tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post5793541881209841302..comments2024-03-28T16:22:14.888-07:00Comments on Steve Sailer: iSteve: Anthrax: The mad scientist did itUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-91940910420171241882008-08-09T01:21:00.000-07:002008-08-09T01:21:00.000-07:00Peter wrote "And he went on what he called "mindle...Peter wrote "And he went on what he called "mindless drives" to mail gifts and letters anonymously, the document said, and then "set back the odometer in his car" to fool his wife."<BR/><BR/>In a newspaper article a few days ago it was mentioned that he drove a very old car. Sorry I don't have the link.<BR/><BR/>- MaxwellAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-63863852962064293972008-08-08T16:30:00.000-07:002008-08-08T16:30:00.000-07:00tommy - OCD. Even with the thought-broadcasting.B...tommy - OCD. Even with the thought-broadcasting.<BR/><BR/>BTW, it seems that the KKG's should be running our biodefense security. They were onto this guy 30 years before anyone else.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-61246110415804472072008-08-08T14:05:00.000-07:002008-08-08T14:05:00.000-07:00I am LugashLugash went a little crazy for a little...I am Lugash<BR/><BR/>Lugash went a little crazy for a little bit. Lugash will attempt to introduce and conclude his posts appropriately. <BR/><BR/>One other point about the ADA and not firing semi-disabled employees is that women now make up more and more of the management ranks these days. 99% of them are emotionally unsuited to firing someone who is sick. Which is why they are far superior to men as nurses and other types of caregivers.<BR/><BR/>From personal observation the chronically sick are much more likely to be women and minorities as well, which makes it much more risky to fire anyone. Poor diet and lack of exercise seems to be a common cause. Not that Lugash is a health professional. <BR/><BR/>Lugash wonder what the typical white collar corporate policy is in India on these issues?<BR/><BR/>In any case, so much for American productivity. <BR/><BR/>I am Lugash.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-5031418865089119562008-08-08T06:16:00.000-07:002008-08-08T06:16:00.000-07:00"beowulf said...Martin,The unnamed soccer player i..."beowulf said...<BR/><BR/>Martin,<BR/><BR/>The unnamed soccer player isn't 12 or the NY Times would have referred to her as "girl" and not "woman".<BR/><BR/>Not necessarily. The NYT probably considers the term "girl" to be sexist". They actually said "young woman", a term which can and is sometimes applied to 12 year olds.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-68889027952775299002008-08-07T23:38:00.000-07:002008-08-07T23:38:00.000-07:00Martin,The unnamed soccer player isn't 12 or the N...Martin,<BR/><BR/>The unnamed soccer player isn't 12 or the NY Times would have referred to her as "girl" and not "woman". <BR/><BR/>My only mental image of a female soccer player is Kiera Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham.<BR/>http://tinyurl.com/6ab9gwAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-61586585097240452122008-08-07T23:29:00.000-07:002008-08-07T23:29:00.000-07:00One reason might be the 1990 Americans with Disabi...One reason might be the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act, which includes mental as well as physical problems.<BR/><BR/>Actually, it wouldn't matter if the ADA had never become law-- which extended civil rights protection to the private sector disabled. Government employees with disabilities (like Ivins) were already protected by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.<BR/><BR/>I've often wondered whether the decline in the number of postal worker murder sprees is because, thanks to the ADA, the mentally disturbed were now spread thinly throughout the economy instead of concentrated in safe government jobs.<BR/><BR/>The issue isn't why wasn't he fired, it should be-- how the hell did he get (or keep) his security clearance? If the security officials can't screen out this guy, why bother screening anybody?<BR/><BR/>Makes you wonder who else has access to national security secrets and weaponry when they don't have the mental stability to be trusted with a dog.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-58494053292372064152008-08-07T21:57:00.000-07:002008-08-07T21:57:00.000-07:00I'm about as even-keeled as anybody I know, yet I ...<I>I'm about as even-keeled as anybody I know, yet I suffered panic attacks and depression for several weeks after I was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer a dozen years ago.