All Ricin, All the Time

Fox is on it. So is NBC News. Throw in the WaPo and the Wall Street Journal too. Even the Montreal Gazette. It’s a big story, no matter how you cut the deck. A lot of folks are skeptical, but for me it’s just a matter of incentives and math. I don’t believe this is an intentional setup, and would be very surprised to find MAIG was this stupid, or that it was someone on their side who has a beef with Bloomberg. Disgruntled employee, it could be, but again, I doubt it. Disgruntled employees tend to get caught quickly.

I’d be very surprised MAIG ginned this all up, as some have speculated. The wider a fabrication is, the more likely someone is to talk, or blow the whistle, and now you have the NYPD and FBI involved in the case. Bloomberg also isn’t stupid enough to risk all his credibility on a move like this, so it’s likely the action of a deranged, lone wolf. Actually, it’s not just credibility on the line, with the FBI involved, it would come with criminal charges if this were a hoax.

The next speculation is that it’s an anti-gun person trying to make our side look bad. The math would suggest that on any side of a political battle, you will have some small percentage of kooks, whack jobs, and sociopathic nuts. I don’t know why it’s hard to believe someone who believes in gun rights couldn’t do something like this, when you consider we’re dealing with tens of millions of people who share that political viewpoint. The number of people dedicated to the gun control viewpoint is vanishingly small in comparison. It’s not that I don’t believe the whakadoodles on their side couldn’t do something like this, but the fact that gun control is mostly astroturf, and that doesn’t play well for our odds. It’s just not that hard for me to believe that some sociopath who got a bug up his ass about Bloomberg’s organization decided to poop in the punch bowl and do something like this. We have a huge number of people who agree with us on the issue, and it’s just a fact that some of them, however small, are going to be crazy, impulsive, and willing to do something rash. That needn’t reflect badly on the millions of the rest of us who aren’t, though the media is certainly going to try.

23 thoughts on “All Ricin, All the Time”

  1. Meanwhile, more people will be murdered in Chicago this week than have died from castor-oil soaked letters in all of history.

    Yes, this could be from a nutcase “on our side”. So what? The gun grabbers will still have more blood on their hands.

    (And, if you’re so concerned with how this “reflects” on us, why are you insisting that we beat our chests and say a thousand mea culpas over it? I didn’t do it. You didn’t do it. Hundreds of millions of people didn’t do it. None of us have anything to feel guilty about. Support the investigation, arrest, and trial of the guy who did it; stop trying to play the game you claim to denounce.)

    1. why are you insisting that we beat our chests and say a thousand mea culpas over it?

      Where did I say we should do that? Jesus. I’m suggesting it’s not as unbelievable it was someone who may share our viewpoint, but was perhaps a bit of a nut job. A lot of people are having a hard time believing it could be true, which doesn’t make sense to me.

      How does saying it’s not likely a Bloomberg setup or an anti-gunner trying to frame us become saying we ought to beat ourselves up over this?

      1. Constantly harping on it has that effect.

        Saying “it could be one of us” once and moving on — OK. About the third or fourth time you say that in a single post, it starts to sound like that’s your point.

        I’d bet this kind of thing happens all the time, and it’s only when it’s politically useful that the information gets released to the press. If, as reported with the Elvis impersonator case, all it takes is a little castor oil to trip the ricin tests, then I’d bet there are hundreds of letters that “test positive for ricin”.

        1. There were enough people skeptical in the last comments that I felt the need to make the case for why I think it’s unlikely a setup or an anti-gunner trying to make our side look bad. I consider both those scenarios very unlikely. That doesn’t mean I think this person is one of us, as in an ordinary gun enthusiast who just took things a bit far. Best bet is a kook, but likely a kook who shares out viewpoint on the gun issue, at least nominally.

