Deadliest school shooting in U.S. History has just occured.

[Noise Monkey]

but beating them for being there would set a good one.

[Grabmygoblin]

thank God for big burly bikers.

[Rkolter]

Now who should I feel sorry for?

Students at VT are suggesting that they just close the school for the rest of the semester and reopen in September, to give their wounds more time to heal.

... A school of 25-30 thousand people. Be realistic.

1) Death in the family is not reason for a college to refund your tuition - even if that family member is murdered. Some colleges make exceptions for that, but I don't know any college that says because your friend died (or was murdered), you get reimbursed.

2) How many of those 25,000 people actually KNOW someone who died close enough to have been shaken to their core by this tragedy? We're talking a small city-sized college campus, with thousands of people who commute.

3) Explain how the college will function if they do this - it's a business and that would be a horrible cost for it to bear, unlikely to be reimbursed (certainly there'd be no guarantee of reimbursement right away, which is the timeframe the students want the college closed for) and it's unfair to ask that future students bear the burden for it's closure.

4) Explain to the hourly employees who make their living working on that campus that they will not receive paychecks until September.

There are people who are legitimately victims here - certainly the people who were injured but not killed. Certainly the people in the Engineering building the shooting took place at. These are the people who actually might deserve some kind of special treatment.

But what about the vast, vast majority of students, most of who don't know anyone who died, or who if they are very unlucky, have a close friend who died?

There are ample rules in place to allow a student to take an incomplete in the event of a personal or family tragedy, and then make up the work afterwards, so their GPAs aren't affected. It's extra work, but if you need the time off to get your life back in order, the school is willing to do that for you. All colleges are.

I suppose though, if you gave this option to those kids, suddenly their personal trauma would diminish and they'd be ok with completing the normal amount of work, in class on time.

Everyone's looking to score from this thing. Holy fucking hell.

[Noise Monkey]

there are always opportunists. a couple years back, a bridge collapsed on I-40, killing most, if not all, of the people crossing it at the time. merely hours later, there was a guy scamming home depot and lowes among other places while posing as a part of the official clean-up crew.

[Yeahduff]

Eh, you're probably right, but that's their business.

[Laemkral]

As far as Phelps and his protesting at military funerals, there ARE laws on this now saying you can't protest within X feet of a military funeral and so on. If I'm killed in combat and Phelps or any of his shithead lackeys protest at my funeral, I give anyone attending permission to beat the ever living snot out of everyone of them and I'll even leave in my will a clause offering to use funds from my life insurance to help pay for bail for all peoples involved.

Like Ryan said, there's "evil" and then there's evil. These people are evil.

[RemusShepherd]

Well, speaking of scoring political points, here is this blast from the past. It was originally used after 9/11, but several sources (I got it through Making Light) are reminding us about it after the VA Tech shootings:

Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.

Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.

...

We must also not lose sight of the fact that I am right on every significant moral and political issue, and everybody ought to agree with me. Please, I ask you as fellow human beings, vote for the political party which I support, and ask your legislators to support policies endorsed by me, as a matter of urgency.

You go on and trot that out as a reminder whenever Phelps or his ilk bother you.

[Laemkral]

Well, speaking of scoring political points, here is this blast from the past. It was originally used after 9/11, but several sources (I got it through Making Light) are reminding us about it after the VA Tech shootings:

Many people will use this terrible tragedy as an excuse to put through a political agenda other than my own. This tawdry abuse of human suffering for political gain sickens me to the core of my being. Those people who have different political views from me ought to be ashamed of themselves for thinking of cheap partisan point-scoring at a time like this. In any case, what this tragedy really shows us is that, so far from putting into practice political views other than my own, it is precisely my political agenda which ought to be advanced.

Not only are my political views vindicated by this terrible tragedy, but also the status of my profession. Furthermore, it is only in the context of a national and international tragedy like this that we are reminded of the very special status of my hobby, and its particular claim to legislative protection. My religious and spiritual views also have much to teach us about the appropriate reaction to these truly terrible events.

...

We must also not lose sight of the fact that I am right on every significant moral and political issue, and everybody ought to agree with me. Please, I ask you as fellow human beings, vote for the political party which I support, and ask your legislators to support policies endorsed by me, as a matter of urgency.

