So I'm 100% in agreement that broadcasting the Virginia Tech killer's goofy rants is a terrible idea. I don't think there's anything offensive about them or anything, I just think it's incredibly validating to anyone who'd consider a similar act. If you're suicidal and angry, it certainly appears to be an ideal way of transforming yourself from a scared beat-on kid to some sort of dark hero that the whole world has to listen to and see on the front page of the newspaper posing with their guns.
And really, if you're mad at society, indiscriminately killing kids and educators is completely the wrong idea and only underscores the fact that the killing is aimless, cowardly, and not particularly inspired politically. In a lot of ways it's just mimicry of someone else's painful outburst — how sad is it that he couldn't even express his own pain? The tapes to me read as acting; a really obvious charade…
If I ever snap and go all mass killer, I really hope I have the sense to execute people with some style, and that I send a coherent message. I also am not really sure how you could kill a whole lot of people and not end up with unacceptable collateral damage. I mean, even if you walk into Walmart's corporate HQ, bust into some executive meeting and start shooting, you're going to kill people who are generally good people even if their job brings immeasurable misery to the world. But I guess the truth of Western society is that plenty of good people are professionally evil…
I don't really know how guilty a person is for “
doing their job“… Personally
I think that you're always responsible for your actions, even if someone else is paying you (so from my point of view, if you take a job committing evil acts, you have to take responsibility for them), but that's definitely not the dominant opinion, nor is it experimentally supported.
Oh, it's like public school all over again. “You have a girl's name! Shannon is a girl's name!” Meh. To be perfectly honest, it never particularly bothered me. Earlier today when I got to one of my appointments, I was asked, “are you Tina?” which kind of weirded me out because I don't think I really look like a “Tina”, and I'm not entirely certain how someone could misidentify my gender. Perhaps I overestimate my masculinity…
Thanks to ASSid23 for the tip and translation!
PS. It looks like the article is a translation of an article that
WIRED published last year.
The mess on my car is cleaned off and it's now in safer storage (and it's still just a short walk away). Safer from kids with eggs anyway… Pulling into the car in, I'd say I had maybe an inch and a half of clearance on each side of the garage door, which is definitely little enough to make me a nervous.
My neighbor's house is looking really rough.
I assume there was a fire.
Nefarious's school just called to say she's really sick so I guess I'm off to the doctor…
I thought that maybe the pain that's developed in my lower leg when I walk was due to nerves regrowing, and my brain incorrectly deciding that these new sensations are a “tearing” effect rather than just gravity and inertia. For the last couple days I've been wrapping it up, just to keep stuff from moving as much when I walk, and it actually makes a big difference, at least in the short term.
I've also been taking painkillers during the day now to see how it affects me. On one hand it's good because I'm not in constant pain, but at the same time, this painkiller isn't even close to enough to mute it all (and opiates make me really itchy). It also makes me really tired, so while I don't have pain exhaustion, I have a drug dopiness that I'm not 100% sure that I should drive on… and because I
have to drive daily unless I switch Nefarious to the schoolbus, I'm not sure I'll be able to keep taking them.
I got a storage space this morning to move my car to, since parking in Phil's building is putting the car at increasing risk of vandalism… Hopefully it starts when I head over there to get it. Other than that, 7/11 gave me what seems to be a fake $5 the other day (it's already been refused by one store).
It's missing the holograms/foil and I guess isn't UV ink.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Rachel (mil0.com/blog) is turning 25 today (or something like that), and is heading off to Mexico for another death-defying race series. Happy birthday Rachel!
