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Is it a surprise anymore when we find out the crazies who engage in these violent public mow-downs are riled up by religious extremist and eliminationist movements? Add George Sodini to the list.
As George Sodini wrote on December 29, 2008, "Just got back from tanning, been doing this for a while. No gym today, my elbow is sore again. I actually look good. I dress good, am clean-shaven, bathe, touch of cologne – yet 30 million women rejected me – over an 18 or 25-year period."
Media analysis has so far ignored or glossed over Sodini's religious affiliations but the shooter's Internet diary suggest his last readings were the Bible and a book by a Texas evangelist, R.B. Thieme, Jr. who has written that husbands own their wives, as literal property and promoted an odd teaching that for each man on Earth there exists only one correct "right woman" in all creation.
…George Sodini's weblog lays considerable blame for his self-admitted psychological problems on the Pittsburgh-based Tetelestai Church which by his account Sodini attended for 13 years, up through 2006. The pastor of Tetelestai, James R. Knapp, is one of a few luminaries in the small fundamentalist universe under the sway of Texas evangelist and prolific author R.B. Thieme, Jr. — a retired US Air Force Colonel known to wear his old military uniform while giving sermons who has been accused of cultic and authoritarian practices and wrote doctrine asserting that "[a] married woman is the property of the man she marries."
And it's obviously not a stretch to believe Sodini started hanging out at an "activism.militia" newsgroup, where he posted garbage you see coming right out of Freeperland.
I am convinced that more drastic action is required to bring the country back to the Constitutional order that it was 200 years ago. I don't think any group of political leaders will achieve this for us.
And as part of his legacy, this b*stard left this YouTube behind. (CBS):
It screens like a self help video of the damned.George Sodini, the man police say walked into a Pennsylvania health club Tuesday night, calmly turned off the lights and fired 30 bullets into a room full of women before killing himself, has left one more disturbing legacy, a Youtube video in which he calmly stares at the camera and says “It is easy for me to hide from my emotions for one more day.” In the online video, which, according to Youtube, was posted more than a year ago, Sodini seems to be running through a self help checklist, talking about driving in his car, listening to music and day dreaming.
Did I add that this guy also has a problem with black folks? Take a look below the fold.
From his online diary/blog, that has since been taken down, documented at Huff Post:
Planned to do this in the summer but figure to stick around to see the election outcome. This particular one got so much attention and I was just curious. Not like I give a flying fuck who won, since this exit plan was already planned. Good luck to Obama! He will be successful. The liberal media LOVES him.
Amerika has chosen The Black Man. Good! In light of this I got ideas outside of Obama's plans for the economy and such. Here it is: Every black man should get a young white girl hoe to hone up on. Kinda a reverse indentured servitude thing. Long ago, many a older white male landowner had a young Negro wench girl for his desires. Bout' time tables are turned on that shit. Besides, dem young white hoez dig da bruthrs! LOL. More so than they dig the white dudes!
Every daddy know when he sends his little girl to college, she be bangin a bruthr real good. I saw it. "Not my little girl", daddy says! (Yeah right!!) Black dudes have thier choice of best white hoez. You do the math, there are enough young white so all the brothers can each have one for 3 or 6 months or so.
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Is anyone truly surprised by this? With the wacko fools called the Birthers, the supporters of McCain/Palin, the nut that read Bill O’s book who shot the innocent man in church, and the other deeds the religious right whackos perform, is this really surprising?
All one has to do is listen to Limbaugh, Liddy, Hannity, Beck, etc. and you get the clear picture these right wingers are certifiable nuts. They spread lies to mind numb robots (Projection at its finest, using Limbaugh’s own words)
These people can’t debate any issue honestly as they are so full of hate true facts be damned.
The unfortunate part, is the religious whackos will continue to push this garbage on gullible people who will go out and murder innocent people. And not only are they claiming to be doing GOD’s work, but feel they are acting with in the laws of this country saying they are protecting the Constitution. Which both say that murder is wrong, go figure…
STOP POSTING LINKS TO THESE VIDEOSPublicity and recognition is the only reason these pitiful jerks go on these rampages. If a shooting is highly publicized, the chances that another will be carried out within a week increases immeasurably. Do not watch his videos or read his repulsive statements or look at reports of his barbarism on the television.
When the vids were on TV yesterdaymy husband watched- I took my coffee and went outside. My life is too precious to waste one SECOND to this POS or others of his ilk.
If anyone thinks that these attacks on women, be it large scale or individual, happen in a vaccuum, check out any number of feminist blogs out there.
The extreme religionists in the U.S.A. will be thedownfall of the right wing. Their racist, misogyinist, homophobic pathology shows them to be less than rational and undeserving of a voice in this democracy. Unfortunately, there is no way to stop these people from voting. The only way to counter this is to vote locally, statewide, and in national elections against these types of men. We need more women and lgbt persons elected to office so they can pass more restrictive laws against these types of perps.
As I said in another thread, I actually KNEW SodiniHe was one of the IT guys at the last law firm where I worked. (He was the backup guy assigned to our department, so we saw a good bit of him.)
Even then–we’re talking 4-5 years ago–the guy registered as really strange. Socially awkward, borderline creepy. New people in the department learned pretty quickly to keep their distance from him. (He was a fairly attractive guy, and even through his khakis and polo shirts you could tell he had a good body, so I flirted with him a bit the first few times I saw him. But he was either too straight or too clueless [if that isn't redundant] to pick up on it. When I began to realize how weird he was, I backed off quickly. Thank goodness.)
