"Adkisson is charged with first-degree murder and is held on $1m bail"

Why? Why do we know his name and who is holding him in custody (Knoxville PD)? Why was he offered bail?

Isn't he a terrorist? Did he not commit acts of violence on civilians for a political purpose ("his "stated hatred for the liberal movement" ")?

It would appear as if one of the conservative's movements foot soldiers launched a premature attack.

"those damn liberals are taking my jobs!"

haha i'm sorry, i dont know why its so funny, its actually sad but why do these wackos always get so mad at people (its usually the mexicans) taking "their" jobs?

"they tk r jbs.."...Lord? the world is too much with me!

Can you say.."Blowback"?

Just wait until THOUSANDS of these types return from Iraq and Afghanistan...just in time to see the Family Home lost to "the subprime crisis" AKA the Phill Gramm crisis..and just in time to be offered a job wih the sheriff department..and his way to work every..just in time to see the gas he/she committed a robbery/homicide to acquire become unafordable..and just in time to listen to the increased Hate speech being spewed forth on the radio and Tee-Vee...and the "truth" limbaughed into a "blue V. red" diatribe...yeah..THAT will be GREAT! Won't it?

Watch your back..that's my motto for 2009...watch your back!

p.s. this will of course engender an entrie flock of "we need to have checkpoints, and outlaw guns and blah..blah..blah..."...at least he di not use a handgun..Shotguns are never going to be taken off the shelves...oh well..I guess Gawd did not protect them...it's "all part of His plan.." right? so why be sad?

Another Limbaugh-Hannity-Savage wannabe. Of the 7,772 hate crimes logged in 2006, how many do you think were committed against white, christian republican males?

In my own Unitarian church in Golden, Colorado, we heard briefly this past fateful Sunday about the third protestant revolution that happened in the 16th century in Transylvania, not in Wittenberg (Luther's) or in Geneva (Calvin's). It's call was for one for religious tolerance. Oh, how different the world would be today if that call had become a universal conviction.

Minutes later our congregation was shocked to hear about the tragedy in Knoxville. We are grieving for our sisters and brothers.

It is now confirmed that this incidence was rooted in religious and philosophical intolerance as it is bred, nurtured and glorified in thousands of dogmatic churches, mosques, temples, and political party headquarters all over the globe today.

Based on some cryptic texts that have been endlessly translated, modified, interpreted, added and, yes, forged, preachers and theologians declare to find various God's "immutable words", defame all non-believers and declare them as inferior.
When will people learn that dogmatism over ideas often leads to violence because what one religious person calls truth the other will call an empty claim.

Unitarian Universalism arrived from two Christian strands. The Unitarians were unconvinced of the trinity, and the Universalists could not fathom how a God who proclaimed to love humankind could hate slaves and love white plantation owners. Today, UUs let themselves be inspired from the wisdom of many spiritual traditions while rejecting the dogmatism that is the hallmark of most religions. If one's faith is only in one's beliefs, and not in one's good deeds, what is it worth, anyway?

As our minister puts it:
I believe that religion is much less about what we think than about what we love. We are a group of people who loves life, who believes in compassion for one another, who believes in human dignity, who believes in peace and compassion. And if you believe in that, we have the same religion.

The checkpoints have already begun. The CHP sets up check points on various roads throughout California, & the roads are not always major freeways. Perhaps it is time to buy rifles & ammunition before the U.S. govorporation decides that freedom for the people is not such a good idea after all.

EASY PREDICTION: Mr. Adkisson will not live to stand trial.

This is far too troublesome to those who manipulate fools, psychopaths and theo-fascists for power, and the focus thus must be shifted back on to liberals ASAP.

You mean this worthless SOB ain't dead yet? I thought they all went out with a blaze of glory after their cowardly deeds. Chickenshit must have a good lawyer or something…

quosque, your paranoid blather does not add to the discussion one bit.

It'd be fascinating if the authorities released a list of the station presets on the radio in SUV where they found his four page manifesto.
The network news magazine shows could engage in their "connecting the dots" style reporting.
It's only "Fair and Balanced" (not to mention logical) that, when a hateful, middle-aged white guy shoots up a church full of liberals, HIS media and culture diet should be examined and exposed in the same way rap lyrics and video games are when a teenager goes wrong.

george w. bush July 29th, 2008 1:08 pm

I think an even more important question is: "Of the 7,772 hate crimes logged in 2006, how many do you think were committed _BY_ white, christian republican males?"

