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WTF Va Tech?
Posted on: April 16, 2007 - 12:10pm
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WTF Va Tech?
What is with the shooting at Va Tech? Isn't that where LeftofLarry is? Any word?
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The article I read says, ""multiple victims" at Norris Hall, an engineering building". Which is a little scary, I hope that is not where Larry is located.
CNN says 21 are dead and at least 21 are wounded. It appears they've shot the shooter. The shootings first started on a dorm floor and then happened in the classroom. I guess there was only one shooter. That's all I've heard so far.
If god takes life he's an indian giver
CBC News Canada is saying 22 dead now.
The latest report states at least 32 were killed including the gunman...not clear yet as to whether or not he took his own life. Guess no one has heard from LefttoLarry yet? It is probably chaos there.
To clear things up, LeftOfLarry does NOT go to Virginia Tech. He goes to Virginia Commonweath University (VCU) in Richmond, VA. VA Tech is 45 minutes away from Roanoke, where I grew up. I have upwards of about 50 people I know well who go to VT. Many of whom are enginners and have classes in one of the buildings that was attacked. No word yet. I'm hanging tight.
Had a co-worker say, "well, all you can do is hope and pray." I thought to myself, "I'll stick with the 'hope' part."
The Enlightenment wounded the beast, but the killing blow has yet to land...
According to my local news, 33 dead including the gunman and at least 28 injured. He walked in, chained up the entry and started shooting in classrooms.
My heart goes out to all those affected by this selfish son of a bitch.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
my sister's friend was actually shot there today. not killed, just hospitalized.
Would it be too far off the mark to say it looks like the work of another crazed theist?
What leads you to that impression? I'm yet to see anything about the person who did this. Bit of a leap there imho.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
Would it be too far off the mark to say it looks like the work of another crazed theist?
I wouldn't go anywhere near that far into speculation yet. Judging by the profiles of many school-killers, it might be safest as of yet to just hedge you bets that this guy was a depressed loser or a deranged maniac, regardless of god-belief or lack thereof.
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
True, there isn't any information on this person yet, but given the history (how unfortunate that there is a history) of these situations, the shooter is usually some nutcase citing religious reasons. Naturally, whoever did this is off their rocker, but somehow religion and nutcases seem gravitate toward each other (see Hamby's thread).
I am very happy to hear that LefttoLarry was not involved, but I am very saddened by the loss of innocent lives and I feel for their families. (Just for the record, all lives are innocent as far as I am concerned. I would be no less saddened if this had happened at a theistic college.)
I can't wait to hear the speculations as to what the cause is for this tragedy. I predict that pretty soon prominent American christians will blame the godlessness of secular education, society, or anything else they can think of...
Sorry! I have to correct myself (see what happens when you start talking to rational people? - lol). I dug a little further into these types of shootings/violence and although some are motivated by religious reasons for the most part the reasons are all over the board. Plus, since many of the shooters commit suicide it becomes a guessing game as to their motives. My apologies...best to just stick with "nutcase" for now until we know more.
KSMB had a very good point - if this guy was a Christian that won't matter, but if he wasn't or was a non-church going or liberal Christian. this will be seen as a symbol of secularism. And FSM forbid he be an atheist! Never mind there could be 100 Christians doing the same sort of thing.
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I read "college" and "Virginia" at work today and immediately thought of LeftofLarry. I'm glad he doesnt go there. I was really worried.
This is insane. I was on Wikipedia all morning keeping my coworkers updated. This is so sad. And senseless. Of course I've already seen an "expert" on CNN blame "violent videos" and "violent porn" that all the non-homeschooled kids are apparently watching these days, and the "bad parents" who let their kids play (gasp!) VIDEO GAMES.
And I'm really sick of all the newscasters saying "our prayers are with the victims" and "president bush offers prayers." Prayers hardly help. Even if their god cared wouldn't he have stopped it from happening? I'm sure god's up there right now saying, "Shit, man, they're praying for the victims to LIVE? Oh crap, I already let 33 of them die! Oops."
Pfft. At any rate this is really depressing. All those bright young minds, gone. What a world, man, what a world.
Why not say, "Our thoughts are with the victims and the families. I hope the injured receive the best medical care, and if there is anything our citizens can do, we are here for you!"
Saying our "prayers are with you" is like saying, "i have a sixth toe on my left foot you can have". I does the person on the receiving end of the comment absolutely no good.
