Scuttlebutt Pipeline

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So the identity of the gunman behind the killing of 32 people at Virginia Tech, including himself, is now known. The man was 23 year old Cho Seung-Hui, a resident alien who immigrated from South Korea in 1992.

He’s Korean. He shot and senselessly killed people.

This seems to be all the justification anyone needs to start with the Korean and Asian jokes, it’s all the cause needed for many to look askance at anyone of Asian ethnicity. Never mind that they might be Chinese, Japanese, or even Hawaiian. It’s automatically assumed that one person’s actions speak for an entire race of people.

I actually heard a word today that I hadn’t heard since I was a young little girl helping out at the American Legion on Saturdays and listening to the Vietnam and Korean vets commiserating.

I heard a twenty something white male baldy say at the post office today that “this shit proves them kinks are no fucking good.”

For those that don’t know, “kink” is a racial slur used for those of Korean descent.

Now granted, this man was clearly screwed up in the head, but are his actions reflective of all Koreans?

I think Peggy McIntosh sums this up best in her essay White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (1990) :

I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

So very true. I don’t recall hearing anyone saying things like “damn those whites, look what they’re bringing our society to” when Timothy McVeigh decided to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. If McVeigh is not being used as a representation of the “white race” then why is Seung-Hui being used as a figure head for Koreans?

Now I will be one of the first to admit that the tragic events that happened at Virginia Tech yesterday are horrifying and horrendous to say the least, but this just burns me up:

Silence can say more then a thousand words.This day shall unite us all about this unbelievable painful & shocking event and show some respect and love to those who lost their loved ones.

On April 30th 2007, the Blogosphere will hold a One-Day Blog Silence in honor towards the victims of Virginia. 33 died at the US college massacre.

The Blogosphere is in deep mourning.

All you have to do is spread the word about it and post the graphic on your blog on 30th April 2007. No words and no comments. Just respect and empathy.

This site is issuing a day of silence and mourning for the victims of Virginia Tech, and that’s commendable in and of itself, but I can’t help but notice that no one in the “blogsphere” is holding a day of silence for the 200 people who were recently killed in a terrorist bombing. No one is holding a day of silence for the countless children who have been shot or stabbed at school this month. Hell, have any of you heard about them? Probably not.

Sad fact, school shootings occur nearly everyday in the United States but you don’t hear about it because it happens to poor and minority populated schools. I gurantee no one here can recalled the drive by shooting that occurred at Gadsden Middle School. Why? Because it’s a school full of “dirty wetbacks”. Aside from the local news, no one carried this news.

When a sniper threatened the city of Las Cruces and tips suggested he was going to strike at the New Mexico State University football game, and had possibly been the one responsible for the shooting at the Mayfield High school game, it wasn’t in the national news. When the story did eventually break that the city of Las Cruces was being held ransom the news was burried under political and business news. Who here honestly remembers hearing about this occuring last September? No one, aside from those who talk with me regularly at Vertigo I bet.

As sad as this sounds, the fact is fact. The only reason events like Virginia and Columbine make the news and generate such a big wave of support and sympathy is because their white kids from middle class America. White people care about white people’s kids. Fact. There was no national day of silence for the teens from my graduating class that didn’t make it. 20% didn’t graduated who should have and over 60% of those that didn’t make it were vicitims of violence. School shootings, stabbings, drive bys - you name it.

So am I telling you that these victims don’t deserve your sympathy and to boycott this day of silence? Not in so many words. What I’m asking is that you step back and look at the broader picture. Acknowledge and honor the victims of poverty, starvation, disease, war, racism, prejudice ect. from the world over. If you are going to participate in this day of silence I ask that you extend the moment of silence not just to the victims of Virginia Tech, but to the unspoken and unacknowledged victims the world over.

As Heather of said at Vertigo:

What about if it had happened in Africa? Would the world even be told about it?

I’m just so ashamed of life today. There was always such horrible acts happening in life, but sometimes I see today as Rome might have been in its prime. We are living in such luxury and ease that there’s nothing left to do with ourselves, so we all go crazy and in the end, we destroy ourselves. All those lives smudged out… it’s so upsetting.

At last a trend I am happy to follow! Thank you Ann of Fiber of Life for tagging me for this oppurtunity. As some know, there is a dofollow plugin for Wordpress that disables the nofollow attribute in comments on WP blogs. Now there is a dofollow plugin list to go with it! Geeky Speaky got this ball rolling so help us keep it going!

