more news porn

Chatting to my bro last night and he made the point that US shootings are newsworthy overseas if interpreted as a comment on local gun control. So, in the UK the report's subtext is UK gun control is right because we don't massacre each other. Moot, but I'm generous enough to let him get away with that. Good ol' Dubya defends the right to bear arms over in the US. Yes, I agree that upbringing is important, but c'mon, how about making it a bit trickier to get hold of guns while you work out how to stop breeding nutter? For fucks sake you can buy a gun from a gun fare without needing a licence or anything other than cash. Sigh.

Today the news is again opened with more on the Virginia massacre, this time telling us about the perp (I got that word, or rather abrv., from either CSI or Law and Order) and telling stories of miraculous survival.

What purpose other, than news porn, do stories about the perpetrator have? Loner nutter, now dead. Are we going to do something to help people with deep feelings of isolation come to terms with, I guess, their mental illness so they don't reach the massacre stage? Doubt it. If it bleeds it leads. And yes, I do note the irony of my dissing this as news while blogging about it.

Interesting that this guy was South Korean; aren't US shoot-up-nutters typically home-grown WASP loners? South Korean guy does this after living in the US for a while...nature vs. nurture anyone? Land of the free, living the dream. Should I apologise for use of the word nutter? Maybe my stinkin' attitude feeds into the feelings of isolation? Or maybe it's just CSI Virginia and we love to watch it in all its fascinating morbidity. As my final piece of evidence for the prosecution...click here for pictures of mourning in Virginia. What is that all about? Why do we need to look at images of people mourning? Maybe I'll collect my thoughts and blog about the western worlds loss of the art of grieving and the replacement of 'real' feelings with collective, media grieving. I remember that becoming cranked up with Diana Princess of Wales and it has not fallen back since...

Turning water into wine is a miracle. Raising the dead. Hiding under a table is not.