Bad Is Bad

2007-04-18 - 12:37 p.m.

Didn't sleep well last night. I've got tomorrow off, so rest will be part of the equation.

In the Not The Way I Wanted It To Be Dept.:

Last night, the hinge cracked on my cell phone - in EXACTLY the same place. I don't quite know how I managed to do that. The upside is that it happened on the very day that I am now eligible to upgrade my phone. So tomorrow I go to Verizon as part of my errand cycle and see what can be obtained.

The Angels lost to the A's after a very painful three-game series against Boston. And the Ducks lost their game to the Minnesota Wild, so now the Ducks lead the series 3-1.

The only upside is that I got a widescreen version DVD of this movie on eBay for less than $10, including shipping. The full-screen version is easily obtainable; I would have to order the widescreen and pay about $30-40 for it. I fired off payment through PayPal...and got an e-mail from the guy saying he doesn't take PayPal.

So tomorrow, I go to the PO to send an MO to him-o.

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In the Here We Go Again Dept.:

The news is full of the VA Tech shootings. The shooter, Cho Sung-Hui, stalked a couple female students in 2005, but the women didn't think there was any real danger. Cho wrote some "disturbing" essays for his English classes. He was mentally disturbed, and on medication.

And of course there's the parade of "experts" with "solutions".

Could anything have been done before? Who knows? If Cho wasn't taking his meds, could he be "forced" to? Should there be a database to report possible "disturbed" people to the government? If you rounded up everyone who behaved "oddly", you'd need a pretty damned big room.

And in reference to the "disturbing", "violence-drenched" essays...there are many students who do this who have no intention of carrying them out. Writing can be a catharsis. I know someone who keeps a diary for their grievances. This person writes in an angry tone, saying things that wouldn't be said to the object of the anger. It's a release. I personally wrote something for a creative writing class that described me in a violent world, killing and killing, humans and monsters. I couched it as a vivid dream. But I was very angry when I got the assignment, so I wrote in an angry tone. People who know me would have been shocked at this paper. A couple years after it was graded (B-), I re-read it...and shredded it. It had served its purpose. Besides, if you arrested someone for writing disturbing things, Stephen King is toast.

Then, of course, there's the gun control issue. On MSNBC, former FBI profilier Clint Van Zandt said this in reference to the "gun-free zone" law at the VA campus: "We hope they obey it, because that's what good citizens do." But even if the gun control laws were tightened, bad guys are going to get the guns anyway. No one has come up with a gun control plan that will keep the guns out of the hands of the criminals. Only the law-abiding citizens will obey. The crooks will get the guns no matter what laws are in place...because they're criminals.

The man who sold the gun to Cho called him "a nice, clean-cut college kid. We won't sell a gun if we have any idea at all that a purchase is suspicious". What, exactly, DOES a criminal look like? How can you tell that someone is going to use a gun against helpless people? More government checks? If a person has no criminal record and no history of violence, they can they still go on a rampage, can't they?

There are no easy answers. Not even banning guns entirely would work. People will find other ways to kill each other, if they really want to do it.

Oh, and it seems that Cho also played a first-person shooter game. Look for THAT argument to be trotted out.

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Today it's my plan to grab lunch BEFORE work.

Before I go, I have an assignment for you all. If you have a loved one far away, call and tell then you love them. You may never know when you'll get the chance again...if at all.

Be seeing you.

Brin - 2007-04-18 15:41:56 -
As my friend Bob pointed out, isn't it interesting how the first thing Dubya said about the shootings is that it's very important that the second amendment doesn't get compromised as a result of the Va Tech incident, and yet, by the use of the PatriotUSA act, the fourth amendment has all but disappeared. Either he's going to stick to his oath, or he's not.

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