Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is going to take today off from blogging in order to mourn the King of Rock & Roll.
Elvis died 30 years ago today. (But you likely knew that unless you were living under a rock.)
Your Maximum Leader will make some fried Peanut Butter and ‘nanner sandwiches for lunch today. Tonight he might have meatloaf or fried chicken in honor of the King.
It is also all Elvis on the iPod today.
Rock on minions!
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was reading over the new wires and came across an interesting little tidbit on the AP. From reading the title of this blog post you might think that the AP was (finally) reporting on the trial of Socrates. Alas, the tidbit from the AP is much more mundane. The actual title of the piece reads: Alabama city considers end to alcohol sales. Here are some interesting passages of the article:
Voters have a chance on Tuesday to return this northern Alabama city to the days of Prohibition.A measure to end the sale of alcohol in Athens is up for a citywide vote, a rare instance where voters could overturn a previous vote to allow sales. Business interests are against repeal, but church leaders who helped organize the petition drive that got the measure on the ballot are asking members to pray and fast in support of a ban.
Christians who oppose drinking on moral grounds believe they have a chance to win, however small.
[…]
Business leaders argue that ending the sale of beer, wine and liquor would hurt tax revenues and send the message that Athens is backward.
[…]
The United States went dry in 1920 after the 18th Amendment outlawed the production, transportation and sale of alcohol. Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
Now, less than four years after they first voted to legalize alcohol sales, the nearly 22,000 residents of Athens will decide whether to prohibit alcohol sales within the city, located about 95 miles north of Birmingham. Possession and consumption would remain legal.
[…]
Twenty-six of Alabama’s 67 counties, including Limestome, where Athens is located, don’t allow alcohol sales. Besides the Athens vote, residents of the southern Alabama town of Thomasville were to cast their ballots Tuesday on whether to legalize alcohol sales.
Regardless of whether Athens winds up wet or dry, a leader of the 138-year-old National Prohibition Party is glad voters have a chance to decide. Such issues rarely make it to the ballot any more, said attorney Howard Lydick, a member of the party’s executive committee.
“The beer and wine industry has very good PR,” Lydick said. “Those pushing (prohibition) have been pushed aside.”
The Rev. Eddie Gooch feels good about the chances of ending alcohol sales in Athens, but he isn’t taking any chances.
A leader of the petition drive, Gooch urged members of his United Methodist Church to pray and fast on election day and the two days leading up to it. Church volunteers have sent thousands of letters and made phone calls encouraging people to vote “dry.”
Mayor Dan Williams said the city government is making nearly $250,000 in extra sales taxes directly tied to alcohol, and the city’s schools get the same amount.
Besides that money, he said, overall tax revenues have grown since alcohol sales were legalized in January 2004  an increase he attributes partly to alcohol sales.
An upscale Italian restaurant recently moved to Athens from the nearby dry city of Hartselle in order to sell alcohol, and Williams said other restaurants have arrived since it went wet.
“It’s a big deal for a small town to get a new restaurant,” he said.
Gooch isn’t worried about the city losing businesses or tax revenues if alcohol sales are banned. Normal economic growth and God will make up any difference if residents dump the bottle, he said.
“We believe that God will honor and bless our city,” Gooch said.
Your Maximum Leader apologizes. He thought he’d just excerpt a few short segments of the piece. Then he wound up keeping most of the piece in the quote. He supposes there is no need for the link, but hey, attribution is king.
You know… At first your Maximum Leader was going to cast aspersions at some overzealous activists (and he was tempted to accuse some of them of being rednecks or hayseeds) trying to turn back the clocks in their communities. But then he started to think more about it and while he doesn’t applaud the prohibition activists, he does admire their pluck and organizational abilities. Really now, without this piece who would have known that the National Prohibition Party was still out there (and apparently active) after 130+ years.
Your Maximum Leader is glad that the article did point out that the prohibition is on sales, and they further point out that there are many “dry” areas in Alabama. (As there are, in all actuality, all over the US.) Being “dry” means that you can’t buy alcohol in a particular locality but the possesion or consumption is not outlawed.
