A federal judge sentenced William Cottrell, a Cal Tech graduate student, to eight years in a federal penitentiary on Monday. Cottrell is affiliated with the domestic terrorist organization Earth Liberation Front, whose initials he spraypainted on sport utility vehicles in auto dealerships and driveways in California. The physicist/grafitti artist also painted "Fat Lazy Americans," "Is Your Penis Really That Small," "SUV = Terrorism," and other obnoxious slogans on the trashed and firebombed automobiles. The crime-spree of the physicist Cottrell and his nerd accomplices incurred several million dollars in damages, of which a judge ordered him to pay restitution of $3.5 million. "The defendant engaged in conduct to send a political message," prosecutor Beverly Reid O’Connell explained. "He’s a scheming, arrogant person who is disdainful of the law and the justice system." The defense counsel disagrees. "He is one of the great minds of this century,” contends Cottrell's lawyer Michael Mayock. "I mean, it is clear." Not to me it isn't.

This guy is a complete dirtbag. Cottrell's legal team had claimed their client suffered from a form of autism called Asperger's syndrome that affects understanding of social situations, making it hard for Cottrell to "read" his companion's intentions.

This is another example of a lawyer trying to claim his client is also a victim. BS. So much for one of the great minds of this century. Whatever happened to accountability?

Hmmm...sending a political message through crude spraypaint one liners....

Yeah truly he is one of the great minds of the century.

Feck, I'd love to know what happend to accountability. Also, I'd love to know what happened to the shame and guilt that should accompany having committed a crime, getting caught and prosecuted and then actuall realizing that you've done something wrong.

I disagree with the "one of the great minds of this century" statement, but it is definitely true that environmental terrorists tend to be much smarter and much better educated than other cause-driven terrorists. For instance, this guy--a graduate student at the the best physics graduate program in the country--certainly is more gifted than the guys with mullets who blow up abortion clinics.

"I mean, it is clear." LOL. How's that for justification? I hope the attorney got paid in advance.

In prison I suspect he'll be able to do all sorts of neat physical calculations.

Oh he'll be doing some physical things in prison, just not any calculations. This scumbag got what he deserved. I like the "stereotyping" Reader is assessing. Liberals=smart physics graduates....Conservatives=racist, redneck, janitors.

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." -Albert Einstein

You see, in the minds of some who are more enlightened, an alleged superior intellect is supposed to get a pass on perpetrating this kind of activity. Obviously, this criminal has a far greater understanding of how to teach society a lesson than us mullet headed cretins ever would.

The fact that he and people like him think he should get a pass is just another example of how elitist A-holes think.

Well, James, it's true. The environmental terrorists have a Harvard grad, Berkeley PHD and former college professor in Ted Kacynski. They also have this Cottrell person, who received the highest grades in math and physics at UChicago, and was pursuing a graduate degree at the best physics graduate program in the country.

The abortion clinic terrorists consist of a bunch of guys with mullets who drive pick-up trucks and look like Meatloaf (the singer). Most of those guys don't even have associate degrees, much less PHDs from the country's best programs.

You accuse me of stereotyping, but can you name an exception--i.e., a well-educated abortion clinic bomber--that disproves the rule? If you can, great, I'd love to hear it. If you can't, well, then shut up.

WTF does education have to do with it?

Uh, Reader,

Name for me someone who has blown up an abortion clinic? I have no idea who any are let alone any of their personality traits.

And just why exactly are you proud of people who murder on the left? You are seriously disturbed.

Um, Brian, I suggest you buy a newspaper occasionally. You should be able to find one at your local newstand. Many newspapers are also available online nowadays.

If you had been reading newspapers, you would have learned that this past week Scott Randolph pled guilty to bombing an Alabama abortion clinic. It's amazing what you miss when your daily intellectual intake consists of nothing but "The O'Reilly Factor" and "The Sean Hannity Show."

Who is proud of people on the left that murder? Certainly not me. I'm just pointing out that the environmental terrorists as a whole tend to be much more intelligent (i.e., far better educated) than terrorists adopting other causes. By way of comparison, the abortion clinic bombers appear to be dumber than doorknobs. In pointing this out, I am not advancing any cause. Rather, I am just making an observation.

"Most of those guys don't even have associate degrees, much less PHD's from the country's best programs."

A doctorate in physics prepares a person for ethical deliberation about as much as a doctorate in library science prepares someone for a medical career. And even a doctorate in ethics usually doesn't lead to correct ethical beliefs. (cf. Buckley's famous line). The practical experience of generations inherent in cultural norms is a far better guide (being of the conservative "breed," again quoting Buckley).

Brad:

Your comments are fine, but I do not know why you direct them at me. To reiterate, I'm making an empirical observation: environmental terrorists are generally extremely well-educated, whereas abortion clinic terrorists are typically stupid. Why does that observation bother you and the other posters so much? And do you deny that my observation is accurate?

