It was a violent, horrifying weekend. A mass shooting at Brown University during a study session in the school’s engineering and physics building left two people dead and nine injured. The university was locked down for 12 hours, with students crouched under desks and inside locked classrooms. As of this morning, the shooter is still at large. Police had arrested a person of interest over the weekend, but they released them on Sunday, saying that evidence pointed in a “different direction.” The university cancelled classes and exams for the rest of the semester, and encouraged students to go home.
Halfway around the world in Sydney, a father and son opened fire on a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach, killing at least 15 people. The youngest victim was a 10-year-old girl named Matilda. Mass shootings are extremely rare in Australia because the country has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, but the Australian prime minister has pledged to tighten their gun laws even more after this shooting. Sure beats thoughts and prayers.
In Los Angeles, director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer, were stabbed and killed in their home on Sunday. Police haven’t formally announced an arrest, but the New York Times says that the couple’s son Nick Reiner has been arrested and is being held on $4 million bail.
You know Reiner’s work because it’s simply some of the best. As a director, you can thank him for A Few Good Men, The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally…, and This Is Spinal Tap, just to name a few. His production company, Castle Rock, took a chance on a show called The Seinfeld Chronicles, even though it tested terribly, and now we’ll always have Seinfeld. He met Michele while he was working on When Harry Met Sally…, and falling in love with her quite literally changed the film. She’s the reason Harry and Sally get together in the end.
My Favorite Rob Reiner Fact: The “I’ll have what she’s having” line from When Harry Met Sally… was delivered by Reiner’s mother.
Dick Van Dyke turned 100 over the weekend. The Dick Van Dyke Show was created by Rob Reiner’s dad, Carl Reiner. Van Dyke, Reiner, and Mel Brooks were constant collaborators and friends. In honor of Van Dyke’s birthday, Here and Now’s Robin Young was supposed to interview him at his home, but when she got there, he was under the weather. So instead, she interviewed the 99-year-old Mel Brooks about the legendary entertainer. When asked what Van Dyke’s secret to longevity is, Brooks told her: “I don’t know, because the angel of death said, ‘Ah, let’s give this guy a break. He’s such a sweetheart.’” As for him? “Well, I hide. I’m never in one place for very long because I’m not looking for this guy to catch up with me.”
Trump blamed Reiner’s death on “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” which even his supporters found disgusting.
Weather: After a brief break, the rain is back. The flooding isn’t expected to be as catastrophic as last week’s, but it’s a one-two punch that our region never needed. Over the weekend, Auburn city officials issued a “get out now” evacuation order. Farms throughout Snohomish and Skagit Counties are underwater. The Nooksack River swept away an entire two-story home. Christmas was cancelled in Leavenworth. Even Trump had to acknowledge that this is an emergency.
Fuck Cars: A 38-year-old cyclist was hit by a car and killed on Sunday. The driver took off, and there’s no public description of the car yet, but the police are asking for tips if you’ve got them.
A Headline to Make You Smile: “Donald Trump wax figure removed from museum after being repeatedly punched in the face.”
Fresh Hell: TSA has been providing names of all air travelers to ICE to help them intercept immigrants while they’re in the airport. The program has been active since March, but hadn’t been known to the public until now. It’s not clear how many arrests have been made thanks to this collab from hell, but one former ICE official told the New York Times that in their region, if a name was flagged in a TSA list, it led to an arrest 75 percent of the time.
Murray Takes on AI: US Senator Patty Murray plans to introduce legislation Monday that would halt the six-state federal pilot program adding AI reviews to Medicare approvals. Until now, our state’s Medicaid recipients didn’t need prior authorization for most services. But under this program, on January 1, the robots will help determine whether or not patients qualify for services like pain management. Even better, the program sets up a financial incentive for the AI providers to deny approvals: they get a cut of the money they save the government.
The News Today Sucked: Here’s one more bit of love for Mr. Reiner.
Well done on this morning’s Slog AM, HMW. A gracious, thoughtful take on a series of horrible headlines that weaves the threads together.
An analytical take on a series of horrible tragedies in today’s SLOG.
Reiner tragedy:
Two people attacked with a knife, and two people dead. 100% lethality.
Brown University:
Approximately 60 people attacked with a gun in a lecture hall. 2 died out of 11 people shot. 18.2% lethality.
2 of 60 attacked died. 3.3%
11 of 60 struck. 18.3%
Perhaps we are demanding regulation of the less lethal and dangerous weapon over the more dangerous weapon.
Bondi Beach:
One of the shooters had a permit for six firearms.
US mass shooters:
Analysis shows that over 95% of them would have passed proposed background checks.
Cyclist death:
The driver probably had a license to drive issued by the State of Washington. Most drivers that kill people are licensed and the vehicles are extensively regulated in how they are equipped.
Maybe we should intervene with people, not objects, to make us all safer.
Why did you fail to mention that the Bondi shooters were Islamic terrorists?
One of the two people murdered at Brown University was Ella Cook, who was vice president of Brown’s College Republicans. Weird how you failed to include that.
@2:
You are a vile, disgusting person.
Meanwhile… ignored by Hannah/Slog AM (gee I wonder why):
FBI arrests four individuals allegedly plotting New Year’s Eve bombings in Los Angeles
Mon, December 15, 2025 at 9:02 AM
WASHINGTON (TNND) — The FBI arrested four members of a pro-Palestine group who were allegedly planning coordinated bombings in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve.