This is simply one more example of the absolute stupidity of the "conservative mind set". The coward pictured here most likely felt justified in his actions, and arbitrarily carried out the same actions that the President of the USA and his supporters have done to countless people----he killed them because they did not believe as he did.
Which is exactly the definition of the conservative mind set.

So the thought process that had a "speech writer", then the coaches and handlers of the most powerful "conservative thinker on the planet" lead him to say: "You're either with us or against us"---is the same thought process that would cause yet one more "conservative thinking moron" to arm himself against the "ones who aren't with him---and kill them.
The argument that "conservatism" equates to insanity is very close to reality here, and this coward most likely will not be screened for mental illness. Let us hope that he does not receive the death penalty in a "death penalty state"-----he should be allowed to live out what remains of his miserable life in a very small cell.

I am very familiar with the Unitarian doctrine and there are no other group of people who are less harmless to others or even the environment than they. That someone would feel even the slightest motivation to harm even one of them, much less as many as he can before he is shot himself, is amazingly stupid but so very exemplary of the conservative mind and movement.

However in this tragic story the Unitarians will make a point. That there "liberal" approach is more worthy of consideration than the "conservative" is borne out in the facts.

There never has been a single account of a liberal shedding innocent blood---much less guilty blood----for the "liberal cause"----the "conservatives" however are literally the exact opposite.

Teach children about this incident---that they may learn from the mistakes of others---and someday----in the future-----there may hopefully be a museum somewhere that will be dedicated to exhibits informing the visitors of the "ancient and now extinct thought process known as Conservatives " --------

Conservatism is a DEADLY FLAWED DOCTRINE and has no place in reality, and no place in a society that hopes to survive.

Thank you for your time.....

"...was driven to bloodshed..."

Was he in a car pool?

Such inane words from a police chief.

This terrorist's faith based assassinations were produced by the hate radio pundents of the religious reich.
I no longer hope from any sort of law and order from Bush's America. It is time, or past time, for every honest American to arm themselves for their own sake and for the sake of their children as the Laughing Cowboy and his vigilantes are on the prowl for more human sacrifices.

I thought Quark had a good point.

I meant quousque sorry.

I can't fathom how this man was unable to find work. Sounds like he had all of the qualifications to have a successful radio talk show on our public airwaves.

Framing the incident in political or religious terms alone only serves to distort the truth- that economic circumstances can drive anyone over the edge, far enough to do all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons. Judge this man's actions within the context that caused them, an economic system that values profits uber alles.
Until we do something about that nothing of any consequence will change.

I agree with george w. bush. This is what happens when you listen to Limbaugh, Hannity, and Savage. I wonder how many more incidents like this will happen.

J. Crumb also has some good points.

"..He had apparently been out of work since 2006, and believed liberals were taking jobs he should have"

If he'd trained as a lawyer, he could have worked for the DoJ.

What blows my mind is that this is already being depoliticized in the few places that it is being reported...even on UU blogs. Even though the man's stated reason for killing two people and shooting up a sanctuary was to kill as many liberal voters as he could, since he couldn't access the liberal politicians themselves, there was nothing political about this killing. Um, how in the fuck can you depoliticize something so manifestly political? Only in America, I guess, where "political" means "partisan" means "liberal."

I guess I'm particularly stricken by how quickly UUs and other liberals have come out to depoliticize this. It is a sign of how far the Right has come in this country when they can advocate second class citizenship (if not worse) for liberals in daily radio, print and TV; then regard it as all in jest when someone takes them a little too seriously; and finally demand that liberals, in the liberal spirit of fairness and open-mindedness, defend them against the attacks of the "far left" who insinuate that describing liberals as sub-human might, just might, lead someone to act as if liberals are sub-human.

How dare we liberals actually think that a guy killing people because they are liberals means that people are killing liberals because they are liberals? Can't we see that all the horrors of the last eight years are the fault of LIBERALS? Can't we see that liberal attempts to educate people, provide adequate food and housing for people, and otherwise treat people decently are just part of the ploy to make liberals look like actual human beings, instead of just sub-human targets?

