freecounterpoint: Finding a Sliver of Decency in a Horrible Cloud

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Finding a Sliver of Decency in a Horrible Cloud

A Salute to Librescu and Dell

20 comments:

Tecumseh said...: Already wrote something about that here.; 4/17/2007 9:19 AM
Pepe le Pew said...: One has to take comfort from the notion that guns don't kill people.; 4/17/2007 12:36 PM
Mr roT said...: Actually, the most idiotic comments yesterday at Little Green Footballs were about the same thing, with a minus sign, of course. There, idiots were saying that if Virginia Tech hadn't unleashed the most stringent gun-control laws anywhere, there would have been a couple students around that would have picked off the Korean madman before he got too many unarmed effete cowed sheeple.
Funny how tragedy turns rapidly to instrumentalization with some.; 4/17/2007 12:47 PM
Mr roT said...: And, as expected, the NYT turns this into an appeal for multiculturalism with its blather about color and we're all one family.
I checked the NK types. They haven't pulled out an agenda yet.; 4/17/2007 1:05 PM
Pepe le Pew said...: yeah - some idiots think the same damage couldn't have been done with a pocket knife or a nail file.

This is not politization, jj. It's the reason why the currrent interpretation of the 2nd amendment is a tragedy. This, columbine, and 30,000 gun related deaths a year would be seriously curtailed if any bozo didn't have unlimited access to guns.; 4/17/2007 1:09 PM
Mr roT said...: The counterargument is that it's exactly the bozos that would find a way to arm themselves.; 4/17/2007 1:15 PM
Mr roT said...: ...for example, it seems Cho didn't read the campus rules.; 4/17/2007 1:23 PM
Tecumseh said...: Taranto makes pretty much the same argument you so deride, JJ. Are you gonna write to him and bitch about it? Let's see.; 4/17/2007 6:09 PM
Tecumseh said...: As for Pepe's "counterargumnt": usual kindergarten-type non-sequitur. Aaahhh, what powers of acuity 16 years of Nanny-State education on the Left Bank brings!; 4/17/2007 6:11 PM
Mr roT said...: There are reasons one may be wary of arming academia. College students spend a lot of time drinking and carousing, and so perhaps they're better off without firearms. Academic disputes can get vicious; we wouldn't want them to get bloody. But it does not seem a stretch to think that if Cho Seung-hui had encountered someone else with a gun, fewer people would lie dead at Virginia Tech.

AI, there's no argument here. There's a hypothetical. It goes like this: If Cho had happened to be confronted by armed students like Peter Odighizuwa, and if this had been before many of those killed by Cho had in fact been killed, and if Cho had reacted like Peter Odighizuwa when he was confronted by said armed students, then many students' lives would have been saved.

That's as silly as Pepe's contention that if there were more idiotic law in place, Cho would not have killed anyone and would have instead gone into counselling rather than rampaging.

There are so many ifs in Taranto's and the lgfers and now your argument that it is weaker than the guys' that would shread an important part of the Constitution.

Taranto is in this to make fun of the fact that a campus prohibition on arms would make campuses safer. That is idiotic, as any reasonable person must agree, particularly after today.

But it is ridiculous because people will break those rules, not because everyone on a campus should be armed.

Duh.; 4/17/2007 7:13 PM
Tecumseh said...: Stawman, JJ. Fact is, the students and faculty at Virginia Tech trusted their lives with the police and admin there, and those people badly failed them. There is a certain compact between citizizens and the authorities (that the first give up tehir right of self-defense in retrn for protection from authorities) which was clearly and tragically broken here (and, I would argue, on 9/11). Just giving pat answers doesn't cut the mustard, JJ. And I'm talking here as someone who may well have been there in the classroom, or had a kid in there. So puhleaase, no BS here.; 4/17/2007 8:10 PM
Mr roT said...: Are you saying that I could not have been in the classroom or had a kid in a classroom, AI? You sound like Cindy Sheehan claiming to have exclusive rights to criticize the War because she lost a child in it, ignoring the fact that many thers have lost loved ones too.
There is no BS here, my firiend. I have no idea what the rules about concealed weapons might be at my institution or yours but doubt seriously that you or I would teach packing if it turned out to be permitted.
That the authorities failed those victims is no surprise. It is impossible to strip-search every damned student at a large institution and not even is it desirable. f anyone could be bamed it would be those that read this Korean madman's ivcious and violent plays and didn't indicate to the authorities that there just might be a teensy-weensy problem in his head.; 4/17/2007 8:37 PM
Tecumseh said...: First of all, some of those profs did report the loony misfit's writings to the admin, which, sure enough, just sat on their collective asses and did squat nothing.

