Yes, Let’s Celebrate Cold-Blooded Murder

December 13, 2024

I saw a meme the other morning on Facebook that hit me wrong. It’s a “Bizarro”-style comic, set at the Pearly Gates, St. Peter at his podium addressing a newcomer. The caption: “Sorry, Brian, but your claim has been denied.”

On December 4, Brian Thompson, the 50-year-old CEO of United Healthcare, was gunned down outside a Manhattan hotel where he was going to speak at a gathering. His assassin, apparently upset over the way United Healthcare does business, lay in wait and shot his unsuspecting victim several times before running off. He was arrested in Pennsylvania on the 9th after an extensive manhunt.

And in the intervening 4 or 5 days were social media messages that ranged from outright celebration of the murder of this husband and father and threats to other insurance executives (including bomb threats to the home of his widow and children), to “he got what he deserved,” to the more subtle entries like that meme, and the portrait of Mr. Thompson done with little red “DENIED” stamps.

I begin to dislike this world we’re living in right now…

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Uncle John
Uncle John is the black-sheep relative your family doesn't want to admit to. He's a writer, old fart, anti-extremist, dyed-in-the-wool cynic, sci-fi nerd, and practicing to be a curmudgeon. More vegan than carnivore, but very much a Constitutional "originalist"; a walking, talking contradiction in terms, and a straight, no-holds-barred talker, who will tell it like it is with no apologies. Pacific Northwest native, married for many, many years to a woman he doesn't deserve, with no kids that will acknowledge them - except for the cat, who is merely tolerant.