As predicted many people can not resist the urge to play amatuer shrink in the VT massacre. When I was on the way home I heard media dolts blame this on Science geeks who can relate to lab equipment, but not humans. I heard another talk show host rail about gun culture on a sports station.
Stereotypes are for idiots who often try to advance an agenda or bigotry.Many of us were looking for a Muslim angle. We have seen the media down play the ethnicity of the LA airport killer and the Seattle office tragedy.
The killer was of all things an English major.The student was an foreigner and could have absorbed gun culture via the drinking water. A certain nameless blogger announced that there was a Islamic connection. Now certain people are running with the Islam theory and it is absurd. The killer was an Enlish major and the name Ishmael just happens to be in Moby Dick. Maybe the killer was obsessed with Mellville
trying to read too much into the minds of crazy people is a mistake. Granted people with severe emotional problems often seek solace in religions especially Islam. Islam is fairly popular in prisons, but many death row inmates have become Christians. The most extreeme example is the head of the Butt Naked Brigade is now a minister. On a personal level we have seen a deranged person with a history of inexcusable behaivior claim he is becoming more Jewish. Many people bought this act, but I don't.
The far left likes everything to fit into its diabolical playbook. Yet if we try to grasp at straws we emulate everything wrong about the left.
On a more realistic note, sometimes young people just don't know how to deal with adversity. They come from schools where everyone's esteem is coddled. Yet the most important of life's lessons is how to deal with adversity. Many people like TMW call on their faith and it is a good thing. Others like myself are just so cynical and expect life to throw them a hand grenade every now and then. I got the promotion, what's the catch? Yet in my office when several of my younger coworkers got shafted some of them took weeks off. Life doesn't owe anybody a thing, and sooner or later everyone gets a raw deal. Learning to deal with it with grace builds charachter. I didn't make it the last time but at least all those people are out of my way this time.
I am tired of Commies blaming guns, American culture, Science students and video games every time someone steps off the deep end. The same people do backflips to white wash Islam every time some Islamo Nazis commit an act of barbarism. We may never know what that reference to Ishmael was. However to blame it on Islam, Melville
or the seventeen laws of commas are absurd.
Lets let the investigators do their job.
Bernie Sanders has announced he wants to sponsor a bill to propose a seven day waiting period before people can buy or read Moby Dick. Libraries will be required to keep it in a glass counter under lock and key. Parents will have to sign trauma waivers before it is assigned.
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17 comments:
I hadn't thought of the Moby Dick/Mellville angle! Actually, given that he was an English major, that's a pretty sharp guess and it fits in with the supposed message he left decrying the "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans".
Truthfully, at first I expected it to be a Muslim. Especially when the description said the shooter was a "Asian". That term seems to be used a lot anymore for any non-Arab Muslim.
I think you are correct, sometimes tragedy is just that and shouldnt be expropriated for your particular cause.
From Hot Air;
""You probably already know this, but in James Fennimore Cooper’s story “The Prairie,” the settler Ishmael Bush, who is attempting to escape from civilization, sets out across the prairie with two key tools, a gun and an axe. Each has a symbolic meaning. The axe — which can either kill or provide shelter — stands for both creation and destruction. Given that the VT killer was an English major, might this be the likely meaning of the words on his arm? Just my two cents.""
I thought about the Moby Dick character as well, but that Ishmael was a survivor, and not a killer. The above reference seems to make more sense. But like you said, Cho was not in his right mind. It's clearly not a case of jihad, just a very disturbed young man.
I'm with you Beak, let the experts do their job. From what I have read, it seems like this guy was just messed up mentally and in need of serious help, that unfortunately he never got, than again I guess learning English from Americans could make anyone go a little nuts...
I was an English major once, and I like guns...
Just now on the news...Bomb threat at VA Tech!
Beak,
A certain nameless blogger announced that there was a Islamic connection.
If you're referring to me, I want to clarify something. I'm not asserting an Islamic connection. But I AM wondering why a Korean has the Arab word "Ismail" on his arm--if that story is true.
The killer at VT was a senior. If he was schizo, he shouldn't have been able to reach that class rank--or so opnined my ophthalmologist yesterday. Typically, schizophrenia appears earlier and interferes with a rigorous academic schedule. I'm sure that more info will be forthcoming if the young man had academic issues.
As far as the killer being a loner goes, many of my Korean friends and students are loners. But they don't go around shooting people.
I don't think there's a Moby Dick connection. Wouldn't an English major spell "Ishmael" in the same way as Melville?
I just don't understand why there has to be an Islamic connection at all. Obviously there is none in this case. Interpreting his rantings and writings is like analyzing Berkowitz's talking dog.
