The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

There’s Crazy, and Then There’s Crazy

Posted on | September 29, 2010 | 11 Comments

How crazy was it that I got to hang out with Todd Palin and got Tweeted by Alyssa Milano in the same month? But I am, after all, a professional journalist and these gonzo adventures are just part of what I do for a living. (Hey, have you hit the tip jar yet?)

On the other hand, Shawn R. Christy has no such excuse:

Sarah Palin obtained a protective order Monday against an 18-year-old Pennsylvania man who sent her receipts from a gun purchase, along with a letter saying “he tried to follow the Bible but had evil and wickedness in him.” . . .
Palin’s friend, Kristan Cole, 48, filed for and received a similar protective order against Christy.
The 20-day protective orders Anchorage Magistrate Colleen Ray signed Monday prohibit Christy from following, approaching, confronting, watching or otherwise staking or threatening to stalk or assault Palin or Cole.
The protective orders say Christy has been stalking the families since 2009. Cole said she became concerned about Christy’s letters and e-mails for months, but it ended up in court yesterday after the man called her to say his plane had landed in Alaska. . . .

My advice to Shawn Christy: Start taking your meds again, at least until you get those obsessive delusions under control.

Assuming that you can, at some future point, attain some semblance of psychological normality, you might consider a career as a professional journalist, where you actually have a legitimate excuse to talk to important people. If, however, you continue to be batshit crazy . . .

Well, Keith Olbermann has managed to make a living somehow.

Category: Alaska, Crime, Sarah Palin

Comments

11 Responses to “There’s Crazy, and Then There’s Crazy”

  1. garden brinjal
    September 29th, 2010 @ 9:31 pm

    And wind on whether Shawn R. Christy is a Democrat? Obama volunteer, ACORN activist, GZM supporter or at least a Lady Gaga fan?

  2. jefferson101
    September 29th, 2010 @ 9:46 pm

    My advice to the guy would be not to go to Alaska.

    Like the Palins, I live in a moderately rural area, and we can all tell when anyone who isn’t a resident shows up. I know the sound of all the local vehicles, and so does my little puppy dog. She doesn’t bark unless it’s a stranger.

    But if someone strange moves in? Best case, we build a fence. Worst case?

    I have never been out shooting with Todd, so I can’t say for sure. But I’ll bet he can hit what he’s aiming at, mostly.

    Restraining orders are good, because they give you license to do a Mozambique on the idiot that shows up when he’s under one.

    Any more questions?

    I didn’t think there would be.

  3. BlahBlahBlah
    September 29th, 2010 @ 9:55 pm

    Looks like he’s a fan turned demented weirdo.

  4. Robert Stacy McCain
    September 30th, 2010 @ 12:43 am

    @BlahBlahBlah

    Yeah. It’s not an unfamiliar phenomenon: The emotionally unstable fan whose fandom becomes a psychotic obsession.

    That the kid is 18 leads me to suspect that he’s experiencing a sort of acute psychological crisis that’s fairly common in late adolescence. Guarantee that a therapeutic inventory will disclose numerous stress-points in this kid’s life: Parental divorce, school failure, unemployment, romantic troubles, etc. The stress builds up, the kid can’t deal with it, and eventually he freaks out. Happens every day in America.

    This madness made headlines because it manifested itself, in his case, in an obsession with a political celebrity. But 18-year-olds go off the rails all the time, and it seldom makes headlines.

    The prognosis for recovery for this kid is actually pretty good, in that his breakdown seems to have been acute — developing fairly rapidly — rather than chronic. Mark David Chapman and John Hinckley were both examples of chronic psychosis: They slowly and quietly drifted off into private delusions, and their madness developed unnoticed for years until, one day, they showed up with a pistol and shot somebody.

  5. RES
    September 30th, 2010 @ 1:07 am

    Five’ll get you ten that, if he should succeed in any attempts the MSM will portray him as a victim of the GOP Hate Machine and find some way to show his victim was asking for it.

    That aside, let’s hope that this restraining order is sufficient prompt for friends (assuming he has any) and family to do an intervention and get his butt into therapy.

  6. Lessons of Failure and Hope of Success: Reflections on the Eve of a Battle : The Other McCain
    September 30th, 2010 @ 6:07 pm

    […] at disaster is sometimes the only alternative to throwing oneself off a bridge or otherwise going nuts. Obviously, if the intention of such a jest is misunderstood, this is but one more failure for […]