“Over the weekend, the @FBI disrupted a credible, imminent terrorist threat and arrested FOUR individuals connected to the Los Angeles area,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on X Monday.
Patel said the members of the group were part of a group called the Turtle Island Liberation Front, which is “pro-Palestinian” and “anti-law enforcement.”
He said that they were allegedly planning IED bombing attacks on five different areas all over Los Angeles.
“In the days since, @FBINewOrleans arrested an additional FIFTH individual believed to be linked to this radical TILF subgroup – also allegedly planning a separate violent attack,” Patel wrote.
The head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, gave the names of the suspects during a press conference: Audrey Carroll, 30, Zachary Aaron Page, 32, Dante Garfield, 24, and Tina Lai, 41.
Essayli said all four suspects are from the Los Angeles area.
“Each is charged with conspiracy and possession of an unregistered destructive device in violation of Titled 26 United States Code section 586 1D,” he said. “We intend to file additional charges in the coming weeks as we finish reviewing the evidence,” he said.
He said that the Turtle Island Liberation Front is an anti-government and anti-capitalist group that planned to attack five or more locations across Southern California.
“Carroll’s bomb plot was explicit,” Essayli said during the press conference.
“It included step-by-step instructions to build IEDs or improvised explosive devices, and listed multiple targets across Orange County and Los Angeles.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi also weighed in on the arrests.
“The Turtle Island Liberation Front—a far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group—was preparing to conduct a series of bombings against multiple targets in California beginning on New Year’s Eve,” she wrote on X.
“The group also planned to target ICE agents and vehicles.”
As violence acts continue to happen across the globe, it was reported that Paris canceled its annual midnight concert scheduled for New Year’s Eve due to spikes in crime.
Many in France go to the concert with massive fireworks, but this year will instead watch a pre-recorded video from home, according to The New York Post.
https://komonews.com/news/nation-world/fbi-arrests-four-individuals-allegedly-plotting-new-years-eve-bombings-in-los-angeles-kash-patel-pam-bondi-palestine-ice-agents
@2 God you’re fucking disgusting.
@2, @7,
Why? Because I insist we examine these things with are prefrontal cortex instead of with our visceral emotions? Because I insist on what might measurably work, not what feels right?
@5 not @2
5 & #7 seem like major over-reactions, calm your tits
Correction to @2:
84% of mass shooters in U.S. obtained firearms legally. I knew it was overwhelmingly high, but should have re-checked the data. Still doesn’t alter the conclusion. https://www.statista.com/statistics/476461/mass-shootings-in-the-us-by-legality-of-shooters-weapons/?srsltid=AfmBOooPk2MMBFqwQehucP5oGNlzxIFSZfcFIwUIyu7pryPG5-bK9Wy2
@10 I’m honestly surprised you stopped masturbating while thinking about all the dead jews in Australia to comment on this.
Meanwhile, in Seattle…
SUV smashes into E Pike self-serve kombucha taproom in chase reportedly involving human trafficking and gunfire
Posted on Monday, December 15, 2025 – 9:59 AM
Reports of a car chase and gunfire culminated in a crash caught on security video as a SUV smashed through the front of a self-serve kombucha taproom on E Pike early Monday.
Capitol Hill’s SOMA Kombucha will remain closed after extensive damage to its storefront. The neighboring HoneyHole sandwich joint sustained some damage to its shared wall but is expected to open as usual.
A Seattle Police Department spokesperson said a report on the incident was not yet complete but CHS has learned the crash involved at least one vehicle in pursuit of the SUV before the crash and reports of gunfire.
According to East Precinct radio updates, officers arriving at the 4:19 AM crash were looking for a caller who reportedly was on his way to the hospital with some type of hand injury in a dispute involving possible human trafficking.
Police reported having at least one reported adult victim in custody and were looking for a suspect in the alleged kidnapping. A Land Rover or Range Rover was also reported to have been involved in the incident but was not the car that crashed into the building.
We do not have further information on any injuries at this point and if any evidence of shooting was located.
Seattle Fire was called to evaluate the damage in the 700 block of E Pike after the crashed vehicle was towed and found the building to be structurally sound despite the damage.
There were no injuries reported inside the businesses.
An involved vehicle was also reported towed from Summit Ave.
It is unclear if a road rage incident reported two hours later in Montlake is related. There, police were called to the area near NOAA around 6:30 AM to a report of a driver in a blue Range Rover honking, yelling threats, and trying to strike people and vehicles. That vehicle was last reported speeding away eastbound on 520.
Jean-Pierre Parent who opened the self-serve concept SOMA Kombucha on E Pike earlier this year, says he a car also once ran into his shop in Portland. That damage was much more limited and they were able to reopen quickly.
While this crash will take longer to recover from, SOMA might be able to get a boost from city funding CHS reported on as local merchants have dealt with a wave of burglaries and break-ins. Applicants can request up to $3,000 for repairs or $6,000 for security and prevention investments through the city’s $3.3 million Back to Business program.
https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/2025/12/suv-smashes-into-e-pike-self-serve-kombucha-taproom-in-chase-reportedly-involving-human-trafficking-and-gunfire/
@8 Because you use people’s deaths to advance a political agenda that will increase the numbers of people being killed. All in the name of “rational analysis.” Because you completely ignore the fact that mass shootings almost invariably result in more people dead than attacks with handheld weapons, because apparently not enough people are being killed in this country.
