Dorner Cabin Fire: The Controversy

Now that it's all over and Dorner appears to have died in an engulfed cabin, conspiracies are beginning to emerge left and right. The latest is over whether or not police purposefully set fire to the cabin, or if they were using tear gas that accidentally ignited. Clips from the local news and audio from police radio indicate that they did in fact intentionally set fire to the cabin. Conspiracy folks are alleging that the force is saying that the audio was fabricated, but as far as we can tell, the department has not officially commented on it one way or another.

From guardian.co.uk:

A spokesman for the San Bernardino County sheriff's office refused to answer any media questions about the fire or Dorner's death until the press conference the police force is holding on Wednesday at 4pm LA time (midnight GMT).

So far it appears much ado about nothing, as they haven't really made a statement yet about how the fire started, and whether it was intentional or not. It does bring back memories of the 1993 Waco Texas incident though where a compound full of  Branch Davidians died in a fire that hard been started by tear gas igniting, engulfing the compound in flames.





To check out the police radio during the time of the incident, check out these two clips from Archive.org.

We think it's pretty obvious that they probably did intentionally burn the cabin down, and ultimately this will come out in the open. But we also think that the police may have been completely justified in doing so. You have a guy terrorizing the region, being very open about being at war with the police and following through with his manifesto by killing several, and you've got him holed up in cabin by himself.  And he's not surrendering. In fact he's continuing to shoot at officers. So you can either have a shootout that continues to last for days, potentially killing many more officers, or you can get it over with much more quickly by forcing Dorner to act. By setting the cabin on fire, you force Dorner to make the next move quickly to end the situation. He has to either leave the cabin and either 1) surrender, or 2) continue being aggressive which would lead to his death, or he would take his own life inside the cabin. In any one of those scenarios, the situation is concluded much quicker at less risk to the officers.

The LAPD may have some serious internal issues that they need to work out, but we don't see any problems with how this was handled at the cabin. Now, when they shot at the two Asian women a few days earlier because their truck matched the description of Dorners? That was a complete clusterfuck and should not just be glossed over or forgotten. But when you have a man who has shown himself to be a threat to the extent that Dorner had, as long as he is not surrendering you do whatever it takes to put him down.

Update: Sheriff: "No intent to burn down cabin to get Dorner"

From usatoday.com:

"We did not intentionally burn down that cabin to get Mr. Dorner out," Sheriff John McMahon said at an afternoon news conference.

He said deputies initially fired conventional "cold" tear gas into the cabin in Seven Oaks, near Big Bear Lake, then switched to "pyrotechnic-type" rounds" known as "burners."

Hmm yeah not buying it. Why not just admit you intended to burn it down? You did what you had to do.

2011 Album of the year: Cavalera Conspiracy - Blunt Force Trauma

I have to say, it's been a pretty shitty last decade in music and we're well into a new decade that doesn't seem any more promising. The amount of shitty albums you have to go through to find a gem takes so much effort that most give up in the process and just stick to the old stuff. 2011 did bring us one great album and it comes from Sepultura brothers Max & Igor Cavalera's new band "Cavalera Conspiracy". This is actually their second offering since the reunion, the first being "Inflikted", released in 2008.

Most metal bands from the 80s that are still releasing material have watered themselves down and are a parody of what they used to be. They're middle aged, raising kids, and just aren't as pissed off at the world as they used to be. But Cavalera Conspiracy's Blunt Force Tauma sounds very fresh, energetic and angry. The whole album is solid from start to finish and includes a cool cover of Black Sabbath's "Electric Funeral". Cavalera Conspiracy definitely delivers the goods here: there's no stupid parts that make you cringe, there's no filler and it just kicks your ass all the way through.

Max Cavalera has never been the most technical rhythm guitarist, and that doesn't really change much here. Usually in other bands I favor more sophisticated guitar work but Max just makes it work because his riffs are solid and he knows how to put together a good song. Plus he's got his Soulfly bandmate Marc Rizzo on lead guitar and he can really tear it up. Now during my first couple listens of the album I was kind of disappointed with some of the leads. They had the technicality to them, nice sweep picking shred stuff going on, but it didn't really seem to go anywhere. It was a bit too mindless for what I was hoping he'd play. But after several listens it's grown on me and it does go with the music pretty well. You can tell some solos are a lot more thought-out than others. Sometimes you just want to rock out for a moment, not every solo has to be a masterpiece.



