Amos Brown Makes National Headline For Becoming First African-American To Attack Newly-Appointed Senator Tim Scott

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appointed the sole African-American member of the U.S. Senate today when she named U.S. Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of Sen. Jim DeMint, who left the Senate to head up The Heritage Foundation. No sooner had Haley made her appointment public than Indianapolis' outspoken radio talk show host went on the attack, condemning Scott as "black only in skin color" on Twitter, which caught the attention of Breitbart News:

Tim Scott has been appointed to fill the South Carolina Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Jim DeMint and immediately the racebaiters jumped in with both feet to attack him. One of the early hatemongers was Amos Brown, a host on a religious radio station in Indianapolis, Indiana. Brown used his Twitter account to claim that African American Tim Scott isn't really a black man.

Tim Scott is, of course, a Republican just like Governor Haley who will appoint him to the vacant seat. All one need be is a black man in the GOP and the hatemongers come out in force with their racist name calling and radio host Amos Brown rose early to the rote attack.

On his Twitter account (@Amoswtlcindy), Brown wrote, "Gee, courtesy of S Carolina GOP, the nation gets Tim Scott an ultra-rightwing, Tea Party devotee US Senator who's Black only in skin color."

Mr. Amos Brown calls himself a man of God and works for AM 1310, "The Light," a religious station that caters to the African American community in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I really feel for African-Americans who dare to think for themselves and, God forbid, associate with the Republican Party. The vitriolic attacks made against black Republicans by people on the Left, particularly from other African-Americans, knows know bounds. Thirty years ago, people across the political spectrum would have applauded the appointment of an African-American to the U.S. Senate regardless of his or her party affiliation. In the political world of Barack Obama, any African-American who ventures from the Democratic Party is subjected by people on the Left to endless public lashings void of any semblance of civil discourse.

Indiana House Democratic Leader Reacts To Monica Liang Affair

Indiana House Democratic Leader Scott Pelath is urging renewed legislative efforts to increase oversight and public accountability of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation in response to an Indianapolis Star investigative series, "The China Letter," which revealed how a highly-paid consultant of the agency had allegedly engaged in blatant self-dealing and solicited bribes while working for the IEDC and how the agency simply swept the whole matter under the rug. From Pelath's statement:

“With the recent news in the Indianapolis Star about more troubles swirling around the IEDC, it is becoming apparent that the agency that is supposed to help us create jobs is broken. It needs to be fixed.

“The investigation surrounding ‘The China Letter’ leaves many questions unanswered, in particular about the way that the IEDC handles its affairs as a part of state government.

“These concerns are not new. For years, there have been doubts raised about the accuracy of the job creation claims made by the governor and this agency.

“Their method of operation has become all too familiar: Make a big public announcement about large numbers of jobs that are coming, then disappear when the claims turn out to be inaccurate.

“Even before the recent controversies about Litebox in Indianapolis, Carbon Motors in Connersville, and Global Energy Solutions in Madison, there have been investigations – particularly by WTHR-TV in Indianapolis – questioning whether many of the numbers touted by the administration were even close to being correct.

“The current administration that helped create these problems is on its way out of office. It is content to sit back in its final days and make grand claims about job creation. The governor and his staff will be long gone before we see if those claims become reality.

“But with a new governor taking office in a few short weeks, there is plenty of time to see what has gone wrong, and work to improve our job creation efforts.

“To start, we can ask that the IEDC follow the same types of public oversight and accountability that we demand of all state government agencies. After all, we are talking about an agency that has the power to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded incentives.

“In addition, we have gone far too long in sitting by and letting this particular department make big claims about the numbers of jobs it creates, without any way to determine whether they are telling the truth or simply a story that makes good headlines initially. Upon taking office, Gov.-elect Mike Pence should examine all recent jobs announcements to determine their validity, then report back to the people of Indiana about his findings.

