What a load of horse-shit
 

This is so ridiculous, I'm not sure whether this article is mocking the claim, or supporting it...



Did heavy metal turn Calif. kid into terrorist?
By Eric Heyl
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, May 28, 2004

If only he hadn't cranked the Ozzy Osbourne.

If only Adam Gadahn hadn't played air guitar while listening to the likes of Metallica, Motorhead or Motley Crue, he undoubtedly would not be the subject of a worldwide manhunt today.

Gadahn, 25, was one of seven people federal authorities identified Wednesday as suspected terrorists. The only American on the list, Gadahn is thought to be an al-Qaida operative.

For those wondering how a presumably nice young man from California would end up attending al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan and serving as a translator for the terrorist scourges, I have but two words for you:

Heavy metal.

Over the years, the musical genre's aggressive rhythms, distorted guitars and dark lyrical content have been conclusively proven to be solely responsible for a host of societal ills. Just ask the many organizations that have blamed heavy metal for murder, suicide, depression, drug abuse, date rape, flat beer, clogged lint traps, bad hair days and tumor growth in select laboratory rats.

You can bet such groups are going to add terrorism to that lengthy list when they discover Gadahn's autobiographical musings, which are posted on a number of Internet sites.

"I had become obsessed with demonic heavy metal music, something the rest of my family was not happy with," he wrote. "My entire life was focused on expanding my music collection. I eschewed personal cleanliness and let my room reach an unbelievable state of disarray. My relationship with my parents became strained, although only intermittently so."

Gadahn began listening to heavy metal. Soon thereafter, he wasn't bathing regularly, keeping his room tidy or being nice to his parents.

See how these things can snowball? Start down such a precarious path and before you know it, you're a religious zealot renouncing your country and listening to Pantera reverb off the walls of bin Laden's latest cave.

Some people insist heavy metal and its popular practitioners are harmless. They contend it's absurd to blame a particular musical styling for some of life's negative aspects.

Even obvious evidence to the contrary in the form of Gadahn's own writing is unlikely to persuade them otherwise. Heavy metal apologists are either unwilling or unable to see that Osbourne and his ilk have claimed another victim. It's a Gadahn shame.

Eric Heyl is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review staff writer. He can be reached at [email protected] or (412) 320-7857.

That is pretty clearly tongue-in-cheek. At least I desperately hope.

I definitely agree. It seems pretty obvious. Certainly isn't far fetched to think that someone will try to make sense of an argument like that at some point in time though.

the clincher: "It's a Gadahn shame."

:)

funny stuff, but maybe a bit too subtle for some people (the same people who cite The Onion articles as fact)

Hahah. I catch some Ozzy stuff every now and then and I have to laugh when it is considered "heavy metal." Some of that stuff is just simply rock and almost poppy sounding to me.

I thought so at first, but I saw a report refer to it in a way that suggests it was real. Either they were fooled, or this guy is serious.

I'll take option A.

The tone of that seems so obviously tongue and cheek that it seems only an idiot would take it seriously. Was it a news station that reported it?

Edit: No offense to anyone here who took/take it seriously. :)

this stuff happens quite a bit, actually.

my favorite:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/London...08/412787.html

Hahah. Thanks, Draft Dodger. This part is the best...

"We knew it was a gay paper and we hold that even as a joke, the gay community is proud of their advancements into the safe schools program in the U.S.," she said. "We don't think homosexuality in schools is a joke."

Asked whether she believed it was a real photo, Ashworth said the caption included the teacher's name, city, state and grade.

"We researched in depth and that was one of the things we found," she said, noting the group spent seven weeks accumulating research.

"We don't come by our findings lightly. . . . Whether it was meant to be a joke or not, it's not funny to parents who are trying to protect their children."

The Onion is a "gay paper." That poor, tortured, and unfortunate soul.

No, although I have been following the story as reported by legit news services, where the family has placed the blame on music. The place I got it from is more of a collector of music news, so I'd lean toward the 'idiot' tag.

Now that I've read it a couple of more times, it does seem tongue-in-cheek (i.e., reference to "bad hair days," although ironically, bad hair is probably the only thing that can be conclusively linked to heavy metal :) ). What confused me is that the guy doesn't really take these people to task, he just recites what they believe. And considering the number of people who believe this, they probably printed this article out and have it hanging on their refrigerator. He should have pointed out why they are wrong. Simply mocking them doesn't work when they don't consider it to be mocking.

I don't know this way is still fun for the rest of us, and someday these morons will wake up, read the article on the refrigerator, and say "Hey...That guy is making fun of me!".

I need to call the guy and get him to write an article on how the Harry Potter books are luring children into witchcraft. Maybe he has something in his archives about Dungeons and Dragons.;)

You should check out landoverbaptist.org.

Have you ever read the Chick Track on Dungeons and Dragons? One of the funniest (UIC) things I ever read.

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.asp

I must be daft. These people are serious?

Sadly, yes.

I didn't want this gem to go unappreciated.

::snickering::

haha Ksyrup .. that had QOTM written all over it.