Captain's Quarters -

Dang, wish I had more time to comment on this topic; must get to work.

Here is a link that is a must read from the mindset of a true Liberal.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime_file/2007/04/17/2007-04-17_yes_virginia_guns_kill_innocents-2.html

Also, Terry Moran delivered a statement that is down right shocking; even for his standards. I don't have time to find his comments from yesterday; if others don't post them, I'll find them when I get home from work.

What is this weird obsession with being a victim these days? Don't people have any pride anymore, acknowledging that maybe something bad happened to them, but they aren't going to let that define them.

And now South Korea is worried about a backlash against Koreans. Yeesh. It was a lone nut job, nothing more.

"After the worst mass shooting in U.S. history, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid cautioned Tuesday against a "rush to judgment" on stricter gun control." Not that this statement or others have much impact on what happened or why, but the media and politicians like to hype events, with few qualifiers, that do have an impact on public opinion. I am glad that he called for no rush to judgment. That is almost out of character.

Senator Reid should know about the 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah where 120 men, women and children were killed. At that time Utah was not a state, but a territory; so does that throw it out of the massacre category? There have been others, but not many that I could locate. He is probably correct if he is talking about a single gunman, however he did not say that. By stating it as he did, and others have done while having a world wide audience, it makes today’s America appear more dangerous than Dodge City, so to speak. It feeds the anti-American sentiment. Just go to Europe some time and get into a discussion about firearms and violence in America and you will find that, if you have an open mind, you will not recognize the description that is given of your country.

Many have said the killer used automatic weapons, not semi-automatic as is correct and then talk about how easy it is to purchase the weapon. The vision of automatic fire gathered from war moves and TV is very frightening to most. But that image serves some people’s agenda. Kind of misleading since purchasing an automatic weapon it much more difficult, is a federal privilege with it being against the law in many states and requires one to pay a $200 federal tax for the privilege to own one.

Obviously we need to outlaw "gun-free zones." That's where all these things happen.

The real question is not, "Still love those guns, Virginia?" The real question is, "Still love those gun-free zones, liberals?"

As Glenn Reynolds said in a new twist on an age-old truth: People don't stop killers. People with guns stop killers.

I may have found the key to this whole thing. One of the killer's creative writing manuscripts contains the words:

"You' d better run for your life if you can
little girl

If I catch you with another man, it's
the end."

UPDATE: oops, my bad, it's from a Beatle's song.

Any jackass can speculate his way from point A to point B.

Listened to the Mat Lauer this AM, talking to a Teacher who suspected the gunman of being a whack job two years ago. So are we going to do psych-eval of all students, or celebrate in our diverse freedom to express? The surrender monkeys on the Left will use this moment to destroy the 2nd amendment, just as they love to mention the SUV in every accident involving one. A Hybrid will never be mentioned in a death accident, unless it is under an SUV. The 19 whack jobs that loved soccer, hated baseball and brought the twin towers down did it with box cutters. People who hate my country are the problem! People who hate my country’s traditional ways, are not people that need my sympathy nor will I teach my kids to bow to. The more appeasers try to cure the human condition, the more they weaken my country. I am possessive of my country, and how dare I say that? Because I refuse to buy into the shame and blame us first crap.

Who to blame?

1. Guns

2. Video games

3. Immigrants

4. American society

5. Virginia Tech police and administrators

6. The sick bastard who did it

Take your pick... but it seems that too many people sort of forget about what's behind curtain number (6).

As for the op-ed posted by Keemo (April 18, 2007 08:54 AM), I feel like asking Michael Daly why Virginia, which apparently is sloppin' over with guns, doesn't have the same kind of crime problems that NYC does despite some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Is it that the guns Daly claims come from Virginia are cursed and turn their (illegal) owners into psycho killers? Is it that the people of NYC are simply more predisposed to violence than the people of Virginia?

Or could it be that crooks and hot-tempered, would-be killers in Virginia are deterred by the knowledge that there may well be armed citizens around them?

