I'm So Old

That I remember once upon a time there was a group of criminally insane Americans called "Conservatives" who actually used to blame courtroom shootings like the one that happened today in West Virginia:

Ex-cop waved off bystanders before shooting

Evidence shows ex-cop waved people away before firing at courthouse in Wheeling, W.Va. 

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) — The ex-police officer who opened fire on a federal courthouse in West Virginia was a trained shooter who knew how to kill, yet federal officials said Thursday that he waved people away moments before he started spraying bullets into the glass facade and was later shot dead by law enforcement.

Neither the FBI nor federal prosecutors would discuss the motive for 55-year-old Thomas J. Piccard's assault. But two possible theories emerged as investigators gathered evidence and neighbors revealed that Piccard had recently told them he was dying of cancer.

U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld said the building being the target and other evidence he wouldn't specify indicates Piccard "had an anti-government bias."

...

on Dirty Hippie Activist Judges:

Senator Links Violence to 'Political' Decisions

'Unaccountable' Judiciary Raises Ire

By Charles Babington

Tuesday, April 5, 2005

Sen. John Cornyn said yesterday that recent examples of courthouse violence may be linked to public anger over judges who make politically charged decisions without being held accountable.

In a Senate floor speech in which he sharply criticized a recent Supreme Court ruling on the death penalty, Cornyn (R-Tex.) -- a former Texas Supreme Court justice and member of the Judiciary Committee -- said Americans are growing increasingly frustrated by what he describes as activist jurists.

Judges who make "raw political or ideological decisions" are concern, said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.). "It causes a lot of people, including me, great distress to see judges use the authority that they have been given to make raw political or ideological decisions," he said. Sometimes, he said, "the Supreme Court has taken on this role as a policymaker rather than an enforcer of political decisions made by elected representatives of the people."

Cornyn continued: "I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection, but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. . . . And I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters, on some occasions, where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in, engage in violence. Certainly without any justification, but a concern that I have."

...

I wonder whatever happened to those crazy fuckers?