Did militant atheism just get a little bit more militant?
Terrorism, San Francisco Style:
A San Francisco performance artist, out on bail from charges that he prematurely torched the Burning Man festival’s namesake effigy in August, is back in jail for allegedly trying to set fire to the historic Grace Cathedral, police said Monday.
Paul Addis was taken into custody on the top steps of the cathedral around 11:40 p.m. Sunday with an ammunition belt of small explosives strapped around his waist, said San Francisco police spokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina.
This booking photo is from the August arrest. He posted the $25,632 bond for that charge, and was released from jail. This time around, he’s in much deeper doo doo:
Addis was booked on five felony charges attempted arson, possession of arson materials, possession of a destructive device, arson of a church, violation of a court order and a misdemeanor for altering a firearm, according to the sheriff’s department.
He remained in jail late Monday in lieu of $488,000 bail.
Let’s see him post that one.
H/T: Crime Scene KC
(AP Photo/Pershing County Sheriff’s Office)
October, 30, 2007 at 10:20 am
I guess this guy just can’t wait until S.F. bans churches.
October, 30, 2007 at 10:27 am
Something tells me he’s going to have a lot of ‘friends’ in jail.
October, 30, 2007 at 10:34 am
this guy really needs to made an example of. Between this jerk and the Kos loonies that are being discussed at Ace’s, I’m afraid we are in for some real violent times ahead.
October, 30, 2007 at 10:45 am
O’Reilly has been making that same point on his show, lately, too.
These people are seriously unhinged, and the ’08 elections are going to get ugly.
October, 30, 2007 at 11:27 am
And this my friends is art.
I’m sure somewhere along the line he probably even got government funding.
October, 30, 2007 at 12:02 pm
How long before the Kossacks cry about “censorship”?
October, 30, 2007 at 12:11 pm
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October, 30, 2007 at 1:03 pm
This ties in with the post and the comments regarding the campus protests last week and that Code Pink wacko that rushed Condi.
Too many of these people have absolutely convinced themselves that we are hurtling towards fascism and state control of everything and that’s a dangerous mindset. If you really truly believed that, to what ends would you go to stop it?
This is like those wackos on the right that believe you can justify killing doctors and nurses that perform abortions so that you can save the unborn. As much as we on the pro-life side may want those babies to be born, we aren’t delusional with that desire to where we would justify murder.
A LOT of these left wing nut jobs are that delusional in regards to censorship, Iraq, Bush, the Patriot Act, Halliburton, etc and that’s going to lead to some shocking violence over the next year or so.
I’m of the school that believes that sometimes, if someone wants to fight badly enough, you don’t really have a choice but to give them what they want. Again, the “Don’t Taze Me, Bro!” idiot. He didn’t want to leave that speech without something bad happening and that’s what he got.
Once reason and civility are gone, we’re back in the caveman days and the one with the biggest club wins. It’s sad but I think that’s where a lot of this is going.
October, 30, 2007 at 1:37 pm
They don’t even have a reason to be pissed off! Not one person has been shut down because of the Patriot act, in fact, we have more freedom of speech than ever in the history of mankind.
Iraq is not a pimple on the ass of Vietnam, as far as casualties and general carnage, and the entire MSM no longer even tries to mask their bias!
Seriously, WTF are they so pissed off at?
October, 30, 2007 at 1:47 pm
A LOT of these left wing nut jobs are that delusional in regards to censorship, Iraq, Bush, the Patriot Act, Halliburton, etc and that’s going to lead to some shocking violence over the next year or so.
Very true.
October, 30, 2007 at 2:08 pm
bmac,
You’re right that little of what they believe is true in reality. Not even remotely true. I think that’s why the left is being overrun with conspiracy nuts.
They start with a template and apply it to anything that the Republicans do. If they can stretch a grain of actual truth beyond recognition, they do that. Bush’s veto of the SCHIP expansion is an example of this. The real reason for opposing the expansion became “Bush hates kids”. It’s when there isn’t even a grain of truth to justify the template, that’s where the conspiracies are born.
The reason these people are so mind-numbingly deluded is that they are the result of 15 years of Democrats having no shame in their political critque of Republicans.
Veto SCHIP = Bush hates kids
Transition school lunches to private sector = Republicans hate kids
Horrific hurricane + poor mayor + a worse governor = Bush hates black people + Bush ignoring global warming
Calmest hurrican season in 30 years = Bush ignoring the Greenland ice shelf
Liberating 25 million Iraqis in an attempt to create an ally in the part of the world that spawned the 9/11 terrorists = Bush killing babies for his own amusement and / or oil.
We can do this all day long. It’s taken a while but what started out as over-the-top political rhetoric has taken hold on the left as more or less accepted fact.
And I ask again: to what lengths would you go to stop a man or a political party that you actually believed wanted to kill kids, black people, Iraqi civilians for oil, etc. etc.
As the great one says, words have consequences.
