It's been such a long time since I've ranted about something; lucky for me I found Debbie Schlussel.

Ms. Schlussel is someone I have never heard of before, but apparently she has a following (a following that puts her only second to Ann Coulter). This is her April 16th post in response to the initial news available about the shootings at Virginia Tech:

"So, the perpetrator of the Virginia Tech massacre is a Chinese national here on a student visa. And, today, this alien did "the job that Americans just won't do."

Remember that the next time you hear President Bush and Condi Clueless waxing lyrical about how we need more foreign students in America. We do not. Remember the Mana Saleh Almanajam and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, two Saudi students in Tampa, last year, who hijacked a school bus full of kids while wearing trench coats in 90-plus degree weather?

Questions:
* How did a Chinese national get two 9 MM guns and plenty of ammo to go with it?
* Where did he learn such excellent marksmanship?
* Was he behind the bomb threats in the last couple of weeks?
* Will America--and its out-of-touch university officials in their ivory towers--finally let its college students have the right to keep and bear arms on college campuses, instead of constantly tabling the Second Amendment rights of college students?
And most important:
* Will this make America more vigilant in who it accepts as foreign students and less eager to take in these nationals--site and background virtually unseen?

That's the only question I can answer with a great degree of confidence:
Don't Bet On It.

The biggest lesson here is how vulnerable America's college campuses are to bloody massacres like this one. And how unprepared and poorly-trained campus police are to deal with such situations.

Don't count on that to change too much either.

And remember: Just because this attacker was not Muslim, doesn't mean there aren't plenty of potential and hopeful ones among the thousands Muslim nations are sending here to "study" under Saudi King Abdullah's scholarships.

Like I said, don't forget the two Saudi students from last year."

Now, to give the woman credit, she wrote a retraction statement the following day. It went exactly like this, in full:

**** UPDATE, 04/17/07: The shooter has now been identified as a South Korean who is a permanent resident. ****

OK. I'm coming back to the States in a matter of months and let me tell you, bullshit like this does not sit well with me.

Ms. Schlussel is by no means a stupid woman. Check out her site and you'll see she gets around http://www.debbieschlussel.com. But the extreme way in which she interpreted and reacted to the first reports of the Virginia Tech killings, as well as her half-assed attempt at a retraction, makes me fear for my safety as an only-half-White person in my own country. Is Ms. Schlussel (whose name is clearly NOT ANGLO in extraction) really suggesting that immigrants are more likely to be terrorists than red-blooded, blonde-haired and blue-eyed, native-born Americans? (Um, Timothy McVeigh killed how many people? In which country were the Columbine boys, who were, by the way, referenced by the Asian gunman at Virginia Tech, born?) And is she really arguing that it might be difficult for what would be legitimate alien (someone on a student visa) of Asian heritage, let alone anyone in America, to buy a firearm? (And even if such a person were denied, how hard would it be to steal a gun, or go through other illegal means to procure one?) Come on. They still sell guns at Wal-Mart, don't they (at least, they did the last time I was home)? What's more, off that note, should gun sellers be more leery of Asian customers, than of American ones (as it is implied in her comments)? Let me tell you, in my humble opinion, ANYONE toting a gun should be considered dangerous, to themselves and the people around them. People in America die everyday from guns, and I reckon more people get killed accidentally or through suicide, than through any act that might justify personal gun ownership. And to rant further, just think about it logically: It isn't usually Asians that go around defending the National Rifle Association; it's White folks. Well, mostly white folks. I have a feeling they might take a bit of color around the neck.

Anyway, point being, Debbie Schlussel sounds like a right asshole (or maybe better, an asshole for the Right) and America is a fucked up place. I can't wait to come home.

I GOT ACCEPTED INTO COLUMBIA!!!

So, this is big, big, big news! Who'dda thunk it?!

Classes start on August 6th (that's because I'm a "new media" major; print and broadcast majors start the following week), but I'll probably head back to the States a lot earlier as my Chinese visa expires the 10th of July. The program, which will be at the university in New York City, is only ten months long, and after that, it is my hope to come back to China, or at least Asia, and start a non-teaching, journalism-related career. (We shall see...we all know how the whole "film school to film career fiasco went").