People say daytime TV is an intellectual wasteland, a slough of ignorance which perfectly illustrates the old adage that ‘empty barrels make the most noise.’ I must admit I have feared the loss of precious IQ points from watching “The View,” something that I can’t guarantee hasn’t happened, but I did learn something yesterday on daytime TV, something that could save lives, on the “Oprah” show. It involves keeping guns out of the hands of mental defectives, something that gun grabbing Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and the NRA agree on.

No less an authority than He Who Walks on Water himself thinks that’s a good idea.

After the Virginia Tech shootings, Barack Hussein Obama said “If we know that he got mental health services, then there should be some way of preventing somebody like that from buying any kind of weapon.” I think that by “he” Barack the Hack was referring to the Virginia Tech murderer, Mr. Cho, and as usual, when he’s spewing his trademark rhetorical vomit, he hasn’t bothered to think through the implications of what he’s saying. This is a guy who opposes violating the so-called privacy rights of foreign terrorists by listening to their phone calls or allowing the FBI to discover that they’re checking out the Anarchist’s Cookbook from the local library. He’s so adamant about preserving the “right of privacy” that guarantees “a woman’s right to choose” that while he was in the Illinois Senate, he voted “present” on a law that mandated medical treatment for an infant lucky enough to survive a botched abortion. Now he wants the government to put everyone who got treatment for mental illness on some sort of watch list? This is the sort of idea that will send his buds at the ACLU to their computers to send out hysterical press releases promising a slide down a slippery slope ending with involuntary lobotomies for anyone who does anything the least disturbing like or skulking around the neighborhood without saying hello to the neighbors, or watching “Dancing with the Stars.”

The other problem with Dazzling Deception’s test is that there’s a huge and potentially very dangerous loophole here. He wants to stop the nutcases who got treatment from getting guns. What about the ones who don’t but who obviously desperately need it? Consider the following profile: a hopelessly narcissistic, lying charmer with delusions of grandeur. He leads a double life, one in which he was sometimes a happily married family man with a beautiful wife and a two-year old daughter and another in which he engaged in anonymous gay sex at rest stops. This secretive sociopath creep is eventually exposed when he is sued for sexual harassment and is forced to come clean, or as closed to clean as possible for a sleaze ball like this character. He holds a nauseating press conference to confess and reinvent himself as a victim/”gay American,” with his stunned wife standing beside him, a sickly smile pasted on her face.

She claims that she was shocked find out that what she thought was a storybook life was a lie, even though in retrospect there were more red flags than May Day in Havana. She never went to his parent’s home, even though they lived only 5 miles away, and he forbade her having any contact with his daughter from his first marriage. By now, you probably recognize that I’m talking about Jim McGreevey, the former governor of New Jersey. Congresswoman McCarthy, you really need to make sure that this guy doesn’t get his hands on a gun, don’t you think? No, he’s not a mental patient—yet. Trust me, if his loved ones have the sense that God gave geese, they’ll see that he gets some help STAT.
Speaking of McGreevey, is it my imagination, or do more of these sociopath goofballs have a “D” after their names? Whether it’s Rest Stop Jimmy, Gavin Newsome, Mel “did I win the lottery? Reynolds, or the man who pardoned Mel Reynolds, the Sociopath-in-Chief, Bill Clinton, so many times we learn that democrat “rising stars” are not what they seem. MMM …a rising star who is not what he seems …who does that sound like?

[Discuss this post over at Teri O'Brien's...]

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One of the first news stories I heard after a nut case started shooting up Virginia Tech announced that counselors would be standing by at a San Francisco Bay Area college, to help those who were so traumatized by the event they needed psychiatric help to cope with it all.

What kind of mental and emotional weaklings do we think we are raising?

I suppose this is the inevitable outcome of accepted child-rearing practices of the last 20 years. We should concentrate on building little Jimmy’s “self-esteem” rather than teaching Jimmy to do something he might rightly be proud of. We should discourage anything that might reveal children as winners or losers. We should discourage competition in all its forms, even refrain from keeping score at our kids’ ball games. Any child who shows the slightest energy or enthusiasm is immediately labeled with ADD or ADHD and drugged.

