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20 People Shot Dead on Virginia Tech Campus

BPSCG said:
Can't agree with that. Did his manifesto include anything indicating he admired and was emulating the Amish school shooter? Did the Amish school shooter's suicide note include anything indicating he admired and was emulating the Columbine shooters? Did the Columbine shooters leave behind anything indicating they admired and were emulating the University of Texas sniper?
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No (at least, I haven't heard so), but this guy did mention Eric and Dylan in his ramblings. I'm not saying he was consciously emulating them, but he had them on his mind.

(edit: and I could say absence of evidence, etc. but I won't. ;))

I can't remember if it was that day, or the day after, but did I not hear of several instances of bomb-threats and the like at a few schools around the country after this shooting? Not sure if that's significant, a sign of emulation, or not...

Madness finds its own reasons, reasons which leave the rest of us agape, stunned, and baffled. Cho's rant was full of those reasons. The next guy will have his own reasons, hatched by his own demons.
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I don't disagree, but there is something to consider here. The notion that media attention helps further more shootings isn't totally discountable, I think.

My ex told me he didn't kill himself at one point in his life because a counselor told him that when a parent commits suicide, his/her kids' risk of suicide rises; a sort of door has been opened by the parent. As if having a parent who suicides brings the unthinkable into the thinkable...if that makes sense.

Maybe all the attention given to these shootings helps to normalize them somewhat? There are kids growing up now for whom this is far more "normal" than it is for many of us, after all.

I won't say all this media attention definitely hurts, but I'm not at all certain it helps.
 
Lonewulf said:
With experience, you can possibly tell when someone is nervous or lying as they answer those questions.

That's how I'd see it for that policy theory, at least. In practice, the officials probably are too tired and bored to actually pay attention much.
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What I heard from a flight attendant friend of mine that (at least in the Netherlands), no one (= 0) has ever been stopped/caught/found out at that part of the process. So everyone -nervous or not- seems to get on the plane. As far as she tells me it is more of a CYA system where if something later on DOES go wrong the airline can at least say that they did tried to prevent it. BTW the officials are usually hired by the airlines and are from private security guard agencies.

Which reminds me of the one time I had a very strange conversation with one of these people. This is new years eve:
He:Hi
Me: Hi

He:Packed your own suitcase?
Me:yes

(insert your own *he* and *me* after this)

when?
yesterday

you packed everything yourself?
yes

has anyone wandered in the room with your suitcase in it when you weren't looking?
absolutely not

left it out of your sight at any moment in time?
nope

Whose laptop is that?
mine

have you at any time let anyone touch your laptop?
never

Did you ever put new programs on there that weren't there originally?
No

whose cellphone is that?
mine

have you at any time ever let anyone use your cell phone?
absolutely not

How was your Christmas?
OK I guess

Did you get any gifts?
(Ok he got me there this is a new one, obviously I gave the wrong answer) Uhm, yes

What did you get for Xmas?
A book

What book?
The Da Vinci Code

Who gave you the book?
my uncle

When did he give it to you?
Xmas

Are you sure it was your uncle who gave it to you?
Um, yep, pretty sure

What is it about?
A guy running around trying to figure stuff out

So you've read it already?
No, but I am familiar with the story

How much of it did you read already?
Nothing

Do you have it on you?
Yes

Let me see it *carefully leaves through my book*

OK, did you get anything else for XMAs?
No, absolutely not, zero, nada



Jeez, Afraid I'd bring bad writing into the country?:confused:
 
Kariboo said:
Which reminds me of the one time I had a very strange conversation with one of these people. This is new years eve:
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Jeeze... at what point were you going to ask, "Where are you going with this?"

I mean, would you have kept answering even when they started asking stuff like, "Do you sleep with livestock? Have you ever had sex with a cabbage? Was it good? Really, I - whoops, sorry, we - really really really want to know..."
 
BPSCG said:
Jeeze... at what point were you going to ask, "Where are you going with this?"