One final note: for you libs out there who think that gun ownership is strictly a paranoid reichwing bigot Christian homophobe issue, try reading "The Autobiography of Mother Jones". An excerpt:

From Washington I went to West Virginia to carry on my work. The day before I arrived, an operator named Quinn Morton, the sheriff of Kanawha County, Bonner Hill, deputies and guards drove an armored train with gatling guns through Holly Grove, the tent colony of the miners, while they were sleeping. Into the quiet tents of the workers the guns were fired, killing and wounding the sleepers. A man by the name of Epstaw rose and picked up a couple of children and told them to run for their lives. His feet were shot off. Women were wounded. Children screamed with terror. No one was arrested.

Three days later, a mine guard, Fred Bobbett, was killed in an altercation. Fifty strike and their organizers were immediately arrested, and without warrant.

I went to Boomer where the organization is composed of foreigners, and I went to Long Acre, getting each local union to elect a delegate who should appeal to the governor to put a stop to the military despotism.

I met all these delegates in a church and told them how they were to address a governor. We took the train for Charleston. I thought it better for the delegates to interview the governor without me, so after cautioning them to keep cool, I went over to the hotel where they were to meet me after their interview.

As I was going along the street, a big elephant, called Dan Cunningham, grabbed me by the arm and said, "I want you!" He took me to the Roughner Hotel, and sent for a warrant for my arrest. Later I was put on the C. and 0. train and taken down to Pratt and handed over to the military. They were not looking for me so they had no bullpen ready. So a Dr. Hans ford and his wife took care of me and some organizers who were arrested with me. The next day I was put in solitary in a room, guarded by soldiers who paced day and night in front of my door. I could see no one. I will give the military of West Virginia credit for one thing: they are far less brutal and cold blooded than the military of Colorado.

The Autobiography of Mother Jones
Chapter 18: Victory in West Virginia
http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/RonMBaseman/mojones.htm

There are similar stories from the Jim Crow era of unarmed blacks being murdered and oppressed by gangs of armed thugs and even by the legal authorities.

So, take your pick:

1. Become an unarmed sheep and hope that the wolf never comes for you, or that some kind (and well-armed) shepherd will protect you, or;

2. Be a sheepdog, peaceful and benign but prepared to fight and kill the wolf when he comes to your pasture.

When I was a kid in the 1950s, the thing that was supposed to drive kids to violence was "horror comics," which were admittedly very violent and fairly disgusting. Despite them, and the seductions of Elvis, the main crimes in high school fifty years ago were talking out of turn and chewing gum in class. I doubt that video games have much to do with these situations.

While we spare no expense to investigate all avenues of insight into this massacre, why isn't the first impulse correct or at least tracking it down to its finality, Sudden Jihad Syndrome?

Debbie Schlussel
has something a little more interesting and relevant than James Fennimore Cooper.

The Blame Game has replaced baseball as our national pastime.

It is an ill wind which blows no one good, though: if not for the multitude of media venues in which to posit such fanciful theories, where would these people be? Obviously, they could find no gainful or productive employment, and would be helpless wards of the state.

Obama's shameless attempt to score political points on the still-warm bodies of the victims is less forgivable, though. It appears the original rap against him - that he is "not ready for prime time" - was quite accurate.

I agree BillBC.

When I was growing up it was Dungeons and Dragons, violent cartoons, and toy guns among other things. I’ve never been found in the sewers sacrificing virgins to Satan, opening a can of spinach and throwing a beat down on people, or shooting up people because I got a plastic tommy gun for Christmas one year. Every time we have something bad happen these fools come out and lay the blame at the foot of anything but the person who did it. The truth of the matter is that he was a nut and sooner or later a nut finds something to set him off and if its not one thing it’ll be another. Morons like Jack Thompson, Bob Larson and the others just cant seem to grasp that.

People try to hard to explain this sort of tragedy. There is simply no way to know what motivated this sick young man to do this terrible thing.

I do not believe in taking guns away from law abiding people and I don't think it makes sense to try and ban video games etc. But in fairness to Dr. Phil, I know a lot of people who are concerned about these games and even the music the kids listen to.

