The county is banning this guy for this? So much for the first amendment. I can see a lawsuit coming. The use of fiction in this way is what the first amendment is about.

Mr. Burnet has every right to write this and post it to his own blog. The county is using this to retaliate against bad press. This is nothing more than that.

Also, the AJ tips their hand by putting sarcastic quotes around the word fiction. This is editorializing in a news story. A responsible journalist would not have done this. This story was clearly labeled as fiction. The addition of the quote marks calls that in to question. The AJ is supposed to report the facts not serve as a shill for the county government.

The Lubbock City Council and Mayor have gotten themselves all "shook up" over this, coming as it did, hard on the heels of the Tucson Massacre. They've simply overreacted, like the officials of "Mayberry" they so remind me of.

Fiction has always been used to illustrate what might happen, and to warn against it. How many of us have not read novels wherein fictional attacks against government officials have taken place?

It's not a "threat" and it's certanly not a crime. If it were, the makers of the film "Independence Day" would have spent the rest of their lives in prison for the attacks they showed. They'd certainly share a cell with Tom Clancy, most of whose "Jack Ryan" novels feature fictional attacks on officials.

Let's just calm down, here!

I sure would hate to see the reaction of those brave elected officials if a bonafide threat really came across. Paul R. Beane's teeth would be chattering on dias floor. The reaction from the LAW is unwarranted. What the hell do they mean that a citizen is "NOt Wanted" in a public setting. Until Cliff Burnett pulls a real weapon - and not his fiction writing- he should be allowed to walk freely wherever the hell he wants. How about Judge Head and his cartoons last year? Those depictions were not meant as a threat against a whole society -- I guess the good ole boys don't recall that. Or, how about the allegations of Mayor Tom Martin putting a pistol on a table top -- how easy people forget. Now that was a real threat. And, don't forget that looney tune Paul Beane bragging about packing. Who are the real threats to society here. I think it is the Lubbock City Council.

"The thought police would get him just the same. He had committed--would have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper--the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you." George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 1

I've read the two blogs by Mr. Burnett. If he is guilty of anything, it is poor taste and bad timing. Clearly, he does not "think" very highly of City or County government, but since when is that a crime? If it were, the Secret Service would have detained the producers of the 2006 film Death of a President. Instead the Bush administration merely ignored it and would not comment on the film. Perhaps that is what the City and County officials should have done in this case -- or when Mr. Burnett visits the City and County public venues, just have a police officer or deputy monitor his movements.

A few years ago, Floyd Price (the integrity candidate) was quoted as telling a constituent, " I am so mad at you - I could just shoot you" and he showed his pistol on his ankle holster, at a City Council meeting. Besides running his campaign as "not caring about the Constitution". So, you have Mayor Martin packing, Paul R. Beane packing (knife and pistol), Floyd Price packing, and I would not be surprised if that wimpy Todd Klein has firearm somewhere tucked away in his jaw. Cliff Burnett is no threat....we need to fear the damned Council.

I didn't see the law and city/county officials denying him access to any public venues. No wonder Burnett calls them (the local govt. gone wild) the Kremlin. Now they are really living up to the designation (Kremlin). What next? Will they go after the posters on this blog? Just another example of the DOUBLE STANDARD. There is one for the Good Ole Boys/elected officials and a different set of rules for the public!!!!

Tell me, Scooter ---have you ever heard of an author named Louis L'Amour?

Have you any idea how many people were fictionally "killed" in his hundred-plus western novels?

Do you seriously think Louis L'Amour's works ought be banned? That's what you're saying, you know ---that there ought be no "killing" in works of fiction.

Do you think author Stephen King is a particulaly stable person? (I've seen interviews with him, and he's waaay over the edge.)

Do you seriously think Stephen King's works ought be banned? That's what you're saying, you know ---that "unstable people" ought be banned from writing fiction.

I think the best course here would be for everyone to just chill out a bit.

....but perhaps, in the aftermath of the Arizona murders, and in light of the developing facts about Jared Loughner's mental state before he committed these heinous acts, the focus here should be on the mental health of the writer in question. Maybe the guy needs some therapy. Are we possibly ignoring a cry for help?

...yes, my tongue was lodged firmly in my cheek when I wrote that.

"Do you seriously think Louis L'Amour's works ought be banned?"

Not just no, but "Hell, no!" Louis L'Amour is arguably one of the greatest writers of his chosen genre.

Zane Grey and Max Brand, on the other hand...... :)

Yes, it could most definitely be a cry for help.

Have you read some of Stephen King's stuff? Heaven help the world if that guy ever starts acting out some of the stories he puts on paper. And the only real difference (other than writing skill) that I see beween him and the blog guy is that he's famous and makes money at it.

Maybe we ought demand to see each nut-case's tax statement, and the ones who aren't being paid for it should be locked away?

Yes, my tongue was definitely "in cheek" when I wriote that, too.

Good morning, Doc. :-)

We are in total accord on this subject! I could read nothing but L'amour, working my way through all his novels, then beginning again with the first, and be perfectly happy, I think.

And good morning to you, sir.

I own pretty much everything Stephen King has ever published, in hardcover whenever possible. I enjoy reading and re-reading the products of his imagination immensely (especially "The Stand" and the Dark Tower series), for reasons I've never quite dared to analyze.

I was the guy who many years ago practically jumped out of his own skin at 3:00 a.m. when the night wind bunted a tree branch up against the house. The fact that I was reading a particularly "juicy" passage of "Salem's Lot" at the time just might have been a factor....

[edited for typos]

You just reminded me of something King said in a radio interview once.

The interviewer (perhaps not a King fan, or maybe just trying to provoke a response), ungrammatically asked King, "Who in their right minds would pay good money just to have the hell scared out of them?"

King's calm, one-word response: "Americans."

Doc Holiday said "Maybe the guy needs some therapy. Are we possibly ignoring a cry for help?"

I believe that I have heard that Cliff Burnett has already spent some time in a institution that doles out therapy whether you want it or not...Maybe he needs another dose.

"...therapy whether you want it or not..."

Now, THERE's a visual for you!

Close your eyes....imagine a man strapped into a chair, restrained at wrists and ankles... bright, harsh lights shining into his eyes....and from the shadows beyond, a soft, accented voice drones out questions...."Vat vas your relationship like viss your mutta?"...."How does zis make you feel?"...

Martin, a former police chief, said he always had concerns for his safety and that of his family, “But I’m not going to allow somebody making threats along this nature to keep me from doing my job,” Martin said.I am ready for people who disagree with the Lubbock Council to start disappearing.

If the council wants to quash dissent, they need to pass a law in secrecy where they can form the Lubbock Gestapo Police (TLGP) to capture and kill any citizen of Lubbock who disagree with the policies of the Great City Council of Lubbock. I don't know if I can use the word dead but so I should say, "during the hours of darkness".

If I am not posting tomorrow, I have been kidnapped by the newly created law to stop dissenting citizens. I should not fear for my life, only the mayor can say he fears for his life. Of course in this case, only his rights are protected, ours aren't.

By the way, this is what you get when you put people in charge of sheeple.

This city council is a joke, they really think they are better than the rest of us. Amazing.