By Andrew W. Griffin

Red Dirt Report, editor

Posted: August 16, 2012

reddirtreporter@gmail.com

OKLAHOMA CITY – Another week, another shooting. It is becoming all too common, sad to say, in our country.

But is this more than random shootings by raving madmen? Is this, perhaps, orchestrated? 

As the nation reeled from the Aurora/Dark Knight Rises “Red Dawn” shooting on July 20^th, we get the Sikh Temple shooting in Wisconsin.

And we dare not overlook the shooting in College Station, Texas, near the campus of Texas A&M University. Two people, and the mentally-unstable shooter, Thomas Alton Caffall III, died.

And now, Wednesday, another shooting. This one, in Washington, D.C. only resulted in a couple of gunshot injuries but is unusual in that it is said to have been committed by a gay-rights activist upset about Chick-fil-A’s position against the hot-button topic of gay marriage. (Red Dirt Report published an opinion piece on the issue headlined "For the Separation of Church and Chicken.") Conservatives and supporters of "traditional marriage" flooded Chick-fil-A restaurants in a show of solidarity with Dan Cathy and the popular "chikin" chain.

But what really triggered Floyd Lee Corkins II to try and bust into the FRC offices and shoot people? 

Regardless, authorities investigating the shooting are “treating this attack as a case of domestic terrorism.”

Seems like we are seeing a lot of “domestic terrorism” these days, just as Homeland Security said we would. Coincidence?

It is important to remind readers what former Clinton advisor said in late 2010 on Chris Matthews’ Hardball program regarding President Obama and the glum mood among Democrats following major losses in the Congressional races that fall: “President Clinton reconnected through Oklahoma,” Penn said, with Matthews reminding his audience “because of the bombing down there.” Added Penn: “Obama needs a similar kind of event.”

Conveniently, Obama got his “Oklahoma City event” a few weeks later with Jared Lee Loughner and the massacre at Gabrielle Giffords’ congressional meet-and-greet event outside Tucson, Arizona. And in more recent months, the shootings (Aurora, Sikh Temple, etc.) have been reminding people that “crazy people with guns are out there" and the government needs to crack down on gun rights, particularly those who may be unstable (returning veterans, people with certain “ideas,” etc.).

And right now, the Obama camp knows they are dropping in the polls and in popularity. With a  tanking economy and a general Carter-esque “malaise,” the country soured on the “hope and change” flimflam and are looking for other options.

What is needed is a distraction. And getting Obama his “Oklahoma City moment,” as sick as that sounds, may be what these constant shootings – copycat or not – are all leading toward.

Reports on Floyd Corkins II, the shooter at the Family Research Council office in Washington, D.C. are that he had been a “kind, gentle and unassuming” volunteer at the Center for the LGBT Community there in Washington and was upset about the recent statement by the president  of the Chick-fil-A restaurant chain coming out in support of traditional marriage.

Corkins, 28, allegedly entered the lobby of the FRC’s Chinatown headquarters and was confronted by a security guard. Corkins is then to have said something against the FRC’s policy positions and opened fire, shooting the guard in the arm and injuring him. Corkins was also said to have been shot.

We still don't know much about Corkins - yet.

Did Corkins infiltrate the Center for the LGBT Community? So far, we don’t know. But one thing we did note was in the comments section of the FRC shooting as posted at the gay-rights blog Joe.My.God, a link to what is believed to be Corkin’s early 2009 Amazon.com “wish list.” There are three items listed and all three are worth noting: 1.) Of Gramatology by French philosopher and deconstructionist Jacques Derrida. 2.) Lucifer Rising, the film soundtrack to the Kenneth Anger cult film as recorded by Charles Manson acolyte Bobby Beausoleil. Beausoleil would be convicted in 1970 of murdering Gary Hinman. Led Zeppelin guitarist and occult dabbler Jimmy Page was to have done the soundtrack but Page and Anger had a falling out and Beausoleil completed it while in prison. 3.) A double collection of Chris Marker’s French New Wave films La Jetee and Sans Soleil.

