Loser. Loner. Kept to himself. Set fires. Wrote disturbing papers that caught the eye of teachers and got him referred to counseling. On antidepressants. Woke up one day (yesterday) and blasted away thirty-two other people. Shooter Cho Seung-hui, a 23-year-old … Continue reading →
I don’t want to ignore the terrible news of the day, the shootings at Virginia Tech. But I’ll be brief until I know more. Details are extremely spotty, except to say that now the death toll has risen to thirty-two, … Continue reading →
It has been announced that Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging a few hours ago. I’m not a death penalty fan. But I’ve always realized that there are some situations in which execution seems only appropriate. A trial of Adolf … Continue reading →
The headlines that announced the killings of five young girls in an Amish school (“Amish School Shootings”) seemed more than oxymorons. It seemed as though matter was colliding with antimatter in a meeting of opposites that shouldn’t have been able … Continue reading →
It’s been said before in parts of the Arab world, by Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and others: “We are going to win because [the Israelis] love life and we love death.” Loving death: what an amazing thing to brag about. It’s … Continue reading →
Thomas Sowell writes with clarity and succinctness on one unusual and especially troubling characteristic of the enemy we now face: its undeterrability (hat tip: Pajamas Media). Undeterrability makes this fight different from previous ones. It makes efforts at peaceful negotiation … Continue reading →
The casualties at Qana are horrific. The visuals are heartrending, and the details sorrowful–especially the predominance of women and children among the dead. We are biologically predisposed to want to protect children–to love them, to smile when we see them. … Continue reading →
The news was all but inevitable: the bodies of the two missing soldiers have been found in Iraq, and spokespeople say they have been “tortured in a barbaric fashion.” No details have as yet been provided. Pajamas Media has a … Continue reading →
Mudville Gazette covers the killing of Iraqi journalist Atwar Bahjat (see NOTE below). If you haven’t yet read a description of how this 30-year old woman was brutally and tortuously murdered, I warn you that it’s very strong stuff. I … Continue reading →
It seems to be an almost inevitable part of the ritual of the Haj, despite all the efforts (and they’ve been considerable) of the Saudi government to prevent it: a stampede that kills large numbers of pilgrims. I wrote this … Continue reading →
Norman Geras is a man who has thought long and hard about the Holocaust. Recently, he tackled the controversial question of whether the Holocaust was, “in some significant moral sense, singular or unique in the long catalogue of calamities that … Continue reading →
In my recent “sheep to sheepdog” post, the following question was posed here in the comments section: Richard, I hope NNC really thinks about your question: what do the sheepdogs think about the sheep? Because they prolly have some superior … Continue reading →