October, 30, 2007 at 4:37 pm
There is Hostage live-blogging the debate tonight.
Nice Deb, please check the post as you have some responsibilities.
October, 30, 2007 at 5:03 pm
Best Blog of the Day Award. Wooo Hooo Deb!
Lookin’ more and more like Rosetta’s the hostess tonight.
October, 30, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Rosetta-
You’re absolutely right, in fact you inspired me to write a long winded post about the subject.
http://bmac20.wordpress.com/2007/10/30/the-most-destructive-decade/
October, 30, 2007 at 5:39 pm
Excellent post bmac.
Did Nice Deb win something?!? What the hell’s going on?
October, 30, 2007 at 8:15 pm
I don’t even know what “Best Blog of the Day” is all about,. or how I won.
October, 30, 2007 at 9:58 pm
I hope they don’t become violent, because the Right has a tendency to believe in self-defence.
If he tried to do that to a mosque or synagogue, there would have been a major hue and cry, and justly so. But a church? Nary a peep.
Jesus did say to love and forgive our enemies, but He did not say we should give them a pass.
October, 31, 2007 at 2:06 am
I’m more surprised that the idiots at Burning Man had him arrested. He was just expressing himself, which is what Burning Man is supposed to be about. Could it be that liberals are just hypocritical douchebags who only like people expressing themselves when it’s someones else’s property being messed up?
Survey says yes!
October, 31, 2007 at 9:05 am
I like baseball bats. This asshat should have one applied at major league speed across his lips. See what kind of smile he has after that. Dollar a swing.
This ‘artist’ is what happens when good people will not characterize stupid as actually being stupid and/or insane. Fuck being nice about it.
November, 11, 2007 at 6:23 pm
The Burning Man Community I Know
(And the other arson at Green Man)
The Burning Man community I know hosted, at their ’07 event, six of my large wooden sculptures, including my in-progress, 10 foot, futuristic and reverent Statue of Liberty. The installation was entitled “America Empowering the World…Again”. I spent three long months planning and carving before I arrived, artworks in tow, on the playa. The participants of Nevada’s 5th largest city, Black Rock City helped me to erect scaffolding around my Liberty and I continued my work. People bicycled around the sculptures and rode on the charming art cars, shouting words of praise and thanks for my contribution to this, the largest outdoor art gallery on the planet! They seemed in love with my Liberty… some climbed the scaffold to talk to me, admire her features and touch the wood.
News archives are replete with tales of the early arson attack on the revered Man and of the immediate perils the attack posed. The arsonist was apprehended, jailed, released on bail and posters of his mug-shot were taunting the playa before the pivotal symbol of free-expression could be hurriedly rebuilt. Within hours of the legitimate burn of the same Man, somebody dowsed the display trailer my Liberty stood on with gasoline from a generator and tossed a lit lighter-torch, in order to incinerate America’s central symbol for freedom!! Along with it went my tools, trailer and scaffolding.
In the days that followed, the burning community surrounded me with everything from hugs to meals. Everything I needed was there…ratchet straps, padding, timbers a huge truck and a forklift to rescue the remaining sculptures from the harsh playa…and plenty of hearts, backs and minds. Some even stayed behind to clean up the burn mess!
When I returned home; beleaguered, a slew of emails greeted me from concerned “burners” offering resources, legal advice, solace—and money! Soon there was a mild buzz on the internet about “the other arson at Burning Man” and $4,000 in a new PayPal account to begin replacing the 10 thousand-plus equipment loss…just in case I might want to do something at next years burn.
By now, key leadership of the burning community have asked me to submit a proposal to fund a much bigger, more futuristic version of the same iconic symbol of freedom for display at next year’s themed event—ironically, “American Dream”. (Only partial funding is available and your gift will help pay for the rest. For PayPal, please enter timeless.sculptures@gmail.com) I will display the charred Liberty (“Survivor”) with the bigger and better rendition; a Liberty for the new era. Both will serve as a visual preview and a reminder that America must now choose the future of our own Liberty…
The Burning community I know is the modern-day acropolis, complete with brilliant minds, music and masterpieces. If we believe that art has an indispensable role in the advance of freedom, then this remarkable culture with art as blood should be protected from corrosive elements.
Since the Man incident and now with Grace Cathedral Paul Addis has been riding high on a coast-to-coast media-wave, though incarcerated and no longer boasting about his supposed group of witless followers “Black Rock Intelligence”. None the less, he has for now supplanted my right to free-expression and not just mine but that of many; he has imposed his own will on all of us. Perhaps he’s impounded for now but are his friends? Now we have a reminder that this element is among us and well.
I consider this domestic terrorism nothing but a means to anarchy in the name of enlightenment.
Matthew (Timeless) G. Welter; sculptor
timeless.sculptures@gmail.com
For images and a detailed account, commentary and updates or to post your own comments please visit and/or link your own posts to my evolving Tribe page: http://people.tribe.net/timeless1