You sick fuck.
@12 – Why would I do that? I’m not anti-Jewish, unlike most commenters here. Project your weird sex fetishes on someone else.
I sent a nice message to all of my reps and senators after I learned about the AI gets to deny Medicaid claims stuff that they are piloting. I received a very timely and direct response from Emily Randall expressing her dissatisfaction with AI and the lack of regulation of AI. And seeing now that senator Murray is personally taking up the issue to kill this pilot program, this makes my innards tickle. Yay for upper left reps and senators!!! Fuck MAGA, Fuck Trump, Fuck the GOP, Fuck ‘Merica Ferstest, and FEEEEEEEUCK YOU!!!!
You can find clear video of the shooters at work from beginning to end at Bondi here: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/i-was-100m-away-when-the-shots-rang-out-it-has-changed-sydney-forever-20251214-p5nnm1.html
You can hear sirens as soon as the video starts. So people called 000 (Australian 911) as soon as they saw these guys produce weapons or just after they started shooting. The first shooter goes down over 4 and 1/2 minutes later at the hands of NSW police who got there as fast as possible.
Australian restrictions on the law abiding carrying handguns meant shooters had 4 and 1/2 minutes before there was an armed person at the scene who could respond.
11.6% of Washingtonians have concealed carry permits, which means in an event this large, multiple people would have been armed and able to provide instant response time, not 4 and 1/2 minutes.
BTW, Washington State is in the top 10 states in terms of proportion of population with a CPL, but is 29th in homicide rate. Only two of the top 10 states with CPL’s are in the top 10 for homicide rates.
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/blog/the-most-armed-states/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/232561/murder-and-non-negligent-manslaughter-rate-in-the-us-by-state/
@2/7/14, Always helpful reading the comments on the letter he wrote to the editor that was so obnoxious they shared it as a standalone post. 10 years later and these still apply. You can’t tell him anything he hasn’t already heard a million times across multiple platforms.
https://www.thestranger.com/blogs/2015/05/29/22301818/this-is-the-most-ridiculous-letter-to-the-editor-weve-received-all-day/comments/1
@14, Like those advocating for gun control, including you, don’t use people’s death to advocate for a political agenda.
If you don’t address the pathology and people that engage in mass killing, they just switch means. God forbid they return to the firebombing that was used as the chief means of mass murder, prior to WW II.
I am so sorry to hear a fellow cyclist was killed. As an avid Seattle cyclist this hits close to home. Was this the first cyclist death of 2025? My recollection is there were zero cyclist deaths in 2024. Damn it! Curse the coward who killed him then left the scene may he/she gnash their teeth in hell forever.
There will be zero surprise when we learn the driver who killed the bicyclist has a series of moving violations. Drivers licenses are a joke. Too easy to attain, too easy to maintain even by drivers who regularly are shown to put other people at risk. Judges need to yank people’s licenses for multiple years after they commit serious infractions or collisions. Driving is a privilege and not a right. Let bad drivers whine about needing their car for work, these poor drivers can take the bus and walk. Or better yet they can ride a bike.
@2 & 3: Why are you like this.
@17 Or the people with handguns might duck and cover just like the Uvalde police. Having more armed people does not result in a reduction of gun violence.
@19 Oh sure, people advancing gun control use people’s deaths to advance a political agenda. You know, the one that has a solid chance of preventing the next fucking mass shooting. You, on the other hand, use it Every. Single. Fucking. Time to advocate against laws that have proven effective at reducing (not eliminating, reducing) mass shootings in every other developed country in the world.
I would sure as shit prefer a 4.5 minute response to a single mass shooting in 30 years to 300 mass shootings in one year, which is apparently your preferred option.
You sick fuck.
@19,
Absolutely nobody is dismissing that we desperately need to address the pathology that leads to this horror show shit on a daily basis. But there’s also absolutely no reason we can’t do so while also and simultaneously addressing the hundreds of millions of guns that are flooding our streets and enabling it. Though as barth already noted, you’ve been told this hundreds of times over the years and it’s pointless to even engage with it any longer.
I mean honestly, congratulations are in order. You’ve won, decisively and conclusively, as it’s unmistakably obvious that America won’t ever enact meaningful gun control laws, despite the majority of us being in favor of doing so. And so I’d encourage you to go out and celebrate, crack a bottle of champagne and cut yourself a slice of cake as you & your fellow right wing agitators can just kick back and wait for the next mass shooting to occur so that you can boast and celebrate yet again, just as your did here, less that 20 minutes after Hannah’s post went up. Rest assured it won’t be long.
You truly are a sick and disgusting person. Congratulations once again on your victory.
@22 Uvalde was the result of police not following their own procedures – it was ended by someone showing up with a gun and willing to use it, the most reliable method of ending a mass murder event. More legally armed citizens certainly does lead to lower casualty counts – the average number of people shot in an event when the shooter is stopped by law enforcement is 14.3, while average number of people shot in an attempted mass killing event when the attacker is stopped by regular people is 2.3.
Australia never really had much of the mass murder issue many countries did. Australia has something like 13 times less the population of the US and less than some single US states. They went from not having many mass shootings before their strict gun laws to not having many after it. They went from having about 4 million guns pre-strict gun control to having…about 4 million today. By some metrics, their rape rates also far outstrip the US, interestingly.