No wonder our kids grow up needing psychiatrists. Any kid of even minimal intelligence must see through this nonsense. Unearned self-esteem is less than nothing. A kid who has never lost has also never won. 100% of kids are not in the top 50% of anything, but, if given the chance to compete, nearly every child can find the areas in which he or she does excel. Denied that chance, many children may never truly succeed in anything.

I suppose every generation worries about how the next generation will do when its time comes to take over. But we are conducting a grand social experiment here, and one that it seems to me is guaranteed to fail. I hope our children can overcome their upbringing because that upbringing certainly doesn’t prepare them for the real world, a point we tacitly acknowledge when we call in the counselors whenever the harshness of the real world shows itself.

[Discuss this post over at the Bookworm Room...]

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I have too much on my plate today and too little time, but I just had to take a few minutes to follow-up on a theme that started with the British Marines and ended, so sadly, at VTech: passivity.

Two of the best writers out there have written about the fact that our Western culture has made a virtue out of passivity in the face of violence. Mark Steyn views the problem as an infantilization of society that has us completely conditioned to wait for others to rescue us. After explaining his viewpoint, Steyn looks at a Canadian massacre of a few years back (and doesn’t Canada have gun control?) with some of the most frightening facts I’ve ever heard — not because of what the killer did, but because of what the male bystanders did (or, rather, didn’t do):

The cost of a “protected” society of eternal “children” is too high. Every December 6th, my own unmanned Dominion lowers its flags to half-mast and tries to saddle Canadian manhood in general with the blame for the “Montreal massacre,” the 14 female students of the Ecole Polytechnique murdered by Marc Lepine (born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, though you’d never know that from the press coverage). As I wrote up north a few years ago:

Yet the defining image of contemporary Canadian maleness is not M Lepine/Gharbi but the professors and the men in that classroom, who, ordered to leave by the lone gunman, meekly did so, and abandoned their female classmates to their fate — an act of abdication that would have been unthinkable in almost any other culture throughout human history. The “men” stood outside in the corridor and, even as they heard the first shots, they did nothing. And, when it was over and Gharbi walked out of the room and past them, they still did nothing. Whatever its other defects, Canadian manhood does not suffer from an excess of testosterone.

Apropos the men in Canada, I read somewhere on the blogosphere, and I can’t remember where, that when the Titantic sank, the men truly abided by the age-old adage of women and children first:

First of all, if you were a man, you were outta luck. The overall survival rate for men was 20%. For women, it was 74%, and for children, 52%. Yes, it was indeed “women and children first.”

The other post I read today on the same was at Big Lizards, where Dafydd wrote about the peculiar virtue our Western culture has made of not fighting back:

I see the circumstances of the Virginia Tech shooting and of the British hostages as betraying the same very poignant — and dangerous — perspective: helplessness as a virtue.

But the two circumstances also differ in a way that at first appears vast, but upon reflection seems not so great after all. When a soldier, by inaction, renders himself helpless, we call it cowardice; but civilians do not seem to be under the same duty as a member of the military, one who has voluntarily assumed responsibility for protecting and preserving his society.

Surely, however, adult civilians are not completely bereft of any such responsibility; in fact, assuming personal responsibility for the lives and freedoms of others is, by my reckoning, exactly what separates the child from the adult. When a boy or a girl freely accepts that he has a certain duty towards his fellows, even when nobody will ever know whether he fulfilled it or not, that is when boy becomes man and girl becomes woman.

The epiphany is usually a series of small revelations that mount up over time, but it can also strike like the fangs of a diamondback in the dark night of the soul. Either way, dawn can begin at any age past puberty and can take a number of years, or a few short days… or else a lifetime can pass without the change completing.

The epiphany is this: Each one of us is a foot soldier for civilization; when evil threatens, we must do our utmost to thwart it.

Your utmost may be as simple as snitching on your best friend when you discover he has systematically looted the company you both work for… or as profound as Virginia Tech Engineering Professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, who gave his last full measure blocking the doorway to his classroom, allowing his students time to escape out the window.