And second (and more importantly), I don't buy that pap about "nothing could have been done to prevent this, it's an open society, blah, blah, blah" Baloney. The same kind of baloney we've heard after 9/11 (nad which, if my memory serves, you bought line, hook, and sinker). Of course something could have been done. Like, sounding off the alarm -- I mean, with sirens, the old-fashioned way, not with some stooopind e-mail. And, right then at 7:15 after the first 2 murders, not sit on their fat keisters for two hours not doing anything, and not alerting anybody. This is criminal negligence, my friend -- dereliction of duty, if that word still has a meaning in this day and age when nobody wants to take responsibility, just mumble bullshit and pass the buck. I'm revolted by all this.; 4/17/2007 9:24 PM
Mr roT said...: Could well be. I didn't follow the particulars of what happened when and I did say someone should have said the boy was 'troubled'. But you're changing the subject and getting emotional. I'm revolted too, but I don't think that this crap had anything to do with there being a gun rule on the campus. Why don't you honestly answer if you know the rules at your institution and if you think you would pack heat if it were permitted. You should know quite well that murders are on the rise in Boston and you might have to depend on your own wits and courage to protect your students from massacre.
So you got a piece picked out?; 4/18/2007 12:16 AM
Arelcao Akleos said...: The administration fucked up in its response to the killer in the first incident having escaped. To 'assume' he had fled, without a shred of evidence for it, was to take an absolutely unnecessary risk. Shut the campus down immediately until the guy is found or a thorough sweep has shown the campus secure--and let everybody know what's going on, damnit.
So 2 hours later there were no security guards in buildings? People would have had to read e-mail to know that an "incident" had occurred, but not even its exact nature? No warning as to who to look for? Pathetic.
In Chicago, for example, only an Idiot worthy of Planet Pepe would trust his life to the response of the police. It is a shame that VT fell into that camp, but so it did. Let the D of PP and JJ rely on the tender kindnesses of strangers in proper Nawlins style. But in an hour of need, I'd rather turn to Colt .45; 4/18/2007 12:22 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: Good to see everyone in true form aping the Left and Right Second Amendment Agendas.

To return to the original post, a co-worker and I have been following this since the start by radio in western Dakota and eastern Montana. The words that came to mind when we first heard it:

~"Jesus Christ... What!?.. Jesus F'ing Christ!!! What the F#ck!!!!"

As AA rightly said, a silver lining about Liviu Librescu's feats, and the rest of us (or at least I) could only hope to perform as one should during such a desperate and horrific hour. He forgot himself to save others.

Coanda would be proud (I think there's some kind of Romania connection with Librescu in addition to Israel).; 4/18/2007 12:24 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: AA, I'd agree with your assessment. Additionally (and to play Monday Morning Quarterback), after about a dozen students are killed, execution style, you'd think that a group of students might try to swarm the dipshit. Remember when some guy opened up on the White House not long ago with an AK? He was tackled rather quickly.

It's been said countless times already, but so true: it's all so tragic. And then I hear about the EMT's carrying out the dead while their cellphones rang — parents trying to get ahold of their child that has just been killed...; 4/18/2007 12:34 AM
Tecumseh said...: Yes, Librescu was born in Ploiesti (about 60km due north of Bucharest) and got a an MS degree in Aeronautic Engineering from Bucharest Polytechnic (you know, following in Coanda's footsteps), and a PhD in Fluid Mechanics from the Romanian Academy of Sciences. They say he was the prof with most publications ever at Virginia Tech. See here for his vita.; 4/18/2007 12:39 AM
My Frontier Thesis said...: What a remarkable man, AI. Did you or any of your colleagues know him?; 4/18/2007 12:45 AM
Tecumseh said...: Nope -- he was from a different generation, after all. But I know several people who studied aeronautic engineering in Bucharest -- it's a good school, lots of them did well when they immigrated to the UK, US, or Canada, and started working for Boeing, Bombardier, etc. Despite what JJ keeps saying, Coanda left a non-negligible legacy.; 4/18/2007 12:53 AM