YouTube Shooter

On April 3, 2018, an attack against YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, California, left four people shot and the shooter dead by her own hand. She called herself a "vegan vlogger."

Police identified the woman in Tuesday's shooting as San Diego resident Nasim Najafi Aghdam, who was in her late 30s. She may have been a disgruntled user of the video-sharing site.
Aghdam wounded three people at the campus in San Bruno, south of San Francisco, then turned the gun on herself, authorities said. A fourth person suffered an ankle injury while escaping the gunfire.

Aghdam appears to have been a prolific, longtime social media user. She lists four YouTube channels -- one in Farsi, one in Turkish, one in English and one devoted to hand art. It also lists an Instagram page that focuses on vegan life and animal rights.

Nasim Najafi Aghdam's grievances against YouTube appear to be centered around censorship and revenue.
"There is no equal growth opportunity on YOUTUBE or any other video sharing site, your channel will grow if they want to!!!!!" one post reads. "Youtube filtered my channels to keep them from getting views!"

Another post accuses "close-minded" YouTube employees of putting an age restriction on videos, saying it's aimed at reducing views and discouraging the woman from making new videos.

On a YouTube channel, the same woman described herself as a vegan bodybuilder and an animal rights activist. By Tuesday night, the account had been terminated, with a YouTube message citing "multiple or severe violations" of its policy.
The postings are not limited to YouTube. Videos on several social media platforms include posts on animal rights, vegan lifestyle and the political system in Iran. Others include a bizarre mix of musical parodies.
YouTube was founded in February 2005 and quickly became a major site for online videos. It was later purchased by Google.
More than 1,100 people work at the YouTube office in San Bruno, about 10 miles from San Francisco.
As questions remain on the motive, police have said there's no evidence the shooter knew the victims or that they were specifically targeted. 

The YouTube shooter joins a rare list of female attackers. The FBI examined active shooter incidents in the United States between 2000 and 2016, and found that only nine of the 220 incidents involved female shooters. 

Female shooters in mass situations are rare.

A married couple, Syed Rizwan Farook, and his wife, Tashfeen Malik massacred 14 people at a holiday party in 2015 in San Bernardino, California. Farook had worked with the San Bernardino County health department, which was hosting the party when the attack took place. They were both killed in a shootout with police.
On January 30, 2006, Jennifer San Marco visited her former place of employment, a postal distribution center in Goleta, California, and fatally shot six employees after killing a one-time neighbor. She then killed herself.

Fair use via New York Times, CNN and other outlets.

The Real Angel of Cleveland

A less dynamic, non-English speaker may be one of the forgotten heroes of the Cleveland rescue. The focus of the viral interview of Charles Ramsey is beginning to crumble around the edges. But will any of this be remembered beyond today, in the wake of stories of chains, five pregnancies, torture, and other sickening violence? (The graphic breaking details from reporter Michael Baldwin's interviews are spreading today, and sweeping away initial "discovery" details.)

The English-speaking media darling of the Cleveland rescue is only a human being.

The highlighting of the melodramatic Ramsey interview on video, of McDonald's and visual imagery, may be ignoring the reality of what happened. First off, Charles Ramsey's newly revealed criminal record is not doing him any good. As Smoking Gun and other sources are noting, in January 2003, Ramsey allegedly was arrested for the second time for domestic violence and served time in the Lorain, Ohio, Correctional Institution. Yes, Lorain.

Lorain Correctional mugshot of Charles Ramsey.

Ramsey had been incarcerated in Lorain, also in the early 1990s for drug abuse and other minor crimes. Lorain Avenue, as previously noted, was the site of the Knight, Berry, and DeJesus kidnappings.

There is "profiling" that needs to take place sometimes - of patterns in kidnappings, in appearances, in name links, in location overlaps. Not all "profiling" is inappropriate, of course.

Michelle Knight (note headband)

 Gina DeJesus (note headband)

 Amanda Berry (note headband)

It appears another man - Angel Cordero - may have actually and initially been the one to have noticed Amanda Berry's shouts, to have arranged her escape, and to have handed her a cellphone for that dramatic oft-heard 911 call. Listening closely to Ramsey's interviews, you will note he says "we," but never named Cordero.

Angel Cordero's name is literally an angelic name game. 

Angel (from the Greek ἄγγελος - ángelos) is a supernatural being or spirit, usually humanoid in form, found in various religions and mythologies.

Cordero derives from the Latin cordus meaning "young" plus "aries" - the ram, and the translation is "the little lamb" or the "young ram," or even possibly the "son of the ram." There are claims that the name is a descriptive metonymic for a shepherd, and this is a possibility, except that usually shepherds look after all the sheep, not just the young lambs as suggested by the name. 

Cordero-named individuals have, within their name, an acknowledgement of shepherding the young innocents, metaphorically, the lambs. Add "angel" and that's is a rather powerful name.

"I kicked the door at the bottom because I was trying to get it open because it was too hard so I got it at the bottom and that's when Amanda ran out of the house," said Angel Cordero through a translator.