Steyn and Dafydd are both absolutely right about the way in which Western culture has emasculated itself. It’s confused the cultural virtue of avoiding bullying (a good thing), with the cultural death knell of becoming helpless.

As for me, when I heard about the Marines being led onto waiting Iranian ships, and when I heard about the VTech students lined up to be shot, all I could think of was the Jews passively getting round up by the Nazis. When Israel says “never again,” she means that her citizens will never again allow themselves to be taken without a fight. What the country realized collectively is that, if you’re going to die anyway, take the others down with you — and you may discover that your death toll isn’t as great as you thought. Professor Librescu, having survived the Holocaust, understood this and willingly sacrificed himself that others could live. The passengers on United 93 understood this and, through their sacrifice, may have saved the Capitol. Every member of the armed forces who fights a battle or goes on a rescue mission understands this.

And lest you think that this line of reasoning holds true only in extreme situations of battle or terrorism, it also applies in a microcosmic way to every assault or rape in this country — or so I was told during a long-ago self-defense class. The teacher said that studies about attempted rapes show that women who fight back are more likely to get hurt but (and here’s the kicker) less likely to get killed.

[Discuss this post over at the Bookworm Room...]

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Note: Jump directly to video here.

I’ve heard just about heard everything now. TVNewser is reporting that NBC is taking a proactive position to blunt the outrage over their decision to promote the Cho video and “media manifesto” for ratings. Get this:

NBC has instituted a policy about the usage of the gunman video on NBC News. “We will limit the use of the video to 10 percent of our airtime — translating to no more than 6 minutes per hour on MSNBC,” a spokesperson says…

What’s the problem with this? For one this means that NBC will actually need to promote the video and “manifesto” more often on more shows since they are going to release them in smaller six minute chunks. This is no different than what they were doing in the first place.

I decided to go back and check out last night’s blockbuster airing of the video on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. The broadcast was 30 minutes long and had 9 separate plugs for the video manifesto; spreading it out from the beginning of the show, through commercial breaks and right up to the last minute of the show. In total NBC used up 2 minutes and 30 seconds to cover the intros and teasers alone!

I put them together to see how shamelessly they morphed the story about Cho into a story about Cho sending the video and manifesto to NBC. No wonder parents, relatives and friends are upset.

I covered this story earlier last night in real time while they aired the video and I noted that people were all over the spectrum. My personal feelings were immediately focused on the way NBC was promoting it. The piecemeal release and repetitive plugs was nothing short of a shamless plug of the the video for ratings. I feel the same today.

The latest decision by NBC is actually worse than the original act. It seems NBC has found a way to cleverly keep the story of the media manifesto going with their new plan. Bad move.

For it’s part Fox News has announced that they will not use the video anymore. At least Fox who is very much derided by the left has the common sense to look back on this and say that perhaps this wasn’t the best way to go. Will others do the same?

Others: Matthew Sheffield is covering all the updates on Newsbusters.

See Also:
Michelle Malkin, Sensible Mom, Right Wing News, Betsy’s Page, Howard Kurtz, Huffington Post - Eat The Press

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A reader at Right Truth sent me an email this afternoon about Ismail ax. He asked me to get the story right so as not to deceive anyone. He linked to IslamiCity.com and the article ‘Prophet Ibrahim The father of the Prophets.’ Here’s a portion of the article and the reader’s comments.

He [Ibrahim] left his father after he lost hope to convert him to the right path, and directed his efforts towards the people of the town, but they rejected his call and threatened him. By Allah, he said, I shall plot a plan to destroy their idols. He knew that a big celebration was coming soon, where everybody would leave town for a big feast on the riverbank. After making sure that nobody was left in town, Ibrahim went towards the temple armed with an ax. Statues of all shapes and sizes were sitting there adorned with decorations. Plates of food were offered to them, but the food was untouched. “Well, why don’t you eat? The food is getting cold.” He said to the statues, joking; then with his ax he destroyed all the statues except one, the biggest of them. He hung the ax around its neck and left.

The story goes on to state that his people bound him and threw him in the fire, but allah delivered him from the fire free of his bonds.

