After Virginia Tech

Just Like Virginia Tech; CBS Spreads Lies to Further Their Gun Control Agenda
It pisses me off how the hacks in the MSM take every horrific shooting like the one today in Arizona to further their favored cause of Gun Control. Not only do they try to demonize and entire class of citizens (gun owners) and Firearms (everything is "high-powered" or "high capacity" or an "assault weapon" or "Military-style"), they also lie about the effect of Gun Laws they champion, claiming these seemingly magical laws would have prevented such a crime. CBS is guilty of fabricating such a l...

Statement by Governor Tim Kaine on the Shooting in Arizona
Governor Tim Kaine has issued the following statement in the wake of today's shooting in Arizona. The terrible act of violence in Arizona has left us all aghast. It is a sad day for America and our thoughts and prayers are with Rep. Giffords and all the Victims of this tragedy. The facts of this criminal act are still to be determined, but we thoroughly condemn what happened in Arizona today. We must all reaffirm that there is no place in our country for violent attacks of this kind on publi...

Tech's Foster reportedly talking to Pitt
BLACKSBURG The annual fret fest for Virginia Tech football fans has begun as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Saturday the Hokies' Defensive Coordinator, Bud Foster, has interviewed for the University of Pittsburgh's vacant head-coaching job. However, t he 51-year-old Foster, who has been an assistant with the Hokies for 24 seasons, does not appear to be the Panthers' leading Candidate. The Post-Gazette reported that Tulsa head coach Todd Graham and Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradl...

Backfield suffers second hit as Williams also opts for NFL
BLACKSBURG Virginia Tech's loaded 2010 backfield will be down to just one proven tailback for the 2011 season after third-year sophomore Ryan Williams announced Sunday that he's leaving early for the NFL. Williams took his time with the decision and considered returning to the Hokies for another season before finally following fellow Tech tailback Darren Evans, a fourth-year junior who said Thursday that he was turning professional. "When they say you have the potential to be a first-rounde...

Shorthanded Hokies go zone, win sixth in row
BLACKSBURG The makeshift Virginia Tech Basketball Team won its sixth straight game Saturday, and the latest victory, 71-59 over Florida State, was the Hokies' most impressive of the streak. With only eight Scholarship players and forced into an uncharacteristic zone defense to avoid foul trouble, Tech (10-4, 1-1 ACC) still managed to maintain the lead for the final 25 minutes. It was a surprisingly thorough beating of the Seminoles (11-5, 1-1), who'd upset Baylor earlier this season, but no one ...

Ryan Williams leaving Va Tech for NFL Draft
Sophomore tailback Ryan Williams is leaving Virginia Tech with two years of eligibility remaining to make himself available for April's NFL Draft. Williams says an NFL advisory panel projected him as a first- or second-round draft choice this year, and the possibility of being a first-round draft choice is "something that's hard to pass up." He says the NFL will give him an opportunity to help out his family. He joins teammate Darren Evans, who announced last week he will also leave school early...

Documentary focuses on Va Tech shooting survivor
A documentary about a survivor of the 2007 Mass Shootings at Virginia Tech is on the schedule at the Sundance Film Festival. The Roanoke Times reports the documentary "Living for 32" is slated for daily screenings from Jan. 22 to 27 in Park City, Utah. Colin Goddard was shot four times by fellow Student Seung-hui Cho on April 16, 2007, but survived. Thirty-two people were shot to death before the gunman committed Suicide as police closed in. Goddard is now a congressional Lobbyist for gun contro...

Blame, Censorship and Personal Responsibility
My lack of comment with regards to the shootings over the weekend was partly the result of an inability to successfully connect to the tubes. But even if I hadn't been tubes-impaired, I didn't want to jump into the debate before I really had an opportunity to digest all of the hydra-like arms of this disaster -- who's to blame and how to properly peg this thing. But mainly, I haven't really been able to determine what to say here that's any different from my reaction to previous eliminationist...

