Radio invented the concept of "rock star". TV later refined it. The entire phenomenon of 'fame' depends on scarcity of bandwidth. If you can only pick up two radio stations and three TV stations and only get one newspaper, then your entire view of the wider world is controlled by (at best) five broadcast station owners and one publisher. Those six men know perfectly well that name/voice/face recognition sells, so it is to their advantage to tell the stories of the current crop of celebrities.

By contrast, the internet is ten million voices competing for mindshare. There's no point in carefully developing a celebrity image, because everyone gets exactly their 15 minutes, no more, no less.

Goodbye, rock stars. As radio dies, so do you. Famous actors, you need to keep a close eye on the HDTV rollout. If it bombs, so do you.

I seem to recall Secretary Rumsfeld getting similar reassurances, less than a week before he was shown the door.

I don't know VT's exact firearms policy, but I'm sure that today's events fall under the "illegal" category already. More gun control laws won't make it any more illegal to shoot people.

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Both sides are taking their opponents arguements to an absurd extreme. Nobody wants a classroom full of armed frat boys. Similarly, nobody wants the bad guy to be the only one armed. Unfortunately, there aren't enough uniformed law enforcement officers to allot one to each classroom. Fortunately, there are many people who are willing to take the training and jump through the hoops necessary to get a concealed carry permit.

Unfortunately, most institutions of higher learning have a blanket "no guns, period" policy. Even if a student is trained and capable, even if he's an off duty police officer, even if he has a security clearance higher than God Himself, he still can't carry on school grounds.

Arming everyone isn't the solution. Neither is disarming everyone. Had the holocaust survivor professor been armed, he would very likely still be dead today, but more of his students would have lived. Allow those who have put forth the effort to get a concealed carry permit to do so on school grounds.

There will always been sheep. There will always be wolves. It's unwise to defang your sheepdogs, because the shepherd can't be everywhere at once.

me: Unfortunately, most institutions of higher learning have a blanket "no guns, period" policy. Even if a student is trained and capable, even if he's an off duty police officer, even if he has a security clearance higher than God Himself, he still can't carry on school grounds.

mcgregor: As someone who works on a college campus, all I say say is: Thank G-d. Arming a student population - on the extremely unlikely chance there will someday be a massacre - is going to make campuses more dangerous, not less.

As I stated in the part of my letter that you didn't quote (and implied in the part that you did), nobody wants a classroom full of armed fratboys.

Some of your classes include off-duty police officers. They are unarmed. Their weapons are in their cars. How is that safer than allowing them to carry on campus?

In addition to the off-duty police officers, there are also any number of responsible adults who can legally carry a concealed weapon most places. You've stood right behind them in line at the movie theater. You've filled your gas tank right across the pump from them. You've gone to church with them. You never even knew they were there, because "consealed" means just that. You've never seen them on campus though. They left their weapons in their cars, because they're law abiding citizens and that's the law.

For only in Tom Clancy-esque mythology are weekend hunters carrying assault weapons a bulwark against tyranny.

The people of Iraq seem to be doing a pretty decent job fighting tyranny with just assault weapons and some ingenuity.

The problem with attempting to repeal the second amendment is that you're effectively attempting to turn every gun owner into a criminal, overnight. They won't like that. And they have all the guns.

Military personnel and families are naturally conservative, not naturally Republican. And we know what betrayal looks like.

Part of the beauty of poker is that the rank amateurs will still beat the students of the game often enough that they will keep coming back to be fleeced over and over again. The students of the game have gotten better. Unfortunately, most haven't gotten so good that they can selectively fleece or skin, at will. Sounds like you got skinned one time too many.

Apparently they take the money and then do whatever they want with it.

All insurgents are domestic to the country they are from. That's why we call them insurgents, otherwise we'd call them "foreign fighters".

Obama plans on taking the government away from those currently in charge, because he believes they are doing his country harm. This is similar to what goes through the mind of an insurgent; the difference is that an insurgent uses violence to achieve his aims.

What do you suppose we should call a person who takes action make a better government? "Patriot" perhaps?

...is the cranky feminist blogger. Ms Harding, please take a few days off and get yourself straight. When you're good you're very good, but you've been off your game lately.

Find a real scandal. Tell me more about Troopergate. You're comparing her to a fictional character, and showing what are supposed to be embarrassing videos from before her political career. This is gossip.

I'm quite sure John McCain's cellphone has a DC local prefix. Assuming John McCain has a cellphone. Which seems less likely the more I think about it. I guess you're right, it was all about the phone bill.

As of the timestamp of this letter, the dow is down 722.49.