</I><BR/><BR/>I'll confess to having had what were possibly symptoms of mild paranoid schizophrenia when I was in my late teens for around a year and a half. Among other strange things, I would think that other people could hear my thoughts and weren't telling me. This culminated for a time in the obsession that someone or something was influencing my thoughts by some means (through electromagnetic devices or some other technology). It was very freaky. I would also experience depersonalization and the sensation that nothing around me was real. Fortunately, these disturbing obsessions subsided in time. It's quite unreal when I think back upon how I could have entertained such thoughts. I still experience the occasional bit of "magical thinking," such as being obsessed with taking a certain number of steps when walking toward an object (such as multiples of three), but I'm instantly able to dismiss such thoughts as illogical and not dwell upon them. <BR/><BR/>Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder seem to run on my father's side of the family and I cannot help but wonder if I barely dodged the bullet during those critical years when so many people lose it entirely.<BR/><BR/>I also briefly experienced anxiety attacks at one point. Those ceased as soon as I quit smoking.<BR/><BR/>A mind is a curious thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-9035583112262869832008-08-07T21:15:00.000-07:002008-08-07T21:15:00.000-07:00In reality, such "social insurance" is available o...<I>In reality, such "social insurance" is available only to those who work as employees.</I><BR/><BR/>That is to say, most Americans. <BR/><BR/> <I>The self-employed (like myself) not only do not benefit from this "insurance". We pay for it in the form of taxes, reduced economic growth,</I><BR/><BR/>We all pay taxes. Sometimes we pay taxes for things that do not benefit us directly because they benefit society as a whole. Perhaps you believe that a society where people who become disabled are summarily fired would be a better one; apparently most people disagree. I suspect that Steve is right in that the ADA remains popular because most of us are dependent on our jobs for economic security and have enough imagination to realize that we, too, could fall victim to a physical or mental disability. <BR/><BR/> <I> and (in the case of Dr. Ivins) psychopathic bio-terrorists who try to poison us with anthrax.</I><BR/><BR/>The ADA does not protect employees who are a danger to others. Employers are only required to make reasonable accommodation to disabilities; they are not required to (for example) allow blind men to perform surgery or lunatics to play with deadly microbes. Steve's point is that the Act has generally made people more tolerant of disability in the workplace. The fact that some employers are lax in discipling unsafe behavior doesn't mean the ADA is itself a bad thing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-47746201494132198682008-08-07T20:06:00.000-07:002008-08-07T20:06:00.000-07:00rku,Well, according to the LAT story, he was somet...rku,<BR/><BR/><I>Well, according to the LAT story, he was something really bizarre called a "<B>neocon</B>."</I><BR/><BR/>Fixed it for you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-71375515364046457842008-08-07T19:12:00.000-07:002008-08-07T19:12:00.000-07:00And why would he send anthrax to random strangers ...<I>And why would he send anthrax to random strangers instead of acting out his aggression on the KKGs.</I><BR/><BR/>Because the world needs more Kappas. They are the best.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-70062895236451034362008-08-07T18:34:00.000-07:002008-08-07T18:34:00.000-07:00Was Ivins really working alone? As I understand it...Was Ivins really working alone? As I understand it, they don't have evidence that rules out the other major suspects -- just evidence that Ivins was one, but not necessarily the only, culprit. (I know they are trying to spin it that Ivins is the only culprit, but the evidence they presented proves no such thing).<BR/><BR/>Everybody working on the anthrax vaccine at that lab had the same incentive to show the world how important they thought their vaccine was. They had received a lot of criticism about Gulf War Syndrome allegedly caused by their vaccine and it was in their projects were in the process of being cancelled.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-50829596761700227602008-08-07T18:21:00.000-07:002008-08-07T18:21:00.000-07:00Paranoid Personality Disorder is certainly plausib...Paranoid Personality Disorder is certainly plausible, and that condition does not often respond well to medications. His ability to have some distance from his symptoms and look at them as something apart from himself pretty much rules out schizophrenia. I am surprised that there is no mention of OCD in any of the articles, as there are symptoms pointing to that. Schizoid and Schizotypal Personality Disorders are less likely, but would also be in the diagnostic conversation. Anti-depressant and anti-anxiety agents being mentioned would strongly suggest that an SSRI (Prozac, Luvox) was tried, and if those didn't give relief, OCD becomes less likely. I wouldn't hazard more of a guess without knowing more, and I haven't followed the case.