Wake up liberal/progressive/Left America. Our time is running out.

JBPM, I'm sad that UU blogs have depoliticized it. I didn't.
http://wagelaborer.blogspot.com/2008/07/unitarians-and-rush-limbaugh.html

So many people here can see the truth clearly. The hatred spewed out daily on the corporate media will lead the demented to kill us when their conditions worsen. That's the point of the broadcasts!!

The ruling class certainly doesn't want the anger turned towards them!

The John Bolton mustache should have been the first tip-off.

Boy, jcrumb, you must not know any Unitarians. "God's plan?" I don't think so!

Plus, I doubt there'll be checkpoints in a Unitarian church.

Note that the first man who died was protecting the children and the congregation subdued and held the gunman.

These are the "cowardly" liberals the right wing hate mongers are always railing about!

The line about liberals taking jobs away from him is pure BS.

Having worked with mechanical engineers in many different public and private organizations during the past thirty years, I assure you that a majority of mechanical engineers in the US lean right of center politically and the many of the organizations they are employed by lean even further right.

The man who takes out his imagined grievances against innoccent others is probably suffering from premature alzheimers syndrome and paranoid schizophrenia mixed with depression from long unemployment. In other words, rage and stupidity, a mix that many in the US of Zionism seem to suffer. Add to it the possession of lethal weapons and you have the direction of foriegn policy of the US of today.

I read on another thread that "Inside the [shooter's] house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly."

I guess Adkisson was the proxy all the hate-mongers hiding behind their 'patriotic' microphones,'Christian' pens and pulpits were waiting for. They get the multi-millionaire lifestyles; Adkisson gets arrested for murdering liberals. Mission accomplished.

I wonder what the Conservative Christians think about this...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?;s=tennessee%20church
...Oh, I see.

Hedology, your words are inane and ignorant almost beyond belief.

"I wonder what the Conservative Christians think about this?"

They love it! The number of hard-ons today in Jesusland Red State America probably exceeds the number of guns they own. How many actual plots against Obama's life is the FBI winking at right now? But it won't take an assassination to assure McCain's victory. Creeps like Adkisson (minus the homicidal intent) are the majority in what's left of this country; so McCain has it in the bag.

I'm struck by how a 'Christian' can be so filled with 'hatred' for others that he walks into a CHILDREN'S PLAY and opens fire.

A Christian is supposedly one who follows the teachings of Christ. I guess I missed the versus about walking into the religious sanctuary of people who don't agree with you and gunning them down while they watch their children perform a play. Was this in one of those newer gospels of Jesus that the archealogists sometimes find or that a church committee kept out of the bible?

Funny, the parts of the gospels of Jesus Christ that I remember from my days in a church in east Tennessee all talked about 'turning the other cheek' and loving one's enemy.

Yeah, even in east Tennessee the church my parents took me to taught that sort of stuff. I guess I'm lucky it was nearly 40 years ago and in those days even the religious nut jobs didn't go into a church and start shooting at kids like I used to be.

I'm constantly struck by all this hatred in the name of Jesus Christ, who seemed to teach the message that everyone should love each other. Some people have seriously missed the point.

My vision of paradise is me sitting in a comfy chair near the pearly gates where St. Peter is greeting the potential new arrivals to heaven. Hopefully with a nice drink in one hand and something pleasant to smoke in the other. Then I'd get to sit there and watch St. Peter tell misguided fools like this just exactly how badly they got the whole idea wrong.

Then get see the look on their face as they are banished to the nether regions of hell reserved for the sort of evil hateful @#$@%@s who would walk into a children's play and open fire.

I'd probably get bored with that after awhile, and then go of to other parts of paradise to check out what's going on. Bob Marley has to be jamming in a room somewhere. But, this is sure a fun vision to fantasize about.

MS is as wrong as usual. Get out and really see America, and you'll realize that nut jobs like this are not anywhere near the majority.

I count what, 5, 6,7 in the last 10 years or more.