“Despite all the claims made by the current administration, Indiana lags behind when it comes to creating and keeping good-paying jobs.

“The time has come to demand that the IEDC live up to its charge, and stop hiding behind a shroud of secrecy.”

According to the Star investigation, Monica Liang, a Chinese immigrant, had been contractually hired by the agency as a $100,000 per year special assistant to former Commerce Secretary Mitch Roob. Liang allegedly accepted a $50,000 wire transfer from a Chinese billionaire with whom the agency was in discussions about economic development efforts and had solicited an $8,000 bribe from another Chinese businessman while working for the agency. A complaint filed with the agency by another vendor of the agency claimed Liang had told Chinese officials several state officials were shareholders in a nursing home project she was pursuing in Marion, Indiana, including Roob and Gov. Daniels. The agency dismissed the complaint as unsubstantiated but terminated Liang after it discovered she had lied on her resume' about her education credentials. Despite the seriousness of the allegations contained in the complaint, the matter was not referred to a prosecutor or law enforcement agency for further investigation.

UPDATE: The administration of Mike Pence will give added scrutiny to the IEDC, even if the Daniels administrations chooses not to do so. The Star has this statement from Pence:

“The governor-elect is aware of the issues that have been raised in the media regarding IEDC,” Pence’s spokeswoman Christy Denault said in a statement Monday. “He will give due consideration to the policies and practices of IEDC at the outset of his administration to ensure integrity and transparency.”

The Hunger Games Author Resides In Sandy Hook

Suzanne Collins

There are rather eerie coincidences as new details emerge about the tragic mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. It turns out that Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy, was a so-called prepper who believed the world economy would collapse and she would need guns and stock-piled food to defend her home and for long-time survival. According to new reports, Ms. Lanza, described as overly-protective of her emotionally disturbed son, purchased the high-powered guns which were used by her son to carry out the mass shootings, and she taught both of her sons how to shoot them.

Here's where it gets more strange. Some Internet news reports have picked up on the fact that Suzanne Collins, the author of "The Hunger Games," which was made into a hit movie, resides in the Sandy Hook village in Newtown, Connecticut where the mass shootings occurred. Collins is the daughter of a U.S. Air Force officer and is a graduate of Indiana University in Bloomington where she double-majored in drama and telecommunications. Here's a glimpse of the movie version of "The Hunger Games":

The hit movie “The Hunger Games” takes place in a dystopian future where the poor and wretched masses live under the high tech tyranny of a wealthy elite. Is the movie depicting the kind of society the elite is trying to establish for the New World Order? We’ll look at characteristics of the world presented in “The Hunger Games” and how they relate to plans for a New World Order.  

Pushed by a gigantic marketing campaign, The Hunger Games did not take long to become a world-wide sensation, especially among teenagers and young adults. Sometimes referred to as the new Twilight, The Hunger Games has similar components to the previous book-to-movie craze (i.e. a young girl torn between two guys) but takes place in a very different context. 

Set in a dystopian future (why is the future always “dystopian”?), The Hunger Games paints a rather grim picture of the world of tomorrow, whether it be from a social, economical or political point of view. In short, it is a big-brotherish nightmare where a rich elite thrives on the backs of a starving population. Meanwhile, the perversity and voyeurism of mass media is taken to absurd levels and is used by the government as a glue to keep its unjust social order intact. Is The Hunger Games giving teenagers a glimpse of a not-too-distant future? It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see the elite are trying to take the world in that direction. Is the author Suzanne Collins communicating a strong anti-NWO message to the youth by showing its dangers or is it getting the youth used to the idea? Let’s look at the fictional, yet possible, future world of The Hunger Games.

According to InfoWars, the movie version includes a scene where a ritual sacrifice of children is carried out. The new territory envisioned in North America under a New World Order is divided into 12 districts. Two children are paired off from each district and fight each other until 23 are killed. Adam Lanza killed 20 children at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Collins was named by Time magazine as one of the most influential people in 2010. Amazon.com declared Collins the best-selling Kindle author of all time in March, 2012. Collins' next book, "Year of the Jungle", is a children's book based on her childhood experience coping with her father's absence while serving in Vietnam.

