(10-06-2017, 10:19 PM)TJBender Wrote: So by your logic, it's irrational to think that a person radicalized by a non-Islamic hate group would want to kill white people. 

I'm not ruling anything out except radical Islam. A white guy in his 60s does not wake up one day and decide that he wants to praise Allah and gun down the infidels. He very well may have just had a screw loose. Considering that his girlfriend was in Asia getting large sums of money wired to her, and considering the guy's gambling and drinking history, there could be organized crime involved for all we know.

Here's something I find more plausible than the radical Islam fairy tale: those in the military industrial complex who continue to make untold billions per year on America's fear of Islam picked this guy as a patsy almost at random, then had SEAL Team 6 do the shooting so they could use Paddock later on as an example of how no one is safe and anyone can fall victim to radical Islam--even the people you love.

I think that's completely ridiculous, but if someone official does come out and say that Paddock was converted to radical Islam and swore jihad against the United States, I'd start to think that a military industrial conspiracy is a possible cause.

The problem with conspiracy theories, especially the grand ones, is human nature.  People talk.  The more people you bring in to a secret, the less likely that it remains a secret, exponentially so.  You'd think people would trust their own life experience versus taking what is seen in movies and attempting to apply it to the real world, but suckers are born every minute as they say.

A white guy (or gal) converting to Islam and spreading jihad isn't unprecedented.  On the other hand, I think you have to perform a lot of mental gymnastics to reach the conclusion that the government had something to do with this.  I'm not betting my house that the guy was definitely radicalized as I don't know and no one else who only has access to the information that's been verified and that's currently in the public domain knows, but a person saying it isn't possible or isn't the most likely scenario given what we currently know probably hasn't been paying much attention the last 30+ years.

---