Virginia Tech

I haven't said anything about the VT shootings mainly because of the traveling last weekend, catching up here after being away, and the fact that I just don't follow the news much. But mostly, I haven't bothered to say anything because this sort of thing is beginning to follow a predictable and rather disturbing formula:

1. Someone, somewhere commits some horrifying crime against a group of people.
2. Everyone starts a witch-hunt for someone to blame. The perp is invariably dead, and it isn't nearly as much fun to blame dead people as it is to publicly beat up on people that are most likely doing an excellent job of it themselves. Is there a sentient being with an IQ over 50 that doesn't understand that every survivor, every family member, every faculty member at VT hasn't already asked themselves a million times what they could have done differently? Is it really necessary for some hack politician, who has never had to negotiate any situation more dangerous than a big-city crosswalk, to start pontificating about what ought to have been done?
3. Congress gets involved, meaning we all suffer more erosion of our constitutional rights while simultaneously doing nothing to prevent the same horrifying incident from happening again (and in most cases, making it more likely by pissing off hundreds, or even thousands, of borderline psychotics by pushing them into a corner).

I was talking to a gentleman on one of my tours earlier this week about how we seem to be accelerating towards some sort of breaking point as a society. Expect to see more of this.