Man Sought In Thanksgiving Day Rampage

Four family members dead.

Quote :

Authorities in Florida were searching Saturday for a man police said opened fire on his family after Thanksgiving dinner and killed four people, including his pregnant sister and a 6-year-old cousin who was sleeping in her bed.

There had been "ongoing resentment" in the family, but investigators weren't sure what specifically prompted the shooting, officials said. Police were looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, of Miami. He was believed to be driving a royal blue 2007 Toyota Camry with a rear spoiler and Florida license plate.

"Resentment"? There are a lot of relatives I resent, and a few that I loathe, but I'm not likely to pick up a gun and start spraying bullets at them.

You don't even need a special holiday for that to happen in Finland.

I'm a terrible person- the first thing I thought when reading this was "Hooray, Spotts is back!"
and completely ignored the terrible news.

Somebody refused to stand in line for a new TV...

...

... I profusely apologize. That was seriously the first thing that came to mind.

I remember the top story from last Thanksgiving was that Walmart guy who got trampled by customers. This is pretty bad too though.

Spotts1701 wrote:

Four family members dead.

Quote :

Authorities in Florida were searching Saturday for a man police said opened fire on his family after Thanksgiving dinner and killed four people, including his pregnant sister and a 6-year-old cousin who was sleeping in her bed.

There had been "ongoing resentment" in the family, but investigators weren't sure what specifically prompted the shooting, officials said. Police were looking for Paul Michael Merhige, 35, of Miami. He was believed to be driving a royal blue 2007 Toyota Camry with a rear spoiler and Florida license plate.

"Resentment"? There are a lot of relatives I resent, and a few that I loathe, but I'm not likely to pick up a gun and start spraying bullets at them.

Like most cases of this kind, when they catch him (assuming he didn't go somewhere and kill himself afterwards), they'll probably find out that the 'ongoing resentment' has been going on since long before Thanksgiving Day. It may be something that stretches back years, and the combination of the holiday and having the entire family in the same place at the same time was the straw that broke the camels back.

Contrary to general belief, people who do this sort of thing very rarely just 'snap.' They've been planning it (or at least thinking about doing it) for quite some time, and then they get presented with what, to them, is the ideal opportunity.

Though I'd be interested in what sort of 'ongoing resentment' would cause you to shoot a pregnant woman and six-year-old sleeping child. Neither seems like they'd present a threat of any sort, unless you're just a general heartless bastard.

Saleha wrote:

Somebody refused to stand in line for a new TV...

...

... I profusely apologize. That was seriously the first thing that came to mind.

First thing that came to my mind was: "They didn't make the stuffing they way I like it, damn it!"

Oh yeah, because stricter gun laws would so have had absolutely no effect on this.

It could be me, but there always seems to be family massacres over the holidays.

I know traditions practically brainwash us into accepting everything should be light and joy and happy family times during the holidays, but sometimes disowning family members, no matter how ugly it sounds, IS the right thing to do. Why torture yourself and spent X-Mas with people you seem to hate?

If this dude hated his family so much, then cut contact with them and don't meet them with a shotgun, asshole.

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

Oh yeah, because stricter gun laws would so have had absolutely no effect on this.

Oh, fuck you, Harley - this was not caused by lax gun laws. This was caused by someone who decided to injure his family members. If he hadn't had a gun, he'd have used a steak knife, or a baseball bat, or whatever the fuck he had on hand.

I think I remember reading somewhere that Thanksgiving is the holiday you're most likely to be killed by a family member.

frostflowers wrote:

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

Oh yeah, because stricter gun laws would so have had absolutely no effect on this.

Oh, fuck you, Harley - this was not caused by lax gun laws. This was caused by someone who decided to injure his family members. If he hadn't had a gun, he'd have used a steak knife, or a baseball bat, or whatever the fuck he had on hand.

Thank you for posting that frostflowers, so I didn't have to.

Maximilia wrote:

frostflowers wrote:

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

Oh yeah, because stricter gun laws would so have had absolutely no effect on this.

Oh, fuck you, Harley - this was not caused by lax gun laws. This was caused by someone who decided to injure his family members. If he hadn't had a gun, he'd have used a steak knife, or a baseball bat, or whatever the fuck he had on hand.

Thank you for posting that frostflowers, so I didn't have to.

You're welcome - I'm just getting kind of tired of Harley's constant attempts to start gun wanks (which are thinly disguised "The US sucks!"-wanks). I mean, I'm pro-stricter-gun-laws as well, but there's more to the issue than simply yelling "Guns are baaaaaad!". Crazy people will still be crazy people even if they didn't have guns.

frostflowers wrote:

Maximilia wrote:

frostflowers wrote:

Harley Quinn hyenaholic wrote:

Oh yeah, because stricter gun laws would so have had absolutely no effect on this.