<BR/><BR/>The counselor who believed she couldn't do a Tarasoff warning either doesn't know her business or lives in a state that has very different laws than mine. She doesn't have to know the victim's name. Anything said which gives reasonable indication of danger to a specific person is grounds for compelling an evaluation. That might not result in anyone being able to assemble enough evidence to commit him, but it's exactly the sort of thing that tells those around you - like your employer, for example - that something may be up.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-48316603187164543092008-08-07T17:12:00.000-07:002008-08-07T17:12:00.000-07:00They should look at what bugs Ivins had come in co...They should look at what bugs Ivins had come in contact with. Age 54 is a little late to start going homicidal. Perhaps some of the germs at the lab alters a person's psychology so they go crazy. Now that would be a great movie: a bug at an Army lab makes people paranoid.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-4920607288635008402008-08-07T16:37:00.000-07:002008-08-07T16:37:00.000-07:00If you want to see what people who actually intend...If you want to see what people who actually intend to create large numbers of fatalities will do, you need look no further than the Japanese crazies of Aum Shinrikyo. From the CDC:<BR/><BR/><I>The cult attempted several apparently unsuccessful acts of biological terrorism in Japan between 1990 and 1995. As early as April 1990, the cult had tried to release botulin toxin from a vehicle driving around the Diet and other government buildings in central Tokyo. In early June of 1993, another attempt was made to release botulin toxin, this time in conjunction with the wedding of the crown prince. A vehicle equipped with a spray device was driven around the imperial palace as well as the main government buildings in central Tokyo.<BR/><BR/>Later that month, pursuing an alternative technology, the cult attempted to release anthrax spores from its mid-rise Tokyo office building laboratory. At that time, police and media reported foul smells, brown steam, some pet deaths, and stains on cars and sidewalks. Then, in March 1995, just before the sarin subway attack, an attempt to spray botulin toxin in the subway at Kasumagaseki Station was preempted by a cult member who opted not to load the improvised briefcase sprayers with actual agent.</I><BR/><BR/>Just think what might have happened if Asahara and Ivins had ever met.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-60650881203082723422008-08-07T16:30:00.000-07:002008-08-07T16:30:00.000-07:00I doesn't seem to me like he was actually trying t...I doesn't seem to me like he was actually trying to kill people either, though he certainly must have known it might happen. As I recall, the letters themselves boasted about containing Anthrax, giving the recipients a chance to seek timely medical help.<BR/><BR/>Of the four who died, weren't a couple of them at the postal center? There was the reporter at National Enquirer, the old lady in the middle of nowhere... I don't think any of the political targets actually died.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-55939581841601788792008-08-07T15:38:00.000-07:002008-08-07T15:38:00.000-07:00The "crazy, anxious, paranoiac" passed t...The "crazy, anxious, paranoiac" passed two polygraph tests for what it is worth:<BR/><BR/>http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=71721Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-57316593305255492522008-08-07T15:32:00.000-07:002008-08-07T15:32:00.000-07:00I've said it before and I'll say it again: I do ho...I've said it before and I'll say it again: I do hope, Mr. Sailer, that you'll be able to write a book about this subject.R Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17624645479033609279noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-17471971885889878392008-08-07T15:24:00.000-07:002008-08-07T15:24:00.000-07:00Thinks still seem pretty "fuzzy"For example, the g...Thinks still seem pretty "fuzzy"<BR/><BR/>For example, the government says that Ivins "had sole control" over the guilty anthrax.<BR/><BR/>Maybe. But this morning's WSJ says that about 100 other people "had access" to that guilty anthrax.<BR/><BR/>Perhaps one or two of those other 100 bioterrorism experts also knew how to weaponize anthrax...which Dr. Ivins apparently did not.