Jared Loughner's Former Girl Friend Thinks He's Faking

[UPDATE: Fascinating - the Washington Post ignores the faking angle. The difference between local news and national infotainment, I suppose: the national folks miss the story.]

Smart guy; not mentally ill:

"He just seemed like one of those kids who kind of kept to himself. He was very, very quiet. I kind of made the effort to talk to him because he kind of kept to himself. He was actually a really nice kid when it came to it…we started dating when I just turned 15," added Figueroa.

...Ashley told us Jared became scary sometimes, "What was Jared like as a boyfriend when you did start dating?" KGUN9 asked. "He was overall, he was good. But, he had a temper problem. He used to scare me sometimes and that's why I left him. He kind of made me feel uncomfortable at times. He'd get really mad, clench his fist and then throw a kind of little tantrum; he'd flail his arms and walk off," added Figueroa.

"What sort of things would set him off that way? KGUN9 asked. "Things about the government, things about politics...anything that pretty much had to do with the government." she said.

Figueroa added, that Loughner basically kind of thought that the government was crap and that it was just this big, bad thing that was trying to just take over everybody and that we had no say in anything; that we were controlled by them 100%, and he strongly disagreed and felt people should be able to make own choices," she noted.

...Figueroa believes Loughner planned the shooting, "He's a smart kid, I think he did his homework. And, I think he's playing everything. I think he's trying to get sent to a psych ward because he doesn't want to go to jail because he didn't die like he wanted to."

..."There's a lot of people out there right now who are saying Jared Loughner is mentally ill, I know you're not a doctor, but your gut feeling, is he mentally ill or an accumulation of everything you talked about?" "I don't think he's mentally ill at all. I think he's honestly, I think he's faking everything. I think he's planned it, planned for sometime."

Which brings me to another thing which has been bothering me....

Some people might look at this picture and see a seriously-mentally-ill person.

Maybe I'm getting jaded from having spent so many years in Sacramento-area community theater, but when I look at this picture, I see an actor....

Just sayin'....