You go on and trot that out as a reminder whenever Phelps or his ilk bother you.

I like it. Phelps will find it taped to the end of my Louisville slugger. I'll even be a gentleman and bring it closer to his face for better reading.

[Col]

Here's a different take: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266860,00.html

[Terotrous]

We must also not lose sight of the fact that I am right on every significant moral and political issue, and everybody ought to agree with me.

That on its own is extremely hilarious. He sounds like he's 5 years old.

[Noise Monkey]

Here's a different take: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,266860,00.html

There's another religious guy I want to kick in the head. One makes us look like a bunch of hateful jerks, the other just makes us look crazy.

[TRI]

As far as Phelps and his protesting at military funerals, there ARE laws on this now saying you can't protest within X feet of a military funeral and so on.

Civilian funerals have some protection too, in the form of restraining orders. That's what happened when Phelps tried to bring his people to the Araujo funeral: the family got a restraining order real quick, and he ended up doing his shtick several blocks away outside a church. (Sucks for the church but at least the funeral goers didn't have to see it.)

Something like that'll probably happen if he actually plans to do anything at the VT victims' funerals.

[Leperdoctor]

Creationist Ken Ham points his own finger at lack of religion in science class
Man, it's like everyone with a grudge against the world is using this shooting to justify it.

Yeesh. o_O I read over the link. Apparently, according to Ham, if you're not a christian than you don't have the authority to judge what is good and what is bad. I heard on ecreationist, a while back, try and prove his theory by saying that, because nothing grows in a jar of peanut butter when there is both food and energy available, it means that God's hand is at work. He ignored questions about preservatives. And he said that even if something did grow, the instance was so rare that it didn't prove anything. I wanted to stick him in a jar of peanut butter.

...I like it. Phelps will find it taped to the end of my Louisville slugger. I'll even be a gentleman and bring it closer to his face for better reading.

LOL!!! Laemkral, you are the greatest!!

Protesting at someone's funeral is immensely disrespectful for not only the people being buried, but for the family members. Funerals are a way to put the dead to rest, to finalize a tragedy, to bring the people who may be hurting together so they can comfort one another. Protesting at a funeral or picketing to further your own agenda or prove a point not only turns people against your cause (you're using dead people to prove a point, way to go!!), it's like kicking a child in the face.

I watched a program where a number of hardcore christians picketed at the funeral of a dead soldier. After looking up the video, I ONLY JUST realized that the person was Phelps.

Phelps and crew attended a funeral, and as they held out their signs, the anti-protesters held out their American flags (which were much longer) and blocked the crap sayings from view. I thought it was lovely. ^^
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnMyP5ou6zs

[Yeahduff]

I commended the policy at the Sun-Times, where our editor said the paper would no longer feature school killings on Page 1.

Guess whose stupid ass face was on the cover of the Sun-Times today?

As it turns out he wasn't just weird and psychotic, he was also pathetic, whiny, and boring. Reading about the victims nearly brought me to tears. Reading this asshole's quotes I actually almost started cracking up, it was so cliched and melodramatic. I wrote a poem in high school about how banal evil was. Turns out that smart ass teenager was right.

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

I read some of their myspace pages. I tried not to cry at work, bit I kinda did.

[Yeahduff]

It be nice if they were the focus of all of this, but I guess human nature and all that. Aside from obviously being better people, they're far more interesting. They did things other than sulk about not being accepted. Man, reading that dancer girl's friend talk about how beautiful she was.... damn.

[Killbert-Robby]

On a lighter note : Did you know that a person who was in the "danger zone" during the Columbine shootings was also in the same position for this shooting, and survived both? Makes you wonder why more people couldn't be as lucky.

[Noise Monkey]

I don't think that counts as lucky. Poor person's lived through serious trauma twice now. I wouldn't wish it on anyone even once.

[Joel Fagin]

I don't think that counts as lucky. Poor person's lived through serious trauma twice now. I wouldn't wish it on anyone even once.

From Robby's wording, I don't think it's serious trauma. I think she was just in the vicinity each time, not involved. I know she was on the other side of VT this time.

- Joel Fagin

[Noise Monkey]

I meant emotionally.