You've got this fool. You've got Eric Rudolph who set the bomb at the Atlanta Olympics and some more at abortion clinics and a gay\lesbian bar. You've got a guy who gunned down abortion doctors. I remember a racist in Illinois who went on a killing spree.

Even if I missed a few, in a nation of 300,000,000 that's no where near a majority.

Some poll numbers for the blind and misinformed.
-Bush has a job approval rating in the low 20's.
-Cheney has a job approval rating getting down near single digits.
-Congress has a job approval rating that is in single digits precisely because of their failure to stand up to Bush and Cheney.
-The Iraq war has an approval rating of the low 20's. When given options on when to pull out, big vast majorities of Americans want us out by whatever choice they think is practical.
-A majority of Americans think Bush should be impeached if he's committed crimes.

So, where is your crazy, right-wing, McCain supporting majority in these numbers?
-----------------------
I suspect one would have no trouble walking into a very fundamentalist church and finding lots of people who think this was just plain sick and who are appalled by this heinous act.
--------------------
One of the key things of any struggle is to know your enemy. It helps if you do, and don't just go by bizarre rants on a message board. Get out and meet people.
---------------------
And McCain doesn't have a prayer of winning. Zero, nada, none, no chance.

And the real thing to realize is that the money behind the throne could care less if the Republicans stay in power. They are perfectly happy with a pro-war, pro-corporate Democrat named Obama putting a new face on the same policies. If they weren't, then Obama wouldn't have raised $350 million and McCain wouldn't be begging for public financing.

Im with Garvey @12:36pm

Isn't this a nearly perfect example of "terrorism"? Shouldn't we put all people with these kinds of values and political views on a "Watch" list? Shouldn't they be spied on, wiretapped, and have any organizations they are apart of infiltrated? Thats sure what they do to us "leftists", and none of us have hurt anybody.

On a much more sad note, my condolences to those who died watching a childrens play.

The bit about liberals taking his jobs is fascinating actually.

If you read Paul Craig Roberts, he writes constantly on the decline of engineering jobs in America. He makes the rather obvious point that if you send the manufacturing jobs overseas, the engineering jobs will follow. Makes sense since in many ways engineering is just building and improving the machines that are used to manufacture.

This of course is the policy of corporate executives and big shareholders. They are the ones who get the bonuses and the profits when a company makes more profit by using cheaper labor overseas.

But, of course, these same corporate executives and shareholders own most the media in this country. So the last thing they would do would be to honestly tell people what the real cause of the problem is. And one would suspect that the thing that could make them nervous would be if most Americans started to figure our who is really responsible for the economic hard times we face individually.

Thus, the propaganda myth that 'its the liberals' fault is put forward instead. And fools like this believe it.
-------------------------
The right has long been pushing the idea that free speech should be restricted such that anyone who's preaching leads to terror acts can be shut up and prosecuted. This of course is aimed at islamic clerics who are supposed to be teaching hatred that leads to terror attacks.

But, in this case you've got people on the radio who are well paid to preach very similar hatred against those their corporate masters have deemed the enemy. And its done very deliberately to mislead the very people who are screwed by their economic policies into not correctly blaming the same corporate masters for their problems.

Isn't that at least as serious problem to society as some rogue islamic cleric?

"the church to be a bastion of liberalism in an otherwise socially conservative area of eastern Tennessee."

That's just a British paper saying they don't know @#$%$ other than stereotypes themselves.

Knoxville is a decent sized urban area. Such urban areas are always more liberal than the conservative hinterlands around them. Knoxville is also a major university city, which is also usually a pretty good indicator that its more liberal that other areas.

The typical voting pattern in most areas like this is that liberals and Democrats do pretty well in the cities. Certainly in the true urban areas. Sometimes its balanced out by having more conservative areas in suburbs that are within the city limits. And even those 'conservative suburbs' are more conservative soccer moms than they are crazy, gun-toting, religious extremists. I'd have very little doubt that almost everyone in those conservative suburbs are also shocked, saddened and sickened by this.

Its just as wrong for the left to smear its enemies with hateful stereotypes as it is the other way around.