Track Listing:

01. Warlord
02. Torture
03. Lynch Mob
04. Killing Inside
05. Thrasher
06. I Speak Hate
07. Target
08. Genghis Khan
09. Burn Waco
10. Rasputin
11. Blunt Force Trauma
12. Psychosomatic
13. Jihad Joe
14. Electric Funeral

Every metal fan should get themselves a copy of Blunt Force Trauma, you won't be disappointed.

Those AIDS Patients In Africa Aren't So Stupid After All

Africa has a ridiculously high percentage of people that suffer from AIDS, in many regions it's up to 20% of the population. Africa is inhabited by around 14% of the world's population, yet is home to 88% of the people living with HIV. For years we've heard of all these initiatives from first world nations like the USA to help them out by supplying HIV medications either free or at a very low cost. But we've also heard for years about how many people in Africa are afraid to take these medications from us, fearing that we're trying to poison them. What a bunch of frickin' morons, right? I mean they're dying of AIDS, we're trying our darndest to help and they're refusing the one thing that can save their lives.

Here's an article from the NY Times back in 2003 about a clinic in Khayelitsha, South Africa which treats AIDS patients with antiviral medication for free.

''I thought I was going to die, but now I'm fresher than ever,'' said Ms. Charlie, 28, who shares a two-room house with her mother. ''People here are dying of AIDS every weekend, every weekend. But I'm gaining weight. I've got no problems. So far, so good.''

This clinic offers a rare glimmer of hope in South Africa, which has more people infected with H.I.V. than any other country.

What a nice optimistic feel good story about something finally being done to help those who are suffering in Africa because of the AIDS virus. But further down in the article, some moronic killjoy had to get all conspiratory about it, with the idea that we're actually poisoning them:

President Thabo Mbeki has expressed concern about the safety of AIDS drugs commonly prescribed in the United States and Europe. Senior members of his political party have called the medicines ''poison'' and accused drug companies of trying to use Africans as guinea pigs. Other officials insist that providing AIDS drugs in the public sector is too costly.

What a bunch of assbackward savages, right? I mean you think you can just do a couple voodoo dances and you'll be cured of AIDS? For God sakes take the medication, we're trying to help, you bunch of retards.

Fast forward to now, where today we read about a recently uncovered U.S. Government administered study in which medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission in Guatemala from 1946-1948. This was done with the cooperation of the Guatemalan government, and we're just now apologizing for it because it was just exposed by Professor Susan Reverby while she was researching another study where 399 black men who had syphilis were kept from getting treated in a research project called "untreated syphilis in the male Negro." What??

Yes that's right, from 1932 to 1972, the United States observed seriously ill poor blacks living and dying of syphilis while they took notes on what happened, all the while knowing that a simple dose of penicillin would have immediately cured them.

Researchers never treated the illness over its usually fatal course, even after the simple remedy of penicillin was shown to be an effective syphilis treatment; participants received only free meals and medical exams, together with federal funding of their funeral expenses after they died. The study began in 1932, continuing right through to 1972, when it was exposed in media reports.

Well gee, at least we paid for their funeral expenses, that pretty much evens everything out then.

So just to recap, our United States government monitored hundreds of black American citizens dying of a disease they could easily treat, but instead of treating them, we told them they just had bad blood, and took notes while they died in agony. Then we're over in Guatemala injecting people with gonorrhea and syphilis for a study on what happens when people are infected and go without treatment. So just think about that for a moment, if we're doing this to our own people in America, and we're doing it to people in Guatemala, do you really think we aren't doing the same thing in Africa? Those "idiots" in Africa who refuse to take our medication just might know a lot more about what the U.S. does than us living here in the states know about. What others studies occoured that haven't come to light yet? What will we be apologizing for in 60 years that's happening right now?

I can't stand conspiracy theorists. They annoy the hell out of me. But I'll tell you what, with shit like this coming to light all the time, it's hard not to see why so many people have such distrust for our government. And for people who say "well this happened in the 40s, that was a different time back then". Listen, I believe in evolution, but it doesn't happen that fucking fast. Humans today are the same humans 500 years ago; don't ever fool yourself into thinking we're reaching any sort of enlightenment with society - either culturally or genetically. Unfortunately all the horrible shit that happened in the past is just as likely to happen today as it was then. Societal changes are kind of like fashion trends, they move this way and that way but we'll never say "we're here! we've arrived, this is what we've been working towards!" because it isn't ever going to happen.