So, it’s bad enough that this week folks at Virginia tech had to endure the pain, misery and infamy of hosting the largest school shooting massacre in history. Now, there are a bunch of psychotic morons who apparently lack any creativity or spine whatsoever, causing panic as they threaten a string of copycat incidents in schools across the country this week. Incidents were sparked in California yesterday, New Jersey earlier in the week, as well as Michigan, Minnesota and Florida. So far, it would seem that all the copycat incidents were the work of pranksters with no real intent to carry out their threats (though one can never be certain these days). All of the incidents resulted in prompt arrests, at least two the suspects being between the ages of 14 and 15. One (the perpetrator of the New Jersey incident) was female.

What is the problem with these people? Are these idiots really so attention-starved that they have to ride on the coattails of a lunatic? How can they possibly look at Seo Cheung-Hui and think of him as someone to pattern their behavior after? I really hope that each and every copycat gets charged and punished as if they did carry out their threat. The real thing was bad enough. It makes me beyond angry that anyone, even at age 14, would beleive this was such a cool thing to imitate. These social defects have proven they have no place in society, and probably ARE dangerous enough that they might carry it out if they get bored enough. Better to treat them seriously, and lock them up for as long as possible before they have the opportunity to make good on their threats. Evidently, it’s exactly what they want.

I’m also sick and tired of these ridiculous talking heads that are using the Virginia Tech massacre to trot out the old “ban violent video games” campaign. Without even verifying their facts, Dr. Phil and his disciples, dozens of self-described “experts,” went on camera with their sound bytes and talking points, holding the shooter up as the poster boy for why we need a nanny state to sterilize the games we play and the content we see, read and hear. They immediately assumed that this guy had violent video games in his possession and was a real fanatic. As it turns out, not a single violent video game was found among his belongings.

So, can we stop this now? We’ve established that he didn’t own them and thus, very likely didn’t play them. In fact, the real cause has been long established: HE WAS A PSYCHO! And I hate to break it to you, psychopaths and violent lunatics have existed in this society long before the first video games (violent or otherwise) was invented. No one had video games to blame for Charles Whitman, the guy who shot up the University of Texas in 1966 and killed 15 people.

These censorship morons who are clinging on Cho Seun-hui’s back for their next campaign meal ticket are, in my opinion, just as bad and just as culpable as the copycats; opportunists sickly taking advantage of this event to further their own agenda. They failed to look at the facts, and instead made assumptions that because he was a raving madman with deep psychological issues, Those Evil Video Games Made Him Do It. I suggest these people shut the hell up, climb back into their slimy little holes, and allow us to grieve and find the real causes and real ways to try and prevent a reccurrence of this. Spreading misinformation about the cause and solution is just as dangerous as pulling the trigger yourself.

It’s official: America’s public school administrators are technologically illiterate, and are unfit to do their jobs. Or at least, that’s the case in Connecticut.

Why did I come to this conclusion? Consider the case of poor Julie Amero, a 40-year-old substitute teacher who is now facing 40 years in prison.

Her crime? Being hopelessly computer illiterate. And while most sane people consider the punishment to be a bit harsh for the “crime,” consider that the school district she was working for at the time was equally inept, to the point where their negligence endangered children and exposed them to pornography. The district needed a scapegoat to hide their ineptitude, and they chose to shoot the substitute. Sadly, the prosecutors and judicial system in her locale were all too willing to be complicit in the cover up.

The USA Today column speaks for itself, but allow me to summarize: Substitute decides to use a teacher’s computer. Teacher’s computer is hopelessly out of date and hopelessly vulnerable to malware. Sub leaves for a second, and comes back to oodles of kiddies staring at the screen, while adware showing pornography dances on the screen.

Sub freaks out and can’t handle the situation. Parents freak out that the kids were exposed. District and cops freak out and brand the sub a pervert. Sub goes to jail. And everyone involved is astoundingly stupid.

So kids, what have we learned?

1. Computers are bad
2. Public Educators are stupid
3. Connecticut has truly become a “nanny” state – don’t live there, ever.
4. You can solve all scandals by finding an inept person, blaming them for something they didn’t do (at least not intenionally), and all will be forgiven. And the real problem – the mere lack of some antivirus software on a computer – doesn’t ever have to be solved.

Class dismissed.

When people think of the Bush administration and the “henchmen” (apologies, but I can’t find a better term) within, they often come up with household names like Karl Rove, Condoleeza Rice, and Dick Cheney. But until recently, few people would recognize the name Matthew Dowd.

That’s a real shame, too. Because to hear him tell it, he was instrumental in getting Bush re-elected. And in a recent New York Times article, he shares his regret for for being so successful in getting this country into the current mess it’s in.

Quite a few passages in the article make me cringe, and others make me outright angry with this idiot. For example:

He said his decision to step forward had not come easily. But, he said, his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s presidency is so great that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power.

Mr. Dowd, a crucial part of a team that cast Senator John Kerry as a flip-flopper who could not be trusted with national security during wartime, said he had even written but never submitted an op-ed article titled “Kerry Was Right,” arguing that Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential candidate, was correct in calling last year for a withdrawal from Iraq.

Okay, so he branded Kerry as a slippery eel that couldn’t be pegged down. I guess Dowd knows a lot about that, considering the article also points out that prior to this guy’s love affair with Dubyah, he was an inside man for the Clinton administration, only to leave in the second term because he was “disillusioned” with Clinton’s leadership and policies.

Gee, doesn’t that sound familiar?

There’s more to the story that makes me think that he’s got more than just a screw loose. Apparently, he “loves” the president, even though he became a turncoat, again. No, he really loves the president. REALLY:

“”When you fall in love like that,” he said, “and then you notice some things that don’t exactly go the way you thought, what do you do? Like in a relationship, you say ‘No no, no, it’ll be different.’ “

And then there’s the other little morsels: his violin story about his personal problems, his son going off to Iraq to fight the war he’s reallying against now (but oddly, supported before his son was called to duty).

What a real gem this guy must have been to work with. He works his way in after being disillusioned by the other side, is so wedded to ideals that he talks politics in terms of love affairs and relationships, and then goes into a mood swings, talks about disenchantment, and trash-talks the insiders he once “loved” so much.

So, there you have it.bush administration is (or at least was with not just warmongering religious zealots, but emotionally unstable simpletons, as well. Frankly, I find his attempt at making amends insulting, and his attempts to jsutify his actions and past history are revolting. he called Kerry a flip-flopper, and yet flip-flopping appears to be what this guy does for a living.

I feel sorry for his son; out fighting a war that could arguably be his dad’s fault for being so prolonged and without an end in sight. A meaner individual than I would probably find it to be an amazing case of instant kharma if he didn’t come home. I however, wish him well… and hope his father gets some real help, before he decides to ride another politician’s coattails and make another four years of our lives hell.