I must feed the obsession that so many of our Liberal friends have for Rush Limbaugh. I ask you Liberals this simple question; Does any part of the following statement make sense to you?

(Durbin & Obama both made speeches that try to place blame for the massacre on talk radio)

So you have Durbin and Obama. Now, this is not unprecedented. Remember, the Clinton administration attempted to blame me for the blowing up of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City. We called them on it and they "apologized." They went out there, and (Clinton spokesman Mike) McCurry said, "No, no, no! We're talking about the short-wave radio communications of the militia, the Michigan militia or some such thing," but make no mistake about it, they take every opportunity. So now all of these acts of violence are being blamed on the "shock talk." I told you this Imus thing was about far much more than him, and now you've got this Virginia Tech issue, which is used as a launching pad to go after the one area of media that is perhaps the home of more openness, more free speech, more diversity of speech and thought. But because the dominance of talk radio is conservative, it is a target, and it is going to be dealt with as best these people can. I read a story on CNN today. I don't need to read it to you, but the story was typical and it's something that I predicted about the Virginia Tech shooting. It amazes me. All the talk about gun control! Here we have people on the campus who said that this student was nuts.

They knew he was nuts. They reported him as nuts. They sent him to a mental institution for a while. We don't know what happened there. His writings were nuts, and there were red flags sprouting up because of all of these things. Shouldn't there be a way to deal with nuts on campus? This guy clearly was disturbed and a whole lot of people knew it. Why wasn't there some way to deal with this guy before the fact? Everybody thinks, "Well, get rid of the guns, and we'll stop the OK Corral from taking place." We don't have an OK Corral going on in this country! This is not something that happens every day or every month or every year, and that's why the reaction to it is extraordinary. So we have all these people who had clear warning signs about the guy, but, I don't know -- because of political correctness or the unwillingness to judge somebody or what have you -- nobody did anything about it. The gun seller, the guy that sold the guy's guns didn't know he was nuts but the people at the school did. Everybody wants to focus on the gun seller and the gun, but people at the school knew that this guy was not right. I'm not second-guessing here. I'm just responding to the clutter of talk that's out there.

Now, we have in what we've learned about this guy, a reported attempt to set a fire in the dorm. We have sicko writings noticed by a professor. He was recommended for counseling. We don't know anything about that, if he went or not. We have reports of him stalking female students. Yet it's much easier to yell, "Gun control! Gun control! The NRA is bad! Bush the GOP are responsible!" It's much easier to just go out and say that, than to deal with this kind of aberrant behavior on campus because of all the PC rules that are in place, both the formal and the informal PC rules. But why not focus on that? Why not focus on the clear and early warning signs that something was not right with this guy? Have you read some of the things he wrote? It's all about death and killing and dying and these sorts of things. The guy was just nuts, and a lot of people knew it. Now, I'm not saying this to lay any blame. I'm just trying to point it out, and they're going to have an after-action review of this. They always do. The governor's office is going to do it, and I wonder if they'll include this aspect in their after-action review. It looks to me like the people in charge here had plenty of early warning signs, not that he would slaughter 32 people, but that he was nuts. Nobody's going to ever be able to predict that somebody's going to murder 32 people. You're not going to be able to predict that. But, people don't just wake up one morning and decide to slaughter other people, and that's the point, not gun control. How could a guy like this get a gun? Well, now we know how: Nobody fingered the guy as a potential danger to the community! That's why.

Here is a link to a story that describes "who & what" is driving the Liberal media machine.

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/04/17/video-tammy-bruce-exposes-far-left-outlets-hit-list-on-everyone-to-their-right/

Every evil in our society is because of the left. The left works for the downfall of America. If you don't believe me listen to Rush Limbaugh, he is the smartest man in the world. I know this because Rush tells us so. The left have body odor and don't brush their teeth. Their men are passive, their women are femi-nazis. I know this because Rush told me so. Hate the left because they are evil and are hippies. Rush told me so. Bush is a war hero, Churchill like, the left are subversive and traitors, I know, Rush told me so. The leftists aren't human and are controlled by "Old Europe", I know, Rush told me. The GOP lost the midterms, not because they were corrupt and spent like drunken sailors, because the MSM brainwashed America to vote Democratic, I know because Rush told me. I believe everything Rush says, he would never lie to me. He is pure, almost god-like. Let us all praise Rush, hail to thee powerful El Rushbo.