The legend continues with a debate between him and King Nimrod of Babylon, and then goes into the story of his relations with Hajar(Hagar) and their son Ismail(Ishmael). It also states that Ismail was the son that Ibrahim took to the mountain at allah’s request to be a sacrafice, but IN FACT we know that it was the LORD who told Abraham to take Isaac to the land of Moriah to be a burnt sacrafice.

The meaning behind Ismail’s ax is that it was used to destroy the idols that were a sign of debauchery, corruption and sin. As a result we have yet another instance of pure evil brought about by young man with demonic evil Islamic extremest beliefs.

We now know that the package Seung-hui Cho sent to NBC had the name Ismail ax [“A. Ishmael”] in the return address. The package contained 27 Quicktime videos filled with hate against the rich and strange comments pertaining to Christianity, in addition to writings and still shots. Cho called Columbine killers “martyrs” in a written document.

Charles Krauthammer on Fox News with Britt Hume, compared the videos to Islamic suicide bomber videos. Krauthammer also discussed the Ismail ax name, which was printed in red on Cho’s arm, and believes there is an Islamic element to Cho’s actions. He also believes the taking on a new name, Ismail ax, is something Islamic converts do.

Captain’s Quarters says: “Cho also apparently hated Christianity, and that makes the Ismail Ax reference more likely to be the James Fennimore Cooper theory that Hot Air …”

… reader Ray F. theorized a few days ago that “Ismail/Ishmael Ax” was a reference to James Fenimore Cooper’s story “The Prairie,” the lead character of which was “Ishmael Bush” — spelled the same way Cho spells it here. So let’s not rule that theory out just yet.

Also from Hot Air

Poet Nikki Giovanni, who taught Cho in one of her classes, tells the LA Times that she actually had guards stationed nearby at one point to intervene in case Psy-Cho (as See-Dub dubs him) went off. And here’s what she told CNN:

[snip] [In the fall of 2005,] Giovanni went to the department’s then-chairwoman, Lucinda Roy, and told her she wanted Cho out of her class, and Roy obliged.

“I was willing to resign before I was going to continue with him,” Giovanni said. “There was something mean about this boy.”

Atlas Shrugs is still wondering why the MSM is so silent on Ismail ax. She quotes Jerry Bowyer of TCS Daily, Ismail Ax: The Shooter Was Another ‘Son of Sacrifice’:

The mainstream press doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what this might mean. To quote Indiana Jones, “Didn’t any of you guys go to Sunday School?”

I’ll let you all decide for yourselves.

[Discuss This Article With Debbie Hamilton]

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Update: I put together a montage of NBC’s plugs and teasers for the video <<-- here. They had over 9 spots promoting the video and manifesto in their first 30 minute newscast. This is my problem with the network. NBC definitely used the materials as a marketing ploy.

Original Story
================

Webloggin welcomes readers from NPR’s Blog of the Nation

NBC received a package today that included a video and a “manifesto” from Virginia Tech Killer Seung Hui Cho.

Brian Williams will pimp the video for the next 15 minutes of its 30 minute broadcast; periodically jumping between this event, abortion-rights activists upset over today’s SCOTUS decision and of course the terrible news about the earlier killings in Iraq (complete with the anti-American blurb blaming America).

I’m a bit torn here. Everybody seeks to understand what causes a person like Cho to commit mass murder and perhaps this video and document will help. More likely though it will simply serve to give an audience to a sick killer. He railed against Christians and rich people and the release of the video seems like Cho won his quest to tell the world about his hate.

He was a mentally ill loner who managed to get his hands on a gun despite an “order of detention” that sent him to a mental health facility in response to a stalking complaint by a female student on campus.

If anyone doubts that NBC is using this to up their ratings all you need to understand is that they started the news with it, pimped it through two different commercial breaks, and will finish out the end of the broadcast with what will likely be a small sampling. “Be sure to tune into NBC over the next couple of days for periodic updates” should be the banner.

Update: As expected, NBC will have more at it’s 6:00 broadcast and continue with more tomorrow morning.