This is quite remarkable. Clearly “Floyd Corkins II,” if this is the same guy, has an interest in the occult. Lucifer Rising is an obscure film but it has a deep and dark history. And the fact that he was interested in Bobby Beausoleil at all makes it clear that this guy had a dark side. Beausoleil, we should note, is still in prison for his role in Hinman’s murder.

As for Lucifer Rising, interestingly, Jimmy Page finally released Lucifer Rising and Other Sound Tracks this year – 40 years after Kenneth Anger released the film Lucifer Rising. A lot of this four-decade old music has been remixed and updated a bit.

Page makes a cameo in the film, according to Guitar World magazine, “staring at a portrait of Aleister Crowley while holding an Egyptian stele.”

As for the Chris Marker films (Marker, coincidentally, died two-and-a-half weeks ago in Paris), these are films about memory and recall (Total Recall was just remade and released in the past few weeks). La Jetee inspired Terry Gilliam to film the modern sci-fi classic 12 Monkeys, a film that addresses time travel, the nature of reality, madness, hot-button political issues and apocalyptic themes.

And curiously, today, Cirque de Soleil is to open their Totem production in Washington, D.C., the same city where the shooting took place.

As I shared with Loren Coleman at Twilight Language, Corkins definitely seems interested in the word “soleil,” French for “sun.” You have Bobby Beausoleil, Sans Soleil (“Sunless” in English), and the work of Derrida, whose Of Grammatology book features an image of the Egyptian god Thoth on the cover. Thoth was the ibis-headed “god of knowledge and wisdom” and connected to the Moon, rather than the Sun.

So, was “soleil” a trigger word for Corkins? Is this guy simply a lone, deranged Chick-fil-A-hating gay-rights activist? What of his alleged links to nearby Andrews Air Force Base? And interestingly, the guard that was shot, Leo Johnson, shares the name of a prominent character in the 1990-91 Twin Peaks TV show - a character who was shot by Hank Jennings (a local goon hired by wealthy businessman Ben Horne). While the fate of the fictional Leo Johnson (left in a vegetative state) is never made clear, as he is tormented by esoteric madman Windom Earle, we wish for the real Leo Johnson to have a safe and speedy recovery.

Curiously, over the weekend I read an article about the actor Vincent D'Onofrio who played the pudgy and psychotic Marine "Gomer Pyle" in Stanley Kubrick's 1987 anti-war film Full Metal Jacket. Pyle, of course, is pushed to the limit and shoots and kills his drill sergeant and then himself. 

So, when I saw Corkins picture it reminded me of that article. If you look at a picture of Corkins and one of D'Onofrio's "Pyle," the resemblance (overweight, head shaved, crazy eyes) is stunning.

So, was Corkins acting alone or was he the "heavy" instructed (controlled?) to shoot up a place that is at the center of a huge national controversy. The politics of division made all the more divided by a shooting. Already, we see conservative bloggers and pundits saying that now the "left" and "the gays" are getting violent. It's as if behind the scenes, the puppetmasters are setting this all up for a major clash, in order to crack down on all political speech and Constitutionally-protected rights. Problem. Reaction. Solution.

Last night, your Red Dirt Reporter was a guest of Paul Preston, on his Ed Talk Radio show out of Marysville, California. We discussed James Eagan Holmes (the Aurora shooter) and white supremacist (supposedly) Wade Michael Page (the Sikh Temple shooter). Both men had connections to Colorado - Holmes, obviously, and Page less so - he had long lived in Littleton, home of the Columbine massacre. And as we now know, Page was involved in psy-ops for the Army. Read more about Page's links to Littleton and possible connection to Columbine.

We do think there’s a lot to learn from those three “wish list” items. It will be interesting to see if we get the full story on Floyd Lee Corkins II or not.

Copyright 2012 Red Dirt Report