Support for Gun Control Has Dropped in Recent Years
In the wake of Saturday’s shooting in Arizona, there are likely to be new polls out this week measuring the public’s support for stricter Gun Control laws. Until the surface, it is worth noting that support for stricter Gun Control has significantly dropped over the last couple of decades, and there is little evidence to suggest that major gun crimes change opinions on the issue. In a Gallup Poll conducted in October, just 44 percent of Americans said the laws covering the sale of Firearms ...

In Arizona, packing heat didn't work.
The horror in Arizona exposes the lunacy of the notion, popular among Republicans, that a heavily armed populace can stop a deranged gunman. After the horror at Virginia Tech, in 2007, gun advocates -- overwhelmingly Republicans -- advanced the idea that the massacre might have been cut short if Students had been allowed to carry weapons. School policy at Tech forbids students, visitors and most others to have weapons on campus. The Tech massacre even gave rise to an Advocacy Group, Students for...

Injury-depleted Hokies face big test versus Florida State
BLACKSBURG Seth Greenberg has been holding his Basketball Team together, seemingly, with tape and paper clips. Despite mounting injuries that have left Virginia Tech with just eight able-bodied Scholarship players, the Hokies have reeled off five consecutive victories after losing three in a row. The team, coming off three straight National Invitation Tournament appearances, began the season in the top 25 and with its sights set on that elusive NCAA bid. But that was before Tech lost sixth man J...

Schapiro: Governor's style problematic
As one of the few senior gubernatorial aides who knows his way around the General Assembly, Finkbeiner has done a disproportionate amount of heavy lifting for the boss, including the complex, hugely time-consuming — and unsuccessful — first stab at getting Virginia out of the liquor business. That flop showed, among other things, that Finkbeiner, a usually affable workaholic and the closest thing on McDonnell's staff to an eminence grise, can't do it all. Help may be on the way. Admi...

In the wake of Tucson, here come calls for more gun laws
A reader (Paul) commenting in a previous article observed, "What is terribly sad is Carolyn Mccarthy's immediate response to this whole affair. McCarthy ran for Congress after her husband was gunned down and her son seriously injured in a shooting in 1993 on a Long Island commuter train. Loughner legally purchased his weapon --a Glock 19 with an extended magazine-- from a local sporting goods store in Tucson. The same kind of extended magazine was illegal under the assault weapons ban that expir...

Arizona Shooter Loughner Has Gun Despite Criminal Record
If he had a record/case pending, why did he have posession of a Glock 17 9mm pistola? (hat tip Laura S). According to the Daily Caller, Loughner had prior run-ins with the law in the form of at least one arrest, according to two Public Access documents. This reminds me of Ishmael Ax, the slaughterer who mowed down scores at Virginia Tech. He had a psychiatric record -- overnight stays in asylums. How did he get a gun? Big Government fails us time and time again. MySpace.com ...

Leah Finnegan: Jared Loughner, Colleges, And The Mentally Ill
Should schools be compelled to give troubled Students Mental Health support? It's a chilling and complex question that comes to light as as a patchwork portrait of Tuscon shooter Jared Loughner emerges. We know that Loughner's behavior so bothered his classmates and Professors at Pima Community College that the school asked him to leave, ordering him to undergo a psychological evaluation. His strange conduct also led to several run-ins with Pima Campus Police, and prompted one student to vent ...

Self-Censor, For Fear of Triggering Those Whose Motivations Cannot Be Understood?
There’s nothing funny in today’s Morning Jolt. It’s just that kind of a day. I don’t want to live in a country where we all have to self-censor for fear that our particular choice of words might be what triggers a madman to go on a Shooting Spree. Because the key word in that sentence is “madman.” Madness. We on the sane side of the equation can barely understand it. One more point: we’re starting to hear more reports of people who sensed this man was ...

