More news on Breivik

I've now had a chance to skim through Breivik's manifesto. It's long and detailed and mentions many people on the right, even Cardinal Pell and Keith Windschuttle. Some important points:

1. Breivik states re religion: "I’m not going to pretend I’m a very religious person as that would be a lie."

2. Breivik was a user of anabolic steroids and ephedrine. He used them for weight loss/muscle gain/mental alertness/mood elevation reasons. Some users of these drugs do experience side effects:

A 2005 review in CNS Drugs determined that "significant psychiatric symptoms including aggression and violence, mania, and less frequently psychosis and suicide have been associated with steroid abuse."

A 2006 study of two pairs of identical twins, in which one twin used anabolic steroids and the other did not, found that in both cases the steroid-using twin exhibited high levels of aggressiveness, hostility, anxiety and paranoid ideation not found in the "control" twin

Possible Side Effects of Ephedra: nausea, headache; anxiety; psychosis

3. Breivik writes in extraordinary detail about the technical aspects of committing murder. For instance, he had a great interest in biological weaponry, and he notes for his readers the pros and cons of adding different toxins to his bullets, such as the venom of the Australian taipan snake. Again, there is something not quite right mentally about spending pages of a manifesto on such matters.