Now, as any (even casual) reader of this space knows; your Maximum Leader likes his alcohol. He likes all sorts of alcohol in fact. Beer, Bourbon, Scotch. He drinks alcohol in reasonable (but not excessive) quantities. Frankly, your Maximum Leader doesn’t think he could live in a “dry” county. He might if he was still in reasonable proximity to a place where he could get his alcohol. But being “dry” would be a real negative in his eyes. Your Maximum Leader realizes that his feelings on this matter aren’t the last word on the matter in Athens, Alabama.
Indeed, your Maximum Leader — as he mentioned — admires the citizens who finally got this measure onto a ballot for a vote. It shows a lot of things. It shows they are willing to organize and be advocates for something in which they believe strongly. It shows that they are a significant force in their community. And it shows that they have an understanding for how politics in a democratic republic ought to work.
Tip O’Neill famously quipped that all politics are local. Frankly that is the way it ought to be. Local citizens decided issues in a way that suits the character of the community. Your Maximum Leader is not so naive to believe that the US is one great homogeneous blob. Localities should be encouraged to pass local ordinances that engender the type of community that the citizens want to have (so long as they respect state and federal laws). It is at the local level that the individual has the greatest opportunity to impact the political process; and it is the local level of government that is the most responsive to the will of its citizens.
Your Maximum Leader hopes that the ballot measure in Athens, Alabama fails. He hopes this mainly because he doesn’t like his ability to make choices for himself limited in the way proposed. But he is glad to see the democratic process at work.
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t have the chance (ever) to scoop major news outlets or Drudge, but a friend of his called today with shocking news. John Paul Stevens is retiring from the Supreme Court, and President Bush is planning on appointing either Elvis Presley (now out of the Witness Protection Program and living in Kalamazoo, MI) or the famous “Bat Boy” to the court.
Okay… Lame attempt at a laugh. But some people aren’t laughing at the demise of the Weekly World News. Your Maximum Leader seems to remember hearing something about WWN closing down its shop later this month. (He thinks he heard it on “Marketplace” on NPR.) Well… The Washington Post is confirming the story and does a great (5 internet page) article on the WWN.
Your Maximum Leader admits he’s bought a few WWN issues. (He can be a sucker for the Elvis sightings.) But he never knew how it all got started:
It all began in Lantana, Fla., in 1979, when the National Enquirer, America’s premier tabloid, bought new color presses to replace its old black-and-white presses. The Enquirer’s owner, a former CIA agent named Generoso Pope, couldn’t bear to leave the old presses idle, so he founded Weekly World News as a sort of poor man’s Enquirer, running celebrity gossip and UFO sightings that didn’t quite meet the Enquirer’s high standards.
That is a choice paragraph. Enquirer’s high standards… Heh. Double heh even…
Read the piece. It is a great bit on a soon to be passing piece of Americana. Frankly, your Maximum Leader’s favourite Weekly World News bit is the scene from Men in Black where Tommy Lee Jones goes to the news stands to pick up the fact sheets and grabs a Weekly World News. That was a classic piece of cinema there.
Adieu Weekly World News. Your Maximum Leader doffs his bejeweled floppy cap in your direction for years of enjoyment and laughter.
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader sees that one Herr Alexander Schoppmann is starting a new airline with first-class service from Germany to Japan. The airline is to be named Smintair.
What will make Herr Schoppmann’s airline gain traction in a crowded market?
Smoking.
Smintair will allow smoking, drinking, and (some) gambling on its flights from Germany to Japan. According to the piece in the Washington Post:
“Other airlines have lost every kind of sympathy for their passengers by leaps and bounds. They treat them like cattle,” said Alexander W. Schoppmann, a former stockbroker who started Smintair. “What all of those carriers want these days is for you to stay in the seat, and you better bloody well stay there, and don’t even ask for anything to eat or drink. You can’t do anything.”On Smintair, according to Schoppmann, there will be plenty of room for passengers to indulge their vices, whether it’s smoking, drinking or even small-stakes gambling. Fliers will be able to mingle at bars on the upper or lower deck of a Boeing 747, which will be reconfigured to be so roomy that there will be space for just 138 passengers, instead of the 400 or so typically seated by most carriers.
The only thing banned on Smintair will be cramped, cheap economy-class seats, Schoppmann said. Everyone will sit in either first or business class — at round-trip fares to Japan between $6,700 and $14,500 — making Smintair the latest entry in a growing number of new airlines limiting themselves to high-end service.