I am horrified.
The first post about this was 9 1/2 hours ago and this is the first I've heard about it.
There are people at my Day Job that listen to the radio all day. You would think something like this would get mentioned.
Have we become so anesthetized to this kind of thing that it's not worth mentioning?
I am aghast a tragedy like this has happened again and I'm on my way to find some news on the web.
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id expect schools will be putting up even more security now, this is more than 2x worse than columbine was.
This is what sent me over the edge you guys. Go to their myspace pages. Read their comments. Look into their eyes. It's utterly UTTERLY heartbreaking. I'm really crying right now. Honestly, this is damaging to my heart. I clicked on Laura McCain's site, and I honestly wish there was that god that she believed in so much that she could be with, but it just made me cry harder when I realized there isn't. Argh, this is TOO SAD. It makes it seem so normal to see their myspace pages.
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Virginia Tech victims list and their myspace pages.
This is an ongoing list of Virginia Tech students that were killed yesterday. Their names will contain a link to their myspace page (if their is one).
I am doing this in good taste. I hope it doesn’t offend anyone. The reason behind this is that it’s one thing to hear a list of names on TV, or read them online, but if you take a second to view a bit of the persons personal life it will give you a deeper understanding of that person.
It will help give you a greater understanding of how terrible a tragedy this is. It will help some to realized that the deceased are real people, not just names on a screen. Real people that had real lives, real hopes, and real dreams…. just like you and me.
After looking at the lives of these people, the tragedy hits even harder.
Maxine Turner
Vienna, Va.
Senior, Chemical Engineering
Henry Lee
Roanoke, Va.
Freshman, Computer Engineering
Matt La Porte
Dumont, N.J.
Freshman, University Studies
Jamie Bishop
Instructor, Foreign Languages and Literatures (German)
G.V. Loganathan
Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Juan Ortiz
Graduate Student, Civil Engineering
Jarrett Lane
Narrows, Va.
Senior, Civil Engineering
Ryan Clark
Columbia County, Ga.
Senior, Biology, English, Psychology
Leslie Sherman (A myspace page has been found, just trying to verify it.)
Sophomore, History and International Studies
Caitlin Hammaren
Slate Hill, NY
Sophomore, International Studies and French
Liviu Librescu
Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics
Kevin Granata
Professor, Engineering Science & Mechanics
Reema Samaha
Centreville, Va.
Freshman
Emily Hilscher
Woodville, Va.
Freshman, Animal and Poultry Sciences, Equine Science
Ross Abdallah Alameddine
Saugus, Mass.
Mary Read
Lauren McCain
Hampton, Va.
International Studies
Cho Seung-Hui (SHOOTER)
South Korea (resident alien)
Senior, majoring in english
I have done my best to verify that this list is accurate. If you know of any errors, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Also, if you know the myspace page of the persons listed here that I didn’t find, please let me know via my contact page, or leave a message below this blog post.
I will continue to update this page as more names of the deceased are released, and as more myspace or other personal web pages are found. Any help I can get with this list I appreciate.
If you feel this page should be removed, I will remove it. That being said, I think it is necessary for people to see the real lives of these victims in order to appreciate them for who they were. It really makes this more than just statistics when you see the faces and read the interests and hopes of people senselessly murdered.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I clicked on Maxine Turner's page and it played "Overkill" sung by the lead singer of Men at Work. Damn. That song has always got to me, anyway.
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Those really got to me. Several had multiple comments like "Call us and let us know you're OK. We're worried."
This just breaks my heart, but I think it's important to see the people behind the names in a news report.
Thanks, Glamour.
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No prob. I posted that on my myspace, and just got a message from a guy I went to college with up here in Van. Apparently he used to hang out with one of the victims' sisters in high school. He wanted to thank me for my bulletin listing his friends sisters' myspace, because he didn't have it. He was glad to see all the nice comments on her page. It made me feel better somehow. And also worse. Six degrees of seperation even up in Canada. Weirdness. I wasn't expecting that.
Reading those myspace pages is kind of haunting, and to think of so many bright young minds perish, and to think of what it must of been like to be in such a shitty situation, it disturbs and angers me.
I wish someone knocked him out before he could do himself in, having to endure a life he did not want to live and in an even worse situation, that would be some sort of satisfaction for me.
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I'll get back to you when I think of something worthwhile to say.