The sad fact is that there are people on both sides who are going to blame this on somebody - ANYBODY - but Cho.

"It's the NRA's fault, because they won't let us outlaw guns!"

"It's the libs' fault, because they won't let students at Virigina Tech pack."

"It's the media's fault, because they give too much coverage to sickos, which encourages other sickos to become copycats."

"It's talk radio's fault, because they fill the airwaves with hate."

"It's violent video games."

"It's that we've taken God out of the schools."

"It's the Virginia Tech administration's fault because they didn't react fast enough."

"It's the psychologists' fault because they didn't lock Cho up."

"It's their fault."

"No, it's THEIR fault."

And so on.

As I've written before, I think we all agree on two things:

1. This was a tragedy. We are deeply shocked, and our hearts and prayers go out to those who have suffered such grievous loss.

2. We don't want it to happen again.

Perhaps if we confined ourselves to thinking about how to stop people like Cho instead of waving our own particular bloody shirts, we'd be better off.

And, yes, I wave mine, too.

Every evil in our society is because of the left. The left works for the downfall of America.
Posted by conservative democrat at April 18, 2007 07:49 PM

There is hope for you CD..

Seriously, Rush brings up a few very important elements:

1) This guy clearly was disturbed and a whole lot of people knew it.
2) So we have all these people who had clear warning signs about the guy, but, I don't know -- because of political correctness or the unwillingness to judge somebody or what have you -- nobody did anything about it.
3) Now, we have in what we've learned about this guy, a reported attempt to set a fire in the dorm. We have sicko writings noticed by a professor. He was recommended for counseling. We don't know anything about that, if he went or not. We have reports of him stalking female students. Yet it's much easier to yell, "Gun control! Gun control! The NRA is bad! Bush the GOP are responsible!" It's much easier to just go out and say that, than to deal with this kind of aberrant behavior on campus because of all the PC rules that are in place, both the formal and the informal PC rules.

If we are to learn from this tragedy, we must have a discussion about exactly what Rush and dozens of other pundits are talking about right now; why were all of the "signals" ignored with this guy? Did political correctness have a role in this massacre. If not, no worries, we move on and continue to search for solutions. I have no doubt that you are just as shaken by this event as the rest of us CD. I'm sure you have your thoughts about reasons and causes for these type of tragic events. I'm a Conservative Republican, you're a Conservative Democrat; we are both Americans. This is an American tragedy that deserves all of our attention towards finding out how & why this man was ignored for so many years; what dynamics allowed this man to escape so many worried eyes; & what can we learn from this.

I do enjoy jabbing with you and all other Liberals CD; we all choose how to spend our free time, and I'm not much of a TV guy. This topic is really not about politics, but rather is about an American tragedy where dozens of Americans were murdered in cold blood in an environment that we all expect to be a safe sanctuary for our youth.

I do resent politicians or any others for making this story strictly about politics... We, the people must have answers and solutions. Politicians won't give us that; no freaking way.

Without question, the lesson to be learned from this is not that we need more gun control. The lesson is that we need more citizens with concealed carry permits, and no "gun-free zones." How idiotic is it to assume that if you are willing to kill someone, you will follow a law? If there had been a few permit holders around Cho wouldn't have been the only armed person and certainly wouldn't have been able to shoot so many people. Why, despite the evidence to the contrary, do people continue to assume that gun bans work to keep anyone from having guns EXCEPT those who are law-abiding in the first place?

More on the political correctness side of this story..
From Charles Johnson @ littlegreenfootballs.com

Mainstream media are universally shying away from discussing an important piece of evidence: the fact that Virginia Tech killer Seung Hui Cho apparently identified strongly with the Islamic story of Ismail, the “Son of Sacrifice.”