The guy was nuts. His girlfriend or ex girl was not the 'trigger' for his explosion as some in the media like to say for dramatic effect. Show some respect for the dead, for God's sake.
Everyone wants easy answers. There is no real 'why?' here. There is no 'reason'. Not everything can be put in a nice box and labeled. Unfortunately this is not the last of the rampaging gunmen of the world.
As for Europe's finger-pointing.. gimme a break. What about that kindergarten that was shot all to hell in the UK some years back? Or the German school shooting? or any of the other horrendous crimes that occur globally each hour.
PS: I knew Bernie Sanders' stepdaughter. She reminded me of some of the chicks in the Manson gang. Let's just say we didn't get along at all from the first minute and leave it at that. Her mother was the president of some huge school in VT. Forget which one.
AOW
I was refering to MZ who announced two days ago before any of the Ismael stuff was announced there has to be an Islamic connection.
I want to point out that in this case there is a human connection.
How many of us have been rejected by lover, dennied a promotion or got bad service at a resturant. In life there are times all of us get the short end of the stick.
The point is most of us have the social skills to seek rational solutions. Maybe all of us are the problem. We know the names of the Columbine killers and every detail about their lives. Maybe the media cycle and noteriety drives this and attrocities like Beslan.
We have to report the news but maybe the media glare causes some people to do obscene things for attention.
We need to remember the human side of the picture. Wronged lovers crying out for attention is as old as man itself.
Mr B
This has to be a joke. Did you read the first part of War and Peace?
UI
Europeans forget the size of America and as anti-capitalists any disfunction reinforces their mindset.
I saw that specific post Beak, and the first thought that came to my mind was "Hysteria" or "Culture of Fear".
Rob AOW
I want to talk on a human level. All of us have lived life and been through times where we got a raw deal. It is part of life and perhaps if these moments weren't there we wouldn't enjoy the good moments as well.
What do we do when our world is upside down. Normal people like yourself understand and have a healthy spiritual relationship and a view of the big picture.
People like myself have a tougher time. I am not an aethiest but I do not see things in the spiritual realm as many of you do, it is my loss.
A person like myself becomes hardened and comes to understand that it is merely part of who and what we are. The notion that rejection or getting the short end is a common experience. What is not common is a homicidal need to end it all and achieve a noteriety in death one never acheived in life.
Suicide bombers often have these same needs to be heroes and noticed. Trolls who misbehave like Greg the psycho and John Brown have that desire to be noticed.
The question is have we as people become oblivious to our immediate circle of friends. Do these homicidal lunatics lack the social skills needed to have healthy friendships and perspective.
Does the media attention dive this to absurd frequencies?
The questions are larger than we are.
How odd and sad that everybody blames 1, the media, 2 prozac, 3left wing, 4 right wing 3, education, 4 gun control or the lack of it (I am against it, btw, but that matters little)
except the the perpetrator himself.
"Does the media attention dive this to absurd frequencies?" As if you did not know that this makes live (often) the media. A deranged kid is no news.
Conspiracy theories can be. People strive to find simple, black-and-white explanations, and I can't blame them (with all my hatred when it comes to conspiracies).
Redwine
The role of the media is a valid question. Would we see fewer of these acts if we refused to report the names of the perpetrators?
On a certain level there always will be dejected people who feel wronged, it is human. The media attention adds motivation.
On a certain level a lack of social skills is present. Did the kiler have friends? What were his goals beyond college? Where was his family?
These are all questions skilled forensic psychologists need to look at.
We obviously can't blackout the story. Do we need to print the Killers life story?
This has to be a joke. Did you read the first part of War and Peace?
Well if you cut out all that boring crap about peace it's a short read.
After watching Dr. Strangelove again, I'm convinced that the VT killer was driven to his actions by flouridation in our drinking water. Obviously, his precious bodily fluids had been sapped and impurified.
Beak,
Would we see fewer of these acts if we refused to report the names of the perpetrators?
My upcoming question of the week will be related to that topic.
Today, it was revealed that Cho had been deemed in 2005 to be "an imminent danger to others." Why, oh why, was he not confined? Because he hadn't committed a crime. Furthermore, Cho was over 18 in 2005, so even if his parents had tried to take appropriate measures, they couldn't have. And Cho was able to buy in an expeditious manner (in less time than I spend in line to get a chai latte at Starbuck's) two handguns--in spite of Cho's having a history of some kind of mental problems. Isn't it against the law to sell such an individual a gun?
On the other hand, Lizzie Borden didn't have a gun.
I suspect that Cho would have worked some sort of mayhem by one means or another.
The massacre at VT was horrific. For me the bottom line is this: it isn't possible to stop every nutjob from doing evil deeds. Besides that, lots of crazy people never hurt anybody.
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