UPDATE: My friend and fellow blogger is a pretty good movie critic. I went back and read her review of The Hunger Games and she was spot on. Here's some of her comments:

Sadly, this disgustingly violent and mostly soulless and unentertaining movie is marketed to kids, as the natural evolution from popular “Young Adult” lit. And it logs in at a slow-paced, sluggish two-and-a-half hours of undue self-importance . . .

The story is more anti-capitalist left-wing bull-crap. It is a dystopian future and what used to be America is now called Panem. It’s divided into twelve districts of different types of working-class poor: farmers, coal miners, electrical workers, etc. They are not allowed to hunt for food, and, instead, the kids, aged twelve and up, must put an extra ticket with their name into a lottery, each time they want more food. Once a year, two names are drawn from each district: a male and a female, who must fight to the death–killing each other to survive and win–in a televised reality show in the Capital, a place filled with very rich, gaudy people in bright, clown-like clothing, make-up, and hairstyles. It’s sort of a modern day man-versus-man in the coliseum minus the culture and history, in this case mixed with a little bit of the most unreal Gloria Steinem/Betty Friedan feminist BS fantasy imaginable. The weak, nonsensical story is that because there was a violent revolution and war, the Hunger Games, as the contest is called, are held to remind the different districts of the cost of war and revolution . . .

But America is made up of a bunch of suckers and sheep, so many of them racing to see this movie, having bought online tickets months ago. They eagerly ingest and digest the swill served up to them, without thought or hesitation. The other night, actress Kristen Bell uttered the most airheaded and sad comment of all about the books from which the movie was made:

This is the piece of literature that in a hundred years we’ll look back on and it will be the best thing we’ve ever written.

Spoken like a true moron. But, then, as the popularity of this movie and the books behind it proves, we are a nation of morons.

I also learned that the famous children's book author Steven Kellogg, who wrote and illustrated such classics as "Jack and The Beanstalk", "The Three Little Pigs," "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," and The Pied Piper," is a former resident of Sandy Hook. Actor Anthony Edwards now owns the home Kellogg once owned in Sandy Hook. Kellogg offers quite a contrast in what passes as classical children's book authors today.

Burton Lives It Up During Last Year In Office

Proving once again that nothing good comes from long-term service in Washington, U.S. Rep. Dan Burton spent lavishly on travel around the world during his final year in Congress, sometimes charging taxpayers and often accompanied by his wife. According to the Star's Maureen Groppe, Burton took more taxpayer-funded and privately-funded trips during his last year in office than all but four other members of Congress. Burton was also spending large sums of money out of leftover campaign funds on what were obviously personal trips, visiting such places as the Ritz Carlton in New York City and the Miami Shores Country Club despite a federal ban on using campaign funds for personal use.

As a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Burton visited fourteen countries, twice as many trips as the chairman of that committee took. According to Legistorm, Burton traveled on privately-funded trips to Taiwan, Bahrain and Quatar at a cost of $32,978, the fifth highest for privately-funded trips in Congress. Four official trips were taken by Burton to the countries of France, Slovac Republic, Hungary,Taiwan, South Korea, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Spain, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia according to the report.

Tribune Company Sued For Pregnancy Discrimination By Former Fox 59 Employee

Amanda Price worked as a sales account executive for WXIN-Fox 59 in Indianapolis until this past September when she claims she was constructively discharged from her employment only months after she had first disclosed her pregnancy to the TV station's management. In a lawsuit alleging pregnancy discrimination and a hostile work environment based upon her sex filed earlier this month in the federal district court in Indianapolis against WXIN's parent company, The Tribune Company, Price alleges that her supervisor reacted negatively to news of her pregnancy, asking her a number of degrading questions, and questioned whether she had carefully considered going through with the pregnancy.