In America, the vast majority of mass shootings (which are mostly committed with handguns) take place in cities with the strictest gun control, like Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.
The United States, with its infamously poor mental health, is perhaps the last place where guns should be readily available. We are simply too whacked to shoulder the responsibility.
Moreover, guns are boring. Imagine a population having it out with medieval weaponry and assorted exotica; blow guns, throwing stars, polearms, etc. The spectacle of it would be far more entertaining. Imagine sitting at a red light in a bad neighborhood and witnessing a duel between a katana and a morning star flail.
@23, @22, As noted many times for both of you, guns in private hands has gone to up and up and up, while simultaneously homicide rates have fallen to 40 year lows. So there is zero correlation between availability of guns and violence rates.
Others, not me, will claim based on that data, that the availability of guns caused the drop in homicides, and violent crime generally, to those record lows. That too is a spurious conclusion from the data. Correlation, even strong negative correlation, does not equal causation. Where you have causation, there is mathematical correlation; however, the opposite is not true. Correlation may mean causation, but often does not.
@22, No, those advancing gun control are being performative in advancing something that has no chance of preventing the next mass killing. Assuming you could put the genie back in the bottle (you can’t), the means of mass murder would merely shift to using other methods, because the pathology and cultural norms remain. Performative measures are cynical, and worse than doing nothing.
@25 They’re not boring at all, actually! Try out the pinnacle of home and personal defense, the AR-15 (not that you can buy one here anymore). I promise you’ll enjoy it more than you think, and it’s not just a fun hobby – it might save your life, in a society infamously replete with insane murderers.
@26 It’s remarkable* how you have ti both ways. On the one hand, you sanctimoniously say that we should be focused on the shooter, not the guns, since guns don’t kill people, people kill people. And of course, only a tiny fraction of guns are used to kill people. And then you completely ignore that an even tinier fraction of people engage in murder or mass shootings. So if you can’t deal with guns, you have no fucking hope of dealing with people.
Of course, actual stats on mass shootings are that the perpetrators are overwhelmingly male. The obvious evidence-based solution to address the people and not the object is to ban men from owning or using firearms.
Actually, no it isn’t. You perform feats of mental gymnastics greater than this every day. You sick fuck.
@26 You’re talking homicides, not mass shootings. Apples and oranges. But you probably already knew that. As the number of guns in private hands have gone up, numbers of mass shootings have also gone up. What can it all mean?
what
Switchblade
Fever [not Magoo]
Fails to Recognize is
the Guy Who DISARMED
OF THE SHOOTERS WAS ALSO
a fucking Muslim
but that’d be
Too Hard On his
Fascist NAZI Narrative.
sieg fucking Heil
@28 I’m talking mass shootings. The 300+ stat is for incidents where 4 or more people are shot by a single perpetrator, which is overwhelmingly performed with handguns in high-crime cities. But you definitely didn’t know that, before spouting off on rules you think everyone else should have.
@21 – Why did Hannah fail to mention that the Bondi shooters were Islamic terrorists?
@20 – kringeofartian – Yes, I am well aware that the guy who disarmed one of the Islamic terrorists at Bondi Beach is, as you put it, “a fucking Muslim” (CLASSY!!!)
He is not, however, an Islamic terrorist, so I’m not sure what your stupid point that you imagined that you were making is.
@28, Mass shootings have gone up where the definition of what is a mass shooting is altered and then compared to baseline studies that didn’t use that definition. In research where the definition has not been altered, not so much.
Assuming they have gone up as more weapons have been pushed out into society, you have correlation. There are also many things that the increase could also be just as validly correlated to. Mathematical correlation is a helpful tool, but in and of itself does not prove causation, or at its worse leads to false determination of causation.
“The obvious evidence-based solution to address the people and not the object is to ban men from owning or using firearms.”
That doesn’t stop anything, because there are lots of other means of mass murder and individual murder other than firearms. Ban the firearm, you get the same outcome, or worse, because the law-abiding lose their equalizer, because the perpetrators are still just as bent on unlawful violence and merely change the means they use.
@28, School shootings are but one subset of mass shootings, and they aren’t going up.
https://www.npr.org/2018/03/15/593831564/the-disconnect-between-perceived-danger-in-u-s-schools-and-reality
I assume you find NPR a credible source. I do.
Knife, you read like you are looking for a job but given your paranthetic comments demonstrate that you are uniquely and completely unemployable.
Good luck with that.
@33,
You’ve not answered my question about why you continue to bitch and moan incessantly over a political argument that you’ve clearly and decisively won. There was a mass murder over the weekend, there’ll be more murders today and there’ll be more and more mass murders than any of us can keep track of for as long as any of us here will be alive to consider. What there won’t be of course is gun control, despite the overwhelming majority of Americans supporting such measures, and so you can just go ahead and crack a cold one and revel in the bloodshed and lack of gun control laws. Good for you!
Do you also complain about the calls that went against the Seahawks in the 2014 Super Bowl or do you celebrate their championship? If not, then what is it you’re on about here?
@32 Apparently you just haven’t figured out yet that it is vastly more difficult to kill large numbers of people with a non-firearm personal weapon than it is with a firearm. And of course it’s also far easier to disarm someone with a non-ranged weapon.
