What the hell is wrong with people in America?

[لني]

You do realize that the CONTENT of those magazines, regardless of their covers, is largely the same, right?

[لني]

But people arent as quick to buy in north america with out the fluff crap to draw thm in.

[GLASSJAW]

But people arent as quick to buy in north america with out the fluff crap to draw thm in.

[Scott Hartnell's Mane]

let's see... how much of that information you just posted, was mentioned in my first response? none of it. All you said was how you were laid off and collecting unemployment and you couldn't find a job because of the economy. NOW you are saying it's because of PTSD that you were let go and you can't drive. Object all you want, but don't expect me to suddenly feel bad for you nor retract my statement because you held that information back when saying why you couldn't move (personally, I find it rather "fishy" that you come back with PTSD after my response... I would think that would be a KEY factor in why you can't move... at least more important then mentioning the current economy.)

The fear of driving on the roads (or other people driving roads)... I'm a little confused on. Are you saying that you are afraid of what you might do while driving... or that people in general shouldn't drive?

[Ovech Trick]

I invented my own country, so I don't have to tell anyone I'm American, welcome to Salaamistan.

[Zamboni_14]

Yeah because a diagnosis of PTSD is truly something I should be proud of and mention straightaway, right? I got a newsflash for you, bub...I don't expect any pity or sympathy from you...I don't give two craps whether you pity me or not, ok? As far as driving on the roads goes...as I am prone to flashbacks from time to time, do you honestly think it'd be safe having me behind the wheel of a car? As far as "people driving" goes, at least around here...they truly ought to raise the legal driving age. Too many accidents in this area are caused by stupid high school age kids who even though they have a license have no ****ing idea what they are doing out there. Find whatever you like "fishy", Zamboni...I don't rightly give a damn....I'm one of the most honest posters here...and I won't pull any punches or say anything just to garner sympathy...but in all sincerity my friend you jumped the gun, telling me I was making an excuse, and I got pissed off, to be honest...because the PTSD isn't exactly something I'm proud of....and I didn't want to mention it at all.

[Wetcoaster]

I invented my own country, so I don't have to tell anyone I'm American, welcome to Salaamistan.

[Scott Hartnell's Mane]

let's revisit your posting...

let's break down the listings of WHY you can't move;

1) bad economy

2) laid off

3) on unemployment

4) personal health... oops... that's left out... COMPLETELY

ok, we'll go with the idea that you didn't want to post that you have PTSD. So you found that it was important to note how you worked at a job since high school... but nothing along the lines of; "I was let go due to a personal matter" or "I was let go due to health reasons." Heck, you could have left everything else out of your first post and just said; "I'd love to move, but a personal health issue prevents me from doing so." Done deal, and you didn't even have to say what issues you were having.

but wait.. you don't pull punches and according to you are one of the most honest posters here. So if that's the case, again.. why not mention it (or allude to some kind of health issue) right off the bat? Or were you pulling punches and not being totally honest (in which case makes your response inaccurate.)

[Squirrels.Gone.Wild]

Hey Squirrel, are you American?

If so, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?

[Zamboni_14]

Because the health issue, right off the bat, was none of your god damned business, that's why. I'll be bluntly honest but I am sure as hell not going to put every facet of what occurs in my private life, what I deal with, right out in the open or "allude" to something if I don't feel that information is any of anyone else's business. It was none of your ****ing business WHY I was let go from my job...which is why I didn't MENTION why I was let go from my job.

[Scott Hartnell's Mane]

You'd do well to learn the difference between an excuse and a reason, my friend. Happy Xmas.

[kyledude]

Uhh lets get back on topic...

The ex-con who lured firefighters to their deaths in a blaze of gunfire in Webster, N.Y., left a typewritten note saying he wanted to burn down the neighbourhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said today.

Police chief Gerald Pickering said Tuesday that 62-year-old William Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, was armed himself with a revolver, a shotgun and a semiautomatic rifle before he set his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on Christmas Eve.

Two firefighters were shot dead and two others are hospitalized. Spengler killed himself as seven houses burned around him Monday on a narrow spit of land along Lake Ontario.

One of the weapons recovered was a .233-calibre semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and calibre gun used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Pickering said.

The chief said police believe the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.