      2. Do people really think that it was a Bloomberg setup? I think that idea is nuts.

        1. Maybe not by MAIG directly, but I wouldn’t put it past the haters….they foam at the mouth, and it’s in their best interest is smear us, and try to keep gun control on page one….at first I thought it was a crazy idea that it could be an inside job, but then again, I read what the media is report to be quotes from said letters, and it’s written very haphazardly, and with haters having records of posing as gun owners to smear us, anything is possible…….

        2. Guilty! ….of thinking it might be a a setup :)
          Forgive my paranoia regarding a billionaire narcissist who’s spent a fortune trying to fight against a cause that wins and wounds his ego. I just can’t think it’s impossible that’s all. Sebastian and beatbox (see earlier post), you’re probably right. and I agree with why you’re underscoring your argument/point, there was a lot of skepticism in the comments section. in no way do I think it’s a mea culpa/apology as Rob Crawford suggests. Rob, you’re point that it is not on us is taken too.

    2. Why is it that when a Leftist/Liberal/Democrat wacko does something like, say, shoot up a University, Elementary School, or a Movie Theater, the media try to paint it as “a lone gunman”, or “disturbed individual”, but if it MIGHT be someone from our side it’s “all you gun owners should be ashamed for what you did”?

  2. One, you assume the media would do their job and expose MAIG should they do something so monumentally stupid. They won’t, and MAIG knows this. Doesn’t matter if some Examiner blogs find out the truth, the media *would* cover for them.

    Second, even if it was found out, it would be squashed before the next news ticker rolled around at the bottom of your screen. Remember Corker? He wasn’t news because it didn’t fit the narrative.

    Finally, could very well be a right-wing-libertarian-wookie-suiter. The greatest thing about not being a collectivist is that I do not feel shame for the actions of others, nor do I accept any blame for their deeds.

  3. We do have much greater numbers, but they have orders of magnitude higher numbers of nut jobs with all manner of violent fantasies. So, while it’s plausible that the perp belongs to either side, my money is on the anti’s

    1. This. Wasn’t one of them recently blathering about “no more mister nice guy”?

    2. It wouldn’t surprise me if it’s someone with poorly defined political views that you can’t put neatly into a box. We’ve seen that frequently with lone whackjobs, and it makes sense because they are, well, whackjobs, and often disturbed. But my money would be they have some, even if somewhat delusional, sympathies to the idea of gun rights. While they may have a lot of whakadoodles as a percentage, there just aren’t enough of them to drive the odds in that direction.

  4. Are people really suggesting it is a Bloomberg inside job? That seems nuts to me. No way it is that.

  5. I’ve also got to say that other than the political fallout I don’t particularly care. The Hon Mike Bloomberg could get hit by a bus tomorrow and I wouldn’t really be too concerned.

  6. I’m not saying it’s an inside job or anything like that but remember the last set of ricin letters were an attempt to frame an Elvis impersonator so there’s that.

  7. This is not a lunatic gun owner. Anyone who wants to kill someone isn’t going to use ricin in an envelope because ricin in an envelope is harmless. In order to kill, ricin has to be ingested. When’s the last time you licked the inside of an envelope from an unknown sender?

    This is the work of some liberal looney.

    1. ingested = inhaled if it’s a powder.
      ingested = absorbed through skin if treated with DMSO…. which from the sound of it (“oily liquid”) is what nutjob tried.

      1. AFAIK, no one has ever been killed with ricin w/o it being injected.

        Nobody is going to snort a powder they find in an envelope from an unknown sender and DMSO in an envelope isn’t going to transport enough of it through the skin to be fatal. This was intended to create publicity, not death.

        1. Not the point. Open an envelope containing a powder the way 90% of us do, some of it is likely to spill. At that point it’s in the air. Don’t have to “snort” it; what a strawman.

          1. Please list all the fatalities or even injuries from mailed ricin. I won’t hold my breath.

            Then explain to me why someone who is intent on murder or injury would choose such an ineffective method.

            Mailed ricin: great for publicity, not so much if you want to kill someone.

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