According to Price's complaint, she was not married or engaged to be married when she disclosed in June of this year her pregnancy at a meeting that included her supervisor, Tom Comerford, Director of Sales for the station, in the presence of two other members of the station's sales staff. Price alleges in her complaint that Comerford peppered her with a series of derogatory questions and comments, including: "Whose Is It? Are you getting married? You haven't thought this through. Why are you being a stupid bitch? You should be a guest on the Maury Povich Show so [you] can find out the identity of the 'baby daddy.'" Price says she left the meeting "shocked and traumatized," and Comerford "continued to degrade and harass her" after the meeting. Price alleges that Comerford approached another female co-worker in the office and implied to her that Price "had clearly not considered all of her available options including abortion." In a later meeting, Price alleges that she was in tears as Comerford blamed her for presenting her pregnancy in an "immature manner."

Price later spoke to the station's general manager, Larry Delia, about the concerns she had with how Comerford had treated her and the fact that the other employees present during the meeting had began talking to other employees and vendors of the station about her pregnancy, making the situation more unbearable for her. Delia told Price according to the complaint that he had learned of the comments Comerford had allegedly made but that he was heading out of town on vacation and would not be able to look into the matter further until he returned from vacation. After Delia returned from vacation more than a week later, he placed Comerford on a two and one-half day suspension the complaint alleges, but when he returned to work he continued to supervise Price, requiring her to interact with him on a daily basis. On the advice of her doctor, Price took a several week unpaid leave from her job due to the emotional stress she says she faced from the hostile work environment but had to return to work in late August "due to financial constraints." Price worked another month until she could no longer "handle the stress and anxiety created by her continued interaction with Comerford" and the station's "failure to take steps to protect her." After leaving her job, Price gave birth to her child prematurely due to preeclampsia.

Price's complaint seeks damages of not less than $150,000 for lost wages, compensatory damages, back pay and benefits, and front pay and benefits, in addition to her attorney's fees. A copy of Price's complaint can be viewed here.

The Monica Liang Affair

Monica Liang with Gov. Mitch Daniels
 

I've often wondered why Gov. Mitch Daniels entrusted Mitch Roob with such important positions in his administration. As FSSA Secretary, he forced through the ill-fated privatization of the state's welfare services, which was nothing more than a ruse to direct hundreds of millions of dollars to the hands of his former employer, ACS. As head of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, he was caught inflating job creation numbers credited to the efforts of the economic development agency. According to a lengthy report in today's Star titled The China Letter, he also covered up the actions of a Chinese immigrant with a checkered past who he had hired on contract in a $100,000 a year position to help with the agency's efforts to forge business deals with China. Before Monica Liang died suddenly in October, 2011, reportedly from a brain aneurysm, she had been quietly removed from her state position after she was later accused of soliciting a bribe and engaging in other self-dealing activities which potentially implicated other state officials. The Monica Liang affair, according to the Star's investigation, was simply swept under the rug and not referred to law enforcement officials for further investigation.

Here's the quick and dirty about the Monica Liang Affair according to the Star:

Liang immigrated to the U.S. from China after getting married in 1997 to an American businessman, Amadio Morais, who was working in China when the two met. She arrived in Indiana in 2001 and becomes a naturalized citizen in 2003. The following year she divorced her husband and walked away with a pretty decent sum of money as part of the couple's property settlement agreement. While living off her divorce money, she takes classes at IUPUI, invests in the stock market and meets a contractor from Marion, Bryan Harris, and winds up buying a building there for $32,000 and becoming a business administrator for a family medicine clinic. Liang gets introduced to Mayor Wayne Seybold, who hires her as a part-time international affairs coordinator, which provides her an opportunity to meet some of Indiana's top officials, including Gov. Mitch Daniels, and she travels with them to China on trade missions to serve as a translator. Liang meets Roob in 2009, moves from Marion to Carmel and later becomes a $100,000 a year contractual employee working for Roob as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Commerce for Chinese Relations. Apparently while traveling with Mayor Seybold's wife to China after starting her new job, she was soliticiting business deals for herself, including a nursing home project for her Marion building that she claimed involved several government officials, including Daniels, Seybold and Roob. Liang manages to convince a Chinese billionaire, Ao Yuqi, to deposit $50,000 into her bank account. Liang also solicited an $8,000 bribe from another Chinese businessman to secure talks with Indiana officials. Roob later travels to China with Liang and inks a memorandum of understanding with a Chinese company, SME. A month later in July, 2011 a formal complaint is filed by Pacific World Trade with IEDC alleging misconduct by Liang. In September, IEDC terminates Liang and Roob steps down from his position. IEDC months later terminates its contractual relationship with Pacific World Trade after a 25-year relationship. 

Based on the Star's reporting, it sounds like IEDC is being less than forthcoming about the entire Monica Liang matter. IEDC tells the Star that Roob confronted Liang about the allegations, which she denied; however, she continued to take trips on the agency's dime and conduct business more than a month after the agency learned of the complaint against her. Her contract with the agency was terminated at the beginning of September, 2011 based on misrepresentations she had made about her education credentials, not because of the allegations in the complaint, which the IEDC says it was unable to substantiate. "She had claimed a bachelor's degree from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, but had only attended classes," the Star reports. "The state has a zero-tolerance policy for not accurately documenting your academic credentials," Roob said. Roob became quite defensive when questioned by the Star about the timing of his departure and his relationship with Liang:

On the same day Liang was let go, Daniels announced the resignation of Roob, who had hired Liang.

Officials say it was not related to the Liang incident. "Don't be preposterous," Roob said when asked by The Star about the timing of his departure. He said the two events happening on the same day was either a coincidence, or he wanted to take care of the matter before Dan Hasler took over as the new Secretary of Commerce. "I brought Monica into the agency, right?"

Asked if he had a personal relationship with Liang, Roob answered, "No."

With high praise from Daniels, Roob returned to the private sector as chief executive of the health-care technology company WoundVision. 

The money the Chinese billionaire wired into Liang's account was no longer in her account by the time her personal representative took over her estate following her death in October. Her estate is estimated to be worth about $120,000. The Star obtained records which confirmed the wire transfer of $50,000 into Liang's account had taken place. Roob and Liang had met with Ao in China a month prior to the wire transfer. Asked how that could have happened, Roob told the Star, "I have no idea." The Star also learned that Roob had actually conferred the title of  "Special Assistant to the Commerce Secretary" by letter before she even started work for the agency. "Roob acknowledged the appointment letter came from him but offered few details." "I don't even recall signing the letter, candidly," he told The Star. At the time, she was still working for Mayor Wayne Seybold, who was bothered that Roob had provided her the letter. He told the Star he would have objected to the appointment had he known about it. "At some point," Seybold said, "you gotta work for either one or the other."

Not surprisingly, ethics experts the Star reached found the agency's handling of the matter "woefully inadequate" and created the impression the agency was simply "sweeping it under the rug." "You look at it in hindsight," said white-collar crime expert and former federal prosecutor Peter Henning, "and you go, 'What were you thinking?'" As for what Gov. Daniels knew about the Monica Liang affair: “The governor knew the IEDC dealt with a personnel issue by terminating a contractor after receiving a complaint. He was not otherwise involved in an agency personnel matter.”

