Mike Gold: Bat-Madness
We don’t want to think we’re all just one brain-vein rupture away from committing murder, but most of us know in our heart of hearts this is so. To avoid that horrible prospect, every time something like the Dark Knight slayings happens we try to pin the blame on … something … somebody.
Attention-hungry quack shrinks who have never met the accused killer in Aurora Colorado let alone examined him or even studied his still-unfolding life history run to the nearest media outlet to promote themselves and their baseless theories – baseless because they don’t know the suspect or his story. And the media, like greedy whores in their own gravity-free reality show, lap it up and put it all in print and on the air as though there’s actually some legitimacy in these pontifications.
Liberals clamor for gun control, nonsensically posturing that if there were no guns there would be no killings. This is like blaming water for drowning. Mr. Holmes – and I note the American Way caveat of innocent until proven guilty – seems to have been resourceful enough to come up with alternatives, as the 24-hour stand-off at his booby trapped apartment clearly illustrates. Sure, citizens need assault weapons only slightly more than we need personal tactical nuclear weapons, but it doesn’t take a PhD in science to make a weapon of mass destruction. 20 minutes alone at a Home Depot should do it.
Modern conservatives say if everybody were armed, the shooter would have been put down early. Right. In a dark theater. Many of these same people put down Scientology or Mormonism because they think that stuff is wacky.
Some media, in their insatiable need for gaudy art, blame the comics – in particular Frank Miller’s best-selling Batman work. At least this gets Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan off the hook for creating a villain with a name that sounds just like the Republican presidential candidate’s Achilles’ heel. Of course, there have been about a million Batman stories published 73 years and you could find hundreds of similarities within the greater Bat grimoire. In fact, the whole Joker-gassing-the-public bit dates back to the earliest stories. I can’t forgive Frank for The Spirit, but people who are trying to conflate the Colorado shootings with his work are lazy slobs.
The fact is, James Holmes is a smart, highly accomplished young man of 24 from a church-going family in San Diego, California, the nicest city in the nation. That’s reality. Some cheap-shot artists are braying “somebody should have said something!” Well, his high school friends said he was pretty normal. His colleges acquaintances said he pretty much kept to himself, although there are reports he would frequent bars and other public places and engage in rational conversation, even up to a few days before the killings. I don’t think Philip K. Dick could have seen this one coming.
Again, reminding us all that he is merely the suspect and hasn’t been convicted of anything, Holmes appears to have simply snapped. Perhaps this happened a couple months ago when he started the process of dropping out of his post-grad programs. It would have taken him that long to put together the guns, the ammo, the hand-wired bombs and whatever else turns up.
I’m not saying he’s insane, at least not in the legal sense of knowing right from wrong. That’s a matter for the prosecution, the defense, and the jury. I’m saying he snapped. Just like anybody could snap. Anybody who feels he or she has nothing to lose, or something important to prove. Under the exactly wrong circumstances, that can be any one of us.
And that’s the true horror of the Aurora Colorado Dark Knight shootings.
THURSDAY: Dennis O’Neil
Um, I think water (or liquids, anyway) does cause drowning. Also, being stupid about swimming when you don’t know how, there are no lifeguards, the weather/tides are dicey,etc.
Many people who advocate gun control don’t want to eliminate guns. They want to make the people who get them demonstrate that they can handle the weapons. Much like one needs to pass a test to get a driver’s license. I realize these are two different things, that the right to drive a car isn’t guaranteed in the constitution. I’m just trying to say that there are degrees of opposition to guns.
Me, when I rulef the Universe, I’ll get rid of them all.
When you rule the universe, you’ll have to start with eliminating all the sulfur, charcoal and salt peter in the world. Whereas that stuff, in proper combination (call me for details, Martha), gave us the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s also the root cause of bullets.
Of course, we use that stuff for other purposes — including medicinal. And vaporizing salt peter will both lead to an increase in population and to the end of corned beef, which, as we all know, will destroy New York City’s economy.
Ummm, Nobel’s money came from dynamite, which is made from nitric acid, sulfuric acid, glycerol and diatomaceous earth. not from gunpowder.
Thanks, Mike. You’re right, of course.
You know, we should start handing out chem lab credit for reading ComicMix.
When I was kid I looked up gunpowder in the encyclopedia. Went to the local Rexall drugstore and bought sulfur and saltpeter, Crushed some charcoal briquettes between two bricks until it was powder. Mixed it all together in the proportions that the encyclopedia said was the formula and had a bit a fun on a lazy summer day.
Today, about 40 years laterI don’t own a gun. I might like to, but it’s not a priority.
