Mawkishness Run Amok - V Tech

[McBif]

I think Christopher Hitchens says what needs to be said about the predictably phony and useless Lady Di-type reaction in America (the rest of you are obviously thrilled and pleased by the events) to the Virginia Tech slaughter:

 

From the article a beautiful demolition job of some phony, phony, phony bloody bitch:

 

The person being quoted is the Rev. Susan Verbrugge of Blacksburg Presbyterian Church, addressing her congregation in an attempt, in the silly argot of the day, "to make sense of the senseless":

 

Ms. Verbrugge recounted breaking through the previous week's numbness as she stopped on a morning walk and found herself yelling at the mountains and at God. Though her shouts were initially met with silence, she said, she soon was reassured by the simplest of things, the chirping of birds.

 

"God was doing something about the world," she said. "Starting with my own heart, I could see good."

 

Yes, it's always about you, isn't it? (By the way, I'd watch that habit of yelling at mountains and God in the greater Blacksburg area if I were you. Some idiot might take it for a "warning sign.") When piffle like this gets respectful treatment from the media, we can guess that it's not because of the profundity of the emotion but rather because of its extreme shallowness. Those birds were singing just as loudly and just as sweetly when the bullets were finding their targets.

 

The whole essay:

 

Feel My Pain

[Old Hippie]

Tons of opportunists will jump on this, as they did 9-11 (remember Pat Robertson's crap?) and other events...see GWB show up? what an ass...what about all the kids killed in Iraq...? Has he gone to even one single funeral?

[Steve]

Hate to say this but its also a slow news week and news used to be 30 mins a night and that's it but with 24 hour news and not enough to fill it, they'll milk tragedies for all its worth and more. Some of is the bleeding obvious, like asking students what its like to be back to classes the first day after the tragedy. What are they supposed to say? Same with asking the Rutger's girls b-ball team what they thought of Imus' comment. Every thing is milked for pathos, etc. nowadays. After the initial tragedy, leave it for those directly affected to keep thinking on it however they wish.

[Flashermac]

When JFK Jr went splat into the ocean - flying a plane he could barely fly and at night too when he wasn't instrument qualified - Billy Graham said it was God's will. Gee, it couldn't have had anything to do with John-John being a dingbat, could it? Other pilots reportedly described JFK Jr's flying as a disaster waiting to happen.

 

And I loved this logic: spend over a million US$ to recover John-John's body, along with his wife's and sister-in-law's, just so they could hold a funeral and then bury them at sea!

 

Gotta love America.

 

 

[Steve]

Do you know how many $200 hammers that could have bought in the defense budget?

[Flashermac]

Not really. I was in the Army, not the USAF. I remember guys bitching when they found out their M-16s were made by Singer, the sewing machine company!