None of this surprises me. I used to work for a company that was trying to expand into China. I made one business trip over there and learned all I needed to learn about the business mores there. Remember, this is a country where religion is virtually non-existent, there is a one-child per couple limit imposed by the government, the government forces millions of abortions every year to enforce that limit and the vast majority of the people live in abject poverty and are forced to work at slave labor wages with few rights. People don't value human life there as much as they do in the U.S. The average Chinese citizen wants to get the hell out of the country because of how horrible life is there for the vast majority of people. There is a growing class of super wealthy in China thanks to an extremely corrupt mixed form of crony capitalism and communism that exists there, a system that apparently is very attractive to many of America's elites given the direction we're headed. If you're an American company looking to establish a business relationship in China, you must first set up a Chinese company under which you will conduct business. The China business entity will not meet with government approval until you include individuals blessed by the government as partners in your endeavor, which typically includes Chinese government officials. When Liang told the Chinese counterparts that government officials were shareholders in her American company, they wouldn't have batted an eye because they're used to that arrangement over there and would assume government officials get kickbacks from businesses in one form or another.

Pence Proposed Tax Cut Mostly Benefits The Wealthy

A study of a state income tax cut proposed by Governor-elect Mike Pence shows the largest benefit will go to Indiana's wealthiest. During the campaign, Pence pledged to reduce the state income tax rate from 3.4 to 3.06%, returning nearly a half billion dollars in tax revenues to Indiana taxpayers. The top 20% of income tax earners would receive 56% of the tax savings according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Those earning more than $325,000 a year would receive a tax cut of $2,264 under Pence's plan. Middle income earns making between $33,000 and $53,000 would receive an average tax cut of 102, while the lowest income earners would receive no tax cut.

The federal government would collect about $50 million more from Indiana taxpayers because of a lower deduction on their federal tax return for state taxes paid. The study is critical of Indiana's low exemption, which is only $1,000, the same amount it was when the state's income tax was established in 1963. If the exemption had been adjusted for inflation over the years, it would have risen to $7,500 according to the study.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate have expressed skepticism about enacting Pence's tax cut due to uncertainty over the economy and state revenues. A poll taken by Ball State University last month indicated that only 31% of Hoosiers favored an income tax cut, while the vast majority, 64%, opposed. Pence plans to push ahead with his tax cut proposal. "I believe, with all my heart, that with the largest surplus in our state's history that we have the ability to maintain the fiscal integrity of our state, strengthen our reserves, fund our priorities and provide Hoosiers and Hoosier businesses tax relief that will create jobs," he said.

Read more about the new tax study at the Northwest Indiana Times.

Kenley Opposition To Same-Sex Marriage Ban Key Turning Point

The announcement this week by Sen. Luke Kenley (R-Noblesville), one of the Indiana Senate's most influential Republican members, opposing the proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages and recognition of similar rights for unmarried couples could prove to be a key turning point in the expected debate during the upcoming session of the General Assembly. Kenley, a Harvard Law School graduate and previous supporter of the amendment, says shifting public opinion has caused him to rethink his position.

Noting what he called the “rapidly evolving” shift in public opinion reflected in a poll released Thursday, the influential, conservative Republican said he’ll oppose such a measure if, as expected, it comes up for debate in the 2013 session.

“I don’t think putting it in the Constitution is a good idea,” said Kenley, the powerful Senate appropriations committee chairman who describes himself as a supporter of traditional marriage.

“I really value the institution of heterosexual marriage,” Kenley said. “But I do not think that putting a statement in the (state) constitution which runs down or is bigoted toward people who have a different kind of loving relationship, that I may not understand, is going to be productive.”

A poll released earlier this week indicated that a majority of Hoosier voters no oppose the proposed constitutional amendment. The amendment, which was approved during the last legislative session by overwhelming majorities in the Senate and House, must be approved by the House and Senate one more time during the next session before it can go before voters in the 2014 general election for approval. Indiana enacted a Defense of Marriage Act in 1995, which outlawed the recognition of same-sex marriages in Indiana, a law that has been upheld as constitutional by the Indiana Court of Appeals. State Rep. Ed Clere (R-New Albany) was the only Republican in the House to vote against the amendment during the last session and his views have not changed. He says that he won't be alone among Republicans in voting against it this time.

