I understand exactly nothing about this story

http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/18/us/california-stabbing-mutilation/index.html

Police: Son stabs father, then saws off his own hands

... I mean, what?

this is a useful feature cnn:

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

- A northern California sheriff's office says a son stabbed his father with scissors

- The son, 27, then cut off his hands with a radial-arm saw, authorities say

- Both father and son had life-threatening injuries but were still alive the next day

- "I just can't imagine anything like that happening between family," a neighbor says

i just read this on CNN as well, following a tweet. i guess the son most likely has some psychological issues.

I lived in Redding for 3 1/2 years and that place gives everybody psychological issues.

i live in a weird little suburban town right now. nobody seems satisfied, and there is evil lurking below the surface of every polite, impersonal social interaction.

(that isn't true)

I still cannot comprehend how this happened

I mean, I can't comprehend how the son managed to saw one of his hands off, let alone both of them; by the time he got to hand #2 he knew what he was in for

he might have done them both at once. it was a radial-arm saw.

dan asks too many questions sometimes

it is both a blessing and a curse

""This is definitely the craziest thing that's ever happened on this street," Rinehart said."

he's the main person in the story i related to

radial arm saw. u know, for yr arms.

i can imagine how it happened, though. i mean, don't get me wrong, this is crazy. but i guess the order of events went:

1) father/son argument, but it's not really about what they're arguing about, it's about their relationship throughout their LIVES
2) dad: "you're not half the man your grandpa was" son: "that's what i'm talking about, DAD, you keep judging me in relation to who you want me to be, but you never think of appreciating who i actually AM!" dad: "that's because i don't see anything to appreciate there" son: "you fuckiiiii-"
3)http://blog.asuarezportfolio.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/psycho-33.gif
4) mom: "what the fuck did you do?? you stabbed your father! you're gonna burn in hell!"
5) son: "i carry the weight of generations of puritanism and it subconsciously manifests itself in weird ways that freak people out!"
6) son starts up the circular saw, pushes his hands together and thrusts them into the fury.
7) BZZHARRRRGGGHGHGblooooooodoohhhgaawd

in other words the son saw the results of his stabbing and suddenly realized he had done something terrible and wanted to punish himself as quickly and severely as possible without killing himself

old man Norton down the street: "That is definitely one of the top 3 craziest things that's ever happened on this street"

son: "i carry the weight of generations of puritanism and it subconsciously manifests itself in weird ways that freak people out!"

lol?

i don't understand it either!

i think that is what happened, ZS, and i say this knowing nothing about the case or about the psychology of murderers generally. the hand cutting thing seems like penance.

My grandparents on my mom's side used to live in Anderson not far outside of Redding. For a variety of reasons, I'm glad they didn't stay.

that was my assumption too xp and also i totally understand it and flatter myself that i can imagine how such an impulse would feel (although right after that my empathy fails me)

Ah, Anderson -- an outlet mall, a highway. Good times.

old man Norton down the street: "That is definitely one of the top 3 craziest things that's ever happened on this street"

dying @ this.

But yeah a guy shoving his hands onto a circular saw is some fucked up "Requiem for a Dream" shit right there.

xxpost -- they actually had a very lovely house on the river, and I enjoyed the couple of visits I made there. But then they moved to the Bitterroot Valley in Montana and NOBODY looked back.

what is so bad about that area?

is there guilt and hatred in the air? is it like faulkner's yoknapatawpha county?

The Central Valley of California in general:

* was and remains the center of farming and agriculture in California but needs increasing less and/or less expensive labor to do it
* is punishingly humid and hot in the summer and bitterly colder in the winter
* is socially much more conservative than the coast
* is also notably whiter (though with exceptions, predominantly of course Mexican-America communities and the Hmong/Laotian communities in Sacramento and north of same)
* is not geared towards massively money-making employment outside of sporadic seasonal tourism and the previously mentioned agricultural businesses, and generally is much more amenable to retirement communities rather than younger members of the populace.

To say that drugs and despair form a huge chunk of the Central Valley experience massively understates. My girlfriend from my previous relationship came from Oroville and I've heard enough and sensed enough to know that things always were a bit grim, but that in the last few years, it's just gotten worse and worse.

hm. thanks. i'm an east coaster so it is interesting to learn about other parts of the country. that does sound bleak though. :-(

Plenty, PLENTY of great people in my life -- my previously mentioned ex, coworkers and many more -- have come from the Central Valley or spent time there, like our own WilliamC. Nearly all of them agree that one way or another they had to get out, or are there now for one reason or another and either have enough of a solid foundation to maintain themselves, their family and their sanity or just look around at the bleakness and resort to the blackest of humor. The number one example in my personal experience would be my mom. As soon as she graduated from high school in Yuba City in 1962, she went to the University of the Pacific in Stockton, then SF for teacher training and then out from there. She only just returned to Yuba City for the first time ever last year for her fiftieth high school reunion.

ned otm

"Grim" was the word I was going to use, too. The valley is miserably hot in the summer and is a big bowl of ag-related dust and haze most of the time. Joie de vivre seems like a totally alien concept there. xposts

my first thought was that this was one of those crazy-ass PCP stories, but there's no face-chewing or axe wielding, all seems a bit more civilized than good ole pcp

Meantime have I mentioned valley fever:

http://www.cdc.gov/features/valleyfever/

Sister of my coworker from Bakersfield recently suffered a bout and, thanks to some real shoddy treatment by an admitting nurse, nearly died. Her therapy is going to take something like years.

I just want to mention that I grew up in a town where a kid shot his friend in the face in the middle of a high school party while playing Russian Roulette and I still am having problems comprehending this story.

If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off.

I suppose the left one also helped offend?

i think it's possible he stabbed with both hands, and that's why he felt the need to remove them both via buzzsaw. but it's more likely that he stabbed with only one hand but made the decision to offer the other hand as a bonus limb for self-punishment

Story reminds me of Chet in Ed the Happy Clown.

http://trashfilmguru.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/ed2.jpg

I understand exactly nothing about this story:

Police: Son kills father, fathers two children with his mother, then sticks pins into both of his eyes

i have been thinking a lot about this cutting off hands story, and all I can think of is the religious angle. I mean, real life is a lot more mundane I'm sure but it still makes me wonder if that's why

so what you all are saying is that redding is basically the hstngs of the west coast

^^^ essentially where I am with this story

i think maybe the guy in the OP just wanted to be able to say "look ma, no hands!"

Ned's pretty much otm about the central valley, although Redding is so far north it's not quite the abyss that, say, Bakersfield is. It is generally pretty redneck-y, and once upon a time almost managed to secede from California

that must be it. and he stabbed his father so he wouldn't have to say "look ma and dad, no hands!" xpost

"look ma, no hands or dad!"

One of the highlights of living in Redding was shopping trips to Costco or Winco... there would usually be at least one wild-eyed mountain family nervously venturing into town for multiple carts of staple foods. Surprised there weren't boxes market "Hardtack" piled up with the flour/sugar/coffee/salt.

:( this is making me concerned for my nieces. They are in Grass Valley. Is that the same vibe? It seemed nice when I visited. The cutting the hands off and "why would he do it?" questions remind me of Equus.

Grass Valley is full of hippies ("Grass Valley Greg" etc)

I always got the sense that Grass Valley was full of the people who had figured out how to get out of Redding, or knew not to get into Redding to begin with. Less stressed out. xp lol

Grass Valley has more of a pleasant, hill-folk vibe, more along the lines of Placerville and Auburn. I don't really think of it the same way I'd think of Redding or Red Bluff or Yuba City, which just kind of generally bum me out.