Free Republic

In cases of international intrigues and current controversies having to do with how fictional movies can effect real-life people and events around the globe, I have yet to watch The Interview, last year’s comedy about North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, which provoked terror threats against theaters and sensational accusations concerning the hacking of Sony. However, yesterday I had the occasion to catch the award-winning black comedy from Argentina, Wild Tales, a darkly funny and shocking cinematic masterpiece containing six short-film vignettes, all having the common theme of ordinary human characters losing their minds and acting out unexpected, violent revenge upon...

Information from the second black box found in the wreckage of the Germanwings flight that crashed in the French Alps confirms the co-pilot acted deliberately and even accelerated as the doomed plane descended, investigators said Friday. "A first reading shows that the pilot in the cockpit used the automatic pilot to descend the plane towards an altitude of 100 feet (30 metres)," said the French BEA crash investigation office in a statement. "Then, several times during the descent, the pilot changed the automatic pilot settings to increase the aircraft's speed," added the investigators.

Travelling by air makes many people very nervous and in the aftermath of a horrific incident, fears and tensions are heightened.

Michelle Bachmann is causing a stir. Bachmann, a former member of the House of Representatives and a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, took to Facebook to roll out a stinging assessment of President Obama.Photo by Mark Wilson / Getty Images The filterless Bachmann left Congress, but she certainly has not deserted her proclivity to issue some incendiary rhetoric. On Tuesday, Bachmann likened Obama to the murderous and suicidal pilot Andrea Lubitz, who is thought to have intentionally crashed a Germanwings Airbus A320 into a hillside in the French Alps last week, killing himself...

What are we to make of Andreas Lubitz piloting a Germanwings airplane into the side of a mountain? There is an unhelpful tautology, meant to be explanatory, that arises at times like this. How could someone have done something this evil? Because they were evil. Or: How could someone have done something this heartless? Because they were heartless..

Not only does she carry the stigma of being the woman who jilted Andreas Lubitz just before he rammed a Germanwings jetliner into a mountainside — she’s also pregnant with his kid. Kathrin Goldbach, 26, had told the co-pilot about two weeks before the crash that she was pregnant, the German newspaper Bild reported on Sunday. The German schoolteacher seemed happy about it and even told her students she was going to be a mom, the paper said. But she was booting Lubitz from her life, reports have said. She told him the day before Tuesday’s crash — in which...

Kathrin Goldbach's family are reportedly afraid to face 'hatred of the world' Her boyfriend Andreas Lubitz flew the plane he was co-piloting into Alps Kathrin, brother Andreas and their parents have left home in Montabaur Close friends say family have no plans to return to close-knit community

French police tell Paris Match and Bild to “hand over” what the two media claim is a “genuine” mobile phone video taken inside the Germanwings plane. A mobile phone clip purportedly filming the final seconds inside the cabin of the doomed Germanwings airliner minutes before it crashed is ’genuine’, two European media insist. French authorities initially firmly denied the existence of the clip, which allegedly relays in a “few seconds” scenes of chaos and passengers screaming “My God” in several languages. But they are now calling on anyone in possession of such a film to “hand it over to investigators”....

Germany’s Bild News is reporting a cell phone “SIM card” (Micro SD, Memory card) has been recovered from the wreckage of Germanwings flight 9525. According to reporting by the German media outlet there is video on the SIM card showing what was taking place in the cabin prior to, and up to the moment of, the crash.

It is far easier for an individual to do great evil than to do great good. That the world isn't fair is known to every human being who thinks. It may be our first insight into life. What child who ever complained, "That's not fair," wasn't told by some adult, "Life isn't fair"?One sad example of how unfair life is concerns how much harder it is to do massive good than massive evil. One psychopath, in one hour, killed 149 innocent people aboard a Germanwings airliner. How many people will ever be able to do nearly as much good for...

Killer pilot Andeas Lubitz’s mental illness was caused by living in a capitalist society, Russell Brand has claimed. In his latest video, the activist comedian says that 50 percent of people will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lifetimes, asking: “Why is it happening all the time? Why are we living in the times of a mental illness plague?” The reason, he says, is Fox News. “The reason Fox News can’t be honest about what causes mental illness is that Fox News IS what causes mental illness. “Fox News are the propaganda machine of capitalism –...

