Mother Jones: Explained: Jared Loughner’s Grammar Obsession

[NNN0LHI]

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/sovereign-citizens-jared-lee-loughner

Explained: Jared Loughner’s Grammar Obsession

The alleged shooter’s statements closely echo the teachings of a popular far-right tax-resister movement.

— By Justine Sharrock

Tue Jan. 11, 2011 12:48 PM PST

What was going on in Jared Loughner's mind? Based on his online rantings, the man who allegedly emptied a 31-round clip into Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and dozens of bystanders Saturday was preoccupied with theories on a massive government fraud. Many of his seemingly random statements—on "grammar," "the ratifications," "the new currency," and more—echo the teachings of the "sovereign citizen" movement, a right-wing school of thought alleging that Americans have been surreptitiously stripped of their God-given rights.

These are not random parallels, as I discovered in reviewing Loughner's YouTube videos. In multiple instances, he uses the precise talking points sovereign-citizen theorists teach via a thriving cottage industry of books, websites, bogus legal companies, and seminars; one popular theorist, David Wynn Miller, told the New York Times that Loughner has "probably been on my website." (It's important to note that the sovereign-citizen movement is a philosophy, not an organized movement; Loughner's interest in its teachings doesn't implicate any individuals or organizations in his actions.) A few cases in point, taken from a video Loughner posted on December 15, 2010.

[jakeXT]

1. newsweek

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=125&topic_id=305558&mesg_id=305607