors.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]