Random News & Views Roundup

- Wanker of the Day: John Derbyshire. Runner-up (in a close race): Nathaniel Blake.

- What is going on with N Korea's nuclear reactor?

- Obvious headline of the day: Stressed army makes U.S. vulnerable: retired general

- General Peter Pace (sockpuppet brigade) spouts talking points:

But Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military has the ability to take on a major new conflict, despite the strain of Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I try to speak very precisely publicly about this because the worst thing you can do is you have some country sitting out there miscalculating the enormous residual capacity of the United States military and think that they can do something because we are currently tied up," Pace told reporters in Washington.

"We are focused on Iraq. We are focused on Afghanistan. We do have a lot of our assets there. But we do have enormous residual capacity that's available to the nation," he said.

Shorter Pace: Iran, here we come.

- Bush at the Va Tech convocation on Tuesday:

As the Scriptures tell us, "Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

"Good". Like war, for example.

- "No kidding!" headline of the day: 'Rampage may not influence '08 presidential race'. It's all lip-flapping anyway. Does anyone really think their gun laws will change?

- The tories are feeling the heat over their attempts to screw with Canada's gun registry in the meantime.

- A Canadian veteran comes to terms with his past. (All the best to you Dave and thank you for that courageous post.)

- Juan Cole: Iraq Has Two Virginia Techs Every Day

- Also, "about 70% of primary school students in a Baghdad neighborhood suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress such as bed-wetting or stuttering, according to a survey by the Iraqi Ministry of Health." And with the constant barrage of violence they continue to witness, there will no doubt be many more long-lasting symptoms to come.

- Meanwhile, the UNHCR is calling on the west to help Iraq's 4 million refugees. As I wrote elsewhere yesterday, the refugee situation in Iraq is akin to the horrendous coverage we saw of stranded hurricane Katrina victims in NOLA - except that these refugees have been stuck in their virtual convention center begging for help for years. The BBC has 4 Iraq refugee stories.

- Dennis Kucinich intends to file articles of impeachment against Cheney. Go Dennis!

- It's the 25th anniversary of Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Chretien shared his thoughts with CTV's Mike Duffy on Tuesday. Meanwhile, in a totally unsurprising move: "The current Conservative government has no plans to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Charter." Yes, that's Canada's "new" government for you. Rights? Freedoms? Eh?
 

The Va Tech Massacre: A Roundup of News

It's just all very overwhelming and sad.

- One of the victims was Canadian: Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, who taught French in Virginia Tech's department of foreign languages.

- Another Canadian tells his story.

- Several other victims' names have been released as well.

- On the heels of yesterday's shootings comes a bomb threat at St Edward's University in Austin, Texas. That campus has been evacuated.

- The shooter has been identified as 23 yr old Cho Seung Hui, a South Korean immigrant who lived in the US since he was a child.

Investigators worked through the night gathering and removing evidence from the Norris Hall, including a 9mm handgun and a .22 caliber handgun, officials said.

Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flinchum said ballistics tests showed that one of the weapons was also used in the shooting deaths of two people more than two hours earlier at West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory building.

"It is reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both, but we don't have the evidence to take us there," Flaherty said.

Officials said they are still talking to an acquaintance of the female student killed in the residence hall, who was detained off-campus after the shooting and has been labeled a person of interest.

- Students ask: Why the Delay?

- Thanks to someone's rush to judgment yesterday, a completely innocent Asian Va Tech student was rumoured to be the shooter and has received death threats as a result. The Drudge Report linked to his live journal site and labeled it as a "hoax" site set up after the shootings. In fact, the site had been up for years.

- Va Tech will hold a convocation at 2pm ET.



Related: Those interested in Canada's gun laws can find information here.

- An editorial post I wrote this past Sunday: Unanswered Wake-up Calls

Update: The ripple effect - Threats Rattle Schools in 7 States
 

Potential Columbine-like Massacre Copycat Pre-empted in Calgary

As if today's news about the massacre in Virginia wasn't enough to digest, I just discovered that a similar tragedy has been avoided in Calgary this week thanks to the potential shooter's parents:

CALGARY (CP) - Authorities say it was the parents of a teen charged with threatening to kill teachers on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre who tipped police that he posed a danger.

The 14-year-old student, whose name can't be published under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was charged April 2 with uttering death threats against two teachers at a junior high school in Calgary. However, police made no public announcement about the charges until Friday.

A number of weapons were seized from his home. Reports have suggested one of them was an assault rifle, although police have not confirmed that.

