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Armed Man Takes Hostages At Discovery Channel HQ 1090

An anonymous reader writes "The manifesto of the man holding the Discovery Channel hostage with a bomb has been released. He has fired shots and taken hostages. His main complaints are about overpopulation, religion and civilization. He wants them to avoid encouraging people to produce more 'disgusting human babies,' to get people to accept 'Malthus-Darwin science,' reject civilization and its 'disgusting religious-cultural roots,' and to stop 'ALL immigration pollution.'" The man has now been shot by police, and the hostages have been freed.
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Armed Man Takes Hostages At Discovery Channel HQ

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  • by gameboyhippo ( 827141 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:34PM (#33441732) Journal

    It's always refreshing when Atheists are the psychos. I'm mean, c'mon! This guy is a representation of all atheists, right? :)

    • by Peach Rings ( 1782482 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:42PM (#33441910) Homepage

      He's not completely psycho. Discovery's (TLC's) support of Jon and Kate Plus Eight, 19 Kids and Counting, etc is disgusting. Those parents should be in jail, not rolling in money.

      • by Doctor Morbius ( 1183601 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:47PM (#33442002)
        TLC is the freak show network. All these ridiculous shows about dwarves, women with giant legs, women with no lower body, and families with too many kids are stupid.
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by ShakaUVM ( 157947 )

        >>19 Kids and Counting, etc is disgusting.

        Do you know that your great-grandparents, or their parents, probably had that many kids, right? That the 2 child household is a very recent development?

      • by hellfire ( 86129 ) <deviladv@gmTOKYOail.com minus city> on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:11PM (#33442320) Homepage

        What sucks about this is this guy has got a point, but that's lost because his actions are plain nuts and will drown out most mainstream discussion. But the point is that we are at a point where we are deeply concerned with climate change and resources on this planet, and people think that it's not at all irresponsible to have 19 children, and then the media encourages it!

        China may be run by dictatorial fuckwads, but they have a point with their laws on having children. The entire society can't sustain it's population now, so adding another billion hungry mouths over 20 years is just going to fuck things up even more. With the scientific information I've been seeing as of late with global warming, potable water, oil, etc, I can actually envision near future where first world countries start considering birth limits. I understand the personal liberties some people feel they have a right to, but there comes a time when your insistence on having more children affects me and my family. If just you, me, and your spouse left on the planet, and there is only enough food to feed 3 people, and you and your spouse go and have a child without asking me, someone is going to have to give up food. You just impinged on me and my ability to stay alive by having a child. This is not a matter of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, this is good old fashioned primitive instinct of I want to live.

        This guy might be an insane fuckwad, but he has a point. We should not be glorifying having 19 children when every new child strains our resources. Sure, we need to have babies to keep the species alive, but without resources to sustain them, there will be a huge population crash.

        • by huckamania ( 533052 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:34PM (#33442644) Journal

          Europe doesn't need growth limits. At their current rate of replacement, there won't be many Europeans left in this world in a few generations.

          The US is not over-populated. The world is a different question and one that many 'experts' have been very, very wrong about many, many times.

          • BS (Score:4, Interesting)

            by mjwx ( 966435 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @09:50PM (#33445100)

            Europe doesn't need growth limits. At their current rate of replacement, there won't be many Europeans left in this world in a few generations.

            Christ all mighty, this Neo-Con bullshit again.

            "Oh noes, teh evil immigrants are going to kill our nation and history, blah, blah, ADDED FOR EXTRA SCAREMONGERING!1!one1!"

            I call BS.

            I live in Australia and over the last 50 years we've had so many new groups integrate it's not funny. The local racist organisation will tell you that the Africans have come to destroy the Australian way of life. Maybe but 10 years ago that same racist organisation said the same thing about the Indians (so how are the Africans going to succeed where the Indians failed). When I was a wee tacker (20 years ago) they used to tell me how the Asians were going to steal all the Jerbs and there would be none for me (yep, saw how that one turned out). When my dad was my age the same thing was said about the Wogs (Greeks and Italians), the Irish before them, going back to when captain Cook first settled onto Botany bay there were these same scaremongers spouting the same bullshit and to be quite frank, I'm sick of it.

