December 27, 2000

10:35 PM

Fucked Company is raising money for the victims at Edgewater Technology, "our fellow Internet workers [who] went to work and were murdered." Seems a tad insincere, given that his original reaction to the incident was "Booyah." Then again, there's now a menorah in the FC logo. Perhaps Pud has found God.
posted by luke (23 comments total)

Wow, a full-page forced interstitial. This is too over the top for pud; he must have gotten a lot of heat for "booyah." Note the <TITLE>: "using my powers for good."
posted by aaron at 11:00 PM on December 27, 2000

Anyone else tired? Of a comrade's downsizing? Of a client, not taken, now belly-up? Of an old cohort now f'ed? Of a bad piece of advice you gave your folks? Of a bad piece of advice you gave yourself?

The crime didn't affect me that much; murders happen.

The hyper-realized hyper-mediated coverage did affect me that much.

Gosh, I'm sick of this industry.

I'll look forward to the standard cynical, savvy, detatched comments to this silly post.

As for me, I'm on FC's listserv, but have been deleting them for a few weeks. I'm tired of gloating over fallen friends.


posted by red cell at 11:43 PM on December 27, 2000

maybe you're too deep into it-- So far I haven't read one complete article, no seen anything in-depth or over the top about it. And I watch around an hour of TV a night, listen to 1/2 hour of radio, and I'm on the computer 6 hours a day or so.

Or maybe I'm out of it? I don't know, but I do know that I haven't felt a "hyper-realized hyper-mediated coverage." Anyone else?
posted by chaz at 12:41 AM on December 28, 2000

I think Pud's initial reaction was just 'knee-jerk black humor' or whatever you want to call it.
Maybe someone took him to task, or maybe he thought about how he'd feel if some random violence took away someone he cared about.
He's doing something about it-and he really didn't have to.
That's good.
posted by black8 at 4:23 AM on December 28, 2000

When Pud first posted it he said it was because a lot of people pestered him to do it. I didn't get the sense he was glorifying it in anyway, even with the "booyah".

Give Pud a break, at least he's trying to do something appropriate. I kicked in a couple of bucks, and so should you.


posted by briank at 6:36 AM on December 28, 2000

It's a nice gesture, but calling the victims "the friends we've lost" is a bit much.
posted by rcade at 6:45 AM on December 28, 2000

Yeah, how many of us really have friends in accounting or HR, eh?

Black humor aside, I think the point of saying "the friends we've lost" is to bring home the idea that it could have been our friends -- or for that matter, us. For me at least, reading the phrase actually does intensify the empathy in a way that "it could have been us" does not.
posted by kindall at 7:40 AM on December 28, 2000

chaz - It was basically the top news story in the US, as far as I can tell. So every online news outlet was (is?) going on about it, throwing around random pictures of the guy. I'm pretty sure every local tv news broadcast nationwide covered it at least once or twice.

Personally, I agree with red cell. It's like when the local tv news tells me about a murder in some town where I've never been. Why do I care? I dunno...
posted by whatnotever at 8:58 AM on December 28, 2000

"The crime didn't affect me that much; murders happen."
Perhaps, but we do happen to lead this particular category ahead of the rest of the world, as many as eight times more than other major countries... so I welcome anyone who tries to do something to help when it happens, instead of becoming more desensitized to it.
posted by teradome at 9:00 AM on December 28, 2000

Funny... He deleted the original FC post for Edgewater, too.
posted by waxpancake at 9:08 AM on December 28, 2000

I'm curious to find out where the guy got his guns and whether they were legal. I don't know if that has any bearing on the crime -- he was an explosives expert, after all -- but that's one question I wish the media would answer.
posted by rcade at 9:18 AM on December 28, 2000

Where he got his guns? Well, he could get them anywhere. Gun shows. Pawn shops. Order them from a catalog? Maybe from his friends at alt.engr.explosives? (I'm surprised that hasn't gotten into the media yet -- I wonder if the FBI reads that?)