“Clearly, a shift has occurred,” he said. "Clere said he’s been approached by state lawmakers who voted for the constitutional ban in 2011 but are now wavering in their support.

Some want to wait on the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently announced it will take up the issue, looking at both the constitutionality of a federal law that bans gay marriage and California’s decision to put a ban on same-sex marriage in that state’s constitution.

Another Horrible Shooting Provides More Excuses For Taking Away Our Liberties

President Barack Obama's political soul mate, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, is fond of saying, "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," which as he explains, allows you to "do things you could not do before." As terrible as the horrific mass shooting of dozens of innocent children at a Connecticut elementary school yesterday by a crazed young man is, Alex Jones hits the nail on the head of hypocrisy in his criticism of those, including President Obama, who would use yet another tragic shooting as an excuse for giving up our fundamental rights. President Barack Obama really is shedding crocodile tears just as Jones describes. Obama does a poor acting job in pretending to feel the pain of these innocent victims when his administration bears responsibility for unleashing thousands of the most dangerous, high-powered automatic guns across the border into Mexico as part of his Fast and Furious Operation that have been used to murder thousands of innocent Mexican citizens and dozens more Americans on this side of the border. It's frightening to think just how little the American media and those who argue for tougher gun control laws seems to care about that dirty little secret. That's to say nothing about our government's continued waging of endless and pointless wars in the Middle East for more than a decade now, and its covert arming of radical Muslim groups throughout the Middle East as part of a coordinated effort to topple various regimes in that region who are carrying out continuous assaults that are killing hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. It would be refreshing if those who want to implement the efficient policies of Hitler, Stalin and Mao to usher in our own era of totalitarian rule could open their eyes and see the biggest crimes against humanity now occurring.

Meanwhile, as more information emerges about the accused shooter, who took his own life, we hear this common refrain from family members that there were no warning signs of problems. Adam Lanza was an honors student who came from an upper middle class family. From the Chicago Tribune:

Marsha Lanza, of northwest suburban Crystal Lake, said she was close with Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy, and sent her a message on Facebook on Friday morning asking how she was doing. Nancy Lanza never responded.

Marsha Lanza described Nancy Lanza as a good mother and kind-hearted.

If her son had needed counseling, "Nancy wasn't one to deny reality," she told The Associated Press late Friday.

Marsha Lanza said her husband saw Adam as recently as June and recalled nothing out of the ordinary about him.

Marsha Lanza told the Northwest Herald that she had not seen Adam since he was about 3 years old, but communicated regularly with his mother.

"I knew he had some learning issues in school," Marsha told the newspaper, "but I don't know if there were any behavioral issues. Right now, we don't know any more than you probably do."

Adam Lanza was an honors student who lived in a prosperous neighborhood with his mother, a well-liked woman who enjoyed hosting dice games and decorating the house for the holidays.

Now he is suspected of killing his mother and then gunning down more than two dozen people, 20 of them children, at a Connecticut grade school before taking his own life.

The 20-year-old may have suffered from a personality disorder, law enforcement officials said.

Investigators were trying to learn as much as possible about Lanza and questioned his older brother, who is not believed to have any involvement in the rampage.

Lanza killed his mother at their home before driving her car to Sandy Hook Elementary School and -- armed with at least two handguns -- carried out the massacre, officials said.

A third weapon, a .223-caliber rifle, was found in the car, and more guns were recovered during the investigation.

So far, authorities have not spoken publicly of any possible motive. They found no note or manifesto, and Lanza had no criminal history.

Witnesses said the shooter didn't utter a word.

Lanza was a computer geek who liked playing computer games with his friends according to the Tribune. His parents had divorced in 2008. He grew up in an affluent neighborhood in Newtown, Connecticut where "many people work at companies like General Electric, Pepsi and IBM." Lanza's father worked for GE as a tax director. Just like the Aurora, Colorado shooter, seemingly programmed to kill on command.