<BR/><BR/>After the events of the last few years, someone would have to be extremely stupid to still give the "benefit of the doubt" to the government and FBI over these sorts of "fuzzy" issues.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-8889421722727013352008-08-07T15:13:00.000-07:002008-08-07T15:13:00.000-07:00Something I learned as I've gone through life that...<I>Something I learned as I've gone through life that initially surprised me was what a high proportion of people suffer from mental problems at one point or another.</I><BR/><BR/>A brief or long-term mental disorder is a perfectly rational(?) response to the chaos and insanity of the world. We raise our children to believe that the world is far better than it really is, and when they grow up and realize how much bullshit that really is, a few are bound to suffer mental distress as a result. The really sick psychos, though, are mostly born, not made.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-28319583637498767572008-08-07T14:47:00.000-07:002008-08-07T14:47:00.000-07:00Lugash forgot to write "I am Lugash" before and af...Lugash forgot to write "I am Lugash" before and after the body of his post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-14226868481247590172008-08-07T13:47:00.000-07:002008-08-07T13:47:00.000-07:00For example, I'm about as even-keeled as anybody I...<B>For example, I'm about as even-keeled as anybody I know, yet I suffered panic attacks and depression for several weeks after I was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer a dozen years ago.</B><BR/><BR/>Isn't that a normal part of the 'grief cycle' or whatever it's called? Going SlightlyNuts do to that is normal.<BR/><BR/><B>So, Americans institutions are often quite forgiving these days of the personal problems of long-time employees.</B><BR/><BR/>I'd say they're more concerned about being sued than because of actual caring. <BR/><BR/>LugashAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-77379956513710702542008-08-07T13:38:00.000-07:002008-08-07T13:38:00.000-07:00This all seems plausible, and maybe it's just what...This all seems plausible, and maybe it's just what it looks like. The guy does appear, from the media reports, to have been a nut. But a bioterrorism attack which helps drive the country to war and antiterrorism siege mentality is traced to a government lab. This is closely followed by the convenient suicide of the main suspect. Damn, that just sounds fishy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-66039878312225970962008-08-07T12:55:00.000-07:002008-08-07T12:55:00.000-07:00Steve -- I think you are being too kind to Ivins i...Steve -- I think you are being too kind to Ivins if he is the culprit.<BR/><BR/>His professional expertise would lead him to know with a certainty that he WOULD kill people. Perhaps not thousands or hundreds but still, a number of people. If he was the culprit, he did it anyway and bears full responsibility.<BR/><BR/>Second, invading Iraq was quite logical as a response to 9/11. Given that the weak response to Saddam post-1991 Gulf War was specifically cited by AQ and AQ-leaning clerics as reason to attack America (lack of any danger of America's response), DETERRENCE really demanded that the US remove Saddam to induce fear.<BR/><BR/>That's particularly true given Pakistan's nukes and partial control by the ISI-Pashtun-Taliban nexus. Creating fear by making an example of someone close by is what America had to do.<BR/><BR/>The shock of 9/11 was how completely intellectually bankrupt the "end of History" notions a whole lot of people, from Clinton, Bush, Larry Johnson worldview really was, when confronted with reality.<BR/><BR/>Bottom line: modern technology + globalization = even poor nations like Pakistan or AQ ("borrowing" Pakistan nukes) have the ability to kill millions of Americans and rely on US legalism, moral relativism, and innate fantasies of peace and tranquility to prevent any response. To the extent that getting rid of Saddam destroys that estimation of America's response, deterrence is enhanced.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-16064572969258451252008-08-07T12:24:00.000-07:002008-08-07T12:24:00.000-07:00"Paranoid man works with deadly anthrax!!!" he wro...<I>"Paranoid man works with deadly anthrax!!!" he wrote in one e-mail message in July 2000, predicting what a National Enquirer headline might read if he agreed to participate in a study on his work.</I><BR/><BR/>One of the victims worked for the Enquirer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9430835.post-46754278909015764132008-08-07T12:22:00.000-07:002008-08-07T12:22:00.000-07:00Dr. Meryl Nass, an anthrax vaccine specialist, has...Dr. Meryl Nass, an anthrax vaccine specialist, has many doubts:<BR/><BR/>http://anthraxvaccine.blogspot.com/2008/08/beyond-reasonable-doubt.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com