Blacksburg, VA
Let's take a day for a national time out.
posted by Vigilante at 4/17/2007 06:59:00 AM
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
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20 Moderated Comments:
Iraq Has Two Virginia Techs Every Day.
Buying guns and ammo is especially easy under Virginia's lenient laws
.
Guys, am connecting any dots, here?
1. The 2nd Amendment in our Constitution reads
A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
2. American Occupation forces in Iraq are trying to stomp Muqtada al-Sadr because he runs an un-regulated militia.
3. The guy who lives around the corner from me has half a dozen guns in his house is a part of no militia.
Are you saying that, under the NRA's interpretation of the 2nd Amendment, Muqtada al-Sadr - running a poorly-regulated militia - would have a right to bear arms? What are we fighting for?
There is nothing intrinsic, of course, to Blacksburg that makes it a magnet for violent rampages. The sad thing is, the vulnerability is everywhere. I recommend reading a book called Violence by James Gilligan to better understand the reasons we live in a society awash in testosterone-fueled mayhem. It's got to stop.
Turn on the TV. Watch the heroes solve problems, overcome insurmountable odds, and defrat evil through the use of violence. Is it any wonder that all too frequentla a nut case follows suit?
All I can say is "thank God the killer was not from the middle east!"
What god would that be?
On the other hand, Bush may now consider invading South Korea.
A segment of the review from Mr. Gilligan's book rhea mentioned.
The author believes that overt physical violence is not the only way to kill a child's soul. Words alone are capable of making a child feel and believe that he was worthless and rejected. Violent criminals seem unfeeling because they actually are. Many go to their execution with complete indifference, sometimes with relief. They cannot sympathize with others but neither can they sympathize with themselves.
Not trying to bring up a dead horse here but a lot of the hip hop music has trash talk about busting caps into people and teaching some less than honorable woman (not going to walk into Imus's trap)a lesson with the back of a hand. Can't help but wonder if if those words from that type of music, while it may not directly kill the soul, deadens basic empathy a person might have with society.
#1 Violence begets violence (whether its physical or emotional).
#2 Guns are easy to get and use and they kill quickly and from a distance.
Until we make major strides in stopping #1 or #2, mass killings will happen frequently (hey, we might not have to do both!!).
I don't get it. This is beginning to look like 911 deja vu.
Bush was palsy and footsie with the Saudi's and leads the national mourning on the embers of the Twin Towers. Now Bush is palsy and footsie with the NRA and is leading the national mourning for Virginia Tech. I am not remarking on the height of irony; it's the height of cynicism.
Adynation:
Although they are not generally conversant with the term, my fellow countrymen comfortably cloak themselves in a largely unexamined but clinically descriptive conventional thinking known as "American Exceptionalism". I gather from your comment here, as well as on your own site, that you are relatively unimpressed.
Beach, you are so right about hiphop music and what in America is currently considered humor. There is nothing quite as funny as laughing at someone else's expense.
Boris, when the Shrub spoke in Virgina, he again revealed himself to be a one-trick-pony, and his trick was FEAR.
The very last thing anyone needs at a memorial service is a blow-by-blow description of the shooter's attack and the cowering of the innocent.
The subtext was, perhaps, that if every student was packing a gun, no one need be fearful.
Littlebill in my haste to get a comment out I should have added that hyper-violent movies and video games that portray murder in a glamorous fashion also might add to the problem of deadening the soul. Didn't mean just to pick on hip hop.
Beach, speaking of glamorizing murder, I have to say some thing about NBC's release of tapes of Virginia Tech's killer. I don't know his name - don't want to know it. But NBC and it's copy cats gave this killer exactly what he was after: record-setting notoriety. Publishing his face, voice and brandishing, in the face of survivors before his victims are even buried. This is inciting and arousing for potential school yard killers of the future.
Gone is the opprobrium of Al Jazeera for publicizing claims of jihadist terrorists. Let the record show that much.
Skip is having a good week. Is it because the rest of us are having a bad one?
spksfwaBeach Bum, I agree with you.
"...if those words from that type of music, while it may not directly kill the soul, deadens basic empathy a person might have with society."
I'm inclined to think that a young person, a child who listens to that kind of crap inevitably gets numbed by it and ultimately gets sucked into the 'violent' overtones of the song and its singer.
Beach Bum,
OOOoooops. Apologies for the prefix to your name... must have typed the word verification code before your name without noticing it.
Glad you clarified that. I was thinking you were cussing the Lexington Parrothead out. Word verification is a real hazard.
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