Well… Your Maximum Leader is raising a glass and lighting a cigar and wishing Herr Schoppmann success. Your Maximum Leader doesn’t fly much any more (he used to fly quite a bit), but when he does he would prefer to be treated well and not have to feel like he is inconveniencing the crew when he would like some water. Now, not being a regular smoker (indeed, your Maximum Leader might partake of a single cigar annually) he isn’t sure that an airline like Smintair would gain his patronage, but other high end carriers might. For example, your Maximum Leader was contemplating using Eos Airlines or Silverjet Airlines for his next trip to the UK. Indeed, Silverjet is right up your Maximum Leader’s alley…
Sadly, gone are the days of the Pan-Am clippers plying the skies with young attractive stewardesses keeping one’s scotch filled and eyes happy…
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader mentioned, in a recent post, that he wore his new seersucker suit recently. This revelation led to a request by the delightful Mrs P for a photo of your Maximum Leader in his seersucker… But before we can show the photo we must have the story…
Your Maximum Leader will admit that his sartioral guide was… Well, he doesn’t really have one. He’s never really had one. (Unlike Mr P who has Mrs P and the eternal question: What would Daniel Patrick Moynihan do?) Unfortunately for him, he’s never had much of a fashion sense. Your Maximum Leader has never felt very comfortable in his own skin when it comes to deviation from those few men’s standards he’s grown up with. Your Maximum Leader grew up in the Washington DC area (Alexandria, Virginia to be exact). During his formative years, dress in Washington was pretty staid when it came to men’s fashion. There were blue suits and there were grey suits. (Excursus: There were also brown suits, but your Maximum Leader never cared for brown suits. There was one noteworthy exception to this, there was a wonderful almost tweed three piece suit that your Maximum Leader fell in love with when he was about 19. He bought it - somehow, as it cost about $600 - in 1989. He still has it. It doesn’t fit him any more, and probably doesn’t have enough fabric in it to be taken out. But he can’t bear to part with it.) From year to year in Washington, the ties changed but the suits remained the same… So, your Maximum Leader has been a blue suit/grey suit type of guy. White shirts and blue shirts are acceptable. Ties give color.
When your Maximum Leader went to college he discovered the joy of blue blazers and dress khakis. But he also discovered that the liked seersucker. It started with a seersucker dressing gown/bathrobe. Then it developed into a seersucker jacket. Alas, that seersucker jacket died a premature death. Killed by spilt bowl of punch at a party in graduate school. The seersucker dressing gown lived on, for many years; until it was one day callously discarded by Mrs Villain. (But that is another story.)
So… For work your Maximum Leader continued for many years to be a blue suit/grey suit/blue or black blazer and khaki type of guy. At least he was at work. Then there was business casual. Your Maximum Leader must admit that now he does not often find himself in a situation that requires that he really dress in a way that some (Mrs P and Sir Basil) would consider proper. He is able to pass most days with khaki trousers and a nice cotton shirt. When it is called for, he does pull out the blue suit/grey suit/blazer & khakis. But those occasions are not too frequent.
Well… Your Maximum Leader was, a few weeks ago, looking for some new trousers. He decided to go by the local high-end haberdashery to see if he could find something that appealed to him. Well, it turns out that the local haberdasher has decided to retire and his progeny (and business associates) decided not to buy him out. So he is selling everything and is closing up shop. (Excursus: This will now mean that for any decent high-end clothing your Maxmium Leader will have to travel up to Northern Virginia… Or DC… Or London…)
While perusing the store your Maximum Leader found himself a nice pair of trousers, and a very nice silk shirt by Tommy Bahama. But he also found something else. A seersucker suit. Not your standard “blue stripe” seersucker but your “tan” or “natural” colored stripe. It spoke to your Maximum Leader. Indeed it said “buy me.” Your Maximum Leader remembered his late beloved seersucker jacket and his dressing gown. And he knew he must have the seersucker suit.
Of course, when buying a seersucker suit, you need the right shirt. (The standard blues and white of your Maximum Leader’s wardrobe would not do.) You also need the right tie. And so it was that your Maximum Leader went in for a pair of trousers and came out with a ticket for a seersucker suit. After a week or so the alterations were completed. Your Maximum Leader got to wear the suit for the first time last Sunday. He loved it. Even Mrs Villain (no lover of seersucker) thought it was pretty delightful.
