Posted by
on Friday, April 20, 2007 1:49:24 PM
This has been such a week from he11 and there really is only one place to start. A deranged jerk killed 32 people for no apparent reason other than to have NBC air his homemade video. In one craven, ratings-driven, decision NBC managed to rub tons of salt in fresh wounds while at the same time glorifying the perpetrator in granting his dieing wish. Lovely. And that's to say nothing about the encouragement they offered potential copycats.
The only possible upside to this horrendously callous editorial decision is the backlash dealt a serious blow to a network in particular, and medium in general. If actions like these don’t hasten the gushing exodus of eyeballs to better delivered, more reliable, and trusted sources I am not sure what will. So, in the words of the Carl Spackler, we have that going for us.
And of course the massacres resurrected two very predictable reactions described by Neal Boortz at Nealz Newz. Boortz is perhaps the best, if not only, libertarian personality working today. His site is always worth a look. The two predictable reactions; first, the Pavlovian gun control dogs were frothing at the mouth while the bodies were still warm. Second, the blamethrowers were out in full force. This is that group whose frustration at their own inability to understand the incomprehensible speculate, in hindsight, at how this might have been avoided and call for someone’s head. As if…
As to the gun control dogs; had VA Tech was not been a gun free zone, i.e. subjected to strict gun control laws, there would be a lot fewer funerals this week. Period. Guns don’t kill people; stupid gun control laws kill people.
As to the blamethrowers; get a life, or at least grant the courtesy of a grieving period to rethink the notion that firing someone in the heat of raw emotionalism is any kind of salve for the survivors. While you are at it, try to grasp the reality that some things are, and will remain, inexplicable. With that in mind recognize this will not be the last horrible tragedy and focus your passions more on preventing future events instead of condemning innocent bystanders at this one.
I am not sure why but my hunch is that a study of this group would reveal it to be disproportionately secular. Maybe because it seems consistent with those who require verifiable proof to believe something. But that, as we say here in the Heartland, is a whole “nuther” matter.