The Journal of Left of Center Thinking :: April 15, 2007 - April 21, 2007

Dad hopes Lesbian book leads to $$

Dad says his 2 boys (16 and 14) while looking for information on military academies, came across ‘The Whole Lesbian Sex Book’. He’s calling it pornography and wants 10K per son, or 5K per wide eye.

Dad says, after the find, there were many sleepless nights in the house. I’m sure.

Why do I get feeling that the kids did not, exactly, stumble upon the book? I seem to recall from my youth, others, not myself, whiling away the time in the library, trying to find the ones with pictures. Of course, I’m a sexual deviant, while I’m sure these kids have never had an impure thought in their hormone-free lives.

Oh, HQ76.S533, where would I be today if not for you?

I Don’t know

Whether to laugh or cry about this

‘God hates the world’ sung to a recognizable ‘We are the World’.

Best line? ‘You’ll eat your kids, yeah you’ll eat them’.

Wow

When Blades of Glory first appeared, I wondered how much of it would be offensive.

With Chuck and Larry, I wonder if any of it won’t be offensive.

The whole ‘pretending to be gay’ thing has been done before. This time we have Kevin James and Adam Sandler as two firefighters from New York who have to enter a Domestic Partnership in order to assure their pensions go to their kids. (The trailer doesn’t explain why this is and I can’t, for the life of me imagine what legal protections would be in place that is stronger under a DP law – but it’s probably not important).

You can get a tone of the movie when you see the ‘ceremony’, featuring a freakishly gay rabbi marrying them. He says you may now kiss the husband and, when Kevin James leans in, Adam Sandler slaps him.

After someone suggests their DP is not real, they get a lawyer who is – of course – amazingly attractive and who Sandler falls for. When she tells them the investigation should be easy, because they’re a real Domestic Partnership, Kevin James says “Oh yea, I’m a big fruit”.

On the other hand, I'm oddly excited for Evan Almighty.

Bush

Thinks Alberto did just fine yesterday. Just fine.

I bet Bush ‘couldn’t recall’ a better hearing. Get it? ‘Couldn’t recall’. Because Gonzales answered almost all of the questions that way?

Yea, well what do you want on Friday afternoon?

Grandstanding

What Imus said about the Rutgers team was horrible.

Still, I think calling them ‘brave’ is a bit of a stretch.

Aren’t they Nice?

Bible classes in Texas won’t be mandatory.

I guess

The way to prevent day care shooting, is to arm the children.

Let me ask all the ‘why didn’t someone rush the guy while he was reloading’ folks. How long does it take to swap out a gun cartridge? 10 seconds? 5?

Is that the ‘period’ that these people were supposed to rush him in?

Ted Nugent

Has a thoughtful piece on the role of Guns in Society.

Just kidding. It’s a manic rant denouncing any sort of gun control, and suggesting the world would be better if we armed the Amish. In it’s spittle drenched lines, Ted claims, among other things, that God wants us to be armed.

Thank you, CNN for bringing us the ravings at this point in time. We needed a break from all the craziness in the world.

It’s Official

The Pope has closed Limbo.

But, ummm, everything else the church teaches is spot on, no worries. In fact, you should probably not even pay attention to this at all.

Unless you die without being baptized – then, you’re no longer kept from God’s love for eternity. So, you have that going for you.

Understanding a Killer

We’re starting to get a look at the life of the VT killer.

And, I have to admit feeling… something for Mr. Cho. I know some people will criticize me for this, but that’s okay. And let me be clear, whatever I feel about the killer, as conflicted as it is, it doesn’t take away the sadness I feel for those innocents that Mr. Cho selfishly chose to kill. Nothing justifies those actions. Nothing.

Let me also that nothing which follows is meant as an excuse for him. Lots of people have suffered worse and not resorted to taking the lives of innocent people.

Still, it foolish to ignore some of the events that led up to the killing – if for not other reason than it might help us reduce the number of future such killings.

I think, from what we know so far, that part of the tragedy in all of this was that we had a young man who was clearly in trouble. Lots of people knew this. Mr. Cho was sending up a lot of flags. Still, it never seemed that he got the help he needed. He was shuffled from place to place, with Band-Aids slapped on what was clearly a much larger injury.

It’s also not surprising that Mr. Cho, apparently, suffered bullying and mocking because he was shy and different. While not universal, bullying seems to be a common factor in school shootings perpetrated by students. Again, this is not meant to be an excuse of anybody’s ultimate actions. I view the bullying the same way I view the role of television and video games on violence in our society. They are not the cause. They become a catalyst for those already pre-disposed to violence.

I do think, though, we need to do ourselves justice in stopping and asking ‘What could have happened if someone had intervened’. Maybe nothing. Maybe things would have ended exactly the same, or maybe Cho would have just taken longer and have been involved in an office shooting, rather than a school shooting.

I wonder.

In which an Expert agrees with me

Danish epidemiologist Morten Frisch on Cameron Study.

What I Said.

Glenn Reynolds

More guns on campus would have lessened the VT tragedy.

Scary

Does anyone think the killer did what he did, because he was Korean?

Apparently.

And, other idiots abound too:

The tragedy is due to science and evolution. Or Muslim terrorists.

Carhart

My, admittedly quick, read of the Supreme Court’s decision in Gonzales v. Carhart is that the decision is very narrow in scope as to what it bans and, perhaps more importantly, the court reaffirmed previous decisions, such as Casey.

More

More compassion from the folks at National Review’s The Corner.

Words fail.

Update: I know I'm not nearly as brave as the guys of The Corner, but it seems to me that holding a table across a door while a gunman is shooting at it is a pretty brave thing. In my book, anyways.

A better view

GayPatriot has a thoughtful piece about the VT tragedy. And, I agree.

There is going to be plenty of time to dissect the where and when of this tragedy. What steps could have been taken to prevent it, or respond more quickly to it. And, there is value in that discussion. But, its best done later.

It’s easy, now, to look back and say ‘This’ or ‘That’ should have been done. But, I can’t imagine what it was like for the police, administration, or students as they responded to this. I can tell you, having worked in Higher Ed Administration for many years, that I have no doubt that everybody did the best that could do under the circumstances.

The sad fact is that, in today’s world, if an individual gets to a point where they want to kill a lot of people, and they have no sense of self preservation, it’s hard to stop them.

Disgusting

I know people on both sides of this debate are going to grasp it as proof that their particular side is right.

I’m amazed, though, how people can think that the way to prevent these tragedies, is to let college students arm themselves on campus.

I can think of nothing more irresponsible.

And Kudos to John Derbyshire who, very bravely, criticizes the victims of this tragedy while laying out his ‘plan’ if he should ever be shot at. This is beyond disgusting.

dolphin said (at April 18, 2007 08:26 AM):

VA Tech

I was away from TV and the Web most of yesterday. I don’t know what to say about it, but felt I needed to at least acknowledge the occurrence.

Sadly, these tragedies always bring out the nut balls.

And the opportunists.