There is the sad tale… Now here is the photo.
There you have it. NB to Mrs P: Please note the shoes. Your Maximum Leader calls these “saddle shoes.” Are these the “Spectators” you mentioned in your comments? The monkstrap shoe you suggested was very handsome, and did cry out “love me.” But wouldn’t they be a little too much for the seersucker? The summer tassel loafer would seem to be a better choice.
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader noticed in yesterday’s Washington Post that many school systems in his beloved Virginia are eschewing naming schools after people, instead choosing “safe” place names.
Here is the beginning of the piece:
The Washington area suburbs of Virginia, befitting a state that supplied four of the first five U.S. presidents, has public high schools named after all of them, plus a nice sprinkling of famous Virginia generals.Washington-Lee High School is in Arlington County. Jefferson, Madison, Lee, Marshall and J.E.B. Stuart high schools are in Fairfax County. Fredericksburg’s only high school is named after James Monroe, and Prince William County has Stonewall Jackson High.
But over the past decade, even though 12 Northern Virginia high schools have opened to handle one of the fastest-growing populations in the country, not one of them has been named after a person, much less a president or a general. Instead, the various school-naming committees have embraced scenic, geographic or patriotic titles: Battlefield, Colonial Forge, Dominion, Forest Park, Heritage, Mountain View, Riverbend, South County, Stone Bridge, Westfield and two schools named Freedom.
Part of the problem, according to a recent study and some Northern Virginia school officials, is that presidents, particularly the more recent ones, and other well-known people tend to be controversial, whereas few Americans have bad things to say about rivers, lakes, forests or freedom.
Has it gotten so bad that we can’t name high schools after people any more? Is George Washington not deserving of a school named in his honor because he owned slaves, or put down the Whisky Rebellion? Is Thomas Jefferson not deserving because he carried on with a slave? Is Franklin Roosevelt not worthy because he carried on with women who were not Eleanor and laid the foundation of today’s welfare state?
And what about other famous personages. While it might be out of character for a high school in Georgia to be named after William T. Sherman, it would be a fitting honor for him in his home state of Ohio… And there must be other people of stature to name schools after.
Here where your Maximum Leader lives, the elementary school that the Villainettes attend is named after a well-known clergyman who lived in the 19th Century (1832 to 1907 actually). The reason for the school being named after him was that he was born locally and was a prominent abolitionist. Unfortunately, he shares his name with earlier relatives who were definately not abolitionists - or even particularly nice men. While your Maximum Leader has no objection to the name of the school… If you know anything about the family (and frankly the vast majority of people don’t) you might get a little confused.
Your Maximum Leader is greatly disappointed that schools aren’t being named after people any more. Even if the person is controversial, that controversy is an opportunity to teach a lesson - perhaps a moral lesson. Gawd help us that we should attempt to teach a moral lesson in schools. (Smallholder’s teaching of American History in high school not withstanding.) We have just become a society ashamed of its past and much more willing to ignore it than to learn what can be learned and (we hope) improve ourselves as a result.
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader was perusing various blogs today and found a startling story over at Outside the Beltway. James Joyner finds that Scotland is toying with licensing sporrans. The original BBC article that Joyner cites states that the license will be required to show that sporrans produced after 1994 out of the hides of “endangered” animals were humanely harvested. Specifically the piece reads:
The laws are designed to protect endangered species like badgers and otters, whose fur used to be favoured by sporran makers.The legislation applies to animals killed after 1994.
Applicants must prove that the animal was killed lawfully before they will be able to get a licence.
The conservation regulations were designed to close a number of loopholes and bring Scotland into line with other EU members.
They also apply to other vulnerable animals like deer, wildcats, hedgehogs, bats, lynx, moles, seals, whales, dolphins and porpoises.
The regulations require anyone who owns any part of a protected animal to obtain a licence.
The maximum penalties for breaking the law are a fine of £5,000 and six months in prison.
Oy! £5,000 and six months in prison is a bit much for the unlawful taking of an otter or badger. Of course, it isn’t all that bad if you think that a few hundred years ago you could be killed for hunting in the King’s forest… Well… That would be a King’s forest in England, not in Scotland. And they rarely ever did put anyone to death for it… Walter Scott and countless showings of Errol Flynn’s Robin Hood not withstanding.