Cell phone video found at the Germanwings Flight 9525 crash site reveals the sounds of passengers screaming in the moments before the March 24 crash, the French magazine Paris Match and the German tabloid newspaper Bild reported, citing a source close to the investigation. Both publications have issued descriptions of the video but have not published the video. “The scene was so chaotic that it was hard to identify people, but the sounds of the screaming passengers made it perfectly clear that they were aware of what was about to happen to them,” Paris Match reported. ” One can hear...

The picture of Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz’ troubled state of mind grows more complex with the revelation, reported by International Business Times, that investigators have discovered that Lubitz “trawled the dark side of the web visiting, among other things, sites containing gay porn, suicide themes and sexual perversions.” This sheds new light on a seemingly minor detail from early reports: other pilots teased Lubitz by calling him “Tomato Andy” because he worked as a flight attendant before becoming a pilot. According to IBT, this was not merely an insulting reference to the food and beverage duties of a flight attendant;...

The German pilot suspected of deliberately crashing a plane in the French Alps last week was treated for suicidal tendencies years ago before he received his pilot's license, German prosecutors said on Monday. This was the first acknowledgement from German officials that the pilot, Andreas Lubitz, had suffered bouts of depression and it is likely to intensify a debate about how airlines screen and monitor their pilots.

The co-pilot of the crashed Germanwings plane, Andreas Lubitz, had received treatment for suicidal tendencies years ago, investigators have said, but not in recent doctor visits. Officials in Duesseldorf said that the investigation had so far shown no clue to any motive.

The devastated girlfriend of Germanwings killer co-pilo Andreas Lubitz is pregnant with his child, it emerged today. Secondary school teacher Kathrin Goldbach, who is in her 20s, left Germany in the aftermath of the crash which killed 150 people thinking her fiance was one of the victims. According to the German newspaper Bild, she arrived in France to find he had been the perpetrator of mass murder. It is believed that she told the pupils at the Gesamtschule in Krefeld, near Dusseldorf, where she works some time ago that she was 'going to be a mum'.

Today’s post, direct from the Rabbit Hole:Due to the recent mass murder of 149 men, women and children with a high-capacity Airbus A320 airplane – which is just the most recent in an epidemic of suicidal airplanes – airplane safety rules are being reviewed by the Federal Transportation Department for possible revision.Under the leadership of luminaries like former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg as well as other well known anti-gun politicians and Hollywood activists, grass root advocacy groups have been quickly organized and funded. One of the largest to-date is Mothers Against Planes* (MAP). They’ve already begun to lobby Congress for...

Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilot of the Germanwings plane who deliberately crashed in the Alps on Tuesday killing 150 people, retweeted (actually looks more like shared on Facebook) the photo above, with the caption "A Germany in which religious feelings have more rights than the meaning of freedom - is not my Germany." (Hat Tip: Mike K). And the New York Times reported on Friday that Lubitz "lived, at least part time, with his parents. Mr. Lubitz’s mother was an organist at a Protestant church near the town center.” Mike K adds: Here is the sad, but probably true story....

Killer co-pilot Andres Lubitz trawled the internet for suicide websites in the months before the crash, it has been claimed. The 27-year-old also scoured the net for gay porn and ‘sexual perversions’ while apparently battling serious mental health conditions. The claims have come out after police began examining documents and a computer recovered from his flat in Dusseldorf – the same one where torn up sick notes were discovered. -excerpt- The co-pilot, who it is thought was suffering from severe depression and fears that he was losing his eyesight... -excerpt- Lubitz was also fearful of having his pay cut as...

Andreas Lubitz: Germanwings flight's last minutes revealed in chilling black box transcript 29 March 2015 By Alex Wellman Patrick Sondheimer is heard screaming to his co-pilot "Open the goddam door" as passengers scream in the background The dramatic last moments of the doomed Germanwings flight have been revealed in a chilling transcript of the black box recording that shows the captain screaming at Andreas Lubitz “Open the goddam door”. Patrick Sondheimer, pilot of the traffic plane, is heard frantically pleading with the killer to let him into the cockpit, just seconds before crashing into the Alps. BEA Germanwings CVR Evidence:...