Leave aside the conspiracy theories about the Bush people somehow staging this massacre to distract from its own scandals. I saw that somewhere here and thought that is at least as insane and incomprehensibly obtuse as the suggestion that "diversity" or a "feminised society" or VT's inability to deal with "male energy" drove Cho to do what he did. I think, as I've said before that ultimately, this young man was beyond anyone's capacity to help for some while before he finally exploded and took 32 people with him to the other side. Simply put, a lost soul that we have no concrete way of anticipating ever showing up on our radar, nor do we have a concrete response for when he does. In the aftermath of this there was a piece on NPR the other day about dealing with the mentally ill and forced treatment for them. No one seemed to have any answers and maybe we just don't have them yet. But it seems to me this discussion is useful because we are going to have to get smarter about this if we want to prevent another one of these.

On a side note, I'm finding Camille Paglia really irritating. Beyond her outrageous analysis of things like this, she seems annoyingly inaccessible in that snooty, ivory tower sort of way.

I'm really surprised. I thought she was a kind of intellectual. Turns out she's just a self-important pompous ass.

I'm so glad that Salon saw fit to give Glenn his own blog here, and this is about as prescient an observation as I've read yet. There is cause for hope. President Bush can veto the war spending bill if he likes, but the Democrats have sent a message that the will of the people will be ignored by this administration at its own peril. I see many signs of this coalescing and crystallizing of opinion and thought across the entire spectrum of discourse. It is heartening to see and we need to keep feeding it, keep making it grow stronger. Bush and his merry gang of thugs are soon going to face in concrete, tangible, and inescapable fashion the real world consequences of their own disregard for the law, the Constitution and the freedom of this country. Those consequences will likely unseat the Republican party and its paranoid ideology for decades to come, ushering in a rebirth of the progressive spirit which is this nation's true character. It's been a long time coming. Like spring, in a way.

I did not watch the Glenn Beck special and only caught a few moments of the PBS special on the Mormons. I couldn't watch for long since I have had far too many up close and personal encounters with the kind of insanity spewed by both to be terribly interested. While the Mormons robotically chant their belief in Joseph Smith as some kind of prophet (who was really a ne'er do well who spent time in jail for various offenses), Beck, who is a Mormon convert, gives an on air rant that is as wild-eyed, desperate, and pathologically obtuse as anything that came out of the mouth of the Madman-In-Chief. And isn't it curious that it all comes on the same day as the announcement 4 years ago of "Mission Accomplished"? Think about it.

Bush vetoes the Iraq pullout bill and calls the Democrats (and the rest of us) "irresponsible".

Glenn Beck in a straight jacket raving climate change is a hoax and comparing Al Gore (and 2000 scientists who almost never agree on anything) to Hitler seeking world domination.

PBS plants a camera and leaves the room while various Mormons blather on like a bunch of brainwashed zombies.

Snapshots from the right. This is the same pathological, unquestioning stupidity and denial that led to "Mission Accomplished"(when the worst was only beginning), Katrina, Mark Foley, Alberto Gonzales, and an inconceivable number of other scandalous cluster-fucks. It hasn't changed. We just woke up. Thankfully.

I have heard talk of these left-leaning Mormons. An aberration from the norm I suspect, since much of Mormon teaching seems to lead in the other direction. It may be fair to say the rank and file of Mormondom, who are, in fact, bat-shit crazy don't think much of these dissidents or the Democratic senator from Nevada. I'm quite sure Orrin Hatch wonders how in the name of Brigham Young did Reid get to play for the other team.