Oh, and you’re wrong about the changing definitions. If you look at places that use a single definition (like the Gun Violence Archive https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/), you see significant increases in gun violence from 2015-2024. Similarly, there’s an upward trendline in the Mother Jones data that uses consistent definitions. Alas, you’re once again not as smart as you thought you were. Too bad.
“Blah blah blah People kill people with knives so murder’s the problem not guns! I’m a pseudo-intellectual tool of the gun lobby! And we can’t do anything about murder so oh well we can’t do anything! We can’t pass laws because people might break them! I love statistics until they contradict my preconceived notions!”
@27 Too bad that it is far, far more likely that a firearm in the home will be used against the owner or their family than to successfully fend off crime.
@34 – Good thing I’m so rich that I don’t need a job!
@35, Why do you, and The Stranger, call for something that the evidence does not support?
All of the studies on the issue, both pro control and pro rights, have major methodological and/or data flaws.
https://reason.com/2016/01/05/you-know-less-than-you-think-a/
So do we accept evidence (or bow to the lack of it), or do we just follow our own per-suppositions?
Meanwhile, in Bellevue…
Man allegedly lured police with fake 911 call before stabbing at Bellevue Transit Center
December 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Prosecutors on Monday charged a 38-year-old man accused of stabbing a Bellevue police officer last week, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (KCPAO).
Prosecutors charged 𝐌𝐨𝐡𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐚 with first-degree assault with a deadly weapon enhancement and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon enhancement. The first-degree assault charge stems from the alleged stabbing of an officer at the Bellevue Transit Center on Dec. 12.
The KCPAO said the second-degree assault charge involves a second officer who was not stabbed.
“The accompanying officer was not stabbed, but the admissible evidence shows a second-degree assault under state law — and that’s true regardless of whether the victim is a police officer,” the KCPAO wrote. “Under state law, you don’t have to make contact for an assault. It is not necessary for bodily injury to be inflicted.”
Court records show Bangura had no prior criminal cases before this incident.
According to court documents, Bangura allegedly made a “bogus” 911 call reporting a domestic violence incident to lure police officers to his location. The documents also state Bangura had animus toward an unrelated Bellevue police officer and filed a complaint against that officer the day before the stabbing.
“Instead of letting that complaint process play out, he chose to arm himself with a knife and assault two other innocent, unwitting officers who thought they were responding to a call of domestic violence,” court documents state. “In that interaction, seconds before attempting to stab both officers, he said, ‘Officer [X] put a false case on me.’”
Prosecutors argued in court documents that Bangura will “likely commit another offense if released from custody,” and therefore asked the court to hold Bangura on $5 million bail.
His first court appearance is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Dec. 18.
https://komonews.com/news/local/bellevue-transit-center-suspect-charged-bail-stabbing-officer-involved-shooting-update-king-county-prosecuting-attorneys-office-kcpao-state-law-weapon-enhancement-court-documents-domestic-violence
@36, The Nice attack in France was committed with a truck, killing 86.
The OKC bombing killed 168.
The Sarin attack in Japan killed 13 and the animation studio gasoline fire attack killed 33.
So much for needing a firearm to kill large numbers of people.
The means and material required for all those attacks are still readily available, both here and abroad.
CO2 is readily available at any welding or restaurant supply outlet. Just crack a bottle open at a low rate of flow, unobtrusively in a concealed area, and people will be hitting the floor before anyone is the wiser. Odorless and colorless.
The studies you refer to are methologically and/or flawed with their data.
“A 1993 New England Journal of Medicine article by Arthur Kellermann and his colleagues. “Although firearms are often kept in homes for personal protection,” they concluded, “this study shows that the practice is counterproductive.”
The study has many flaws. In addition to the predictable failure to establish causality, there’s a more glaring irregularity: Slightly less than half of the murders Kellermann studied were actually committed with a gun (substantially less than the national average in 1993 of around 71 percent). And even in those cases he failed to establish that the gun owners were killed with their own guns. If even a small percentage of them weren’t, given that more than half of the murders were not committed with guns, the causal relevance of the harmed being gun owners is far less clear. (The study found that even more dangerous risks than having a gun at home included living alone, using drugs, or being a renter.)” https://reason.com/2016/01/05/you-know-less-than-you-think-a/
“Stroebe notes that the two major post-Kellermann studies most often used to demonstrate an association between gun ownership and risk of homicide shared one of Kellermann’s fatal flaws: They offer no information about whether the gun used to kill the gun owners was their own.” ibid.
I’m circling back to this thread, and what I see is a textbook study in how to enable the right-wing trolls to drive the conversation. Remember, it’s only a conversation if you take the bait and respond.
Just a little suggestion to:
• COMTE
• tbass1981
• boatgeek
• Lissa
• mike blob
• Nuclear Marc
(I’d include barth, but I get the sense barth’s only purpose on these threads is to feed the trolls.)
Disclaimer. Someone might accuse me of being an opponent of free speech by saying this. Of course, that requires some muddled thinking. By saying DFTT, I’m not inhibiting the trolls’ sacred First Amendment right to tag the Slog AM comment threads. It’s just worth noting that silence is its own powerful form of speech. And rest assured, the trolls are desperate to inhibit that sort of speech.
@41: Well said.
@41
Yes, the Monday Trolls have been more than impressive! Let me interrupt the Trollstream to say Go Hawks! They won yesterday in spite of themselves.