uggabugga
Jonah Goldberg's first reaction: Note the order of his concerns:I’ve been trying to follow the story today while balancing some other obligations. I’ve been reading the instant-reaction on Twitter and on the web and I’ve been trying to filter out the urge to vent my rage at those who immediately shoe-horned these awful crimes into their ideological prism. There have been some truly disgusting displays of opportunism out there. I will confess to having made those kinds of mistakes in the

49ers' hiring of Harbaugh is no laughing matter
Something about the 49ers was missing Friday. Jokes. When a beloved local professional team puts together eight straight losing seasons, hires a coach who tries to inspire his team by dropping his trousers, and is placed under the business leadership of the inexperienced 29-year-old son of the owners, people are going to have some fun. But Friday afternoon, no jokes. Suddenly the 49ers are serious. They have a real coach: Jim Harbaugh. And apparently Jed York, the aforementioned son of the own...

Clyburn: Increase funds for lawmakers' security
Rep. James E. Clyburn, South Carolina Democrat, said Sunday that Congress should increase spending for enhanced security for congressional lawmakers, following the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona Democrat. "We ought to take a look [at congressional members' security and personal spending accounts] rather than cut, cut, cut," Mr. Clyburn said on "Fox News Sunday." Mr. Clyburn said the federal Transportation Safety Administration thinks "Congress people should be treated like everybod...

49ers' hiring of Harbaugh is no laughing matter
Something about the 49ers was missing Friday. Jokes. When a beloved local professional team puts together eight straight losing seasons, hires a coach who tries to inspire his team by dropping his trousers, and is placed under the business leadership of the inexperienced 29-year-old son of the owners, people are going to have some fun. But Friday afternoon, no jokes. Suddenly the 49ers are serious. They have a real coach: Jim Harbaugh. And apparently Jed York, the aforementioned son of the own...

You'd be wise to take the 'over' for BCS final
Scoreboard watching: As Old Dominion and Northeastern slogged toward the conclusion to the Monarchs' 49-34 victory at the Ted Constant Center on Wednesday night, I was thinking, "Auburn and Oregon will score more than this in the BCS Title Game." Guesswork My pick is Auburn on the strength of Cam Newton's ability to dominate a game and because college defenses are so often at the mercy of the best quarterbacks. Wondering What's the over-under on the number of times TV will have a shot...

49ers' hiring of Harbaugh is no laughing matter
Something about the 49ers was missing Friday. Jokes. When a beloved local professional team puts together eight straight losing seasons, hires a coach who tries to inspire his team by dropping his trousers, and is placed under the business leadership of the inexperienced 29-year-old son of the owners, people are going to have some fun. But Friday afternoon, no jokes. Suddenly the 49ers are serious. They have a real coach: Jim Harbaugh. And apparently Jed York, the aforementioned son of the own...

What would cause a young person to snap?
This weekend's Tucson Shooting Spree, which killed six people and wounded 14 others, has left many people wondering what was going on in the mind of the suspected gunman. It is too early to know if Jared Lee Loughner, 22, is struggling with Mental Health, but experts say it is not uncommon for people in his age group to experience their first serious episode of Mental Illness. (None of the experts in this story were involved in this case.) "It is a vulnerable age. These types of disorders have a...

Arizona Fallout Continues
There has been a lot of talk about Gun Control in the wake of Saturday’s Arizona shooting, but that isn’t tyhe only policy issue likely to be debated following the tragedy. Robert Bernstein, Executive Director of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, issued a statement this morning urging lawmakers not to look to “quick fixes” if it is determined - as it appears to be the case - that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, is suffering from an untreated mental i...

How Did Loughner Get A Legal Gun?
A reader writes: While the focus of blame seems to be directed toward inflammatory political Rhetoric, I find myself wondering how the failure of the Mental Health system in this country may have once again lead to unnecessary deaths. This tragedy didn't happen in a vacuum. Much like Seung-hui Cho, the mentally-ill Virginia Tech Student who killed 32 people before committing Suicide, Loughner seems to be an obviously mentally ill individual who has been going untreated. Today, the Washingt...