Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Sometimes I feel like a bullet in the gun of Cho Seung-hui

A few random thoughts about the incident that will forever be known as the Virginia Tech massacre:
  • A neighbor described the 23-year-old gunman, Cho Seung-hui, as "very quiet, always by himself." As KJ and I listened to the earliest news reports on the shootings — hours before the perpetrator was identified — I said to her, "Just wait: When they figure out who did this, someone will describe the guy as 'a quiet man... good neighbor... kept to himself.'" It's scary when I'm right.

  • Given that Cho was a card-carrying legal immigrant, I can hardly wait for the first salvos from the anti-immigration whack-jobs, saying, "This is why we gotta keep them [racist characterization deleted] outa our country."

  • That salvo will be followed shortly by another from the gun lobby whack-jobs, saying, "If every student at Va. Tech had been packing a TEC-9, this guy wouldn't have killed so many people."

  • Already, every would-be pop psychologist is breaking down the myriad reasons why Cho got up yesterday morning and murdered 32 people. What's wrong with the obvious answer: "The dude was a whack-job"?

  • Note to future suicidal mass murderers: Given that you're going to end the deal by killing yourself anyway, couldn't you just start there? I'm not advocating ritual seppuku as a valid means of resolving one's personal issues. I'm just thinking we might be able to get you the death you want anyway, without a bunch of other people losing their lives, who had absolutely nothing to do with your inner demons.

  • Right decent of El Presidente to pop over to Va. Tech for a platitude-laden photo op. Maybe the 33 deaths for which Cho was responsible will deflect at least a modicum of attention from the 3,300 American deaths for which Bush is responsible.

  • You just know that the delay in action on the part of the university administration and security personnel between the first and second shooting incidents is going to make a passel of lawyers extremely wealthy.

  • Small consolation, but the Va. Tech massacre outstripped the previous U.S. mass shooting deaths record-holder, Charles Whitman, by a factor of more than 100%. If you're going to go off, go off big, I suppose.

  • Probably a trivial query in the midst of this maelstrom, but you know how my twisted mind works: What's a Hokie, anyway?

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4 insisted on sticking two cents in:

Anonymous Tom Galloway offered these pearls of wisdom...

A bit over 20 years ago, when I lived in Philadelphia, a woman shot up a suburban shopping mall. In a sick way, it was actually somewhat refreshing to read in the paper what her neighbors and family had to say about her, which amounted to "She was a complete whackjob, and we're not surprised in the slightest that she was capable of doing this horrible thing".

6:21 PM  
Blogger Janet offered these pearls of wisdom...

Sometimes our country gets too touchy feely with the reasons. He was sick, plain and simple.

On a completely different note, but also sick, I loved the Dannielynn comment.:)

2:46 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous offered these pearls of wisdom...

Google
9/11 was an inside job
virginia school shooting government black op?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/160407blackop.htm

It is well documented that disturbing questions remain over the incident at Columbine. It is clear that authorities had prior knowledge of what was going to happen. Observers were in the area hours before the shooting took place. Articles from the Associated Press stated that ballistics from Columbine show that six of the thirteen victims were possibly shot and killed by Jefferson County SWAT.

9/11 was an inside job
this was a psy op - to induce fear and panic
OKC 9/11 amish school killings katrina vt shootings - NO ONE WILL STOP THEM - WAKE UP AMERICA!!

10:13 AM  
Blogger SwanShadow offered these pearls of wisdom...

Tom: Great story! How often does that happen? Like, never.

Janet: You're welcome. :)

Anonymous: Just put the crack pipe down, and walk away.

10:56 AM  

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