It has been reported by at least one local TV station that Rev. James R. Knapp regularly preached sermons saying that a Christian can do anything, up to and including mass murder, and still be admitted to heaven. Is it really any wonder that that kind of preaching leads to horrific violence? I don’t know it for a fact, but I think it’s a reasonable guess that Rev. Knapp is one of the “men of God” who are screaming that a hate crime law would take away their right to preach Christianity. Oh, if it were only true…
George Sodini murdered a bunch of women because he hated womenLet’s not beat around the bush on this. George Sodini’s behavior was that of a male who believed he was entitled to female attention by virtue of being male. Rape, beating, and murder of women is simply the extreme end of a continuum of socially acceptable behavior in which women are objectified and made the property of the men around them. From George Sodini’s victims to the woman who stays with a batterer, to the woman who diets herself into health problems because she isn’t conventionally pretty enough, to the victims of “honor” killings, women the world over are treated by society as having a duty to please men.
George Sodini felt that women owed him their attention simply because he was a man who bathed, exercised, and held down a job. All the right-wing social conditioning he received? Merely reinforced the message that he, as a straight white male, was inherently superior to everyone else, and those uppity bitches who wouldn’t give him the time of day had to be taught a lesson. His racist comments about white college girls hooking up with black men? Just another symptom of his poisonous entitlement complex. If he actually saw women as human beings instead of objects put on earth for his pleasure, he wouldn’t be bothered by the fact that they were finding happiness with other men, let alone men of other races. No, how dare those uppity bitches not shower attention upon him, a good upstanding white man, and turn themselves into whores for BLACK MEN?
This shit doesn’t happen in a vaccum. George Sodini was a murderer at one end of the specturm of behavior. The other end of the spectrum is what DivaLion describes as Nice Guy (TM) Syndrome. The Nice Guy (TM) is the guy who at first blush seems reasonably decent, showers (with soap!), can hold down a job, and even shares some interests with a woman. He fixates on a woman as an object of affection, and tries to win her to no avail. When she does reject him, whether harshly or gently, his entire demeanor towards he changes, and suddenly she’s a horrible bitch, and a tease, and how dare she lead him on like that?
My friend posted a diary at DKos that is worth reading. Of course, like anything dealing with misogyny or homophobia at Kos, the resident entitlement-complex men troll the comments and make her point for her.
And Amanda Marcotte’s take on this whole tragedy.
Yes!You took the words right out of my mouth, down to the link to the Nice Guy (TM) Syndrome. It’s one of my favorite things to rant about.
Greta Christina also wrote an excellent piece on the Nice Guy (TM) here (from 2000): http://www.gretachristina.com/…
That male hetero privilege always made me shake my head. The dudes who think that only guys are rejected. Women, especially those of us who are considered by a very juvenile standard to be “less than”, are rejected by guys. And I don’t mean the athletes, but my fellow nerds. I have no interest in jocks. I need someone to geek out on science fiction and fantasy with me. But since I’m not blond or skinny, too smart, etc. then I’m rejected by the same dudes who would b*tch about the cheerleader not looking twice at them.
It’s interesting being technically bi but identifying as a lesbianWhich I do precisely because, even if I had no Beloved, I have no intention of ever dating men again. Casual, systemic objectification by Nice Guyz eventually moves into various forms of emotional, physical, financial, or sexual abuse. I’ve experienced anough intimate (male) partner abuse, and enough Nice Guy maltreatment from acquaintances, clients, and purported friends to put me off men entirely. I’m in my 30s and have no more patience or willingness to put up with that garbage.
Being a conventionally pretty femme white woman, I get this shit all the time. It inevitably gets worse when said Nice Guy (TM) finds out I’m a partnered lesbian; then I always hear some variation of “you need correction.” Depending on the Nice Guy (TM) this can range from, “You just haven’t met the right man yet” to “Why won’t you give men another chance? You’re so bitter!” to “You need a REAL man to fuck you straight.” This last one is usually accompanied by a once-or-twiceover or a suggestive crotch grab. The facial expression is either a leer or an angry glare, indicating a feeling of entitlement to my vagina and rage that as a Manly Man or Nice Guy (TM), some dyke is getting it, he isn’t, and this must be changed immediately.
This is why I carry a vial of pepper spray and an asp (expandable police baton) everywhere I go. I’ve been cornered enough times by Nice Guys (TM) that I’ve learned to stop following the patriarchal Murkin script of “be a nice girl” and tell him in no uncertain terms that his behavior makes me feel threatened, to go away immediately, or I will defend myself against a perceived threat with as much force as I deem necessary. Their eyes usually widen a bit when they see the asp, and then they back off.
Isn’t it fascinatinghow often right-wing politics, right-wing religion and the straight male ego all seem to converge?
Sodini’s pastor believed that wives were the literal property of their husbandsSee http://www.talk2action.org article by Bruce Wilson
Thanks for the tipI haven’t been by talk2action in a while, but with the eliminationist rhetoric from the Birth-Baggers and their corporate sponsors getting exponentially louder and more violent by the day, perhaps now would be a good time to catch up on talk2action, Dave Niewert, and Sara Robinson.
And I reiterate, all that social conditioning from his pastor and those loser “How to Bag a Pussy” seminars were merely reinforcing Sodini’s already-entrenched sense of male privilege.
Yes, what you saidThough I know plenty of genuinely nice men, I know even more of the Nice Guy (TM) types.
I would love to get one an asp. Though, since I love snakes, maybe I’ll get a real asp. That way the fact that I am “good and crazy” will be conveyed in no uncertain terms.