I'm almost embarrassed to even address the subject...

...given the disgusting amount of overexposure the V-Tech killings have already received, so I'll just make this a one and done. For the most part, I've succesfully avoided cable news outlets since Monday, but I have inadvertantly caught bits of coverage here and there. The media is truly pervasive.

One interview I saw on Monday has particularly stuck with me. It was with a female student, a freshman, who looked like a poster girl for the feminazis. She had a Mr. Clean shaved head, her ear lobes were plugged, wore thick horn-rimmed glasses, and had the air of an arrogant cunt. (Incidentally, I don't feel bad judging her by her appearance; anyone that presents themself like that is begging to be judged.) You already know her line: she expressed outrage (Zzzz...) that the school administration had not responded sooner to the initial acts of violence.

Even now, I can't help but be amazed at the supreme irony in her remarks. She who is (al)most certainly of an "Impeach Bush" strain expressing anger that the executive power failed to take swift, unilateral action against a man that posed an imminent and mortal threat. "A madman with a gun was on the loose, and the administration failed to take a hard enough course of action in stopping him and securing us!"

Maddening, these people.

For the most part, however, my thoughts have tended to focus on the actions (and possible lackthereof) of the students and faculty who were present during the second shooting.

"Remember: when we say "we don't know what we'd do under the same circumstances", we make cowardice the default position."

My initial reaction in learning that the shooter had locked himself in the building with all those people was to juxtapose that situation against that of United Flight 93 on 9/11. It was on that flight that men refused to resign their fates to other men with guns pointed at them; there that virtus truly made itself manifest, and at the hour of death, no less. No doubt, such courage was displayed on Monday, but I can't help but wonder to what extent.

That may sound terribly uncharitable to the dead and their families, but I think it's necessary to ponder. It is precisely because these atrocities occur that we should all not only consider but charge ourselves with what we would do under the same circumstances.

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