            So with a Greek Kebab (souvlaki), Kwai Teow, Indian Curry, Meat Pie and Cold Beer I call BS. Immigration has done nothing but help this nation and I can say with absolute certainty that introducing and integrating new groups has not destroyed the things that made Australia great.

            So kindly sod off with this nonsense.

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by anomaly256 ( 1243020 )
          Eat the father, then the child, then take the mother as your own spouse (or if you're female, eat the mother and take the father).. Problem solved. Nature is satisfied.
        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by jensend ( 71114 )

          Claims that overpopulation is why we have poverty, environmental problems, etc and predictions that continued growth will lead to disaster have time and again been shown to be dead wrong, from Malthus to Ehrlich to the present day.

          Ultimately the core of the message is selfish- claiming that for some reason your present consumption patterns should be protected by preventing other people from living and that the responsibility for society's problems lies not on our unwise actions but in the fact that other pe

      • by Zak3056 ( 69287 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:59PM (#33443002) Journal

        He's not completely psycho. Discovery's (TLC's) support of Jon and Kate Plus Eight, 19 Kids and Counting, etc is disgusting. Those parents should be in jail, not rolling in money.

        I personally think having that many kids is pretty damn weird, but who the hell are you to judge? It's not like they're on welfare and you're paying for it--apparently, they were fine financially before the reality stuff. The US isn't an overpopulated nation, either. Our birth rate is below replacement, so we can tolerate the occasional outlier--and "outlier" is exactly what these people are--like this.

        "In jail?" Fuck you.

        • by Peach Rings ( 1782482 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @06:39PM (#33443508) Homepage

          It's a child protection issue not a financial issue. There's no way that the parents can pay adequate attention to each child. They educate each other (public school is evil etc), take care of each other, and fend for themselves most of the time. There is such a thing as a criminally irresponsible parent (leave your kid in a locked car for example).

        • by hedwards ( 940851 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @07:40PM (#33444144)
          Yeah, they should be in jail. The only way that a family like that can subsist is by making the older children parent the younger ones, and all the children end up suffering the effects of neglect. Having food, shelter and medical care isn't all the a parent needs to provide for a child to grow up to be a well adjusted, contributing member of society.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by IICV ( 652597 )

      No no no, you don't understand. Most atheists are totally for TV shows like Jon and Kate - I mean, where else are we going to get a steady supply of fresh babies?

      Next you're going to tell me that I should be barbecuing some cute cows or something. Disgusting.

      On the other hand, if you're dealing with an atheist vegan, that's when you have problems.

    • by SpeZek ( 970136 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:01PM (#33442188) Journal
      He might be an atheist, but he definitely has some very strong religious convictions regarding nature. I wouldn't be surprised if Mother Nature was his deity, in fact.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Sponge Bath ( 413667 )

      I did not see anyplace in the article or the manifesto that states James Lee was an atheist. Besides, there is a difference between crazy person does something violent and crazy person does something violent in the name of religion (shooting doctors who perform abortion or bombing medical clinics). In this case, the person acted based on flawed environmental views, not because he was an atheist. In the case of shooting doctors, the shooter explicitly claims Christianity as justification for murder.

    • by professionalfurryele ( 877225 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @06:13PM (#33443226)

      If you look at history you will find plenty of evidence of atheists doing unpleasant things. Pol Pot for a start.

      The question when we assign blame to ideologies is did the ideology lead the the unpleasant actions. Pol Pot and Stalin and so on didn't kill people because they were atheists. They killed people because they were radical communists, and communists need to have a look at their ideology and ask themselves why every time communists get sweeping powers they do such unpleasant things.

      Same goes for Christianity, Islam, every ideology / religion. Christianity encourages the respect of authority, the widely held conception of faith is dangerous, the idea that salvation through grace as opposed to works is dangerous. Some of the bad things people have done in history have been a direct result of their interpretation of Christianity and when that repeatedly happens people will begin to wonder if the ideology / religion itself is a good thing.

