The Evil of Cho Seung-Hui

Now that we know his name, the questions begin. Reports are coming in from all over, one suggesting he was crazed over a girl, leaving behind a note blaming America.

More background on this piece of garbage here.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the note railed against "rich kids" and "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

The Tribune also said Cho had been behaving strangely lately, setting a dorm room on fire and allegedly stalking women. Other reports said he had been taking medicine for depression.

Setting fires?

Stalking women?

And he's allowed to remain there? I guess maybe we didn't want to offend the poor guy.

A Virginia Tech professor said Cho's work in creative-writing class was so disturbing that he had been referred to the school's counseling service.

Professor Carolyn Rude, chairwoman of the university's English department, said she did not personally know the gunman. But she said she spoke with Lucinda Roy, the department's director of creative writing, who had Cho in one of her classes and described him as "troubled."

"There was some concern about him," Rude said. "Sometimes, in creative writing, people reveal things and you never know if it's creative or if they're describing things, if they're imagining things or just how real it might be. But we're all alert to not ignore things like this."

She said Cho was referred to the counseling service, but she said she did not know when, or what the outcome was. Rude refused to release any of his writings or his grades, citing privacy laws.

Good thing we have those privacy laws. Wouldn't want to infringe upon his rights.

So Rude says they're all alert to not ignore things like this, but admits she did not know when, or what the outcome was.

Wow. Very alert.

Whatever shakes out in the days ahead, let's focus the blame where it should be, on this monster who took at least 32 lives. Let's not be searching for root causes or other excuses to blame America. Focus squarely on the deranged lunatic who thought because he had some problems, it was OK to take out his rage on innocent people in the most violent possible way.

Blame Cho Seung-Hui.

Elsewhere, Michelle Malkin notes the Asian American Journalists Association is upset the killer is being called Asian. An inconvenient truth, I guess.

Hot Air also keeps the updates flowing.

UPDATE: Smoking Gun has Virginia Killer's Violent Writings.

Claudia Rosett has an interesting angle.

When the news broke about the shootings at Virginia Tech, one of the first stories that came to mind was an essay widely read in writing courses at American schools: Jo Ann Beard’s “The Fourth State of Matter.” It’s a skillfully written tale — a good teaching tool for writers, and a story I read years ago with great interest — in which the core event is the shooting spree at Iowa State University in 1991, in which a Chinese physics student murdered five people and paralyzed a sixth for life. In yesterday’s killings, there were so many eerie echoes of that horror that I pulled the story off the web and re-read it.

Now we learn that the shooter at Virginia Tech, Cho Seung-Hui, was an English major. In the course offerings at Virginia Tech this spring semester, there is “English 3724: Creative Writing: Creative Nonfiction,” covering “the works of writers like Jo Ann Beard,” among others. Did Cho take this course? Did he read that story?