So what’s the point of this chain entry? The point is to compile a large list of blogs that do use the dofollow plugin on their Wordpress blogs. Not only will you be encouraging more hits to your blog (and comments!) but your visitors get a nice little gift in return

***Begin to copy here***

1. Write a short paragraph at the beginning of your post and link back to the blog that put you on the list in the paragraph. This isn’t a suggestion. You need to break up the duplicate content. Someone took the time to add you so the least you can do is give them an extra link back.

2. Copy the list of originals below COMPLETELY and add it to your blog. If you would like a different keyword for your blog then change it when you do your post and it should pass to most blogs with that keyword.

3. Take the adds from the blog that added you and place them in the “Originals” list.

4. Add at least 1 new blog that you KNOW is using the DO FOLLOW plugin to the list in the “My Adds” section. (Add no more than 5!) Let the people you’ve added know, so that they can keep the list going!

My Adds:

SQKIKI Simple Tech
My Home Recipe
Women Mumbles
Shopping Flavor

The Originals:

Nanashi-Inc

Scuttlebutt Pipeline

The Symposium

Fiber of Life

Windows Tip, Tricks And Hacks

No Average Mom

ChaCha

Internet Serious Business

Don’t Fear the Truth

CoolAdzine for Marketers blog

Bucket O Bulletz

My Thoughts

Thoughts Out of my Head

Feeding Time at the Zoo

Fiber of Life

Tiptail - From Agility to Zen

Butterflies Are Free

Mom Gadget

Skeet’s Stuff

Ang’s Chicken Coop

And to Think

Mothering Many

Midlife Musings

Utterly Geek

Whatever I Feel Like

My Dandelion PatchSurviving NJ

GeekySpeaky

Simple Kind Of Life

3DayMom

BuyMeBlog

The Hockey Dad

***Quit Copying Here***

Earlier it was reported that 22 were confirmed dead, now it is confirmed that the gunman at Virginia Tech has killed at least 30 others including himself:

A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at a college in Virginia on Monday, killing at least 30 people in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history. The gunman also was killed, and more than a dozen other people were injured.“Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions,” said Charles Steger, president of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, in southwest Virginia. “The university is shocked and indeed horrified.”

The shootings spread panic and confusion at the college, which is popularly known as Virginia Tech. Witnesses reporting students jumping out the windows of a classroom building to escape the gunfire.

Authorities said the gunman was dead after he shot nearly 50 people at two locations on campus. Twenty-one were confirmed dead, NBC News reported. At least 28 others were injured, at least four of whom were in critical condition, NBC affiliate WSLS-TV in nearby Roanoke reported, quoting local hospital officials.

read full article

The question I have is how the hell did they allow the gunman to get from one side of campus and to another? What kind of precautions were they taking after the initial shooting? Besides a lockdown, were they taking any?

Dear Science Fiction Writers,

I’m sorry to inform you that one of your most favored “ideas” to use as a plot device is no longer available to you as it is now being manipulated by the scientists who dictate reality. Although you are certainly welcome to continue utilizing it you must be aware that continued usage of this device will move your fantastic tales of fiction to the realm of non-fiction. I am of course talking about that infamous monkey wrench you love to toss into the gears of your protagonists, the manipulation of his memories.Hence forth, should you decide that your hero (or one of the supporting cast members) is to be captured by the evil vilian and their memory should be augmented, either by chemical or mechanical means, this scenario is no longer available as oh wow imagine if they really could concept, it is now fact.

Script and storyline writers for Days of Our Lives, Dark Angel, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon (Sailor Moon), Kidou Senshi Gundam Seed Destiny (Gundam Seed Destiny) and so forth should also take note. I’m afraid your ever predictable and re-occurring vilianous erasing of memories is no longer “far out”. Though let’s be honest, it was becoming a bit too cliche and predictable anyway. Reality fans can now rejoice! That annoying plot device has now been moved to your realm of perception.

I understand that this message may be alarming, however, there is nothing wrong with your computer screen. Do not attempt to adjust your computer screen’s settings We now control the horizontal and the vertical. We can deluge you with a thousand painful memories or expand one single memory to crystal clarity - and beyond. We can shape your vision to anything our imagination can conceive or we can erase it. From now on we will control all that you see, hear, and remember. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the deepest inner mind to… Reality.

To understand read this article . This raises an alarming amount of ethical questions. What right do we have, as human beings, to arbitrarily remove the memories of others? How can we be certain that this new methodology will not be used against us? Hence forth, how will anyone be 100% sure that the memories they hold are true?