I happen to be pretty proud of the relative paucity of intelligence among clinic bombers (all two of them). It shows that once you clear a fairly low bar you're smart enough to realize that murder is not the way to further the pro-life movement.

So what if eco-terrorists tend to be college professors and Ph.D's? That could mean a few things - that whackos dominate academia, for example (Ward Churchill suggested it, and William Cotrell took him up on it); or that intelligence has its own particular dangers (former chess champion Bobby Fischer is down the exchange with no compensation, so to speak); or that education is not quite the same as innate intelligence; or as Dan said here, that brains and morals aren't at all the same thing. For my money, Dan's got it pegged.

Actually, Nightfly, there were 40 abortion clinic bombings in the year 2000 alone. In addition, that year there were 57 burglaries of abortion clinics, 365 invasions, 3 kidnappings of abortion clinic staff, 16 attempted murders, 1 maiming, 8 murders, 406 stalkings, 77 attempted bombings or arsons and over 6,500 hate mailings. And that's just a typical year.

The eco-terrorists tend to be brilliant and small in number. In contrast the abortion clinic terrorists number in the thousands and are characteristically stupid.

Reader: where are you getting your numbers from? According to the National Abortion Federation, incidences of "Bombing, Arson, Attempted Bombing or Arson" in 2000 numbered just five in the U.S. and Canada. Note that they're surveying two countries to your one and report on four crimes in their statistic to your one. Yet, your number is still eight times higher. How is this so?

In Reader's defense, noting the superior intelligence of one type of criminal to another type of criminal is not to endorse one criminal over another. It's just an observation, and probably a defensible one at that.

Dan: Thanks for coming to my defense.

I got the numbers from the Planned Parenthood website: http://www.plannedparenthood.org/pp2/portal/files/portal/webzine/eyeonextremism/eoe-clinic-violence.xml

The Planned Parenthood site is unclear when those statistics start or end. They say, statistics from 2000 below the information, but above it they refer to "the tally of escalating violence against women's health facilities that began in 1977." Which is it? I think it's ambiguous for a reason. That's opinion. What's fact is that the information is not from one year (2000). There were not, for instance, eight murders at U.S. abortion clinics in 2000.

See the argument i started...HA-HA-HA! Seriously Rudolph is the first person Ive heard of bombing abortion clinics in a long time. No enviro-terrorists, they are a dime a dozen. Its like one of those "Elite" fads. To be cool you must protest oil drilling in Alaska. To be cool you must spray paint obsenities on SUV's. To be cool you have to assault GW supporters. Its people like this who want their 15 minutes of fame and who want to be accepted by the Elites.

I see that ambiguity, but I think that the most logical reading is to limit the statistics to the 2000 year since "figures from 2000" appears in parentheses directly below the statistics.

Even if those figures are spread out over the thirteen years between 1977-2000, they still are alarming. 502 bomb threats over 14 years equals roughly 35 bomb threats a year. That's a lot.

It is tough to quarrel with Planned Parenthood's statistics. Planned Parenthood provides access to abortion doctors, and it is the largest provider of abortion advice to women in the country. It would seem that if anyone should know the statistics they should. I'm not sure why the National Abortion Federation's statistics should be any more authoritative.

I'd question how smart this guy really was. Seriously, he might have had some "fancy book lernin", but he is clearly a complete moron who failed to get any real critical thinking skills in his higher education.

To call him "one of the great minds" is just stupid.

Jason

Speaking of bombing abortion clinics.

How many have actually been bombed ?

Not threats, any yahoo can call in a phone threat, and I wouldn't put it past supporters of abortion to phone them in in an effort to get symphthy.

How many have been bombed and how many have died as a result.

I think you'll find that, given the huge number of people that oppose abortion, that the amount of actual violence is tiny, the sort of thing you would expect from an extreme lunatic fringe of a movement.

Far left people with a cause "animal rights, enviromentalists etc" are much more willing to use violence and harrassment to get what they want.

Of course, there is an obvious difference. Those that oppose abortion are typically have a commitment to a view of reality that believes in an actual right and wrong, while those on the left typically are mired in an "ends justified the means" sort of relatvism.

Jason

I think Reader sheds light on the fact that people who impulsively cross legal and moral boundaries to assert their feelings do so regardless of their education level. That eco-dorks tend to be over-educated pinheads is due to the popularity of environmentalism on college campuses. The abortion issue killers tend to come from a religious angle rather than collegiate. The observation is, as reader states, neutral. If colleges were all religious institutions and the environment of concern only to labor unions, the reverse would be true no doubt.

I can quibble a good deal with Planned Parenthood's numbers, especially when they are intentionally vague about how they were gathered and how long it took to compile them. A burglary, for example, isn't neccesarily anti-abortion, unless the theives intentionally took personnel records or such.

This is not to condone any sort of violence at all - I said before and will say again that murder and mayhem are antithetical to a movement trying to affirm the value of all life. I only observe that overstating the case (or leaving oneself open to the charge) is counterative.

...counterACTIVE... sorry.

hmmm...straight to the incinerator.