Attacks in Norway
 

(full article here)

This is crazy news from Norway. My thoughts are with our posters from that part of the world.

How cruel and horrific. Another step towards the end times. December 21, 2012.

oojay, do you really believe that the end times will occur on 12.21.2012? I'm fascinated with this subject and would love to hear more of your opinions.

There is a time and a place for everything. My official 2012 thread is in the works and will be posted when necessary.

That's unfortunate. I would think that if the subject was important to you, you would share your thoughts before it was "necessary".

richie, i dont think oojay wants to clutter this thread with the 2012 ideas.

Read up on this and saw it was at a summer camp too. Faked being a police officer and then started firing on kids. What a lowlife piece of shit. I don't know their law system over in Norway but hopefully this guy gets executed.

He won't. IIRC, Norway does not have the death penalty and they have a limit on how long someone can be in prison.

Is Tore okay?!!

A very good question. I hope him and his family are alright. :(

I turned on the tv yesterday and watched the live feed from Oslo on the bombing. I thought it was interesting that when I turned the channel to an English news network, they were proclaiming that the only ones who could have been responsible was Al Qaeda and terrorists because of the organisation. But as soon as it became clear that the attack is actually not muslim in origin and actually the accused is a nationalist the words were changed from "terrorist" to "madman"...

Regardless, this is a horrible thing that happened. My thoughts go out to the families of all those affected.

Update on the accused...according to Aftonbladet's live feeds (Swedish paper), if the accused man is found guilty, he will recieve up to 21 years in jail according to the chief of police.

As of now, 84 dead at the camp, 7 in the Oslo bombing.

I never get the point of committing mass murder in the name of religion and ideals, it gets nowhere. People who think it will do good for their cause are insane.

I must be a right winged bastard for wanting this guy to be confined to a cell 23 hours a day for the rest of his life. If this happened in the US people would be screaming for blood (not to say I would be). Norway has a maximum sentence of 21 years it seems, so that explains why.

That's made me feel really bad actually for having that title and sig in poor taste. I don't know whether all that stuff about neo-Nazi attacks is true, but I just hope this never happens again.

Horrible tragedy. So sad to hear of the death, and so frustrating to hear how his sentence will play out.

He probably will be shot long before that. His picture is up everywhere. When I walked around my neighborhood today, almost everyone was inside watching the news from Norway. Even the local butcher here commented how his daughter's friend was at the camp and they haven't accounted for her yet. It is affecting more people than one might think.

I'm alright and as far as I know I didn't know anyone involved in the bombing or shooting, although I'm still worried about it.

As for comments in regards to what has happened, I feel lost for words. Hearing about it and watching the news makes me feel sick to my stomach.

Glad to know you're well, tore.
My thoughts are with the people of Norway and especially the loved ones of those young men and woman who have lost their lives.
When you consider the loss of life on that small island constitutes the average age of the members of this forum...it really brings it home.

I'm glad to hear you're okay man.

Happy to hear that you're okay Tore.

I was incredibly shocked when I heard about it yesterday, and even more shocked when I saw that the body count was 80. You really don't expect something like this to happen in a place like Norway, which isn't to say that Norway can't have psychopaths (ahem Varg Vikernes) but the spree killing just not something you associate with Norway.

...until now.

My condolences to those affected by the delusions of a mad domestic terrorist.

Is it my understanding that he was captured on site of the camp. Did he complacently wait to be captured or what? The newspaper was lax on details.

Jesus! I had no idea about any of this until I clicked on the thread! WTF?!

Glenn Beck, what a class act.

Glenn Beck hits 'new low'; compares Norway victims to Hitler Youth - latimes.com

Man, what a fucking asshole.

I wish someone would break his jaw, he has no right to use a mouth.

Tasteless.

An absolutely terrible set of events in Norway, cannot even begin to imagine what the friends and families of those lost must be going through. If I ever saw that lunatic in public I'd commit an atrocity of my own.

yes I agree!

What happened is so awful people can't really get their heads around it. This person dressed up as a police officer, asked teenagers to group up and then opened fire on them with an automatic rifle, killing dozens. He then proceeded to hunting down the ones who got away, calling for them to come out of hiding only to shoot them and even killing kids in the water who were trying to swim away from the island where it happened. It shocks and scares me that people exist here that are capable of committing such atrocities. The murderer is a politically motivated racist who says his enemy is social democracy and particularly the labour party which he's blamed for "mass importing" muslims to Norway which is why he decided to target members of the labour party youth. He wanted to use the ensuing trial as a stage to promote his ideology.

The aftermath of what happened has been wonderful and honestly quite moving. I've yet to see any cries for vengeance. Instead of focusing on how to punish this man, people seem more focused on helping and supporting eachother. Even if the tragedy has caused tremendous sorrow, it has also roused great compassion, love and care for one another in a way that warms my heart. Both the people and the politicians here have dealt with it in a most dignified way and no doubt the reaction to what was done will be more democracy and greater political participation against that kind of extremist ideology.

