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look ma, no brains!

look ma, no brains!

It looks like there may have been more to that kid crashing the plane than I suspected. I am capable of eating my words.

Apparently - no, allegedly - he left a suicide note stating that he was a bin Laden supporter. I have two thoughts on this. One, he was a troubled, lonely kid. He wanted to commit suicide, knew he was going to do it, but decided to throw in a reference to bin Laden just to fuck with people. Or two, he really didn't say that at all. Maybe there was no note. Did anyone see Rumsfeld or Ashcroft snooping around near the site of the crash? I could have sworn when I was watching MSNBC last night, I saw the shadowy figure of a man with Rumsfeld's build putting something next to the plane.

Just a thought.

it's raining, it's pouring, the weather man is a big fat assed liar

Oh Mr. Weather Channel man? It's pouring right now. Torrential, driving rain sweeping across the landscape. Hello? Didn't you promise me snow? I could have sworn that this morning you said something about three inches of white stuff? Does this look white to you? No,it just looks wet. Stop playing around with my weather emotions, ok? Just give me my one god damned snow storm that I put in for and I will stop calling the station complaining about the innacuracy of your Doppler radar. Thank you.

Anyhow, today is Sunday, January 6, 2002. Do you know what this means? In one half hour the premier of the 5th season of Oz begins. If you have HBO and have never seen this show, watch it. Have I ever steered you wrong? I mean, besides that stock market tip that left you penniless and naked.

Don't forget to vote for the Bloggies. In case you're stuck on the best meme category, may I suggest Shel's Penny Drive for Charity, World Aids Day and the 2001 Blogathon (I think that counts as a meme. If not you can vote for it for best temporary or periodic weblog).

Posted by on January 6, 2002 08:39 PM |

Comments

Regarding eating your own words, I wouldn't be so hasty. Yeah, the kid was troubled, and yeah, he seems to have been an Osama bin Laden supporter....but I think you were closer than you thought.

Here's my reasoning. The media seems to be overly capable of turning a single isolated event or even two or three and turning them into a nationwide trend. Further, they like to scapegoat everything in sight when they do that. Videogames, Islam, Dungeons and Dragons, music videos, god knows what else. By overplaying the trend angle, they give isolated and troubled folk that there are a lot more people with their mindset, and therefore if they go and do something crazy, they may be the spark to set off all the other like minded people. (Which may be true...seeing as how we have people fly into buildings and a few months later we have a misguided kid fly into a building.) What we don't have however is large chunks of the population rising up and doing this too. We have the media reporting on a "trend" and a kid who wants attention or to be considered powerful or special, deciding to do something drastic. When the Trade Center was first bombed, this kid was probably seven or eight. It's extremely unlikely that he's been a long time supporter of Osama bin Laden--and much more likely that he's just a kid, disaffected with school and society, and socially isolated. He sees what happened on Septemeber 11th and he reads a bit of anti-establishment rhetoric and decides that he's going to change the world. Or maybe not. Maybe this goes deeper. But I'm not betting the farm.

Posted by: PixelFish | January 7, 2002 04:49 AM

The more I read about it, the more I think the kid was just trying to go out with a bang. Whether he was really a follower or supporter of bin Laden, we will most likely never know. What we do know is that he definitely had some problems. In effect, he was probably using the media; he knew how the story would get written up, he knew there would be endless questions about whether he was a terrorist or not, he knew that this would get blown up, dragged on and talked about for months,and that the media would put the fear of troubled kids back to the forefront again. In a way, he ensured that even though he would be dead, he would live on for a pretty long time.

The media is just playing whatever card hand the kid left out. Any day now, Larry King will drag out a psychologist talking about the disaffected youth of America, and how we should be on the lookout for loner, troubled honor students who are taking flying lessons.

Posted by: michele | January 7, 2002 05:22 AM

Which would be scary if only because every time I read about one of these Disaffected Youth of America ™ I read all these things that they had in common with me: getting picked on in school, liking Quake, Dungeons and Dragons, blah blah blah. And here's where it gets really ironic: I wanted to get my pilot's license (but never did.) I used to write stories about flying (I read Richard Bach's Illusions and One and Bridge Across Forever a few too many times--he was a pilot for a while, and his descriptions made it seem really cool.) And yet, if all the things they keep telling parents and teachers and classmates to watch out for and report on, had actually been reported on in my case, I'm sure it would only have made me worse. As it was, I always resent the whole scapegoating thing, because I had all the same problems that these kids did, and many of the same interests, and I would NEVER have done what they did. So how can you say what somebody will or won't do based on a series of external observations?

Posted by: PixelFish | January 7, 2002 06:01 AM

Holly shit, I thought me, and my room mate where the only 2 people on this continent that watch OZ religiously.

Posted by: EdgartheBent | January 7, 2002 06:17 AM

When I was younger, I had many of those same qualities. I was a loner, I wore black all the time, I wrote morbid poetry, I read comic books and hung out at the arcade, playing video games until my eyes bled. I had no interest in making friends, and I spent a good deal of time plotting the deaths of my enemies. Just for fantasy, of course. If they had checklists for potential student bombers back then, I'm sure I would have been in the guidance office more often.

Point is, all these years later, and I still haven't killed anyone or even attempted to kill someone. Why? What makes me different than the other "disaffected youth?"

I had parents who listened to me. It's all about the parenting.

I've gone off on a tangent here.

Posted by: michele | January 7, 2002 06:41 AM

Later dumbass.

(((wiping tear - moving on with life))))))))

It was funny listening to NPR this morning:

"Authorities say the light aircraft caused no structural damage and the office building will be open for business this morning".

In other words, your little dangerous prank will not even be a blip on ANYONES radar screen and you will be worm food soon. Hahahaha.

Posted by: Kevin | January 7, 2002 08:49 AM

Yeah, ditto what Kevin said. I was just thinking that last night, that he wanted to go out with a bang and tossed the bin Laden letter of support in there for good measure. I don't think the media is going to drag it out because there's just not a story there. No one was killed, he has no ties to anyone important and it all smacks of a freak copycat kid.

A few hours later, I don't even remember his name, nor do I care to.

Posted by: Candi | January 7, 2002 09:08 AM

I think this kid had one of those days teen-agers have where the world seems hopelessly fucked forever, and he wanted to go out with some notoriety, which didn't really work too well.

As for mainstream media, all I know is that my paychecks are signed Tool of Satan.™ ;)

Posted by: Nancy | January 8, 2002 05:12 PM