The two- to three-page typewritten note left by Spengler didn't give a motive for the shootings, Pickering said. He declined to divulge the note's full content or say where it was found, but read one line from it: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighbourhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."

Gunman's sister missing

Pickering said authorities were still looking for Spengler's 67-year-old sister, Cheryl Spengler, who lived in the house with him. Their mother, Arline, also lived there until she died in October.

About 100 people attended an impromptu memorial vigil Monday evening in Webster, a suburb of Rochester. Dozens of bouquets were left at the fire station, along with a handwritten sign that said, "Thanks for protecting us. RIP."

Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. Monday to put out the fire, Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.

Lt. Michael Chiapperini, of both the Webster police and volunteer fire departments, has been identified as one of the firefighters killed Monday. (Webster Police Department)

Authorities said Spengler hadn't done anything to bring himself to their attention since his parole. As a convicted felon, he wasn't allowed to possess weapons. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said Spengler led a very quiet life after he got out of prison.

A friend said Spengler hated his sister. Roger Vercruysse lived next door to Spengler and recalled a man who doted on his mother, whose obituary suggested contributions to the West Webster Fire Department.

"He loved his mama to death," said Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about six months ago.

Vercruysse also said Spengler "couldn't stand his sister" and "stayed on one side of the house and she stayed on the other."

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.

William Spengler served 17 years in prison after the beating death of his 92-year-old grandmother in 1980, after pleading guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter. (Monroe County Sheriff's Office/Associated Press)

Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as Spengler carried out his ambush. The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun - high powered ... semi or fully auto."

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one of the wounded men fled, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.

The police officer who exchanged gunfire with Spengler "in all likelihood saved many lives," Pickering said.

A police armoured vehicle was used to recover two men, and eventually it removed 33 people from nearby homes, the police chief said. The gunfire initially kept firefighters from battling the blazes.

The men killed in the shooting were identified as:

• Police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer.

• Tomasz Kaczowka, 19, also a 911 dispatcher.

Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years in the department, and he called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."

Kaczowka's brother, reached at the family home Monday night, said he didn't want to talk.

The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were in stable condition Tuesday at Strong Memorial Hospital, the chief said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.

Hofstetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.

Vigil honours dead, wounded

Cathy Bartlett was at a vigil Monday night with her teenage son, who was good friends with Kaczowka. Bartlett's husband, Mark Bartlett, has been a firefighter there for 25 years but missed the call this morning.

"Thank God my husband slept through the first alarm and didn't get up until the second one went off," she said.

The shooting and fires were in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.

"We have very few calls for service in that location," Pickering said. "Webster is a tremendous community. We are a safe community, and to have a tragedy befall us like this is just horrendous."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the State Police and Office of Emergency Management were working with local authorities.

"Volunteer firefighters and police officers were injured and two were taken from us as they once again answered the call of duty," Cuomo said in a statement. "We as the community of New York mourn their loss as now two more families must spend the holidays without their loved ones."

Webster, a middle-class suburb, now is the scene of violence linked to house fires for two Decembers in a row.

Last Dec. 7, authorities say, a 15-year-old boy doused his home with gasoline and set it ablaze, killing his father and two brothers, 16 and 12. His mother and 13-year-old sister escaped with injuries. He is being prosecuted as an adult.

[Wetcoaster]

More details are emerging about the alleged shooter, William Spengler.

The parole board while noting he was model prisoner refused early release four times and he had to be released once he had served his entire sentence for murdering his grandmother. There is something to be said for the Canadian approach - the only sentence for murder in any degree is life.

It is also being reported that a neighbour's daughter bought the Bushmaster .223 semi automatic and the shotgun for Spengler as he was prohibited from owning firearms as former felon. The police have not yet traced how he came into possession of the handgun.

ALBANY, N.Y. — William Spengler raised no alarms in prison for 17 years and for more than a decade afterward. Well-spoken, well-behaved and intelligent, his demeanor was praised by four straight parole boards that nevertheless denied him parole, worried that bludgeoning his 92-year-old grandmother with a hammer showed a violent streak that could explode again.

After his sentence was up in 1996, he stayed out of trouble until 2010, police said Friday. That's when Spengler went to a sporting goods store with a neighbor's daughter, picked out a Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle and a shotgun and had her buy the guns that the convicted felon couldn't legally possess. On Monday, he used the weapons to ambush firefighters lured to a blaze he set at his house in upstate Webster, killing two people and wounding three others before killing himself.

