don petersen, AP

(Photo: Don Petersen, AP)

It's very difficult to come up with something funny and snarky to write about tonight when at least 33 families are trying to figure out how the hell they lost a son or daughter or brother or sister or best friend or boyfriend or girlfriend in a senseless, bloodthirsty shooting rampage on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA.  In the last few hours, all I have really been able to concentrate on is praying that my God will find a way to rain mercy and comfort down on the families of those afflicted.

This is a terrible tragedy, one that will be haunting us for years to come.  Still there is a part of my brain that absorbs this kind of sudden and senseless catastrophe and responds, "Welcome to what the people of Iraq go through every day."

For instance, two weeks ago in Baghdad:

BAGHDAD // Shiite militants and police enraged by deadly truck bombings went on a shooting rampage against Sunnis in a northwestern Iraqi city today, killing as many as 70 men execution-style in the latest eruption of sectarian violence outside the capital.

The gunmen roamed Sunni neighborhoods in Tal Afar through the night, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician. Witnesses said relatives of the Shiite victims in the truck bombings broke into Sunni homes and killed the men inside or dragged them out and shot them in the streets.

All 70 men who died in that wave of revenge-killings were somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's favorite uncle, beloved husband, someone's true love.  Larry Johnson at No Quarter has more: (h/t to Valley Girl)

Okay.  Big deep breath.  This is horrible and this is tragic and this gives us an idea of what it is like to live just one day in Iraq.  Consider the following:

04/15/07 Reuters: 19 bodies found in Baghdad on Saturday

Let's total the score:  at least 65 Iraqis dead in four attacks vs. 22 Americans shot at Virginia Tech.   Whoops, forgot the 20 kidnapped policemen.  Can you imagine?

One of the most depressing and obscene consequences of Fox News's ongoing de-education of America and its dehumanification of Muslims, Blacks, and Latinos is that when you try to explain to conservatives that while we may have lost around 3,000 soldiers (so far) in this conflict, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died.  I have tried to bring this information home to three different real-time conservative acquaintances (I do not call them friends and you're about to see why.) and all three of them have had precisely the same reaction.  They shrug and say, "I don't care.  It's just a bunch of Iraqis."  One particularly imbecilic moron added, "They attacked us on 9/11!  They deserve whatever they get!"

Yes, I asked where he gets his news.  He watches a lot of Fox News and listens to Reich Wing Talk Radio all day at work.  He is one of those people who registered as "barely breathing" in that latest Pew Research Poll about whose viewers are the most tragically uninformed, moronic, and defiant about it.  Ah, yes, Pox News, making America dumber, one overly credulous dipshit at a time.  

TBogg points out that The Usual Suspects are hastily pointing to the Virginia gunman's race (a witness described him as "Asian") as a factor in his mental collapse and murderous rampage.

The Jawa Report:

Allahpundit is following closely. So far the shooter is described as an Asian man in his 20's. No word yet on motive, but the shooter is reported to be dead. Derek O'Dell, a student who was shot in the arm, has his account on MSNBC here.

Here are some AP images Via ABCNEWS. The first image matches Derek O'Dell's description of the shooter. (update this man only matches the desciption and was not the shooter, he was later released).

There's a photo with a Virginia state cop pinning an Asian student, but (oopsie!) not the gunman.

Confederate Yankee:

At least one shooter eyewitnesses identified as an "Asian" male wearing military load-bearing equipment has shot between 7-17 students and faculty members at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia.

One fatality has been confirmed, and one shooter is in custody as the campus remains on a lockdown while police search for a second gunman. The first shootings took place in a dormitory, and a second rounds of gunfire erupted in an engineering classroom building at the opposite end of campus hours later. The campus has been shutdown and students are locked down as police scour the campus for a possible second shooter.

Whew, the assailant's race was all that Gomer the Inbred Confederate Uncle-Fucker got right in those little hastily-spewed paragraphs.  These are the hazards of "citizen journalism", especially when your definition of "journalism" means hastily transcribing the screen-crawl on Fox News and posting it before your other friends in the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, thereby earning the dubious honor of a Righty Blog "scoop".

And finally, that paragon of erudition, civility, and, er, class, Ace from Ace of Spades:

Gunman Kills At Least 20 25 On Viginia Tech Campus
Update: Now 32 Confirmed Dead in the Worst Mass Shooint (Sic.  Jesus, Ace...) of Any Kind In American History

No Sudden Jihad Syndrome: It seems obvious to me reporters know the identity (or the basics of it) of the shooter and are not speculating about SJS. Therefore, this was your typical loser-murderer, inspired to kill by bullying and heartbreak and general inadequacy and not a political-religious ideology.

"SJS"?!  Apparently, the "I'll Stay Here in My Mom's Basement While You Go Fight the Jihadi, Okay?!" crowd have invented a mythical species of derangement to account for all those sudden Jihadi killing sprees we've been (not) having in this country.  "Sudden Jihadi Syndrome" is obviously where an otherwise normal Pakistani chemistry grad student can get the go-signal on his sub-dural Terrorist Activation Microchip and start mindlessly slaughtering any infidels within a hundred yards.  No, really!  It's real!  I read it on "Ace of Spades" so it must be true!

It's that very same microchip that could cause Barack Obama to revert to his (non-existent) terrorist training in the Madrassa he (never) attended as a child.  If we elect Barack Obama president, he could go all "Sudden Jihadi Syndrome" at ANY TIME.  Fox News has been trying to warn us about this for months now, but will we listen?  Oh, noooooo. 

I just wonder if all these Uptighty-Righty Dickheads are waiting for Michelle Malkin to go berserk in a Maryland Starbucks and kill everyone in sight.  She apparently meets their criteria for Sudden Jihadi Syndrome, seeing as how she's "Asian" and all.

Oh, no, wait, she's too busy blaming the press and gun-control advocates. 

Whatever.