Well, at least you can get gunpowder. Buy or make some bullet molds and you’re set.
I haven’t had a gun in years. Haven’t needed one. And that scares some folk a bit.
I miss Rexall. Tell me, George, was sulphur covered in their one-cent sales?
I used to mess around with saltpeter and sugar. Mixed 50/50, it makes rocket fuel.
Mike, that’s cool. Where did you get the rocket?
And why did NASA waste all that time and money with liquid nitrogen?
It’s only good for SMALL rockets. Something like Estes, but somewhat bigger and more powerful.
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Up to about, say, six feet long and making it several miles high. With the proper nozzle…
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You can melt it and cast it in your kitchen oven if you’re careful – it melts at 450F but doen’t ignite till somewhere north of 600F.
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But you didn’t hear that from me.
bravo Mike. spot on breakdown of the situation on all sides!
Great point there, Mike. He’s not a monster; he COULD be any one of us. He’s a human being who has done terrible, terrible things. He IS one of us.
I rather like Chris Rock’s take on gun control. How about we make the bullets REALLY expensive, that way if you do want to use a gun to kill people, you have to make sure that it is worth the investment. Satire is great.
I’m a big fan of Rock’s, and I miss his HBO show. But, well, damn, it’s pretty damn easy to make bullets. As George and I pointed out above.
And that’s the perspective we always overlook. This guy had his apartment boobie-trapped (an awful phrase, that) to kingdom come. Evidently, he had grenades — either on him, or at his apartment. Virtually everybody has enough shit under their kitchen sink to blow up their house, if not the block, if not the neighborhood.
I am absolutely opposed to the impulse (read: immediate) purchase of guns. Absolutely. Waiting periods, background checks, that’s all okay by me. But for the guy who spends a couple weeks or a couple months putting his massacre together — as the Accused is accused of doing — gun control is not a deterrent. Not in the least.
I’m not advocating AGAINST gun control or FOR guns, although I do advocate for the right to self-defense. I’m saying that this is one of those cases where the problem isn’t guns. It’s dangerous looneys.
I’d just like to say that I think it would be a good idea, especially for people in the comic book industry, to stop referring to this tragedy as the “Dark Knight Slayings” or the “Dark Knight Rises shooting tragedy”. As far as I can tell, it had nothing to do with the movie other than this individual knew that it would be a sold out crowd. Stick with the “Aurora Movie Theater Slayings” and attempt to distance Batman as far as possible.
I even read a report that mentioned he had Bright Orange hair so he was trying to be like the Joker “who also has brightly colored hair”. No mention that the Joker has green hair and thus the conclusion is inane.
Just a thought.
Yeah, the hair thing bothers me as well. Maybe he was just a Cesar Romero fan.
I think he has some sort of affinity with Batman — yeah, this was pretty much the sold-outest of the sold-out midnight premieres thus far, but his “I am the Joker” revelation (if true) and the Batman stuff found in his apartment (if true) shows some sort of affinity for the character.
Nonetheless, Todd, I agree with your point. In fact, I stopped using the phrase “Dark Knight slayings” etc a couple days ago. I could have updated my column.
Apparently that’s not true – he didn’t say anything about the Joker, apparently.
Yeah, that’s why I keep saying “if true” after everything. Facts roll out slowly, and reports go back and forth. Never trust anything you hear the first couple of hours after a big story breaks.
I note further that while nobody *needs* a 100-round drum magazine (a “C-mag”, with which the accused reportedly equipped his rifle), it was that very device that may have saved lives, as according to reports it jammed shortly after the shooting began (as C-mags are prone to do). Had the shooter used mere 10-round magazines, the rifle would have been silent only for the time needed to change them, which isn’t long at all.
Another report that boiled my shorts was a claim that the shooter was inspired by a particular scene in the movie “The Dark Knight Rises”. How would that even be possible? He started shooting before the movie started playing! Was he precognitive, influenced by things that hadn’t even happened yet?
Last, I just want to promote anew an idea promulgated by David Brin in recent blog postings – the idea that certain accused criminals do not need their names blasted all over the place, that notoriety might be exactly what propels some of them. It has been proposed that we label them with the nature, place, and date of the crime – a procedure that would also make it easier on family members, and on purportedly reformed criminals who’ve served their prison sentences. Accordingly, I shall refer to the accused as Accused.Aurora.20120720.001. (Should he be convicted, he’ll become Murderer.Aurora.20120720.001, of course.)
Aurora tragedy… It was The Killing Joke. Literally.
Killing Joke had better art.
Mike,
Absolutely fantastic commentary..I wish it was printed in every editorial page in every paper in America. It’s that good.