Fox 8 noted:

"I was the first person who broke the door,” said Angel Cordero, 32.
In Spanish, Cordero said he was the first person to break down the door to rescue the three missing women from the home on Seymour Avenue Monday afternoon.
Cordero said he was at a friend’s house right across the street when he heard Amanda Berry, 27, screaming for help and trying to escape.
“I crossed the street and I asked the girl what was happening and she told me that she’s been kidnapped for 10 years. We tried together to open the door but it was locked with a chain and the door didn’t open much so I kicked the door open,” Cordero explained.
Cordero says he, Charles Ramsey and other neighbors helped the women escape from the house, then got Berry to a phone so she could call police.

But Cordero is one who is not upset that Ramsey is getting most of the credit. He doesn't feel like a hero.

“I feel normal. I did something I needed to do. A big, important favor,” said Cordero to Fox 8. 

Angel Cordero (pictured) says that he does not harbor any resentment or jealousy toward Charles Ramsey, as long as the women he helped rescue from the home are okay.

WPTV reported on Cordero and the involvement of another man, Wintel Tejeda:

“Ramsey arrived after she was outside with the girl,” Cordero said. “But the truth who arrived there, who crossed the street, who came and broke the door, it was me.”
Wintel Tejeda, who lives across the street from the suspect’s house, said others helped and when Berry came out, they gave her a phone.
“She was able to call police from my house,” Tejeda said in Spanish.
Now with Ramsey’s interview making headlines, both men said they’re not jealous.
“I did what had to be done. I helped her,” Cordero said. “They have their daughter, daughters are safe over there.”

The names Tejeda, Tejada are derivatives of "Tejado" meaning tile, and originally meant the place of the tile roofs, or the place where tiles were made. "Teja" means "(roof) tile" or "lime tree."

Hat tips to Dave McM + RPJ.

Quebec's Alleged Shooter Named Bain

You can't make this up: The shooting suspect has been identified as Richard Henry Bain. Yes, Bain, like in Bain Capital, the company founded by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Bain, which sounds exactly like Bane, was discussed in depth before the appearance of the villain Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, which was shown at the July 20th midnight showing in the Aurora theater where the shooting occurred.

For my deeper dissection of Bane/Bain, please click here.

Richard Henry Bain now pops up as the suspect in this strange shooting in Quebec.

Was there an attempt on the life of the newly elected future premier, Pauline Marois of Quebec, on Tuesday, September 4, 2012?

An undercover security unit officer is shown in plaid. For more on how plaid showed up in Aurora, in the guise of the mysterious "second gunman" candidate, click here.

Photo: Jean-Francois Lemire.

Voting had just returned the Parti Québécois to power Tuesday. A rally celebrating the Marois (Marios = "dweller at or near a marsh") victory in the historic Quebec election ended in tragedy.  Several shoots erupted from a rifle held by a masked gunman, which resulted in one person killed and another wounded. The gunfire began after an apparent diversion fire was set at the back of the crowded Montreal concert hall, where PQ Leader Pauline Marois was celebrating her minority mandate.

The name of the location of the shooting, The Metropolis, reminded me of 1927 German expressionist science-fiction film by the same name, directed by Fritz Lang.

Photo: Jean-Francois Lemire.

One shooting victim, a 45-year-old man, later died, while another person wounded in the shooting was out of danger. A third person was in hospital, recovering from shock.

The balaclava is also called a a Templar cap.

A large 62-year-old man (shown at top) wearing a black balaclava, black shirt, glasses, shorts, and what was described as a blue bathrobe or housecoat was arrested. The suspect reportedly spoke French with an accent. His two firearms were seized. (On Tuesday, he was named as Richard Henry Bain.)

This shooting was taken seriously by the security units protecting Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois.

It was clearly a political shooting. "The English are waking up, the English are waking up ... It's payback ... Yeah, yeah, that's enough," the man muttered as police officers led him away in handcuffs. Local media reported that he also shouted: "It's gonna be fucking payback!"

Photo: Graham Hughes.

Parti Québécois Leader Pauline Marois is rushed from the stage by her security team as shooting began as she started to speak to supporters in Montreal on September 4, 2012.

Photo: Rogerio Barbosa.

Photo: Rogerio Barbosa.

Photo: Rogerio Barbosa.

After defeating the Liberals, Marois, 63, who had been severely criticized for campaigning on identity and language themes, had some conciliatory words for Quebec's anglophone and native communities, speaking of their shared history. In a rare move for her, Marois spoke in English to say their rights would be respected.

Nevertheless, she struck a tougher stance towards the rest of Canada, hinting of the future struggle for separation on the horizon.

"As a nation, we want to take ourselves the decisions that affect us. We want a country. And we'll have it."

Marois, however, has said she will only hold a third referendum on independence if a win is assured, which is unlikely, given that barely one in three Quebecers currently support secession.

The party's victory came after allegations of corruption and months of nightly student protests over a planned tuition hike, with polls showing widespread dissatisfaction with nine years of Liberal rule.