Frankly this story, like so many many others, is just another sign of what is wrong in Europe. This law is being promulgated to bring Scotland in line with other EU countries. Is there anything good coming out of the EU Congress in Brussels? Your Maximum Leader isn’t sure of any.
By the way… How the hell would you find out that a sporran was pre or post 1994? Your Maximum Leader has a sporran for his kilt. He bought it in 1985. (It is leather - so presumably a license is not required.) But what is to keep a Scot from claiming that the sporran was pre-1994? Why make it retroactive? It seems senseless. If you are going to be “better stewards” of the wee beasties in the forest why not just start your licensing at a specific future date? It makes a heck of a lot more sense.
This makes your Maximum Leader want to run out and get a badger/otter/deer/lynx/wildcat/mole/dolphin/seal/whale/bat sporran… Just to have one.
Carry on.
Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been accused by some of his fellow parents in the area of being something of a spoilsport. You see, your Maximum Leader steadfastly refuses to sign a permission slip requested by his children’s elementary school that gives permission for his children’s photos to be posted on the school web site, or in a newspaper that might republish the photo on their web site. Basically, your Maximum Leader categorically refuses to give his permission for his children’s photos to be republished on the web (although they can be printed in a yearbook or the school newsletter). This has meant that on one occasion some photos of Villainette #1’s class - a year or two back - were not used to support a newspaper article published about the school. The photos couldn’t be used because Villainette #1 appeared promenently in them. (They eventually used photos of another class.)
Your Maximum Leader just doesn’t want photos of his kids floating around the interwebs right now. There may come a time where his children post photos of themselves out there, but that time is a long time off. People have sometimes asked why he doesn’t want his kids photos on the web.
Well… Ask Allison Stokke why she doesn’t want her photo on the interwebs… There was a lengthy Washington Post piece about Miss Stokke’s photo yesterday. From the article:
In her high school track and field career, Stokke had won a 2004 California state pole vaulting title, broken five national records and earned a scholarship to the University of California, yet only track devotees had noticed. Then, in early May, she received e-mails from friends who warned that a year-old picture of Stokke idly adjusting her hair at a track meet in New York had been plastered across the Internet. She had more than 1,000 new messages on her MySpace page. A three-minute video of Stokke standing against a wall and analyzing her performance at another meet had been posted on YouTube and viewed 150,000 times.“I just want to find some way to get this all under control,” Stokke told her coach.
Three weeks later, Stokke has decided that control is essentially beyond her grasp. Instead, she said, she has learned a distressing lesson in the unruly momentum of the Internet. A fan on a Cal football message board posted a picture of the attractive, athletic pole vaulter. A popular sports blogger in New York found the picture and posted it on his site. Dozens of other bloggers picked up the same image and spread it. Within days, hundreds of thousands of Internet users had searched for Stokke’s picture and leered.
The story gets worse from there.
Your Maximum Leader has no fear that his own photos (of which you will find there are blessedly few) will become the object of leering admiration by young horny women. But the thought of something happening to his children like what is happening to this poor girl in California is a bitter thing to contemplate.
So, that is why your Maximum Leader will not give permission for his children’s photos to be posted on the internet, nor does he post his children’s photos on the internet.
Carry on.
Polymath’s comment on my pics of synthetic Bishop - wait scratch that - artificial person Bishop - was quite clever:
Unless I am mistaken, Bishop considers, and then hands back, a M1911 as he is about to do the “tunnel rat†through the duct, sewer pipe, or whatever.
Are aliens (or borgs) affected by stopping power? Apparently not.
I am amazed that Polymath can remember what type of firearm was used in a movie he probably hasn’t viewed for a decade. But this is par for the course with my friends.
When I was watching “Holy Grail” with Polymath, he paused the action to point out the door of Castle Anthrax: “Look! It’s historically inaccurate! That door was machine-planed!”
When I was watching an Indiana Jones movie with the Foreign Minister, he was outraged that the Nazi antagonists were armed with an RPG that wasn’t developed until 1942. The horrors!
Of course, when I stop movies to point out the ahistorical use of livestock, people thank me. Because understanding what breeds were present in 18th century Appalachia is much more interesting than carpentry tips or Wehrmacht weaponry.
And yes, I am fun at parties.
And sorry ladies, I’m taken.