Update II: Don’t get me wrong here; I think the video and manifesto are newsworthy. I just think there are perhaps better ways to handle their release. I am opposed to the piecemeal release that NBC is already subjecting us to. It seems to me that NBC will be making this the story as opposed to the tragic and needless death of the innocent victims of Cho.

I truly want to understand what may have triggered the planned methodical killing but I don’t want to do anything that would validate his actions. He was clearly mentally ill and the signs were there for many to see.

In my mind this guy shouldn’t have been able to stay on campus after the stalking events. Yes I know there weren’t any charges but the combo of multiple complaints, a reported fire that he set in his dorm room and the detention order that sent him to a mental hospital should have been enough to get him kicked off campus.

I’m not even sure where the law stands on allowing a mentally ill individual to legally buy handguns. Especially when a person has an order of detention in response to stalking. Can they be cured? Should they be trusted? I suppose it all depends on guilt and in this case no charges were filed.

Tough questions; no good answers.

Update III: Captain Ed is on track with my sentiments.

I agree with Stephen and Ed D that the manner in which NBC incorporated the photos into a graphics image for the story is in poor taste. I believe Stephen makes the point that the shot almost looks like a movie poster, and its use slides over the line from reporting to exploitation. I’d also criticize the manner in which NBC apparently decided to split its publication between the Nightly News program tonight and Today tomorrow. It looks like an obvious ploy for ratings, and it’s rather unseemly, given the deadly circumstances of the story.

However, NBC was correct to report the contents of the package. In most circumstances, society is served better by the free dissemination of information, unless its release would put directly put lives in danger — like, say, exposing national-security programs that had stopped terrorists from killing Americans. In this case, the crime has already been committed and the perpetrator is dead. Holding back the material would boost all sorts of rumors about Cho’s involvement in any number of conspiracies, including radical Islam, that are already the subject of much speculation.

NBC made the right decision to go public, and to work with law enforcement to determine which material to release at the time, as they apparently did. They unfortunately overshadowed that correct decision with the very incorrect decision on marketing the materials.

See Also: Ed Driscoll.com, MSNBC.Com: Whoring For Hits

Update IV: It appears that a massive debate is underway about the appropriateness of the NBC release of the video and manifesto. As expected people are all over the map on this issue.

I seem to remember the same sort of discussion surrounding the publication of Ted Kaczynski’s unabomber manifesto; an act that eventually led to Kaczynski’s arrest after his brother recognized the style of writing and contacted the FBI. It is interesting to note that the personal items seized at Kaczynski’s home, including his writings, will soon be up for sale. However the judge that cleared the items for auction specifically required that certain things be omitted or obliterated; specifically references to bomb making instructions and personal information about the unabomber’s victims. Kaczynski is challenging the judges ruling as a first amendment issue to keep his written works in whole.

I surmise that people like Kaczynski do get a personal pleasure from the unabridged delivery of their message; and as such it is sort of a glorification - even if the writings and videos are released posthumously.

Xeni Jardin at boing boing points out two opposing views on the subject.

NBC is receiving criticism from some corners for airing Cho’s martyr video. But they’re receiving criticism from others for not releasing more of it, more directly and with less drama, online. Dave Winer says,

NBC has a dozen Quicktime videos of the Virginia Tech killer. They’re sifting through them and deciding what to release and what not to release. This is wrong. It’s 2007, and it’s a decentralized world. We should all get a chance to see what’s on those videos. Given enough time the focus will go on their process, much better to just let it all out now, with no editorial judgement.

Dave points to thoughts on that same subject by Doc Searls:

Cho sent those recordings to a major broadcast network. Not to the police, not to other individuals. (Far as we know.) Clearly he wanted his recordings broadcast — after the deeds were done, and he was dead as well.

We don’t know if he thought about uploading them to YouTube. But, since he planned to fill the rest of his morning with murder, it’s likely that he didn’t want to post his plans on the Live Web — where somebody might see it and get authorities to stop him. So he opted instead for snail mail and a big bang later on the small screen. YouTube would come, inevitably, later.

From what I gather, the police have seen and cleared the recordings for disclosure. So, presumably, there is no reason to protect anybody (for example, individuals Cho may have targeted for murder) other than broadcast viewers. (This is required by law, fwiw.)

