Self immolation in Washington DC
 

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-0...ton-dc/5001166

Can't help thinking how shocking it must have been for the people who tried to help him.

If he did set himself on fire, that is a pretty dramatic way to make a statement.

Is there only one witness to him pouring the gas on himself?

If I saw someone fully engulfed in fire, I would wonder if I would be doing him a favor by trying to put out the fire. Sounds like he died in a lot of pain. :nope:

Its a hard call.
I know I should have let this fella just burn as he would have died quicker, I think if it happened again I should do just that, I know that if it happens again I probably would end up trying the same again.

Someone did that in DC back during the Vietnam War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Morrison

Makes one wonder about a persons state of mind if they are prepared to do this sort of thing to themselves :nope:

Given that he was thanking the people who helped him, I think that this is just another case of the media distorting the facts to get more views :dead:

I didn't know that this had happened in the US during Vietnam, I knew of Thuch Quang Duc, which is up there in the famous Vietnam photos section but didn't know a chap from the US had done the same thing.

Does make me wonder what this chaps motivation was.

Very sad indeed. Thankfully he didn't try to kill a bunch of people first, which seems to be the way these things go.

Apparently whenever someone does something extreme others are driven to copy cat it.

Someone should have told him that the Vietnam war finished a few decades ago though...

I was talking about Morrison but there have been plenty of self immolation's since then. Besides with todays access to information time doesn't necessarily obscure events like it used to.

I suppose it would be in bad taste to make a comment about immolation emulation?

(and I wonder why I don't have any friends) :D

Actually, it All started with the philosopher Savonarola who showed up for a scholarly religious debate and wound up martyred on a pile of faggots-Inquisition style. Taking note, Martin Luther notably showed up for HIS great debate with Tetzel on indulgences( shekels racket paid to avoid purgatory to the Borgia popes and a serious financial drain on the Hanseatic States) with the Elector of Saxony's picked bodyguard of 100 Teutonic Knights in full armor and survived the debate unscathed. " Protect the little monk!" and the world changed! Thank god, as I attended a Lutheran Midwest college. The survivors of Magdeburg weren't so grateful however. Dying Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,(thrice wounded in the Civil WAR) overhearing his grieving maid say "no one dies with warm feet" came out of his coma to utter "Savonarola did". Sangfroid du mort if ever!:rock:

Still no news on what motivated this bloke to do himself in. Whatever his message it's looking like its been lost.