From today’s Washington Post:
During that spree, police spent three minutes rushing to the building and then about five minutes carrying out the complicated process of breaking through the building’s doors, which Seung-Hui Cho had chained.
A timeline of Cho’s morning and the final moments of his life emerged Wednesday during a news conference by police who are still struggling to figure out why the 23-year-old student carried out the rampage.
The five minutes police spent breaking into the building proved to be crucial as Cho moved through Norris Hall unimpeded, with police locked out.
Authorities eventually blew their way into the building, and as they began to rush toward the gunfire on the second floor, Cho put a bullet through his head and died, surrounded by his victims.
State police spokeswoman Corinne Geller praised the officers’ response time, noting that had police simply rushed into the building without a plan, many would have likely died right along with the staff and students. She said officers needed to assemble the proper team, clear the area and then break through the doors.
“If you go in with your backs turned, you’re never going back,” Geller said. “There’s got to be some sort of organization.”
People are second-guessing many decisions that happened at Tech. To a large extent, many of the criticisms of the Tech Administration are monday-mornign quarterbacking driven by people’s grief-fueled need to assign blame. However, the idea that Police took five minutes on the scene to get organized is galling.
Why did they have to go through the doors? Were there no first floor windows they could break into? I don’t know the layout of the building, but one assumes there were alternate entrances availble to highly motivated rescuers.
If I was a cop, I cannot imagine wiating five minutes while ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY rounds were fired. Screw waiting for organization/blowing the doors. I’m going in the window.
Cho evidently killed himself when he heard the cops running up the stairs. Imagine if they had arrived four minutes earlier. How many people would still be alive.
Since my former student was in the last room Cho entered, you can be damn sure that Heidi wouldn’t have taken three rounds.
The police were too cautious. If a crime is ongoing, the first objective should be to put the shooter down.
Speaking of Bishops…
I’m sure that Mrs. Polymath is glad that Venus Ramey is a bit long in the tooth for her husband. The former Miss America is quite the pistol-packin’ mama.
Via the Jawa Report and CNN:
WAYNESBURG, Kentucky (AP) — Miss America 1944 has a talent that probably has never appeared on a beauty pageant stage: She fired a handgun to shoot out a vehicle’s tires and stop an intruder.
Venus Ramey, 82, confronted a man on her farm in south-central Kentucky last week after she saw her dog run into a storage building where thieves had previously made off with old farm equipment.
Ramey said the man told her he would leave. “I said, ‘Oh, no you won’t,’ and I shot their tires so they couldn’t leave,” Ramey said.
She had to balance on her walker as she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-caliber handgun.
“I didn’t even think twice. I just went and did it,” she said. “If they’d even dared come close to me, they’d be 6 feet under by now.”
Ramey then flagged down a passing motorist, who called 911.
Curtis Parrish of Ohio was charged with misdemeanor trespassing, Deputy Dan Gilliam said. The man’s hometown wasn’t immediately available. Three other people were questioned but were not arrested.
After winning the pageant with her singing, dancing and comedic talents, Ramey sold war bonds and her picture was adorned on a B-17 bomber that flew missions over Germany in World War II, according to the Miss America Web site.
Ramey lived in Cincinnati for several years and was instrumental in helping rejuvenate Over-the-Rhine historic buildings. She returned to Kentucky in 1990 to live on her farm.
“I’m trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another,” she said.
I’ve heard several people express sympathy for what the Virginia Tech murderer’s family is going through.
Call me a heartless bastard, but your humble Smallholder is all out of pity.
They knew that their son was mentally disturbed. Apologists defend their failure to get their son help by saying that it is culturally difficult for Asian parents to seek psychological help for their children because it is seen as shameful.
Not to be crude, but I call bullshit. This doesn’t make me feel sympathetic. Cho’s family, out of pride, chose not to get the son their help he so manifestly deserved. Their inaction allowed their son to remain at large, buy guns, and destroy 32 families, and seriously harm many others. Because they didn’t want to feel shame?
They ought to be ashamed.
I’m told Heidi is doing better.
In class, she was a pleasant, hard working kid who got the highest score possible scoreon the AP test. She was hard-working and unfailingly polite. She was a quiet kid, but I recall her mischevious grin when she was up to mild mischief.
It boggles my mind that a kid who always did the right thing could end up in the middle of something like the Tech shooting.
