Planned Parenthood Gunman Admits Religious Motive

While the couple who waged the attack on the San Bernadino social services office never left clear clues of their motive in the terror attack, Robert Lewis Dear, the gunman at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility more or less confirmed that he is a Christian terrorist - something the talking heads on the right and Republican politicians continue to refuse to admit exists.  More specifically, he exclaimed that he was a "warrior for the babies" - a phrase that correlates with the Christofascist manta that abortion is the murder of babies.  Not, of course, that the same godly folk give a damn for children once that are no longer in the womb as evidenced by their support for GOP policies that throw poor children off of assistance programs and that would deprive poor children of access to health care.  KKTV-11 has details on Dear's confession of sorts.  Here are details:

Family members of UCCS Officer Garrett Swasey and Iraq veteran Ke'arre Stewart were in the courtroom as Dear learned what charges he would face for allegedly killing their loved ones.

Dear made multiple outbursts during the court session--our reporter counted nearly 20--including declaring he was a "warrior for the babies" and accusing his own public defender of wanting to drug him.

Though investigators have not publicly released a motive, Dear heavily eluded to one with frequent references to abortion.  "Protect babies!" he exclaimed once.

"Can you add the babies that had been aborted that day, can you add that to the list?" he yelled another time while lawyers and the judge deliberated whether a list of victims' names should be made public.

Dear claimed his public defender was in cahoots with Planned Parenthood, suggesting that by trying to seal documents, the lawyer was trying to hide what Dear saw inside the building to protect the clinic.

Robert Dear faces 179 counts for allegedly storming a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood on a snowy Black Friday afternoon and gunning down 12 people.

Dear is accused of killing three and injuring nine in the shooting rampage. More than 300 people were locked down in the nearby shopping center as the suspect--who police believe was Dear--engaged in a fire fight with officers for four terrifying hours.

Dear and the San Bernadino shooters share one thing in common.  If Republicans want Muslims to have to register, they should similarly require that far right Christians register with authorities so that Christian terrorism can be controlled.

Colorado Shooter an "End of Times Christian"?

Image via Joe My God - Dear and those he murdered

Many on the right and among Christofascists circles have fervently been hoping that Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Lewis Dear not be proved to be a right wing Christian.   While much still remains unknown about the man, by all accounts he is a train wreck and a crazy one at that.  His second wife (he was married 3 times) had this account of Dear in divorce papers according to the Post and Courier:

His second wife, Mescher, described Dear in divorce papers filed in 1993 as a controlling, abusive, womanizing man who liked to gamble but was tight with his cash when it came to supporting his family. She stated that he threw her around the room by her hair during one argument and beat her head on the floor. She also said in a sworn affidavit that Dear “erupts into fury in a matter of seconds,” and she “lived in fear and dread of his emotional and physical abuse.” 

“He claims to be a Christian and is extremely evangelistic, but does not follow the Bible in his actions,” Mescher stated in the affidavit. “He says that as long as he believes he will be saved, he can do whatever he pleases. He is obsessed with the world coming to an end.” 

It will be interesting to see if this story line holds up.  If it does, Dear's behavior and mindset will mirror that of many of the "godly folk" who view "being saved" as providing them a free pass and giving them license to do all kinds of things inconsistent with the Ten Commandments - constant and vicious lying being one of them.   Obviously, I hope the story line holds up because it underscores a reality too many refuse to want to believe: religion, especially fundamentalist religion, is an evil and not a positive force in the world. 

Are More Attacks on Planned Parenthood Invevitable?

Murderer Robert Lewis Dear (L) and anti-abortion extremist, David Daleiden

Ninety-seven percent of the budget for activities at Planned Parenthood have noting to do with abortion services.   Services range from STD testing, treatment and vaccines to contraception services to sex education to cervical cancer screening; pregnancy testing, vasectomies; and LGBT related services.  Half of the Planned Parenthood facilities provide no abortion services whatsoever.  Planned Parenthood centers are known for providing services to minorities and the poor who have no other access to health care services other than hospital emergency rooms.  Of course, far right Christians oppose contraception of any form and have shown by their overwhelming support for Republican policies that providing health care services to the poor is not even on their radar screens.  Meanwhile, the Christofascists and professional Christian set continue to do all they can to spread lies and disinformation about Planned Parenthood - they spread similar lies and falsehoods about LGBT citizens - in the hope of whipping up violence against both Planned Parenthood and LGBT Americans.  With these "godly folk" the truth and honesty are unknown concepts. A piece in The Raw Story makes the case that the shootings in Colorado Springs yesterday were inevitable given the Christofascist non-stop propaganda.  Here are article highlights:

What happened at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood on the Friday after Thanksgiving was inevitable. After the deceptively-named Center for Medical Progress released the equally deceptively-edited videos accusing Planned Parenthood of profiting from the sale of fetal parts, someone had to die in the end.

Of all the phony attacks and accusations made against Planned Parenthood by a new generation of anti-choice activists like James O’ Keefe and Lila Grace Rose, the videos created by former O’Keefe confederate David Daleiden raised the bar — or lowered it depending on how you view them — on over the top accusations intended to fire up Christian conservatives and embolden lawmakers to do all they can to destroy Planned Parenthood.

Where Daleiden really hit one out of the park for the anti-choice crowd was when he accused Planned Parenthood of selling  fetal tissue — used by researchers looking for cures for Alzheimer’s, among other things — and making a profit off of it.  Which turned out to be a lie.

When interviewed, Daleiden carefully parsed his words and flagrantly misinterpreted the words of the people caught on tape, thereby filling his nothing-burger of an exposé — for which he received a nice budget that allowed him to work on the project for two years — with red meat for the anti-choice crowd.

Daleiden was more than modestly successful. Republican lawmakers in conservative states were able to cut some funding for Planned Parenthood, while GOP presidential candidates had yet something else to grandstand about in order to woo the evangelical base.

With so much heat thrown off by Daleiden’s anti-abortion project, it is no surprise — and it absolutely cannot be to him — that someone somewhere would take his lies to the extreme and try and do something about it. With extreme prejudice.

According to NBC, Robert Lewis Dear — who killed three people including a cop, making him a hero to these “pro-life” folks while shooting up a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood — reportedly told investigators “no more baby parts" after he was arrested.
So it appears that Robert Lewis Dear shot up a Planned Parenthood because he was familiar with David Daleiden’s videotape lies. This is not to say that this is something that Daleiden was hoping for. But when Daleiden published his videos with great fanfare, he primed more than a few future domestic terrorists to take the law — God’s or their own — into their own hands.

David Dalieden didn’t pull the trigger — he just showed Robert Lewis Dear where he needed to aim the gun.

Rather that obsess about Islamic terrorists, perhaps the FBI and Home Land Security ought to be paying more attention to Christian extremists and their allies who create an atmosphere where murders occur.