Profiles

The New York Times has heart-rending profiles of the victims in Monday's killings at Virginia Tech. It is impossible to get through the pictures and profiles without choking up. Reema Samaha, 18, was a beautiful, acomplished dancer and student and was praised for her kindness. Ironically, her family home was not far from the Centreville, VA home of the shooter. In CNN's coverage, her Lebanese-American father was interviewed, and showed unbelievable grace. Engineering lecturer and researcher Liviu Librescu, 75, was teaching a class in the Norris Hall and managed to block the doorway as his students escaped through the windows. A holocaust survivor, he died while saving the lives of his students.

Look at the pictures and profiles. The shooter didn't discriminate among men and women, old and young, Asian, black or white. Following Monday's shootings, some web wingers (Dirty Debbie Schlussel prominently) speculated wildly that the suspected "asian male" was Pakistani or otherwise Muslim. Malkin (h/t Tbogg) blames liberal academia and suggests that students be armed. A pantheon of winger haters made "worst person" on MSNBC's Countdown, as captured by Crooks and Liars. Their angry, twisted world view has no place in a good society. Absorbing the profiles should be enough to silence their "us versus them" babble for a while, but we're not counting on it.