At my UU congregation last night, we held a vigil much as UUs all over the nation did. There was much said of sorrow, fear and even of anger. But nothing was said of hate. The anger was directed to the man's unemployment situation, the dearth of access to mental health care, the teaching of hatred that he had learned as well as the fragility of our existence. I understand that Adkisson had a book at home written by Michael Savage claiming liberal thinking is mental illness. Imagine! An entire book claiming that written by a media celebrity. No. UUvies will continue to pursue reasoned, moral understanding and actions. When King non-violently marched in Alabama, many UUvies were there. One UUA minister was killed and eulogized by King. Three of our first six presidents were Unitarians including the author of our Declaration of Independence. Are we UUvies being naive, unrealistic or being taken advantage of when we refuse to buy into hatred, intolerance and injustice? I know we have some Republicans in our congregation. I do not believe that liberal thinking is reserved to one political party. The noun has been demonized by those who would teach hate and divide our nation for their own reasons.

There's the home-grown terrorist that American politicians and commentators have been warning us about for the last seven years.

Since this guy had Savage's book at home, is it too far fetched to implicate Savage for inciting hatred against liberals?

You've got nearly an entire town in western Maryland who think like this guy if they are able to think at all. Fascists have been indoctrinating these locals for many years. Rush Limbaugh plays every day on the local radio in addition to a fascist local talk show host, the editorial page of the newspaper runs Cal Thomas or Bill O'Reilly or some other so-called "conservative" every five out of six days, and the so-called "liberal" viewpoint amounts to that of some syndicated wishy-washy moderate.

Today's paper runs a large photo of the local senile Republican Congressman, Roscoe Bartlett, handing a belated medal to a World War II vet. this is at least the third time Roscoe Bartlett has been in the newspaper awarding belated medals to WW II vets.

The USDA just awarded $50,000 to Allegany County schools, and the superintendent is using all of it to increase video surveillance and purchase two-way radios to keep the schools in close contact with Homeland Security. the ruling fascist's idea of a profitable business around here involves video slot machines. They tore down one of the last affordable housing project where blacks lived, and now they're going to build townhouses for sale in its place. So they're come up with six or seven different names for the townhouse project, all but two having something to do with African-American history, and are in the newspaper wanting local citizens to vote on the name. The other two names are those of a deceased local banker and also a former president of the Kelly-Springfield Tire Company, of which a retired CEO is now the mayor. Otherwise, it's "Duke Ellington Plaza" or "Frederick Douglass Square" etc...This is pretty ironic given that the local establishment is doing its level best to purge black people from this area who probably can't afford to buy one of those new townhouses anyway.

Maybe I should go down to the small, local U.U. Fellowship and stand guard outside every Sunday.

Gee, I wonder which name will win?

This guy is the rightwing's "Manchurian Candidate" . .

The elite create poverty and crime and then blame it on
liberal government ---

This guy is so spun around by O'Reilly and Hannity, I'm
grateful this is all he succeeded in doing!

This isn't new . . . we also saw this aggressive move by the right wing to send out the nuts when Clinton became president.

When the rightwing becomes fearful of not being able to
at least pull off another steal --- keep your eyes open
and watch carefully!!!

This (alleged) murderer shows why the Republican party has a mass base in this country. There's the conservative entitlement mentality: I deserve a good living because I'm [fill in the blank, e.g. white, middle class, an engineer], and if I don't get it I'll blame some minority that I feel superior to rather than those who own the banks and businesses, and the politicians they control. Because I need to be above others! Then there's the hypocrisy. This guy was on food stamps even though he was able-bodied and below retirement age. Surely he has raged against "sniveling welfare cheats" at some point in his past?

"I wonder what the Conservative Christians think about this?"

Be prepared to lol:

http://www.rr-bb.com/showthread.php?t=54177

claudius July 29th, 2008 6:38 pm

"Since this guy had Savage's book at home, is it too far fetched to implicate Savage for inciting hatred against liberals?"

Why stop at Savage? Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, Ingraham, Levin, Larson... The list goes on and on. These cowardly and irresponsible reprobates will be the last to ever admit their complicity in inflaming violence against liberals by their fearful minions.

