Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure that he has a single cogent line of thought to put down in this forum. But he will write regardless. Read on at your own risk.

Your Maximum Leader has many connections to Virginia Tech. His saintly father graduated from Virginia Tech (back in the day when it was known as VPI (short for the full offical name of the school, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). Your Maximum Leader’s lovely wife, Mrs Villain, is a Virginia Tech graduate. She was, during her time at Tech, an RA in East Ambler Johnston Hall. Mrs Villain’s sister (and your Maximum Leader’s very dear Sister-in-law) is a Tech graduate as well. His Sister-in-law lived on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston hall - where the first killings took place. Of course, as was mentioned earlier in this space, your Maximum Leader’s dear friend (and co-blogger here) the Air Marshal has multiple degrees from Tech.

In addition to these connections there are many others. Many current students at Tech are the children of friends. One student at Tech is very dear to your Maximum Leader and his family. Stephanie - now a junior at Tech - was our long-time babysitter during her time in high school (and when we were lucky - during breaks from Tech). We confirmed late last night with her parents that she wasn’t on campus at all during the time of the shootings. She was in Roanoke, VA. That was joyous news.

There is relief in knowing that, for your Maximum Leader’s immedate circle at least, the killer did not harm anyone known to us. Like the Smallholder, your Maximum Leader asks that you continue to pray for Heidi Miller. She appears to be recovering from her physical wounds.

One must pray that she also heals the psychological wounds that will follow this horrific event.

Just when one might reasonably expect to start dealing with this tragedy, something new horrifies us. As you have no doubt read by now, the killer sent a rambling manifesto as well as video clips of his rants to NBC news. Now we see with our own eyes and hear with our own ears the deep hatred in this psychotic.

Mrs Villain and your Maximum Leader had a long discussion about the killer. Much of it centered on new information we are learning. We know now that the killer was remanded by a judge to a mental hospital for observation. We have learned that the killer was known to the Tech Campus Police as one who had had multiple complaints filed against him. We know how he was known by other students to be disturbed and out of the ordinary.

During our conversation, as is also happening in our national conversation, Mrs Villain wanted to know why the university didn’t do more.

If he has not mentioned it before, your Maximum Leader, during his undergraduate years, was deeply involved in his campus judicial system. An interesting tradition among many schools in the southern United States, is the preponderance of student-run judicial and/or honor systems. At his school, your Maximum Leader was the Chairman of a student run (and popularly elected) committee of students who’s responsibility it was to enforce a published judicial code. During his years as Chairman he became very involved in many aspects of the whole campus judical and law-enforcement process. One of the things he learned during those years was that unless someone does something wrong - and you have some agent willing to act as an accuser; it is hard to take pre-emptive action against someone you think may pose a threat. In many cases a university cannot act against someone because that person, while creepy, disturbed, or maladjusted hasn’t actually done anything that violates a rule. So far, in the case of the killer at Virginia Tech, it appears that he didn’t break a rule. (Although there are reports that one young woman who claimed she was stalked by the killer refused to press charges - thereby averting a possible disciplinary case.)

Your Maximum Leader is somewhat astonished that in the case of the killer at Virginia Tech, a local judge actually had remanded the boy to an institution for evaluation. He is sure that this aspect of the past will get much more coverage and attention over the next few days.

All in all your Maximum Leader isn’t sure what University officials could have done that wasn’t done. He says this knowing what he knows now… He’ll leave open the possibility of revision as more facts become known.

The one abiding question your Maximum Leader has, as do many in the blogosphere, is why no students attempted to subdue the killer. Your Maximum Leader has seen interviews and read accounts of some students who heard the killer stop to reload. He wonders why no one tried to rush him at that point. Of course, one never knows how one would react in such a situation. Your Maximum Leader cannot fault any student for their reaction to being in a shooting. Perhaps, as other commenters have noted, there is an unconscious (or even genetic) reponse in us. Fight or fly. Some may be predisposed towards one or the other. He doesn’t know.

There are many other questions, many of which will be answered in time. The questions that will probably not be answered are the ones that try to figure out what made the killer do what he did. The ghastly video and still images don’t shed any light on that, and it is doubtful that they ever will. If your Maximum Leader was NBC News president, he doesn’t think he’d have broadcast the images. Let someone else do it. There is no need to fall in line behind the narcisisstic desires of a deranged killer.

Your Maximum Leader thinks he is going to have to switch off the news coverage of these killings, except to check on the status of the survivors and to learn the names and faces of the dead. As he learns the names, he can add them to his prayers.

Carry on.