‘ADELAIDE, Australia—The shooters who attacked a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday appear to have been inspired by Islamic State, Australia’s prime minister said Tuesday, as investigators looked into the planning behind the country’s deadliest mass shooting in nearly 30 years.
‘Police said they found two homemade Islamic State flags alongside improvised explosive devices in a car registered to a 24-year-old man accused with his 50-year-old father of carrying out the attack, in which 15 people were killed and dozens were injured.
‘Australia has designated the mass shooting a terrorist attack on the Jewish community.
‘“It would appear that this was motivated by Islamic State ideology,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday. “The ideology that has been around for more than a decade that led to this ideology of hate and, in this case, a preparedness to engage in mass murder.”
[…]
‘In August last year, Australia raised its nationwide terrorism threat level to probable, meaning authorities believed there was a greater than 50% chance of an attack on home soil or one being planned over the following 12 months. Authorities cited extremism among young people, who they said were turning to racially or religiously inspired violence with little or no warning.’
(https://www.wsj.com/world/bondi-beach-shooters-motivated-by-islamic-state-australia-says-23becf1f?mod=hp_lead_pos3)
Just keep throwing the word, “genocide,” around, kids — and especially at a minority which has historically been scapegoated and attacked. It makes you look trendy and hip and oh-so KEWWWWWWL, whilst having absolutely no negative effects of any kind whatsoever, amirite?
“Just keep throwing the word, “genocide,” around, kids —
and especially at a minority which has
historically been scapegoated
and attacked.”
–@The Wormtongue
“It’s
so gross
watching the
tail-wagging excitement
of Israel supporters in response
to the Bondi shooting. They’re so happy
they have another rhetorical weapon with which
to bludgeon pro-Palestine voices into silence. They can barely
contain their glee.”
–Caitlin Johnstone; @caitoz.bsky.social
“I saw a tweet from Aaron Maté yesterday:
“15 civilians were killed in the massacre targeting Sydney’s Jewish community. A day in which Israel massacres 15 Palestinian civilians in Gaza would be at the low end of the average in 2+ years of genocide.
“Israel’s atrocities and the impunity they receive are undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide. And to show how little Israel and its apologists care about anti-Semitism, many are exploiting the Sydney massacre to justify Israel’s rejection of a Palestinian state; baselessly blame Iran; and demand more censorship of anti-genocide protests.”
If I had my slate cleaned and could see the world through fresh eyes it would never occur to me that I and my society would ever see 15 people being murdered in Australia as more significant than 15 people being murdered in Palestine. I would expect them to be viewed as exactly as terrible.
And they should be. Palestinians don’t love their families any less than Australians do. Australian lives aren’t any more significant or valuable than Palestinian lives. There is no valid reason for the world to have focused any less on the 15 people who were killed in Gaza on March 16 than on the 15 people who were murdered on Bondi Beach. But it did.”
“When a dozen Jews
are massacred in Australia
the World is in mourning. When a
dozen Palestinians are massacred every
day in Gaza, the world celebrates it as a ceasefire.”
–Zachary Foster, in a Tweet, with 14.1K heart emojis
Sunday was an awful, dark day. Hundreds of lives have been directly devastated by this tragedy, thousands more indirectly, and in some ways the nation as a whole has been changed. The trauma will reverberate in the victim’s families for generations.
The sorrow is palpable and ubiquitous. It’s everywhere; in the streets, at the supermarket. There is catastrophe in the air, and people around the world are feeling it.
And this is appropriate. This is what 15 deaths ought to feel like. This is what it feels like when you see mass murder inflicted upon a population whose murder hasn’t become normalized for you.
Humanity won’t survive into the distant future unless we grow into a conscious species, and part of that growth will necessarily include widening our circles of compassion to include our fellow beings around the world.
If we can’t do that, we’re not going to make it. We’re too destructive.
We hurt each other and our environment too much.
We destroy everything around us trying to shore up
wealth and resources for ourselves, and it simply is
not sustainable. It’ll get us all killed eventually.
We’ve got to become better.
We’ve got to become more caring.
More emotionally intelligent. Less susceptible
to the manipulations of propaganda. A society driven
by truth and compassion rather than lies and the pursuit of profit.
That’s the only way we’re making it out of this awkward
adolescent transition stage with these large,
capable brains still wound up in vestigial
evolutionary fear-based conditioning.
That’s the only way we achieve our true potential and build a healthy world together.”
–Caitlin Johnstone
oodles:
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/australians-being-massacred-shouldnt
ok, wormmy.
“Just keep throwing the word, ‘genocide,’ around, kids —
and especially at a minority which has historically
been scapegoated and attacked. It makes you
look
trendy
and hip and
oh-so KEWWWWWWL”
-@the Wormtongue, gleefully, above
“Israel’s atrocities and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver
of anti-Semitism worldwide.
And to show how little Israel
and its apologists care about anti-Semitism,
many are exploiting the Sydney massacre to justify
Israel’s rejection of a Palestinian state; baselessly blame
Iran; and demand more censorship of anti-genocide protests.”
–tweet from Aaron Maté
I believe
I’ll Pass, on
AIPAC nonsense.
Pardon bibi:
END the
“War.”
@40 My God, you’re a dumbass. It’s even sadder that you think you’re so goddamn smart. But you’re just Gish galloping your way to proving the opposite point.