He not only wrote the words “Ismail AX” on his arm before starting his killing spree, he used that name in the return address on the package he mailed to NBC News:

And just to make my viewpoint crystal clear: I am NOT implying that Cho was a “sudden jihadi.” But the very noticeable reluctance of mainstream media to even mention this subject is a disturbing testimony to the power of political correctness.

This also from LGF:

The Worst Left-Wing Article Ever

Here we have one of the most absolutely vile leftist articles I have ever read, at the web sewer that calls itself Counterpunch, by “Miami columnist” Sherwood Ross—who is a deeply disturbed person: A Momentary Glimpse into Daily Life in Iraq.

What the hell is wrong with these people? This goes way beyond the usual leftist garbage-think, into a realm that can only be called evil.

The American people, including the families of the murdered Virginia Tech innocents, have collective blood-guilt on their hands. I have not gone to jail to protest the war machine, so I am no better than they and probably a good deal worse because I have given the issue some thought. How many of those parents in the audience hearing the President’s words had elected to Congress men and women who voted for lax laws on gun ownership? How many of those parents in the audience had also voted for legislators who backed the president’s illegal invasion of Iraq? Are we, as a nation, too obtuse to grasp the connection between our “gun culture” policy at home and our militarist policy abroad that murders and mutilates human beings at every turn? Practically any one in America can buy a gun, and abroad, any dictator in the world can buy weapons made in America because we just happen to be the world’s biggest arms peddler.

What kind of a society has America become? Why do we have two-million men in our prisons? Why, in some cities, is every second or third male either in prison or out on parole? Why is the murder rate soaring in so many cities? Why is there on average more than one killing a day in a city like Philadelphia? Why are our own terrorists murdering 30,000 Americans each year and injuring tens of thousands more with rapid-fire handguns of the sort used on the Virginia Tech campus? Do we realize, speaking of terrorists, that ten times as many Americans are being killed by Americans each year as all our troops in Iraq? Osama bin Laden is everywhere in America. He has a thousand faces. They are the faces of our own dispossessed, our own poverty-stricken, our own unemployed, our own underclass, our own idolized gangsters , our own youth who grew up in front of television sets that ooze violence and blood.

Who is responsible for the killings in Iraq except the same now bereaved parents of the murdered students at Virginia Tech? It’s not that some of them voted to elect George Bush. Anyone can be deceived, particularly by a notorious liar. But when the president broke the law and invaded Iraq, violating the UN Charter, how many of them protested? Today they are upset that a young, crazed gunman has ran amok on the campus of a peaceful university, but where were they when President Bush defied the United Nations and ran amok in Iraq? Do they know, as Amnesty International reported on the same day as the Virginia Tech murders, the Middle East “is on the verge of a massive humanitarian crisis” because three-million Iraqis have been “forcibly displaced” by the war the grief-stricken Mr. Bush began? Who do the American people think made this humanitarian crisis in the Middle East if not the American people?

The same parents who weep for their children might consider that they and their neighbors are also spending a half trillion dollars a year so that the Pentagon, just over the horizon from Virginia Tech, can wage a war that is snuffing out the lives of children of other parents just like their own. Thousands of Virginians work for the military-industrial complex. They work for the Pentagon. They work for defense contractors. They work for the Central Intelligence Agency. They are in the business of killing directly or indirectly, yet how many of them are haunted by the consequences of their “jobs” in their dreams at night?

All across America, people who attend church and regard themselves as “good” people, such as the bereaved at Virginia Tech, are working in the plants that make atomic bombs and warplanes and napalm and cluster bombs and are creating new, demonical designs of germ warfare and space-based weapons so vile and horrible they defy description.

Here is a link to the entire article if anybody has the stomach to read it... I couldn't get through it all.

http://www.counterpunch.org/ross04182007.html

Question for Mr. Ross (ref Keemo's April 19, 2007 07:56 AM):

Then why don't you move to another country that isn't so vicious, cruel, violent, and downright evil?

Prick.