Oh, fuck you, Harley - this was not caused by lax gun laws. This was caused by someone who decided to injure his family members. If he hadn't had a gun, he'd have used a steak knife, or a baseball bat, or whatever the fuck he had on hand.

Thank you for posting that frostflowers, so I didn't have to.

You're welcome - I'm just getting kind of tired of Harley's constant attempts to start gun wanks (which are thinly disguised "The US sucks!"-wanks). I mean, I'm pro-stricter-gun-laws as well, but there's more to the issue than simply yelling "Guns are baaaaaad!". Crazy people will still be crazy people even if they didn't have guns.

Very much agreed on here. Several cases tell us the sad story how a man killed his wife and children with axe and then offed themselves in Finland. They don't need guns for that and hey think about me I'm a Finn and we've had two school shootings in a row here. Shootings. I'm pretty sure that they would have come up with something else for the killing too(well the second Finnisher tried to explode the whole school, but failed).

Now Harley shut up or come up with some better arguments.

But then she couldn't try to "subtly" insinuate that my country is absolutely horrible and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I mean, we gave the world Mikey, sure, but didn't Mister Rogers make up for him?

Lapin wrote:

But then she couldn't try to "subtly" insinuate that my country is absolutely horrible and has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I mean, we gave the world Mikey, sure, but didn't Mister Rogers make up for him?

Nothing could make up for Mikey and you know it, the fact that Mister Rogers had a total of 0% impact out side of America also makes you point fall flat.

Other bad things America gave us.
Twilight.
George Bush (Both of em)
Fast Food chains such as McDonalds and Burger King.
The bulk of the current financial Crisis.

Not that I don't love most of our American posters as individuals, but you have to admit your country doesn't half like to share it's crap with the world.

We have better television than you and we occasionally share?

Lapin wrote:

We have better television than you and we occasionally share?

Telly Somath actually Watches.
Dr Who
Top Gear
Mock The Week
QI
Live At The Apollo

Guess how much of that is from America? Hint:- None of it

So yeah, No.

Things America has given or been involved in giving to the world:

Space age technology
Several very good writers (and the Horace Engdahl can do screw himself for that remark about America not having any authors worthy of the Nobel Prize)
Chocolate chip cookies
Cancer chemotherapy
Marker pens

.... the list goes on, but I'll just stop here.

(Hides behind Frosty) So...so yeah! There!

(Aside) We made marker pens? Really?

According to Wikipedia's timeline of US inventions, you did.

Sweden contributed the computer mouse and the spanner to the world, but against chemotherapy, that seems a little... weak, perhaps. Good going, America!

Lapin wrote:

We have better television than you and we occasionally share?

I wouldn't agree with that necessarily. It depends which country you're talking about. In my opinion, overall, the U.S. is behind Britain, France, and Canada, in television quality. Britain would be, by far, the best. It's better than Russian television, and way better than Japanese television, unless you like to watch things that are a bit strange. The rest of the world I really wouldn't know anything about.
I think it has less to do with there not being good shows than there being so many terrible ones the good ones don't stand out. Every country has bad television, but most other countries make an effort to make it entertaining and give it enough kitsch value to make it popular with stoners. In the U.S. most stoners would rather watch just watch the highlights on The Soup than sit through a whole hour of reality television. I can honestly only think of four good U.S. shows currently on the air, and that includes The Soup because I'm really a stoner. And out of those four good shows, two of them are bad if you try to take them seriously.

I don't know. Spanner is one of the most useful tools in the world. And you gave us Ikea, the magical furniture store of fun. (No really, I go to Ikea just to get a bun and look at the pretty rooms)

Lapin wrote:

We have better television than you and we occasionally share?

But when you guys get bored with a show you take it away even if others like it.

frostflowers wrote:

Things America has given or been involved in giving to the world:

Space age technology

Yes cause you've done so much with it since getting up there.

frostflowers wrote:

Several very good writers (and the Horace Engdahl can do screw himself for that remark about America not having any authors worthy of the Nobel Prize)

Give me some names, I'll see if I've actually heard of em.

frostflowers wrote:

Chocolate chip cookies

Give me a chocolate digestive over your poor imitations anyday

frostflowers wrote:

Cancer chemotherapy

Yeah, originally intended to be used as a weapon, aka Mustard Gas.

frostflowers wrote:

Marker pens

Actually alot of different places in the world invented similar products around about the smae time, go figure.

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