OKC bombing: After the bombing, rules were changed to make it far, far harder to buy ammonium nitrate in an uncoated form that’s suitable for bombmaking. You have to be a registered user with a need for explosives and be checked regularly against the terrorism database to buy the stuff. Golly, if only we could do something like that for guns!
Trucks: Why yes, truck attacks did kill people. And police departments worldwide have responded by putting up barriers between streets and areas where people are going to congregate. You know, making them truck-free zones. Just like security checks for weapons before you go into a concert or a rally. But let’s look at real numbers. There were ~130 people killed in truck attacks the same year as the Nice attack, or about 0.29 per million population of the EU. There were ~15000 people killed in gun homicides in the US last year, or ~43 per million population. Trucks aren’t the problem.
Sarin: Ooooooh, vewy, vewy scawy! It even sounds scientific and vaguely Asian, so it’s extra scary to rubes like you! Given that non-governmental users of sarin have killed roughly 20 people in the last half century or so, it’s not even a drop in the murder bucket. Mass shooters in the US kill a dozen people on the regular. Oh, and the precursor chemicals for sarin are tightly regulated. Golly, if only we could do that for guns!
Keep shilling big guy, keep shilling.
And now, with respect to @41, I’m out.
@48,
And yet the chemicals and know how to produce all of those things is still available. Gasoline is the most widely available.
Mass shooters plan for months or years. They legally acquire the means for their crime. A few more hoops isn’t going to stop them. They are intelligent. They are sane (99% of insanity defenses fail).
@48, How did those truck barriers that New Orleans Police erected perform. They dude drove around them and up the sidewalk. Absent that, he could have easily driven through the thin glass retail storefronts on the street corners (they aren’t structural) to pass onto the street beyond.
So you are for more money, on more performative measures, rather than measures that could work. Nearly all of these mass killers, kill out of grievance. They publicize what they do, days, hours, or minutes, ahead of time, usually on social media. So monitor that, as some FBI agents (under Obama) proposed. Then intervene with Extreme Risk Protection Orders to seize weapons and mental health holds.
“…but the Australian prime minister has pledged to tighten their gun laws even more after this shooting. Sure beats thoughts and prayers.”
Or, outfits like the Stranger could cool it with the overheated rhetoric on Gaza, already. From last February:
‘Antisemitic incidents have risen all over the world since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and Israel’s military response in Gaza. But the attacks in Australia have hit a nerve in a country where Jews have long held prominent roles and where antisemitic incidents have been relatively rare. Australia’s most widely acclaimed World War I commander was Jewish. Thousands of Jews migrated to the country after the Holocaust, including Frank Lowy, who co-founded global mall giant Westfield.
‘Police helicopters now fly nightly over Sydney’s eastern suburbs, patrolling synagogues, Jewish businesses and even world-famous Bondi Beach.
‘“It’s next level stuff. It’s not kids doing something stupid on the spur of the moment,” said Menachem Vorchheimer, a Jewish human-rights advocate from Melbourne.’
(https://www.wsj.com/world/antisemitic-attacks-mar-australias-legacy-as-a-haven-for-jews-dacc96c0?mod=article_inline)
Frivolously throwing around serious terms like “genocide” emboldens anti-Jewish bigots everywhere, even in faraway, multi-cultural Australia. Endless one-sided rhetoric against Israel’s conduct in the war, but absolutely nothing said at all about Hamas’ intentional slaughter of civilians, feeds the bigots’ irrational hatred of Jews as a sinister Other, for whom violence can be the only path.
@51
tS’s Chief Israeli
Propagandist
cum AIPAC
Mouth-
piece:
“Or,
outfits
like the Stranger
could cool it with the
overheated rhetoric on Gaza”
The Wormtongue’s
Calls for the Stranger
to Censor itself! are No
Surprise — he’s been De-
manding It Ever Since 10/7
in fact, Any criticism of Israel and its actions
wormmy conflates with the worst kinds of
violent anti-Jewish bigotry
Conflating
Anti-genocide
with Anti-Semitism
each and every Time:
“… trying to stomp out criticism of
Israel’s genocidal atrocities.
using a tragic mass shooting
as a political cudgel against people
who believe Palestinians are human beings.
This is just one more cynical manipulation
aimed at protecting Israel from criticism
so that it can inflict more violence
and suffering upon the world.”
–Caitlin Johnstone
“Or,
outfits
like the Stranger
could cool it with the
overheated rhetoric on Gaza”
Don’t
Listen to
the Wormtongue
as painful
af as it may be
Pardon fucking bibi
and END the Genocide.
Point 1: Obviously
it is evil to massacre
civilians for being Jewish.
Point 2: Obviously
Israel’s genocidal atrocities
must continue to be opposed,
and will continue to be opposed.
Today
the worst people in
the world are trying to pretend
Point 1 and Point 2 are contradictory.
–Caitlin Johnstone; @caitoz.bsky.social
Who tF takes
their Advice from
‘the worst people in the world’?
Sorry,
Wormmy:
but You’re on the
Wrong Side of History here
@51 — “‘Antisemitic
incidents have risen all over the world
since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
[killing 1.300], and Israel’s military response in Gaza [killing 60,000+] … “
huh.
This, from Caitlin’s Newsletter:
Australians Being Massacred Shouldn’t
Bother Us More Than Palestinians
Being Massacred
Indeed, the worst people on earth are using the Bondi Beach shooting to argue for crackdowns on free speech and freedom of assembly to silence Israel’s critics online and on the streets, in Australia and throughout the western world.
