it comes in pints?

What's the over/under on days until some cretin ties GW to the Virginia Tech shooting?

Already happened, I believe.

less than a day.

I think it was on one of the early comments at the NYT depiction of the tragedy....

Ken linked to it below. Frankly, I'm surprised it took that long.

And Ken...42 isn't just the answer to the universe. It's the answer to life, the universe and everything.

Hood meant Global Warming, not GWB. But if anyone finds a link to someone tying it to global warming let me know, I'd love to mock it mercilessly.

Oh...GW, global warming, Dubya. There the same thing anyway, right?

Oh yeah. Point taken.

Um...they're the same thing...I'm an idiot.

D'oh. I thought he meant GWB too.

I've never seen global warming acronymized before, though, so that's probably why I immediately went where I did.

Whatever. I'm sure someone will find a way to link the killings and global warming; maybe they'll say the guy had some form of violent SAD brought on by rapid climate change.

Why not, Ricki? The Clams are already trying to blame psychiatry...leave it to those bastards to be the first to rush to tragedy and attempt to use it to their advantage. Disgusting pigs.

Damn.

but the Brady Bill folks also tried to cash in on the tragedy - link from Bitch Girls.

I just found out that one of my colleagues had a relative who was killed in the attack :(

Ricki, I'm so sorry to hear that!

Oh, how awful, Ricki. These sorts of things are hard enough to make sense out of when they just happen to strangers. I can't imagine how it would feel to lose a loved one.

Details are beginning to pile up that this kid showed a lot of classic symptoms - he was a loner, somewhat sullen, got along poorly with many other students, and wrote increasingly hostile and violent work in his essays and creative writing assignments. He also left a note on a university-wide message board saying, "I'm going to kill people at vtech today."

So, it's the gun's fault - it should have realized a dangerous person was buying it, and refused to fire.

A lot of his teachers and fellow students were downright frightened of him. I'm not being overly-critical or suggesting that anyone's at fault for not preventing this. That bastard is the only one to blame, and of course, hindsight's 20/20 and all that, but this guy had everything short of the words "TOTALLY FUCKED IN THE HEAD" tattooed on his face.

The problem being, "TFITH" is not acceptable grounds for kicking someone out of college.

I wish it were.

I've had a few moderately-damaged people in my classes, and although none were of a violent bent, they made it a challenge to teach effectively (and, sometimes, to keep the other students from beating the snot out of them).

I dunno. I realize it's hard to identify the dangerous individuals sometimes, and I abhor the idea of sending a little boy who draws a WWII battle in art class for counseling....but sometimes, you just wonder....where's the happy medium? What's the middle ground between "zero tolerance, all the time" and "anything goes and you can't ever say anything to anyone"

ricki, I'm sorry to hear that! I'd hate to hear news like that as well.

Emily, I've dealt with people who were scary like this guy, or seen them dealt with, although not with deadly force. One case was particularly disturbing because this character had scared people for years, and all the agency did was move him around to other offices. Then he started threatening people aggressively, and the deputy commander was able to get them to file formal complaints, something that other supervisors wouldn't even try to do. The guy was eventually forced into psychiatric treatment through the legal syste,, but not before he was denied entry into the building, and had to be handcuffed and hauled away when he reacted violently.

The problem with this? The deputy commander was villified for taking of his people and getting this guy some help. You see, he was picking on "the little guy". Damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

You have to care more about your people than your career to handle potential problems like this, and the system generally doesn't reward people for taking the high road.