So I think Dave is right. If there is nothing to hide here, other than obscenities that cannot be broadcast on TV or radio, there is no reason why NBC should withhold the recordings other than the belief that they own them, and hold them as property. That’s their right; but it does not help the rest of us get clues that might help prevent another tragedy like this one.

And this tragedy isn’t just about Cho and NBC. It’s about the rest of us.

So I agree with Dave. More eyes will make the this bug shallower. It may save lives. Even if we see a zillion mashups of the original video, which we’ll see eventually anyway.

Like I said earlier, it is a tough call. My only real problem is with the piecemeal releases that have been eeking out. If the others are right and the police have cleared the release then there is no reason for NBC to slowly disseminate the information one tidbit at a time. I can’t imagine that there is so much material that the staffers at NBC can’t sift through it in a reasonably quick amount of time and come up with some sort of reasonable way to release the information. Who knows, perhaps they already have this plan in the works. It just seems to me that NBC was playing it up a bit; especially with all the teasers.

Others: Hot Air, Captains Quarters, Sister Toldjah, Conservative Times, Right Voices, Riehl World View, Michelle Malkin, 186K Per Second

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Why was it a 77-year-old, and not a 20-year-old?

My father asked, when 14 women were murdered by Marc Lepine at Ecole Polytechnique on December 6, 1989, why so many girls could be shot while the “men” stood by and did nothing.

Yesterday a 77-year-old engineering professor, Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, blocked a doorway to protect his students. He was shot to death. His manly and able-bodied engineering students hid behind desks and jumped out the window.

Professor Librescu, this is why you survived the Holocaust. This was your purpose, and you fulfilled it admirably. Thank you, and rest in peace.

They don’t make men like you anymore.

[Discuss this over at Girl on the Right...]

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Two women made complaints against Cho to the University Police in 2005 that did not result in formal charges.

The first incident happened in November where Cho made contact with a female student by phone and in person. The girl notified the police department but declined to press charges. The investigating officer referred Cho to the University disciplinary Office of Judicial affairs. The outcome of the disciplinary referral is not yet known.

This was followed by another complaint by another female student in December of 2006. It involved IM messages that she received. The Im was so disturbing that she called the Virginia Tech police and asked that Cho be prevented from contacting her ever again. No threat was apparently made.

Officers contacted Cho in the second incident but did not arrest him. Later that day the police received a call from an acquaintance of Cho who was concerned that Cho was suicidal. This prompted another visit to Cho by the police who talked with him at length. The result was another referral to a counselor.

After Cho met with counselors a temporary protection order was obtained and Cho was taken to a mental health facility.

This all occurred at the same time a creative writing English professor became concerned about Cho’s writings. Again no official complaint was filed but the teacher was concerned enough to reach out.

According to the records these were the last reports of contact that police had with Cho.
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Update: Clarification has been made in the incident this morning by Va. Tech police in a press conference. Apparently a threat, not necessarily a bomb threat, was made against University President Charles Steger.

Virginia Tech police said “we had reason to believe there was a need to secure the president’s office” but would not elaborate. “It’s over.”

Early reports speculated that it was a bomb threat and witnesses who were ordered to leave said that was the reason given.

State Police said the threat was unfounded.
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News is coming that Cho Seung-Hui, the Virginia Tech killer, had written ISMAIL-AX on his arm, which may have been a reference to the story of Abraham’s son Ishmael who, in Muslim Arab mythology, is believed to be the progenitor of all Arabs. While that may well be true, it will take a whole heck of a lot more to convince me that this was a sudden jihad syndrome killing.

What’s much more likely, based on the news trickling in about how profoundly disturbed this young man was, is that his insanity reflects the angst of our time. In the medieval era, delusional people thought they were possessed by the Devil; in the mid-20th Century, aliens possession took over as the delusion of choice. It wouldn’t be surprising that, in this day and age, a delusional man with no connection to Islam nevertheless incorporates that cultural awareness into his insanity, and Islamic possession becomes his manifestation of a broken mind.

[Discuss this over at the Bookworm Room...]

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