The issue of releasing the Cho videos to the public still has me pulling in different directions, but I think Jeff Jarvis and Kevin Drum make excellent points about why the video should have been released.  I think their points are valid.  We don’t need a news media, whether it is old or new media, deciding what the general public should or should not be allowed to see.  Let us make that decision.  Granted, people will get hurt, the victims and their families especially, but do we really want news organizations taking that control from us?

Tomorrow is Earth Day.  What are you doing to save our planet?

Well, it certainly hasn’t taken long for copycats to start mimicking Seung-Hui Cho, and it’s right here in Missouri.  A 30-year-old asshole sent threatening emails to professors at Missouri State University (fomerly Southwest Missouri State University) in Springfield, MO, which caused a 45-minute lockdown to ensure students and professors were safe.  For his stupidity, the man will be charged with a felony count of making a terorist threat.  I hope they throw the book at him.  Shit like this should never be tolerated, especially considereing the world we live in these days.

Forgotten in all the horror of Virgina Tech and the vitriol directed at the murderer is the family of Seung-Hui Cho.  In a statement issued by the family Cho’s sisters says, “We feel hopeless, helpless and lost.”  This family has a long road ahead.  Because it’s human nature, people will soon lash out that the family they will blame for creating such a monster, even if nothing in their life was responsible for their Ch’s actions; they’re already under police protection.  It was nice to see a few of the victimss families show compassion to Cho’s family, which is also human nature, a more positive side of human nature.

Note to self:  don’t mess with 82-year-old, gun-toting, former Miss Americas.

The phrase “war is hell” has been used so often that we forget that war is, in fact, hell on earth sometimes; and not just for the soldiers.  According to an Army report concerning the Haditha civilian deaths, the chain of command viewed civilian death as a necessary part of this war.  How do we get to the point where honorable men and women start viewing the deaths of innocent civilians as ”…routine and as the natural and intended result of insurgent tactics”?  I, of course, have no right to lay blame on the soldiers because I wasn’t there, but I do have the right to lay blame at a weak chain of command and an administration who’s thrust our soldiers into a war with little training and equipment, which leads to mistakes like Hadita.