I don't see the relevance of where he got his guns. I do believe that he was unlicensed to carry a concealed handgun but I'm not sure what sort of licensing one needs in Mass. to be a "collector."
posted by amanda at 10:32 AM on December 28, 2000

I don't see the relevance of where he got his guns.

A guy carries three guns to work, kills seven of his co-workers execution style with those guns, has more guns in his desk, and you don't care at all where he got them? Is there some kind of right to privacy inherent in the Second Amendment that I'm not aware of?
posted by rcade at 2:50 PM on December 28, 2000

If he'd bashed their brains in with a hammer, would you care where he got it?
posted by kindall at 3:16 PM on December 28, 2000

Hammers are mass-produced for the purpose of whacking on boards and the occasional computer screen. Guns are mass-produced for the purpose of blowing holes in beer bottles, paper targets, future dinners and, often, co-workers.

But rcade, I am interested in your question, which you frame facetiously, yet piqued my curiosity. If I feel a burning compulsion to stock my house with 50,000 cans of soup, I don't believe there's anyone in the USA who can force me to tell them where I got them or how I paid for them unless they have reasonable evidence of theft or the like. Is there something on the books of this sort in the case of firearms? Gun shows are pretty much an unregulated free market, right, or am I being typically dumb and missing something?
posted by Skot at 3:43 PM on December 28, 2000

Oh come on, do you need a license or a background check to get a hammer?

His question is valid, but the answer is sad enough... guns are weapons, but they're pretty much treated like hardware. If he's in good enough standing, and he's got a clear background, he can get those guns anywhere -- even Kmart.

And then it only takes a second to use it to kill someone.
posted by teradome at 3:46 PM on December 28, 2000

BTW: NBC news just broadcasted that the ATF has traced the source of his guns but won't publicly mention yet their findings...
posted by teradome at 3:48 PM on December 28, 2000

Recent series in the Dayton Daily News about how states like Ohio which do not regulate gun sales at all (seriously, at all) become a source of guns for the rest of the nation. Here's a link to one story: How straw men help gun-toting criminals. I have this image that I just can't shake of hundreds of thousands of guns worming their way through the social fabric, stopping here and there along the way for no obvious reason, until somebody gets hurt. Or killed.
posted by elgoose at 4:08 PM on December 28, 2000

The history of a gun can often be traced from serial killing whackjob back through its previous owners. This guy apparently had no criminal record and was at one time enough of a reputable citizen to get an important job on a nuclear submarine, so it's possible he bought all of them legally (though I heard he didn't keep some of his licenses up to date).

If he'd bashed their brains in with a hammer, would you care where he got it?

There are no laws regulating the sale or purchase of hammers. In this case, there are quite a few laws on the books involving guns, so it would be interesting to see how Mucko built his arsenel before fragging receptionists and accountants.
posted by rcade at 4:20 PM on December 28, 2000

regardless of Pud's original intentions or reactions, apparently about $10k in donations have been made so far. Go Pud. Donations Good. If you could carry 30 hammers around in a little case attached to a mechanism for throwing them at great velocity towards people i think they would be regulated.
posted by th3ph17 at 12:00 PM on December 29, 2000

Pud has found God? Thank goodness, I lost Him some time ago. The only problem will be proving to Pud that the God he's found really belongs to me...
posted by kindall at 7:02 PM on January 1, 2001

See, that's why you're supposed to get your God tags. It's not just a municipal government scam. The God Pound has to put those unclaimed Gods down after 6 weeks you know.

You really should keep your God on a leash, too, or at the very least in a fenced backyard. Nietzsche didn't, and look at the philisophical ramifications resulting when he found his God run over by a neighbor pulling into their driveway!
posted by cCranium at 5:53 AM on January 2, 2001

(all least hell will be toasty warm. it's a cold morning)
posted by cCranium at 5:54 AM on January 2, 2001