A letter was sent to parents two days later that said "implied threats" had been made against the teachers.

"We're really attributing this to the great open communication between this student and his parents as a factor in how this was identified," said Dawn Delaney of the Calgary Catholic Board of Education.

"This just goes to show how important it is to have open communication with (your) children and, if you observe a change in your child's behaviour, don't ignore it. Talk to them about it and encourage them to talk freely to you."

Everything appeared almost normal Monday at the school where the 14-year-old had been attending class. The exception was the presence of a few plainclothes police officers.

Delaney said the officers were there to assure everyone at the school that they were safe, although there was no longer any threat to students or staff.

The youth is not allowed on school property and won't be coming back to classes, she said.

It's believed the teen was planning an attack to coincide with the April 20 anniversary of the 1999 Columbine massacre in Littleton, Colo., in which 12 students and one teacher were shot to death by two teenagers.

Kudos to the parents for paying attention and doing the right thing. I'm sure this will send chills through the community as so many of us remember what happened in Taber, Alberta as well.

As one expert on CNN reiterated today, the massacre in Virginia may also spur copycat attacks just as the Columbine shootings did. On top of that, April 19th is also the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

A very tense week indeed.
 

The Va Tech Massacre: What's Wrong With This Picture?

Via the White House press briefing today:

Q Any talk that President might go to Virginia to comfort the families?

MS. PERINO: I spoke to the President at 12:35 p.m., I was the first to alert him to the tragedy and I think that it's a little bit premature to talk about any other travel arrangements, or anything else. But if that changes, we'll let you know.

The White House press secretary was the first person to tell Bush what happened? And at 12:35 pm when the first shooting incident began just after 7 am this morning followed by the second one just after 9 am?

MS. PERINO: I would point you back to the fact that President, along with Secretary Spellings, hosted last October -- October 10, 2006 -- a conference on school gun violence after the Amish school shooting and the other shootings that had happened, because the tragedies are the ones that just collectively break America's heart and are ones that we deeply feel, because all of us can imagine what it would be like to have been at your own school, your own college, and to have something happen. And those of us who are parents, or brothers or sisters of people at the schools have to take that into consideration.

As far as policy, the President believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed.

That's right. Never miss a chance to shill for the NRA. Charlton "from my cold dead hands" Heston must be so proud of his president.
 

Massacre in Virginia

It was just yesterday that I wrote about America's unanswered wake-up calls, including the Columbine massacre. Today, tragically, according to early news reports a now dead gunman managed to kill 21 people at Virginia Polytechnic Institute - leaving at least another 21 wounded.

"Polytechnic". We Canadians have our own sad memories of another massacre at a school with the same designation. That wound still bleeds.

The unidentified shooter was among the dead, according to officials, who also said that several were injured in the shootings, at West Ambler Johnston, a dormitory, and Norris Hall, which houses the College of Engineering. Authorities said the first shooting was reported shortly after 7 a.m.

"We have a ballpark figure on fatalities," Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum, said at a news conference broadcast by CNN. "It's at least 20 fatalities."

Flinchum said he did not know whether the shooter was a student. Some of those killed were in a classroom, he said.

Horrendously sad. I just don't know what else to say at this point other than to offer comfort to all who lost a loved one and to wish that those who are wounded will not perish as well.

Update via the NYT:

The shooting was the second in the past year that forced officials to lock down the campus. In August of 2006, an escaped jail inmate shot and killed a deputy sheriff and an unarmed security guard at a nearby hospital before the police caught him in the woods near the university.

The capture ended a manhunt that led to the cancellation of the first day of classes at Virginia Tech and shut down most businesses and municipal buildings in Blacksburg. The accused gunman, William Morva, is facing capital murder charges.

ABC News is now reporting 29 confirmed dead. Also:

ABC News has confirmed that there were two separate bomb threats last week at Virginia Tech that targeted engineering buildings. The first was directed at Torgersen Hall, a classroom and laboratory building, while the second was directed at multiple engineering buildings. Students and staff were evacuated, and the university had offered a $5,000 reward for information into the threats.

Update:

CNN is now saying there are 31 dead according to the AP and that this is the “worst shooting incident in US history” - not only as far as school shootings go.

Bush will hold a live press conference at 4:15 ET, in what has already been promoted (by CNN reporter Suzanne Malveaux, iirc) as an “emotional” message.

Will Bush dare to call this "terrorism"? I doubt it.

It appears the Va Tech president will be holding another presser at 4:30 ET as well.