campus massacre--virginia tech

[Wilfrid1]

One of the contestants had something to say about the murders following his critique by the judges, at which point Mr Cowell was caught by the camera rolling his eyes. The initial position, that he was rolling his eyes at the contestant's attempt to distract the audience from his poor performance, is not longer operational. The explanation as of this morning was that Mr Cowell had not heard his remarks and was thinking about something else - Paula Abdul, or whatever. Mr Cowell and the executive producer have issued formal apologies. Reports that Mr Cowell had several bad dreams last night featuring Don Imus and Alberto Gonzales cannot be confirmed.

 

Talk about Baudrillard (okay, don't).

[rancho_gordo]

One of the contestants had something to say about the murders following his critique by the judges, at which point Mr Cowell was caught by the camera rolling his eyes. The initial position, that he was rolling his eyes at the contestant's attempt to distract the audience from his poor performance, is not longer operational. The explanation as of this morning was that Mr Cowell had not heard his remarks and was thinking about something else - Paula Abdul, or whatever. Mr Cowell and the executive producer have issued formal apologies. Reports that Mr Cowell had several bad dreams last night featuring Don Imus and Alberto Gonzales cannot be confirmed.

 

Talk about Baudrillard (okay, don't).

 

But Cowell was right to roll his eyes. It was a cheap shot from the kid who also said, after Cowell called his performance "nasal", "Nasally is a form of music, too, you know".

[Rail Paul]

One of the contestants had something to say about the murders following his critique by the judges, at which point Mr Cowell was caught by the camera rolling his eyes. The initial position, that he was rolling his eyes at the contestant's attempt to distract the audience from his poor performance, is not longer operational. The explanation as of this morning was that Mr Cowell had not heard his remarks and was thinking about something else - Paula Abdul, or whatever. Mr Cowell and the executive producer have issued formal apologies. Reports that Mr Cowell had several bad dreams last night featuring Don Imus and Alberto Gonzales cannot be confirmed.

 

Talk about Baudrillard (okay, don't).

 

 

Thank you, Sir. May I have another?

 

That's always a danger with live TV programs. The benefit of a taped for broadcast version like Leno, Letterman, etc is you can edit, select a different camera view etc

[Wilfrid1]

But Cowell was right to roll his eyes. It was a cheap shot from the kid who also said, after Cowell called his performance "nasal", "Nasally is a form of music, too, you know".

 

And it would have been better had he stuck to that story.

[rancho_gordo]

But Cowell was right to roll his eyes. It was a cheap shot from the kid who also said, after Cowell called his performance "nasal", "Nasally is a form of music, too, you know".

 

And it would have been better had he stuck to that story.

 

He's gone "American". Tell them what you think they need to hear.

[Rebecca]

Thanks, Leslie, for the Dobbs Interview to read. And I pretty much think Behemoth has it figured best. My two cents would add emphasis on NATURE and NURTURE rather than the abstract blaming on society or schools themselves, though all add into the Bermuda Triangle of personality disorders. Saying "The Shooter" instead of "Murderer" might be part of the problem, too. No moral absolutes of unacceptable behavior, possible DNA hiccups, more likely really bad parenting, and definitely the CounterStrike type of video games that didn't exist before the 70's. The NBC interviews this morning were mostly discussions of how much to show on TV and when to take it all off the airwaves to discourage copycat shooters. Remember during the civil rights riots in the 60's, they realized that when the media stopped covering or sensationalizing the riots, they stopped. Good point, but I am more concerned about the individual personality development and absence of LOVE and DECENCY and socialization skills which are generally formed by the age of 7. Not in high school. Not in college.

[Wilfrid1]

I don't believe the medical consensus associates psychosis with bad parenting or any particular video-games.

 

"It is difficult to know the cause of psychosis the first time it occurs. Psychosis is associated with a number of medical conditions including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar (manic depressive) disorder, and substance abuse, among others. As well, members of families with a history of psychotic illness are at increased risk for developing psychosis themselves."