The masked Quebec shooting occurred near an anniversary involving other men wearing masks.

At 4:30 a.m., on September 5, 1972, a dozen masked, armed Palestinians of the group calling itself Black September, with the assistance of German neo-Nazis, stormed the Olympic Village, taking Israeli athletes and coaches hostage. The end of the situation on September 6th resulted in the deaths of 6 Israeli coaches, 5 Israeli athletes, 5 members of Black September, and one West German police officer. Photo: Kurt Strumpf

Death In Threes

Perhaps the idea is overblown, overstated, and overemphasized, but the notion does exist that "death comes in threes."

Let's look at three possible origins, expressions, or foundations for this idea that naturally reinforces a copycat mentality in reporting histories, tragedies, and breaking news:

Avery's Rule of Three

"Trouble strikes in series of threes, but when working around the house the next job after a series of three is not the fourth job -- it's the start of a brand new series of three."

Source.


The Rule of Three in Writing

The rule of three is a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. From slogans ("Go, fight, win!") to films, many things are structured in threes. There were three musketeers, three little pigs, three billy goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the three bears, and Three Stooges.

A series of three is often used to create a progression in which the tension is created, then built up, and finally released. Similarly, adjectives are often grouped together in threes in order to emphasize an idea.

Source.


The Rule of Three in Wicca

The Rule of Three (also Three-fold Law or Law of Return) is a religious tenet held by some Wiccans. It states that whatever energy a person puts out into the world, be it positive or negative, will be returned to that person three times. Some subscribe to a variant of this law in which return is not necessarily threefold.

According to John Coughlin the Law posits "a literal reward or punishment tied to one's actions, particularly when it comes to working magic." The law is not a universal article of faith among Wiccans, and "there are many Wiccans, experienced and new alike, who view the Law of Return as an over-elaboration on the Wiccan Rede." Some Wiccans believe that it is a modern innovation based on Christian morality.

The Rule of Three has been compared by Karl Lembke to other ethics of reciprocity, such as the concept of karma in Dharmic religions and the Christian edict, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (Matthew 7:12), also called the "Golden Rule."

The Rule of Three has a possible prototype in a piece of Wiccan liturgy which first appeared in print in Gerald Gardner's 1949 novel High Magic's Aid:

'Thou hast obeyed the Law. But mark well, when thou receivest good, so equally art bound to return good threefold.' (For this is the joke in witchcraft, the witch knows, though the initiate does not, that she will get three times what she gave, so she does not strike hard.)

The first published reference to the Rule of Three as a general ethical principle may be from Raymond Buckland, in a 1968 article for Beyond magazine. The Rule of Three later features within a poem of 26 couplets titled "Rede of the Wiccae," published by Gwen Thompson in 1975 in Green Egg vol. 8, no. 69 and attributed to her grandmother Adriana Porter.

Source.

Trilogies of Death

BTW, this sense of a trilogy among death is found in various popular cultures and can be demonstrated by noting the following three collected works:

1) Three Deaths: A Tale (Russian: Три смерти, Tri smerti) is a short story by Leo Tolstoy first published in 1859. It narrates the deaths of three subjects: a noblewoman, a coachman and a tree.

2) Death Times Three is a collection of Nero Wolfe novellas by Rex Stout, published posthumously by Bantam Books in 1985. The book contains three stories, one never before published:

"Bitter End," first printed in the November 1940 issue of The American Magazine, and collected in the limited-edition volume Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout (1977). The story is a re-working of Stout's Tecumseh Fox story Bad for Business.

"Frame-Up for Murder," an expanded rewrite of the 1958 novella "Murder Is No Joke" that was serialized in three issues of The Saturday Evening Post (June 21, June 28 and July 5, 1958) but never published in book form.

"Assault on a Brownstone," an early draft of the 1961 novella "Counterfeit for Murder".

3) Curse, Death & Spirit is a 1992 three-part anthology of Japanese ghost stories from popular director Hideo Nakata (Ringu, The Ring 2).

The movie consist of three storylines.

The Cursed Doll: Satomi is being called by someone in her dreams. Following this voice, the voice seemed to be coming from a doll in which she realize that there is a spirit of her dead sister inside of it.

The Spirit of the Dead: A woman takes her son camping after her husband's death but was disrupted when a ghost of a woman thinks that the boy is her child.

The Haunted Inn: A spirit forces three girls who are on a vacation in a traditional Japanese inn, in which a tragedy had occurred a long time ago, to repeat the events of the day.

JFK and Threes

Writings of a "twilight language" nature on the JFK assassination often mention the first Masonic Temple site in Texas, Dealey Plaza, as the location of the shootings. When they go on and note that the killing of the President (the symbolic "King") occurred near the banks of the Trinity River, next to the Triple Overpass, lined up on a map on the 33 degree parallel with the Trinity Site in New Mexico, therefore, these may also be an extension of the "death comes in threes" literature.

Material on the last point is extensive within the triple-decker works in conspiracy, synchromystic, and assassination thoughts, which are often remarkably scholarly in nature.