"America is a nation of laws to be adjudicated blindly. Without the guardrails of the law to keep us safe, there is anarchy."

I am not for anarchy. I am firmly for all property rights to be enforced. I lived in Colorado Springs for 15 years. The only time I need the police were when soldiers from Fort Carson robbed me. 3 times. Maybe alot was happening while I was sleeping. They did come to the house one time while we were backpacking. Kira had a party. They lined everyone up on the couch. I found out about it 3 days later. No one was arrested. I lived in Broadmoor. If you don't understand that, it means we try not to arrest any homeowners or their children from Broadmoor. It's a dumb rule-the rule should be-we go out of our way not to arrest ANYONE who has not committed a violent crime.

I haven't seen any statistics one way or the other. I don't mind drug dealers getting smacked around but I think cops need to do a better job maintaining calm and order rather than being the aggressor. I am also worried about some of the equipment being purchased by Police these days. What are they getting prepared for?

Anyone that bases their actions on emotion rather than reason is a crisis away from being a mortal threat to innocent bystanders. Philosophies based on faith are emotional reactions to fear of the unknown where a mystical explanation is provided as a substitute for knowledge. The stronger the faith, the more danger lurks beneath the surface. Christianity is undoubtedly a mellower cousin of Islam that can be compared in their moderate states and in there extreme stated. Comparing the extreme of one to the middle of the other is unfair.
There are plenty modern examples of Christians killing innocents under the cover of their definition of war. Drones get the passers by as well as the alleged, unconvicted terrorist leader. Villages were wiped out in Vietnam due to suspected enemies. bombs were dropped on cities during WW II killing thousands of women and children. What is the difference between a political war and a holy war? I do not say any of this because I believe I have the answer but until we look at this subject fro mall angles we will never reach a solution.

see-you and I are always on opposite sides. why is that? you are a law and order R aren't you?

I used to almost automatically defend the Police but I have seen too many situations like that. I think people support it because they feel safer and figure they aren't doing anything wrong so they have nothing to worry about. They don't know it is about control and if need be the powers that be will invent something they did wrong.

we need to control you. I am amazed at the number of people I talk with who like that idea :)
I posted a video (from my town of Colo Spgs) this small woman, handcuffed but admittedly somewhat combative get body slammed face down-the cop was twice her size. all sorts of people agreed with the cop. they thought she knocked him in the nuts. he showed no signs of impairment. I can tell you honestly, if I am ever arrested, I will not go meekly

While radical Islam is a clear and present danger, if you really want to answer the question, you have to think more widely. Left wing terrorism died with the Weather Underground in the 1970s, but remember that President McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist. The Wall Street Bombing of September 16, 1920, killed 30 people. You would have to include today's radical labor movement in that also, which continues a much lower but persistent campaign of force. Then, look on the far right. Citizen militias and sovereign citizens, Aryans, and fundamentalist Christians show up here, just as potential terrorists of the left - Anti WTO, for example - associate with socialists and liberals who disavow and denounce them.

What do they have in common? Eric Hoffer's The True Believer gave a good summary of the character traits of the terrorist. Of course, admittedly, very few joiners and followers of political movements engage in actual violence towards others. That may leave the question unanswered.

It is my opinion that the really deadly types are conditioned to be soldiers of God in their church. This can be a Christian or a Muslim that has taken up the challenge to do God's work by self sacrifice and ridding the world of sinners and non-believers. Each sees their actions as a means to heaven and everlasting life. Unfortunately, this message is presented a little more strongly in Islamic teachings. Moderates of all faiths seek to persuade others to do the right thing and resist the command to commit physical acts to punish them. Unfortunately, the stronger the underlying belief that they should do so, the easier it is to trigger them into action. ISIS understands that they can use social media in addition to face to face means to inspire acts of terrorism in young people that are prone to extreme emotions and they are very good at doing so. Even in cases of racial violence church leaders are in front telling their flock about the morally corrupt blacks or the slave raping white devils. I see far more hate than love for fellow men coming from religious leaders of all faiths. We are so busy being politically correct that we are blind to the threats that lay dormant all around us.

All right, help me out here.

Some piece of garbage walks into a Wednesday night prayer meeting at a predominately black church prayer meeting and shoots the place up, killing 9 and wounding others. Everyone from the President on down busts a gut to get on TV to slam presumably everyone south of Pennsylvania, and I can't go into Wal-Mart and buy a Dukes of Hazzard Hot Wheels car because it has (GASP!) a Confederate battle flag on it.

Fast forward: Some islamist suck hole shoots up two recruiting centers, killing four and wounding several others. The White House and the media seem oddly reluctant to condemn anyone. Why isn't there an outcry to remove Islamic banners and signs from everywhere? Why aren't leftist groups howling for mohammadeans to repent their evil ways? What about the centuries of hate from them against westerners being thrown up in everyone's face ad nauseum? After all, they've been targeting Americans since the days of the Barbary Pirates!

Profile??? I thought that was evil and effective.

In the hours after this horror, I was sitting in an Infragard meeting. The special agent who opened the presentation outlined some of the commonalities among American terrorists who were associated with foreign causes. (They are different from domestic terrorists on the right, and, I add, apparently different from those on the American left, also.) The SA also did not mention this. Neither did any of the 50 other people in the room, though by this time, the attack was news.

+ They talk about their beliefs in social media.
+ They denounce the United States.
+ They often live at home with their parents.
+ They are self-radicalized. They view al Qaeda USA (now branded as "Inspire" media), YouTube videos, etc., and are not radicalized by co-religionists here in America.
+ They are copycat criminals, admiring the previous works of others and imitating them.

However, among the small sample set (about twenty in all), some outliers remain. Before this attack, the previous perpetrator had no religious convictions before adopting Islam. (Often, these people move from one faith to another.) Although most attacks involve guns or bombs, one was carried out with a hatchet. (Zale Thompson, Oct. 24, 2014).


In this case, the criminal was in no way socially isolated, an outcast, a loner, or misfit. He seems to have been a regular guy. However, it is clear that his trip to Kuwait last year brought change. Whether that took place before he went there is not clear. None of his co-religionists or other social circle know of any radicalization here. At least, those are the common news reports in the first 24 hours.

Another commonality that the FBI special agent did not mention - in fact, as I recall, ruled out in profiling - was occupation. Engineers are disproportionately represented among jihadi not in the USA. This case put the perpetrator within that set. More on that later.

If this guy wasn't even on the radar as some have said then why are we spending so much money and giving up so much freedom? I guess we know the answer.

They are willing to die for their beliefs.