 

cmha

 

Of course, as a psychiatrist observed on CNN this morning, it's not possible to diagnose mental disorders in a dead person anyway.

[mongo_jones]

as i may have mentioned before, the university keeps urging me to take time out of class to discuss this incident with my traumatized students so that they may begin to heal. of course, my students don't seem to be particularly interested, let alone traumatized.

 

some kid here did say in one of these classes where a professor was engaging in healing discussion that he could see why someone might want to kill 32 people or something like that. he's now cooling his heels in jail.

[Leslie]

In other words, what bothers me is that the way we seem to deal with the mentally ill is to punish them after they commit the act (and tack on a bunch of political agendas for good measure), rather than put in place measures that prevent those actions with necessary attention ahead of time. There were all sorts of warning signs with this kid, apparently, and not just of the vague "loner/misfit" type.

 

The laws in the US have consistently expanded the rights of the mentally ill to be free of unwanted medical intervention and interference.

Thinking about this some more, given that men do not have the market on mental illness here, the school shooting scenarios are always by males, no? So it's obviously something more than mental illness at play, and the cultural way men act out when they are disturbed vs. disturbed women.

[Rail Paul]

some kid here did say in one of these classes where a professor was engaging in healing discussion that he could see why someone might want to kill 32 people or something like that. he's now cooling his heels in jail.

 

 

My sister in law is a high school guidance counselor. She's mentioned a number of times that they encouter a lot of kids who pass regularly between various video game environments and their daily lives. Essays are written in the voice and relationships of specific game characters or identities, that sort of thing. The character is their alter ego.

 

You can see some of the same expression in kids who drive their stolen car (Acura, Jeep, Lexus) like they've seen people drive in the action flicks. On the sidewalk, on the flaming rims, 120 mph+, that sort of thing. Scares the hell out of a lot of cops. But, that's not new, either.

[Rail Paul]

In other words, what bothers me is that the way we seem to deal with the mentally ill is to punish them after they commit the act (and tack on a bunch of political agendas for good measure), rather than put in place measures that prevent those actions with necessary attention ahead of time. There were all sorts of warning signs with this kid, apparently, and not just of the vague "loner/misfit" type.

 

The laws in the US have consistently expanded the rights of the mentally ill to be free of unwanted medical intervention and interference.

Thinking about this some more, given that men do not have the market on mental illness here, the school shooting scenarios are always by males, no? So it's obviously something more than mental illness at play, and the cultural way men act out when they are disturbed vs. disturbed women.

 

Even with some quick internet researching, I've failed to find any mass school shootings conducted by women. Quite a few stabbings of a single rival, and a few shootings, but no mass killings of other people.

[g.johnson]

oops

[g.johnson]

Even with some quick internet researching, I've failed to find any mass school shootings conducted by women. Quite a few stabbings of a single rival, and a few shootings, but no mass killings of other people.

Andrea Yates. Aileen Wuornos.

[Rebecca]

Excellent point, Leslie. Also, Wilf, cruising through your posting it says, "Mental illness plays no part in the majority crimes committed in our society." Well, that's the Canadian view, anyway. But that would logically rule out psychotic behavior as an initial primary cause and give more credibility to bad parenting and video games! Right? Am I the only person who felt the angst in Chou's video? He was screaming his pain and rage. Violence was his recourse/revenge. Whereforth cometh such pain and rage? Everybody is talking around what he did but they still are not listening to him. Remember a while back the man who unfurled a banner over a LA freeway bridge then shot his dog and himself? The media stumbled all over itself to add a 5 second delay so they could stop things like this from being shown "live." Whole point missed. What did his banner say? What message did he sacrifice his life for? Anyone remember? Anyone care?

[mongo_jones]

the last time i screamed my pain and rage the mouthfuls admins deleted my post. bastards.