      Some ideologies are better than others, and if we measure them on their track record it is pretty darn clear that most religions are not conducive to a good social order. Communists should not go around acting all surprised when people point to Stalin and Pol Pot when they talk about their ideology and Christians cant complain when the Crusades and Slavery get brought up. That is the history of those ideologies and ideologies are judged on those histories.

      Which brings us nicely to atheism. By it's very nature atheism doesn't do diddly. Go ask your average theist and they will tell you that atheism has nothing to offer, and they are in essence right. No one gets anything out of being an atheist. It doesn't compel anyone to do anything. Are you compelled to do stuff because you don't believe in the tooth fairy? Or Thor? Of course not.

      This guy was a Malthusian whack job, you want to complain about that ideology have a field day. But suggesting that atheism had anything to do with his actions is just silly.

  • Well... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by u38cg ( 607297 ) <calum@callingthetune.co.uk> on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:34PM (#33441744) Homepage
    I guess he did his bit for over-population.
  • by 0racle ( 667029 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:34PM (#33441746)
    Seriously, who holds the people at the Discovery Channel hostage for anything?

    This won't affect shark week will it?
    • by blair1q ( 305137 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:41PM (#33441900) Journal

      Seriously, who holds the people at the Discovery Channel hostage for anything?

      People looking for their hostage situation to become a long-running reality series.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Grishnakh ( 216268 )

      Someone who wants to see shows about real science and nature, and not a bunch of stupid melodramas about boneheads building crappy motorcycles?

      This guy should have shot whichever person at Discovery was responsible for American Chopper.

  • Ok you first... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by thejuggler ( 610249 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:35PM (#33441752) Homepage Journal
    eliminate yourself first and maybe others will follow.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Locke2005 ( 849178 )
      Apparently Mr. Lee did exactly that. Now, who would like to follow in his footsteps?
  • the manifesto (Score:5, Informative)

    by Joe Snipe ( 224958 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:35PM (#33441754) Homepage Journal

    is cached. [googleusercontent.com]

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:35PM (#33441760)
    ... this guy was against religion. We all know how crazy religious people are!
  • re: (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:36PM (#33441780)

    dear crazy guy,

    we stoped producing babies (or even trying to) years ago.

    the slashdot readership.

  • by srobert ( 4099 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:37PM (#33441796)

    Won't somebody please think of the Froggies!

  • by StefanJ ( 88986 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:38PM (#33441836) Homepage Journal

    This disturbed jerk has provided the Pave the Earth right wing with a new Emanuel Goldstein.

    "SEE? We told you all the environmentalists hated humanity! This is all the proof we need that global warming is a hoax and that Yellowstone Park should be sold off to create timeshare resorts!"

    • by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:47PM (#33442008) Journal
      Now you understand how Right-wingers feel at being labeled 'The American Taliban.'

      Seriously, judging any movement by it's most extreme elements is silly.
      • by thetoadwarrior ( 1268702 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:53PM (#33442098) Homepage
        They'll have to work a lot harder to undo that one as long as the tea party is around.
      • by yyxx ( 1812612 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:21PM (#33442434)

        Now you understand how Right-wingers feel at being labeled 'The American Taliban.' Seriously, judging any movement by it's most extreme elements is silly.

        There are left/right-wingers, moderates, and centrists. The something-wingers are, by definition, the "most extremist elements".

      • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:39PM (#33442722)

        Now you understand how Right-wingers feel at being labeled 'The American Taliban.'

        And how Muslims in NYC feel when people try to punish them for 9/11.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Jodka ( 520060 )

      The irony of your comment is that the so-called "Pave the Earthers" who want to sell off Yellowtone Park to create timeshares are no more representative of the right wing than is this disturbed jerk representative of the left. You engage in the same partisan misrepresentation which you ridicule, though with opposing polarity.

  • by Gorimek ( 61128 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:39PM (#33441838) Homepage

    Invader Zim is back!

  • Malthus Primer (Score:5, Informative)

    by CommieLib ( 468883 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:40PM (#33441856) Homepage
    We're talking 19th century economist Thomas Malthus here. His main point was that the food supply only grew linearly, while the population could grow exponentially. Thus, there were only three restraints on population growth:
    • Misery, i.e., war, plague and starvation.
    • Vice - birth control - Malthus was Catholic,
    • Moral Restraint - keeping it in your pants.