I mean, would you have kept answering even when they started asking stuff like, "Do you sleep with livestock? Have you ever had sex with a cabbage? Was it good? Really, I - whoops, sorry, we - really really really want to know..."
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Hmmm.

There's the "sex with a cabbage" thing again, Beeps.
 
BPSCG said:
Jeeze... at what point were you going to ask, "Where are you going with this?"

I mean, would you have kept answering even when they started asking stuff like, "Do you sleep with livestock? Have you ever had sex with a cabbage? Was it good? Really, I - whoops, sorry, we - really really really want to know..."
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I've tried that before and you get a "just answer the question ma-am". So unless I think it's worth missing my plane about.... (and Dan Brown certainly isn't) yeah, I just answer the questions.

I would have had more fun answering questions about the cabbage sex though...There are a lot of misconceptions about that one. And a security guard grilling me about cabbage sex might be a reason to miss the plane;)

Although I'm pretty sure that if anyone else ever mentions cabbage sex to me they are a member of this forum
 
Lonewulf said:
With experience, you can possibly tell when someone is nervous or lying as they answer those questions.

That's how I'd see it for that policy theory, at least. In practice, the officials probably are too tired and bored to actually pay attention much.
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And of course on a great many flights (at least in the UK) you can now check in online (sometimes answering the questions, sometimes not) or at an automated teller at the airport (where you normally do have to touch the screen to confirm you packed your back yourself).

I am of course fully convinced that they have systems in place to detect anyone using these methods who is lying.
 
shanek said:
Oops! Sorry, didn't mean to interfere with you leeching off the taxpayer... :p

Seriously, have you heard of LEAP? Opinions?
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Hadn't heard of LEAP. Bookmarked the link. Thanks!
The war on drugs. Don't get me started (in this thread, at least). It will go down in history as one of, if not THE, biggest money wasting, damage causing scams ever perpetrated on the citizens of this country. No cop I consider intelligent actually buys into the war on drugs. We're in the game (yup) for the fun of the hunt and because you follow the drugs to get the guns. Oftentimes, when a cop is bringing in a really "pimpy" arrest, (like a dime bag of weed or two rocks) the arresting officer will sarcastically say to those around him, "Winning the war on drugs, one dime bag at a time!" A variation is, "Yep, making a difference!" said with false zeal.

I never would make these small dope arrests, much to the chagrin of my bosses.
SUPERVISOR:"You think you're too good to make the one baggers, (insert my name)?"
ME: "No, I think we all are."
Repeat exchange for next boss, next, and so on...

I've thrown a LOT of weed down the city sewers over the years. Hell, it's worth it just for the look on the offenders face when I tell him to get off my patch and stop getting caught breaking the law. Street folk just bolt but the college student's are the best. They begin to overthink the situation as some sort of inverted entrapment and stand there stammering. I wonder what they tell their friends when I drive away? It's getting tough out there, though. Cameras being put in squads means everyone gets hammered for weed, dope and traffic violations. No more officer discretion. Taking all my fun away.
 
I just watched a response from Cho's great-aunt who (translated) confirmed his troubled thought processes. I did get a chuckle from her quote; "Who would have thought he would cause so much trouble - the idiot!"
 
This site has an interview (about half-way down the screen) with one of the shooting victims that I thought gave some interesting insight into what it was like in his classroom.

It's an edited version of an interview conducted by Chicago's ABC station.

http://thenewshole.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/19/157298.aspx

The ABC site has posted the uncut interview in two parts. I watched the first part from which most of the edited version appeared to come. He has some odd mannerisms at times (particularly when he describes having a strong impulse not to go to class that morning), but I found it interesting.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=local&id=5217694
 
Katana said:
This site has an interview (about half-way down the screen) with one of the shooting victims that I thought gave some interesting insight into what it was like in his classroom.
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That got me thinking about being in that classroom, unarmed and now I'm all riled up again. Deep breaths....

BTW-Chuck Goudie (news guy) is a tool. Not because of this but a recent past event here and I had to get that off my chest. Even among media hacks, he is a tool. So there.
 
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