Been feeling a bit under the weather lately, but I suppose one advantage is finally able to catch up on world news and write a few opinions about it.

Though as often as not, I find I would have been much happier being ignorant of events unfolding. A case in point is the recent shooting at Virginia tech. Truly a horrible incident, not only for the deaths, pain to friends and family but the aftermath to these events.
Already one can see 'experts' showering opinions and research to us from their ivory towers of learning. The news stations naturally can't stop covering this event enough, analyzing every aspect of the shooter and victims - as well as trying to pinpoint the cause of this senseless tragedy. Hopefully they won't make a scapegoat of some musician/video game/ideology but eventually that's what it might come down to, for that is easiest for most people to understand.
Obsession with violent video games, music, erratic behavior, thoughts of suicide, sure they're all symptoms of someone in trouble and probably in danger of becoming violent- but they are not the cause, quite simply it comes from the a sense of lonely hopelessness that only people have experienced can relate to. Not something I really want to expand on for now, so instead what are they (meaning schools, law enforcement, ect) planning to do about the problem of school violence (outside of ghettos that is). From the network media seems the gist of it is that they are looking to identify patterns of behavior then educate teachers and consulars on how to determine 'potential' shooters - while I think it is probably necessary I wish there was more questioning into how to change the environment that creates shooters instead of waiting to find them.
That is probably my biggest concern - the way our society reacts to threats, we seem to be more secure with the idea of being able to target rogue elements as they develop instead of trying to improve conditions so they can't exist- as the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Unfortunately the way our leaders think is mostly short term solutions designed to pacify (I regret to say) a rather ignorant electorate, instead of creating programs that advocate lasting change to our society.
Well, I'll save my rant on the ignorant masses for another post ;) in dire need of some rest if work is possible tomorrow, ah well it's not like it is anything important... sigh. Meh, guess it's time to start looking for something more.