    Millibrain here seems to have got it exactly backwards (http://tmz.vo.llnwd.net/o28/newsdesk/tmz_documents/0901_demands.pdf):

    Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race.

    I was wondering for a while whether this dumbass was going to make an unexpectedly personal contribution to the zero population growth movement with the help of the local police. At any rate, "Malthusianism" is a perjorative in economics, as in "that's nothing more than warmed over Malthusianism". Where Malthus got it wrong was in not forseeing the economics pressures that drove innovation that in turn increased crop yields so that food supplies could indeed grow exponentially. His reasoning, per se, isn't wrong - but he starts from a false premise.

    • Re:Malthus Primer (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nadaka ( 224565 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:00PM (#33442180)

      The food supply curve is not exponential. It has exceeded exponential growth for a century, but only by consuming ever increasingly scarce resources to do so. Soil quality and aquifer levels are dramatically declining, soon even oil based fertilizers (that will become prohibitively expensive with peak oil) won't be enough to keep up production.

      Malthus was failed to account for technological advances and declining human fertility. But he also failed to account for destruction of the soil and irrigation systems from over production. His ideas were far from perfect, but they do have merit.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by CommieLib ( 468883 )
        You are correct that it is not (necessarily) exponential. The important point, however, is that it is not constrained to be linear - that's the core fallacy of Malthusianism.

        The key missed insight that we have, that Malthus didn't, is that supplies of things that are highly constrained in the short run are subject to economic pressures that may make them less constrained in the long run.

        So as soil quality and aquifer levels decline, their portion of the price of food will rise (because supplies are more
      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by c6gunner ( 950153 )

        Heh. It's funny that you can completely accept that Maltheus was overreacting because he failed to allow for the advancement of technology, and in the same breath claim that we're all doomed because we're running out of X. Maltheus would have been proud.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by yyxx ( 1812612 )

      Where Malthus got it wrong was in not forseeing the economics pressures that drove innovation that in turn increased crop yields so that food supplies could indeed grow exponentially.

      And where many economists get it wrong is in not realizing that this is not sustainable. You can print exponentially much money and delude yourself into believing that there is perpetual growth, but food production and population growth invariably will hit a wall. We're still growing because we're using up finite resources at

  • His website's text (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:40PM (#33441860)

    The Discovery Channel MUST broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet and to do the following IMMEDIATELY:
    1. The Discovery Channel and it's affiliate channels MUST have daily television programs at prime time slots based on Daniel Quinn's "My Ishmael" pages 207-212 where solutions to save the planet would be done in the same way as the Industrial Revolution was done, by people building on each other's inventive ideas. Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order. Perhaps also forums of leading scientists who understand and agree with the Malthus-Darwin science and the problem of human overpopulation. Do both. Do all until something WORKS and the natural world starts improving and human civilization building STOPS and is reversed! MAKE IT INTERESTING SO PEOPLE WATCH AND APPLY SOLUTIONS!!!!

    2. All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions. In those programs' places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.

    3. All programs promoting War and the technology behind those must cease. There is no sense in advertising weapons of mass-destruction anymore. Instead, talk about ways to disassemble civilization and concentrate the message in finding SOLUTIONS to solving global military mechanized conflict. Again, solutions solutions instead of just repeating the same old wars with newer weapons. Also, keep out the fraudulent peace movements. They are liars and fakes and had no real intention of ending the wars. ALL OF THEM ARE FAKE! On one hand, they claim they want the wars to end, on the other, they are demanding the human population increase. World War II had 2 Billion humans and after that war, the people decided that tripling the population would assure peace. WTF??? STUPIDITY! MORE HUMANS EQUALS MORE WAR!

    4. Civilization must be exposed for the filth it is. That, and all its disgusting religious-cultural roots and greed. Broadcast this message until the pollution in the planet is reversed and the human population goes down! This is your obligation. If you think it isn't, then get hell off the planet! Breathe Oil! It is the moral obligation of everyone living otherwise what good are they??

