ninme

I was thinking last night, listening to Laura Ingraham get all riled up about Terri Schiavo right after the top-o’-the-hour news about the school shooting in Minnesota, that at least with Terri on top of the news, the usual hysterical anti-gun nuts won’t get quite as much headline space this time around. But I think it’s interesting that the European press seems to have squeezed Terri into a corner of their websites, and the school shooting is much larger. It’s also a fresher story, of course, but I can’t help wonder if maybe the idea of those crazy americans shooting each-other up in school is more comfortable to them, a little like a comfy pair of socks that fit just so, whereas the idea that an entire country is pulling out all the stops to keep one sorry woman alive makes them a little uncomfortable, given their own postmodern, secular, humane and compassionate records on these things.

Telegraph - Ten killed in school shooting: Gunman described himself as ‘NativeNazi’

Not completely unrelated: You know how the States are the only ones that ever have serial murderers? It’s always kind of a big deal in british detective books. [Val McDermind's](Val McDermid) Wire in the Blood springs to mind. Cuz she had serial killers in hers, and they comment to eachother that only the Americans get them. Anyway, isn’t it interesting that the only real serial killer (I can think of) in Europe, and one of the worst ever, was a doctor killing sick people?

BBC In Depth - The Shipman Case