[Brenda]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Well, then too bad he wasn't aborted.

That goes for a lot of people.

[Thanos]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Thanos Thanos:

Kleibold and Harris were just a couple of demented and murderous assholes. It certainly wasn't a case of victims of bullies taking revenge.

Pardon the gentle correction...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Harri ... an_Klebold

$1:

According to early accounts of the shooting, Harris and Klebold were very unpopular students and frequent targets of bullying at their high school.

With these two the bullying just got them started on their trip into oblivion. I agree with you that in the end they were just murderous a-holes. Still, what got them started was that they were bullied by jocks and, naturally, that was ignored by faculty because jocks get to do all sorts of crap and dismiss it as 'good fun'.

Depends. The far more authoritative book, "Columbine", by Dave Cullin goes into far more detail than the cursory media attention ever did and kind of debunked the myth that Kleibold and Harris were seriously bullied. They were relatively popular (Harris was anyway), had a small circle of friends, and were more teased for things like the black trenchcoat imagery and the obsession with video games than actively persecuted by the school jocks. If anything it shows that they were two deeply dysfunctional personality types (Harris was basically a full-blown psychopath as far back as his childhood and Kleibold an easily-led manic depressive) that somehow discovered each other and combined together into something monstrous. This more than anything else resulted in the Columbine massacre which in hindsight had very little to do with bullying, bad parenting, or any of the other myths that have sprung up around the issue since 1999.

I agree with you about the scummy nature of too many jocks. Sports culture in modern North America is seriously disgusting at the best of times. "He raped those girls/sold those drugs/beat up those little kids/drunk-drove until he killed someone/etc but we're going to let him repeatedly get away with it because he's awesome at sports" is what it all seems to boil down to, which is a sad indictment on too many things in our culture.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

I agree with you about the scummy nature of too many jocks. Sports culture in modern North America is seriously disgusting at the best of times. "He raped those girls/sold those drugs/beat up those little kids/drunk-drove until he killed someone/etc but we're going to let him repeatedly get away with it because he's awesome at sports" is what it all seems to boil down to, which is a sad indictment on too many things in our culture.

I know you don't roll that way, but you'd make a damn fine conservative.

[Thanos]

BartSimpson BartSimpson:

Thanos Thanos:

I agree with you about the scummy nature of too many jocks. Sports culture in modern North America is seriously disgusting at the best of times. "He raped those girls/sold those drugs/beat up those little kids/drunk-drove until he killed someone/etc but we're going to let him repeatedly get away with it because he's awesome at sports" is what it all seems to boil down to, which is a sad indictment on too many things in our culture.

I know you don't roll that way, but you'd make a damn fine conservative.

Nah. The mushy middle is a lot more comfortable for me these days. I just can't get angry enough anymore at anything to fit in with the fringers anymore.

Credit-where-credit-is-due department in the midst of all this jock-bashing: it was one of the assistant football coaches who chased the Ohio shooter out of the school so the police could corral him. He probably saved a bunch more kids from getting shot by interrupting the killer before the madness went even further than it already had. Looks like a decent and courageous man, exactly the kind of guy that sports can produce when it's at it's very best. Two thumbs up for being exactly the kind of person that sports, and the world in general, could use a whole lot more of.

[BartSimpson]

Thanos Thanos:

Credit-where-credit-is-due department in the midst of all this jock-bashing: it was one of the assistant football coaches who chased the Ohio shooter out of the school so the police could corral him.

Naw, he's no hero. He was just trying to give the nerd an atomic wedgie.

[Thanos]

Hard not to laugh sometimes though.