And when 15 Palestinians were killed
by Israel on March 16, the
west barely noticed.
I don’t remember the 15 Palestinians who died during that 24-hour period in mid-March, but I will always remember the Bondi Beach shooting. Someone could mention it to me thirty years from now and I’ll know exactly what they’re talking about.
My society {Australia] made an infinitely bigger deal about the deaths of 15 westerners in Sydney, Australia than the deaths of 15 Palestinians in Gaza, so it will always stick in my memory.
a tweet from Aaron Maté:
“15 civilians were killed in the massacre targeting Sydney’s Jewish community. A day in which Israel massacres 15 Palestinian civilians in Gaza would be at the low end of the average in 2+ years of genocide.
“Israel’s atrocities and the impunity they receive are undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide. And to show how little Israel and its apologists care about anti-Semitism, many are exploiting the Sydney massacre to justify Israel’s rejection of a Palestinian state; baselessly blame Iran; and demand more censorship of anti-genocide protests.”
If I had my slate cleaned and could see the world through fresh eyes it would never occur to me that I and my society would ever see 15 people being murdered in Australia as more significant than 15 people being murdered in Palestine. I would expect them to be viewed as exactly as terrible.
And they should be. Palestinians don’t love their families any less than Australians do. Australian lives aren’t any more significant or valuable than Palestinian lives. There is no valid reason for the world to have focused any less on the 15 people who were killed in Gaza on March 16 than on the 15 people who were murdered on Bondi Beach.
But it did.
@51 — “‘Antisemitic
incidents have risen all over the world
since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
[killing 1.300], and Israel’s military response in Gaza [killing 60,000+] … “
“Israel’s atrocities
and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide.”
— Aaron Maté:
@51
“Frivolously throwing around serious terms like “genocide” emboldens anti-Jewish bigots everywhere, even in faraway, multi-cultural Australia. Endless one-sided rhetoric against Israel’s conduct in the war, but absolutely nothing said at all about Hamas’ intentional slaughter of civilians, feeds the bigots’ irrational hatred of Jews as a sinister Other, for whom violence can be the only path.” –oh, so Eleoquent, wormmy!
and Oh, so Misplaced:
What IS It that so “feeds the bigots’
irrational hatred of Jews as
a sinister Other”?
“Israel’s atrocities
and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide.”
— Aaron Maté:
Please make
a fucking
Note of
it.
@52 – 55
Did not read
@56 ~ ptrhjqwiorj
@57 – thanks for stepping into my trap
@58~s;EOFI E F
You got some shit on your shoe there, kringeofartian.
@60 its
a mirror
Write some more of your long dumbass-formatted shit
@62
@61 Stung, eh?
from Kurt Russel’s Brilliant ‘Tombstrone’
Wyatt Earp: What
makes a man like Ringo, Doc?
What makes him do the things he does?
Doc Holliday: A man like Ringo
has got a great big hole,
right in the middle
of him.
He can never kill enough,
or steal enough, or inflict
enough pain to ever fill it.
Wyatt Earp: What does he need?
Doc Holliday: Revenge.
Wyatt Earp: For what?
Doc Holliday: Bein’
born.
your
PTSD
CAN be
Eased, sharppy.
there Are Ways, lad.
it’s
Not
Your
Fault.
@63 – kringeofartian, you literally said it WAS my fault on this thread, you idiotic drug-addled hypocrite:
https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2025/12/17/80377121/slog-am-floods-claim-first-life-leavenworth-is-hurting-the-us-is-bleeding-jobs/comments
@62: “Write” is rather an exalted term for it, really. It’s more like he’s projectile-vomiting chunks of half-digested material onto the screen, and watching it dribble down after it hits.
After two years in which all of their many words utterly failed to deter Israel’s relentless crushing of Hamas in Gaza, you might think the Stranger (and supportive commenters) would be happy to learn their constant inflammatory rhetoric has actually accomplished something, even if it’s just inciting violence against innocent Jews half a world away from Israel itself.
@51 — “‘Antisemitic
incidents have risen all over the world
since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023
[killing 1.300], and Israel’s military response in Gaza [killing 60,000+] … “
–@the Wormtongue,
still spouting AIPAC’s
pro-genocidal Mis-
& Malinformation
“Israel’s atrocities
and the impunity they receive are
undoubtedly the number one driver of anti-Semitism worldwide.”
— Aaron Maté
and
it’s Still
just as true as
the Ongoing massacre in Gaza
The World
SEES you
wormmy
Oh!
and Speaking
of AIPAC and its
Ownership of “OUR”
Government, if you’re
thee Slightest Bit Curious
about how much Influence this
Pro-Israel — and Pro-EVERYTHING
ISRAEL DOES — Has, you owe it to Yourself to
check out this AIPAC Beneficiaries List.
it includes ALL OF Congress
and the Staggering Amounts
of Influence Israel/AIPAC exerts
Over “Our” Lawmakers
and helps explain
why We are
Backing a
Genocide
and are Complicit
in Over 60,000
Palestinian
Deaths.
it. is. an.
Eyeopener:
https://www.trackaipac.com/
“TRACK YOUR CONGRESSMEMBERS
Do your representatives
support genocide?
Follow
the money
and find out: “
https://www.trackaipac.com/
you’ll Never again See
our Congress in the
same way.
DID NOT READ