    5. Immigration: Programs must be developed to find solutions to stopping ALL immigration pollution and the anchor baby filth that follows that. Find solutions to stopping it. Call for people in the world to develop solutions to stop it completely and permanently. Find solutions FOR these countries so they stop sending their breeding populations to the US and the world to seek jobs and therefore breed more unwanted pollution babies. FIND SOLUTIONS FOR THEM TO STOP THEIR HUMAN GROWTH AND THE EXPORTATION OF THAT DISGUSTING FILTH! (The first world is feeding the population growth of the Third World and those human families are going to where the food is! They must stop procreating new humans looking for nonexistant jobs!)

    6. Find solutions for Global Warming, Automotive pollution, International Trade, factory pollution, and the whole blasted human economy. Find ways so that people don't build more housing pollution which destroys the environment to make way for more human filth! Find solutions so that people stop breeding as well as stopping using Oil in order to REVERSE Global warming and the destruction of the planet!

    7. Develop shows that mention the Malthusian sciences about how food production leads to the overpopulation of the Human race. Talk about Evolution. Talk about Malthus and Darwin until it sinks into the stupid people's brains until they get it!!

    8. Saving the Planet means saving what's left of the non-human Wildlife by decreasing the Human population. That means stopping the hum

    • by marcmerlin ( 48598 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:53PM (#33442086) Homepage

      well, obviously the guy was deranged, but some of his points are valid.
      The problem is that most countries rely on ever increasing population for their economy to strive and the politicians to do well (starting with social security that is not funded by people other than the ones who get the money).

      The world clearly could do better with a decreasing population, but most governments encourage exactly the opposite, so indeed right now humans are going to spread until they've taken over all the resources available and at the expense of pretty much all other lifeforms on the planet.

      I'll be dead before then, but thinking about it makes me sad.

  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by ScentCone ( 795499 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:40PM (#33441864)
    If we don't have any more disgusting babies, how will we get people to work the boats on Deadliest Catch, or drive the rigs on Ice Road Truckers?

    Why didn't he just jump off the building, and then make an immediate appearance on Ghost Lab? He would have had all the air time in the world to rant about "parasitic human infants" if he could make the first ever actually non-BS appearance on an idiotic cable ghost hunting show.

    Anyway, let's hear it for the Montgomery County PD for taking care of this clown. Alas, we'll now get to listen to him rant in court, too.
    • Re:But... (Score:5, Informative)

      by machxor ( 1226486 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:57PM (#33442144)

      Alas, we'll now get to listen to him rant in court, too.

      Only if your Ghost Lab option comes true... Oh and the court decides to start trying ghosts...

      The gunman, identified as James Lee, was killed by police following four hours of negotiations but the hostages are all safe, said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger.

  • by Daimanta ( 1140543 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:41PM (#33441892) Journal

    Like making Discovery Channel an interesting channel to watch again. I am not interested in (*City) Ink or in a cake-baking italian. No more seasons of crab/lobster/nessie fishing. I want the interesting stuff back again, learning things I wouldn't have learned otherwise. I will tolerate endless Rex Hunt reruns if this would be the case.

    But no, mister hostage taker has some sort of higher goal here. Typical.

  • Busted... (Score:5, Funny)

    by bugs2squash ( 1132591 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @04:41PM (#33441898)
    Jamie Heinemann shot the perp with a potato cannon and knocked him into a tank full of sharks.
  • Impossible! (Score:3, Funny)

    by NerveGas ( 168686 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:13PM (#33442346)

    Washington has laws against such things.

    Maybe they should have passed two or three more laws against them, so the guy wouldn't have done it.

  • what is his slashdot id?

  • by PolygamousRanchKid ( 1290638 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @05:22PM (#33442444)

    He wants them to avoid encouraging people to produce more 'disgusting human babies'

    Well, if human women start giving birth to giraffes, let me know. Nice critters.

  • omfg!!! (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Charliemopps ( 1157495 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @08:44PM (#33444644)
    Clearly Al Gores hate speech has gone too far. We need these sorts of videos banned, or at least labeled. Not even the columbine kids wanted to sterilize people!
  • by Dexter Herbivore ( 1322345 ) on Wednesday September 01, 2010 @10:00PM (#33445172) Journal
    but crazy or not, a man died.

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