Still, all is not well. There is one thing that shames me and that is that just after the bombing before there were any explanations, a lot of people assumed that it was extremist muslims who were behind it. Sensationalist media, also international media, no doubt played a role in this. In the first hours after the tragedy, there were quite a few muslims who feared for their and their children's future in Norway and there were people who threw racist and offensive comments after immigrants after the explosion. I hope the people who did this have taken some time to reflect on that now and hopefully the tragedy will help bring us all closer together, regardless of religion, cultural background or the colour of our skin.

It's very moving how much the Norwegians have come together after this. While Bush after 9/11 screamed of revenge and a "crusade" against those guilty, the Norwegian people and politicians speak of extending love towards one another, and of reinforcing their commitment to all those things that make Norway one the best places in the world: humanity, democracy and tolerance. It's a ****ing honour being your neighbours.

It was also wonderful to see how people reacted in Sweden to what happened. People cried in the streets. A friend of mine was at a football game with 20,000 people, and during the silent minute in honour of the shooting victims, you could've heard a pin drop. It's as though this happened in our own country.

This picture is from a ceremony in honour of the victims in Oslo yesterday, where 150,000-200,000 people participated (in a city of 600,000!):
http://www.gp.se/image_processor/1.6...3&maxWidth=800

Oh dear, some of the Facebook-comments at the bottom of the article. :rolleyes:

I agree with everything written here. Especially the speech crown prince Haakon held yesterday was moving.

You weren't in NY around that time or maybe you just choose to vilify America again but the mayor of NYC had similar profound words to say about what happened on 9/11 and to have people resume their lives as usual to show terrorists that what happened isn't going to affect them in a negative light.

"Vilify America again"? The **** are you talking about? I'm sure the American people has just as much love in their hearts as the Norwegians, but the post-9/11 foreign policy of the US points to interests quite opposed those of extending love. But I would never intend to offend anyone targeted in 9/11, and I'm not sure why you took it so personally, as I was talking specifically about Bush.

I didn't take it personally, it just seemed like you were comparing slightly different parts of it. Yes, I know Bush was on his little revenge spree post 9/11 and that got the most press on an international level but there heartfelt moments as well that came out of 9/11 that I decided to tell you about because maybe you didn't know that it happened.

Gentlemen, this isn't a thread for international diplomacy, Bush, or the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When I heard about what happened, I was shocked for the singular reason that it happened in Scandinavia. Maybe that's a generalization, and I'm sure the citizens of those three countries could cite multiple differences between each nation. But to an American, Scandinavia is always being portrayed as the best of what Europe has to offer.

Insert all of the IKEA jokes you want, but its true. They are routinely cited for their policies on gender equality, tolerance to immigrants and in general, and the model for how many states hope to engage their residents in a post-Industrial area.

Then I heard why the shooter did what he did and I remarked to a friend "I think Norway (and the region in general) just became closer to America than even England."

The idea that racial purity and perfect genetics matters is thankfully still foreign here (though, I've seen your women - I understand how that position comes about), but the end results are sadly still the same. If its not Timothy McVeigh or Jared Loughner, then its David Duke or Tom Tancredo. Mental illness gives way to political motivation and conspiracy theories. How long did the John Birch Society hold sway on the American Right before being exiled by an emerging libertarian movement?

There is little I can really say to comfort the people of Norway. In fact, I've probably offended them more by comparing them to the U.S., but I can say, as an American, out of this great tragedy will emerge a much stronger people and country. It is a sad reality that only when things push beyond our level of tolerance can we really hope to change and fix them. Today Norway grieves. But in due time, the wounds will become scar tissue. And while they may be visible for years and years to come, they will, at the very least, be reminders of how a people survived and become stronger as a nation. Maybe it will be opportunities to warn officials of someone heading down the wrong track, or more security measures available at a moments notice, I couldn't possibly say. But while it sounds counter intuitive, the Norwegians will like create a stronger, safer country for its children today, and with hope, a stronger network to deal with those who's reality is slipping away.

All I can really say is God Bless, and God Speed.

I am so disgusted by this guy. I hope he gets what he deserves. God bless the families of the people killed.

This guys makes me sick. His whole reasoning for the attacks is to get people to read his anti-Islam manifesto. How do you kill people in the name of your religion in order to get people to realize that another religion is wrong? (Obviously a rhetorical question)

Crazy ****. Remember hearing about this from a friend who was supposed to head over to Norway to visit some friends.

Was it a religion-based thing? What I read was some ridiculous interview with himself and it sounded like it was a "pure europe" thing.

From what I've read it sounds like a little of both.

They don't have a death penalty over there. Also, I think the maximum prison sentence is 21 years, but I could be wrong.

I remember when he was going to kill a rabbit with a chainsaw on national television... Apparently, it had something to do with America's economy.

That's what I've been seeing in this thread. That's sad to hear. He should never be free again, maybe Norway will take a look at their sentencing guidelines/laws after something like this. I doubt it, but I hope they do.


Also, brief comments about other things in this thread. Glen Beck is a real life troll, that's why he is on tv. He loves hearing his name said or seeing it in print, and it doesn't matter to him for what reason.

Revenge isn't as horrible as people make it sound. Everyone wants revenge when something terrible happens, it's just politics in what they want to say to the public