On Friday, state and federal authorities charged the woman who bought the guns, 24-year-old Dawn Nguyen, with lying on a form that said she would be the owner of the guns she bought for Spengler.

The charges involve the semiautomatic rifle and the 12-gauge shotgun that Spengler had with him Monday when volunteer firefighters Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka were gunned down. Three other people, including two other firefighters, were wounded before the 62-year-old Spengler killed himself. He also had a .38-caliber revolver, but Nguyen is not connected to that gun, police said.

Investigators were still working Friday to confirm their belief that a body found in Spengler's burned home was that of the sister he lived with, Cheryl Spengler, 67.

U.S. Attorney William Hochul said Nguyen bought the two guns on June 6, 2010, on behalf of Spengler. Police used the serial numbers on the guns to trace them to Nguyen.

"She told the seller of these guns, Gander Mountain in Henrietta, N.Y., that she was to be the true owner and buyer of the guns instead of William Spengler," Hochul said. "It is absolutely against federal law to provide any materially false information related to the acquisition of firearms."

During an interview late on Christmas Eve, she told police she had bought the guns for personal protection and that they were stolen from her vehicle, though she never reported the guns stolen. The day after the shootings, Nguyen texted an off-duty Monroe County Sheriff's deputy with references to the killings. She later called the deputy and admitted she bought the guns for Spengler, police said Friday.

That information was consistent with a suicide note found near Spengler's body after he killed himself. The rambling, typed letter spelled out Spengler's intention to destroy his neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people."

Nguyen is scheduled to return to court on Jan. 8. She declined comment Friday, and a working phone number for her lawyer could not be found.

The .223-caliber Bushmaster rifle, which had a combat-style flash suppressor, is similar to the one used by the gunman who massacred 20 children and six women in a Newtown, Conn., elementary school earlier this month.

As police announced the charges against Nguyen, a clearer portrait of Spengler began to emerge, in the words of wary parole commissioners who kept him locked up until the law said they had to let him go.

At his final parole hearing in 1995, the then-45-year-old Spengler repeated his desire to get out of prison while he still had time to rebuild his life. He also took issue with a previous decision not to release him because the board believed he remained a danger to society.

"You know, the only area of confusion, the last Board, they said that I might be a danger to the community at that time," he said. "I can't figure out where in my record it shows that."

"Well, 13 shots to the head. The grandmother. You killed a 92-year-old woman. We are worried about that," a board member replied. "There might be another occasion where you lose your temper and you might repeat that behavior. That is what frightens us. That frightens us."

During four hearings between 1989 and 1995, Spengler quarreled with parole board members over details of his grandmother's killing, insisting each time he'd only hit her three times on the head with a hammer while evidence pointed to 13 blows, and initially saying he couldn't explain why the attack happened.

He told the commissioners he took care of his father's mother in her home next to his because others in the family had difficulty dealing with her, in part because she could be violent. He denied insinuations he was taking financial advantage of Rose Spengler.

The transcripts reveal a well-spoken man, proud to be staying out of trouble in prison and earning positions of trust and responsibility, even time out of prison with a work crew that did renovation work in places including a century-old chapel. The board members mention Spengler testing high for intelligence and noted he came to prison with no other crimes on his record, had only dabbled in drug use and had a spotty work history, mostly as a house painter.

On the day of the killing, he said, he planned to nail shut a basement door to prevent his grandmother from going down and endangering herself. But he said she attacked him, inadvertently kneed him in the groin, and he hit her with the hammer.

"So why do you think you killed her?" Spengler was asked in 1989.

"I still haven't figured that out. It was matter of just wanting to get out. She was between me and the door," he replied.

"She was just a little, bitty old lady," a board member commented.

"I realize that. That's why I still can't explain it," Spengler said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/29/william-spengler-parole-dawn-nguyen-charged_n_2380394.html

[Pouria]

So happy to be a Canadian and living in one of the world class cities, we cant all say that, I dont even wanna vacation in the US, so many other great places to see, Vancouver is nicer than majority if not all cities in the US

[Guest Gumballthechewy]

You'd do well to learn the difference between an excuse and a reason, my friend. Happy Xmas.