Beyond the ugliness of the death and violence, there is something perversly wierd about this entire incident. The murderer's letter sounds like it was written by a consortium of Christo-fascists spokespersons like Pat Robertson, John Hagee, James Dobson, etc

Good ol' white boy, airborn vetern, out of work, angry at Liberals. Some of police chief Owen's comments don't inspire too much confidence either,"I don't think he intended to leave alive","hatred for the Liberal movement","had been planning the attack for weeks".

This sounds like the kind of mind control conditioning that led Sirhan Sirhan to confess to the execution of Bobby Kennedy even though repeated questioning could not determine a motive or how he knew Bobby would be going through the kitchen when that decision was not made until the moment they were ready to leave the Ambassador Hotel.

This guy needs to be thoroughly probed and examined for indications of mind control tampering. Now who would benefit from directing an assassin to go wild in a "Liberal Church"? Hmmm.....

Quark: " If one's faith is only in one's beliefs, and not in one's good deeds, what is it worth, anyway? " ~ Very well said!

(- and your Minister sounds like a great soul too!)

NeoFauve: @ 1:46pm... Great points!
NativeSon: thanks too for yr intelligent comments.
Overkill: Yours too, - I was going to make similar points.

Yes, Redcelt: " ...Judge this man's actions within the context that caused them, an economic system that values profits uber alles..."

Also GreenerThanThou, JBPM, Hedology, Sllawrence, Samson, Urthsong, Claudius, Miftin, Conscience, Militantliberal, Ted Markow, Poet, _and others: You've all made points which I think are very pertinent:

That demented being in Tennessee is but a symptom of *a very sick society*.
He may well stand trial, -- but someone could well build a stadium-sized court house now, so that ALL of the sick characters who vent appalling hatred towards any not exactly of their unwholesome breed, can likewise be bought to book...

The hate-mongers, the war-mongers, the industrial-strength arrogance and separatism which so pervades the USA, are all an *illness*, --a ghastly plague, but unlike typhoid or the common cold, it is (sinfully) being deliberately and consciously spread.
The infected old spread it to the young, so that they too then become sick with this truly *God-forsaken* malaise.

Which part of "Love thy neighbour" do they fail to understand?

There's not a chance that God will, 'Bless America'! – not for as long as so many of her wayward citizens continue to behave in such a prehensile and hateful manner.
If this dire situation isn't turned around in good time, the only 'blessing' may turn out to be similar to that which Atlantis finally experienced in it's last days, when it too failed to correct itself...

...Even today the Californian earth quaked...

__________________

** You U.S. Progressives are the Light and the Hope of your nation. **
__________________

There's an urgent need to totally reject the scheming blandishments of the status quo / establishment, and re-ignite the TRUE Spirit of America! - that which flies and soars eagle-high over her present social / cultural abyss.

Let thousands of reborn Tom Paines, MLK's and Henry Thoreaus (et al) lead us into courageously outwitting / re-educating those dead-hearted dullards who are still immersed in tragic mires of old-age barbarity.

We've got New Minds, New Hearts, and a New World to build.

~ Let's at it!

U-C-D
xx

Ted Markow,

I wholeheartedly agree that we should include the other people you listed. And you are correct in your assertion that they will never admit their complicity. But I am wondering if a slick attorney could at least snare Savage in this particular case, which would be a start.

"Since this guy had Savage's book at home, is it too far fetched to implicate Savage for inciting hatred against liberals?"

And what of O'Reilly, Huckabee, and FOX commentators who have made comments about shooting or lynching one of the Obama's? if god forbid anything happened to one of them?

"But I am wondering if a slick attorney could at least snare Savage in this particular case, which would be a start."

Hmmm, I wonder what F. Lee Bailey is doing?

It would be a wonderful precedent to see one of these radio thugs brought down in court. I think, however, that it will have to be the court of We, the People, who finally do the deed. Not that I'm inciting anyone to violence, just to smart, well aimed tactics to start showing these Nazis for what they are.

SavetheBOR July 29th, 2008 8:18 pm

"And what of O'Reilly, Huckabee, and FOX commentators who have made comments about shooting or lynching one of the Obama's? if god forbid anything happened to one of them?"

I'm sure you're not the only one to have this cross their mind. As more shit hits the fan and we suffer more repercussions from right-wing thuggish tactics, anger and desperation will start boiling over. It always happens when the rich get too big for their pants. Stay tuned.