Even MSNBC is spreading the phony "skull altar shrine" b.s.

[Mark Maker]

Miniature altar with human skull replica in backyard tent at Jared Lee Loughner's home.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40996934/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

1. Uh oh, I've got little skulls around the house that I don't put

.. up from Halloween cause I think they're cool (like well made, interesting, catacombish).

Sure hope I don't get in trouble for being 'playful' with 'scarey things'.

Sigh.

(In other words, this photo in itself means little... need the bigger picture...)

[Dappleganger]

5. LOL, you should see my daughter's room...

it looks like a freaking morgue in there! I swear if she ever committed a crime (which she never would) they would have a field day with all the goth/death decor. She's the sweetest, kindest young liberal you'd ever meet, too. ;)

[prolesunited]

2. Kinda looks like one to me

Why are you saying it's phony?

[Skidmore]

3. Why are we assuming that this is a false report?

If it appears later as part of documented evidence, what will your response be?

[jefferson_dem]

4. Why is it phony and what makes it bs?

Aside from the fact that sludge links to it above the fold, which qualifies it as both "phony" and "bs".

[ret5hd]

6. Well, my first clue would be the word "replica".

just sayin'.

[pintobean]

7. It has to be a real skull?

[emilyg]

8. So you wanr a real skull?

[Skidmore]

9. ....*snort*

I'm reserving judgment until I see an evidence list. In the meantime, it's all speculation.

[luvspeas]

10. Not much of an alter or a shrine if you ask me...

What is that thing on the left, a bread wrapper?


That's why people are saying it's not an alter or shrine. Because it looks like something a post adolescent boy would use to put out their ciggies.

[Journeyman]

16. Potting soil . . .

It's a bag of potting soil. Inside the pots, beneath the skull, are shriveled oranges. Or so said an earlier version of this report from the NY Daily News. (No word if the back yard has an orange tree.)

(DU discussion here: "Oh, no! Now he's an occultist!" http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=439&topic_id=160041)

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. That BS is probably santa muerte

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

It is common in Mexico especially around certain elements (read the drug dealers) but also in the American South West.

It is not BS... but I am sure the media ain't qualified to know what they are looking at.

[timo]

12. Nadin

I was thinking the same thing to myself, we find junk like this along the river on the farm all the time, mostly at places where people cross. found a batman t shirt folded up with garlic and peppers and tied by a rubber snake about this time last year that really SPOOKED 2 of my workers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. As a medic in TJ we found them regularly

in certain quarters, Nothing more fun than do CPR under a full skull with incense.

Ok, not fun, just damn eerie.

You know I gotta ask though where did this kid mix up with those quarters and is this cult expanding to other places?

[haele]

17. If he was doing ditch weed, his suppliers/fellow stoners probably set it up -

Kidlet's San Diego High School contemporaries who do that sort of thing all hang out in the canyons and parks to smoke and set up their "markers" to indicate that was their spot. Tagging your spot under a eucalyptus is difficult, after all.
The "cooler" or more spooky/Voodoo/Santeria it looks is a way of indicating of how serious your group is about claiming that area to smoke in. And one can get any of that paraphernalia in pretty much any bodega near the border.
If it is real, it's probably where he and his buds went out to smoke in the backyard.

Haele

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. I know about that, I gotta wonder if he

actually went full monty with the Santa Muerte... hell you can find this crap in Old Town... don't have to go to Mexico...

Smoking places is one thing, Santa Muere is a whole different ball of wax.

[Burma Jones]

13. Tucson has a big BIG Dia de los Muertos celebration/parade every year

[Doctor_J]

15. What do you mean "even MSRNC"

that's the network of Pat Buchanan, Joe Intern Killer, Mika, Whorah, and a host of wing nuts. Propaganda is not unusual for them.

[Supersedeas]

19. we should expect nothing less than RW propoganda by day to balance out the truth by night