Rev. Erudite Redneck, B.S., B.S., M.A., M.Div.

I can't quite pin-point exactly why, but this time around, I'm just choosing to keep the TV off. Just like I can't quite pin-point exactly why it's necessary to say "this time".
 

I wish they'd qualify it when they say the "worst shooting in American history."

I can think of a couple of massacres of Indians; of course they involved troops, not an individual. And they were deemed legal, not illegal.

So, today was the "worst illegal shooting by an individual in American history" -- but I doubt that, too. I would believe it if it came from the FBI; and the media in this country are too quick to bandy about supposed "facts" like that without checking them.
 

I'm with sharpblessedman. This time I am choosing to shut it off.

I am getting pretty fond of the ideal of all people armed. I know
that is not really the best ideal.
But it is what comes 1st.

I know we will never get the guns out of the hands of those who mean
harm. So why not put them, readily
on the hips of those. Meaning to
protect themselves and their
families.

Many years ago I was driving from
Denver to Oklahoma. We exited I40
in Colorado. Crossed a cattle
guard to a convience store.

We were greeted with a smile and a
howdy. From a man wearing overalls, a cowboy hat, packing
on his hip. What appeared to me
as a 38 revolver.

Now this did not bother me. I
found it comforting. I knew we
were less likely to end up dead
in a cooler.

I am sorry for the rambling. I to
have thought much today. About
The great deer hunter and The
princess. My kidikins.

my prayers to all those who lost
today.
Jeannie Diane
 

Yeesh. I mean to say I would *not* believe it if it came from the FBI, but that's a little harsh.

I would not believe it if it came directly from Albert Gonzales or the White House -- that's what I was thinking.

But this shooting isn't about politics -- oh wait, on the Right, EVERYTHING these days is about politics. I give 'em until 9 p.m. tonight Oklahoma time.
 

BTW, Dr. ER and I have an old B&W movie on, not the "news."
 

One thing I wouldn't want to see is a whole bunch of college students packing hardware. Among other things, it would most certainly lead to grade inflation.
 

I must've breathed in too many race car fumes yesterday.

The right *will* call politics on this, insisting that somehow the shooting is a reflection of the "crisis in higher education" and the decline of morals in general.

The Left will seize upon it as a reason for more gun control.

And fearmongers on both extremes will makey hay, and use it as justification to attack liberty in the name of order one more time.

Sometimes a madman is just a madman.
 

Oh you just know someone's going to raise the immigrant issue now that the word is the shooter was a Chinese national.
 

Sometimes a madman is just a madman.

And that says it all. Behind the madness is the why, but the bottom line is madness. A sane person does not randomly shoot strangers.
 

This may sound like my military or perhaps cowboy thinking coming through, but did any of his victims resist or fight back? Surely 60 plus people didn't go like sheep to the slaughter. I heard about some defensive door holding but nothing else so far.
 

A madman is just a madman. With a gun, he's a madman who can kill a lot of people.
 

Re, "SYDNEY, Australia (April 17) - Australia's prime minister on Tuesday said the Virginia Tech shootings showed that America's "gun culture" was a negative force in society, praising his country's efforts to enact tough gun laws after a similar massacre 11 years ago."

Somebody tell John Howard 1., to shut the hell up, and 2., it's nobody's business but ours.

"We might do a little fightin' amongst ourselves but you outside people best leave us alone" and all that.
 

It's always politics. This was done by the CIA as a smoke screen to keep the media off Gonzales before congress. Just like O.J. was framed to cover Whitewater for Clinton. But this time it didn't work, Congress is not gonna fall for that anymore.
 

It certainly has made the Imus mess fizzle, though. Oprah had a two-part discussion Monday and Tuesday. I don't know that it's drawing a big audience after the shootings.
 

Nothing knocks made-up "news" off the air like real tragedy.
 

Why is this a conservative vs liberal story now?
Bill O'Reilly on FOX is basically saying if any one of those 32 people killed in Virginia had had a gun then they would have been able to protect themselves. Meanining that the Virginia Tech policy of no guns on campus was at fault. It was only minutes Bill says before the far left made this a gun law story. Next he turns it into an "elites" vs "regular guys" story.
Oh well, Bill does run true to form. It is good to have consistancy on something these days.
As one of our fabulously intelligent Oklahoma candidates said after a school shooting in Oklahoma: ""People might think it's kind of weird, crazy," says Bill Crozier, a teacher, and Republican candidate for the elected office of state schools superintendent in Oklahoma. But, he tells the Associated Press, he thinks schools should give children thick textbooks that they can keep under their desks to use as shields in the event of school shootings."
"It is a practical thing, it's something you can do. It might be a way to deflect those bullets until police go there," Crozier says.

If only, I guess, these Virginia students had taken their thickest texbooks school. Dear God have mercy on us all!
 

Blood Sacrifice.
Written on the killer's arm in red ink: "Ismael Ax".
"God will hear of my rejection!"
Strangely the media cannot seem to translate it.