Farah Mohamed Shirdon of Calgary, fighting for ISIS, dead

First para, I read no apology, just a statement of facts. Maybe you didn't quote enough, and the author apologizes later, but what you quoted is just a description, that this was (is?) a troubled guy. Others in his postion might have succeeded at suicide, as Robin Williams did, gotten help for their illness, gone on to shoot up a supermarket, or found a positive outlet for their mania that made them admired world over until the eventually committed suicide as Robin Williams eventually did. Bipolar disorder is a pernicious illness. None of that excuses this guy turning jihadi, and I didn't read any excuses in the part you quoted.

As for the regular guy bit, why not? These guys start off as regular guys. As do many of the other non-Islamists we hear about that that do outrageous things. At one time they would have said Paul Bernardo was a regular guy - how often do we that about people that blow out. Again I don't hear any excuses. The guy was a regular guy, then he changed and he wasn't. The guy who was just killed (other thread) would have seemed like a regular guy at one time

I'm quite willing to believe that there are people who make excuses in one way or another, but I think you might be looking too hard for them as well.

As for Khadr, yes - if you were raised as he was, I wonder how you would have turned out. His actions are far less perplexing than these other guys'.

This story by the CBC was bullshit. Farah Mohamed Shirdon is still alive.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/09/25 ... or-attack/

Happy ? In fairness, it seems everyone got it wrong:

Farah Mohamed Shirdon, Calgary ISIS fighter reportedly killed in Iraq, was ‘dead inside’ long ago, friend says
http://news.nationalpost.com/2014/08/15 ... ports-say/