Something stinks in Blacksburg.

[crazybbwgirl]

You haven't factored in escalation. If we all have pistols, the criminals will get assault rifles. If we all get assault rifles, they're get grenades. If we all get grenades, they'll just plow into a bunch of people with Hummer with a load of explosives in the trunk.

Ok - so now we all need our own smallish nuclear bombs? That ought to do it...

 

[crazybbwgirl]

Things won't be right until you turn over.

oh no - that IS my best side...

 

[busybody..]

LOL.

Cute pic.

that was my second choice

what I always think of when I see you is...................http://happytedium.com/images/scaled/ugly_man.jpg



PLUS

a protruding PP

 

[busybody..]

Ish is the VILLIAN!


What say YOU, ISH?


Ismail Ax?


The Virginia Tech shooter had a history of odd behavior, and his professors had gone so far as to recommend him for counseling, the Chicago Tribune reports this morning. Seung-hui Cho left behind a note that blamed the "debauchery" of "rich kids" for his shooting spree, and had the words "Ismail Ax" written on his forearm when he died:

The suspected gunman in the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, Cho Seung-Hui, was a troubled 23-year-old senior from South Korea who investigators believe left an invective-filled note in his dorm room, sources say.
The note included a rambling list of grievances, according to sources. They said Cho also died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on the inside of one of his arms.

Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women.

A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service, the Associated Press reported.


No one is sure as of yet what the phrase "Ismail Ax" means. It appears to be a reference to Abraham/Ibrahim, in which Ismail and Abraham take an axe to the idols of a temple as part of his conversion to monotheism. Is this a cryptic reference to Islamist or Christian radicalism? It certainly suggests one of the two. Hot Air has a more compelling theory -- a reference to James Fennimore Cooper's "The Prairie", which makes sense, given that Cho majored in English.

Other than that, it seems rather clear that Cho had a reputation as a disturbed loner. Once the first shooting occurred in the dorm, one might have presumed that VT officials would have considered that reputation as a security risk and locked down the school -- and perhaps have gone to Cho's room to see if he was still there and where he might have gone, if not.

 

[unregistered]

 

[garbage can]

Things won't be right until you turn over.

Yes, yes, I agree. Then we can have piece....

 

[garbage can]

Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women.

Perhaps a self cleansing policy would work. Anyone showing aberrant behavior be executed immediately.....

I think I'll quit stalking women here on Lit....

 

[busybody..]

Seems like he wrote a play

a

Sick play

He shoulda put it on LIT, woulda gotten 5 stars and a lay

Here is the play

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0417071vtech1.html?link=rssfeed

 

[Ishmael]

apparently ishmael is taking conspiracy lessons from oliver stone.

mrtnmoon

No. They knew who he was yesterday afternoon. They basically lied through their teeth about know knowing his identity. Was it a consipracy? No, just shit for brains PR on the part of the cops.

After the "Hurry this way, he's still bleeding" segment of the press corp. leaves town, one or two serious investigators are going to dig into this and the local authorities are NOT going to be looking very good when they're done.

Ishmael

 

[busybody..]

Ish, didya see the ISH post?

Seemed he KNEW you and YOU made him do it

 

[crazybbwgirl]

Perhaps a self cleansing policy would work. Anyone showing aberrant behavior be executed immediately..... ...snip.

I'm thinking BB would have to be the first to go!

 

[Ishmael]

Ish, didya see the ISH post?

Seemed he KNEW you and YOU made him do it

No, is LT making up alts again?

Ishmael

 

[~hellbaby~]

The note he left said something about 'rich Americans', South Korean's are in an uproar over FTA's (free trade agreements). Headlines in Asian papers are all over it. Maybe there is a connection. If he was already pissed, maybe it pushed him over the edge?

 

[busybody..]

I'm thinking BB would have to be the first to go!

 

[busybody..]

No, is LT making up alts again?

Ishmael

Ish is the VILLIAN!


What say YOU, ISH?


Ismail Ax?


The Virginia Tech shooter had a history of odd behavior, and his professors had gone so far as to recommend him for counseling, the Chicago Tribune reports this morning. Seung-hui Cho left behind a note that blamed the "debauchery" of "rich kids" for his shooting spree, and had the words "Ismail Ax" written on his forearm when he died:

The suspected gunman in the Virginia Tech shooting rampage, Cho Seung-Hui, was a troubled 23-year-old senior from South Korea who investigators believe left an invective-filled note in his dorm room, sources say.
The note included a rambling list of grievances, according to sources. They said Cho also died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on the inside of one of his arms.

Cho had shown recent signs of violent, aberrant behavior, according to an investigative source, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women.

A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus.

Cho was an English major whose creative writing was so disturbing that he was referred to the school's counseling service, the Associated Press reported.


No one is sure as of yet what the phrase "Ismail Ax" means. It appears to be a reference to Abraham/Ibrahim, in which Ismail and Abraham take an axe to the idols of a temple as part of his conversion to monotheism. Is this a cryptic reference to Islamist or Christian radicalism? It certainly suggests one of the two. Hot Air has a more compelling theory -- a reference to James Fennimore Cooper's "The Prairie", which makes sense, given that Cho majored in English.

Other than that, it seems rather clear that Cho had a reputation as a disturbed loner. Once the first shooting occurred in the dorm, one might have presumed that VT officials would have considered that reputation as a security risk and locked down the school -- and perhaps have gone to Cho's room to see if he was still there and where he might have gone, if not.

 

[Ishmael]

Well, it seems he had read some history.

Ishmael

 

[busybody..]

Well, it seems he had read some history.

Ishmael

only BB brings you the best and most usefull info

didya read his play?

I just did

 

[busybody..]

seems like he wrote more then one play

both worthy of LIT

http://newsbloggers.aol.com/2007/04/17/cho-seung-huis-plays/

 

[Ishmael]

only BB brings you the best and most usefull info

didya read his play?

I just did

The first part. It started getting way too bizarre for me.

I don't think we need the plays to figure out he was one fucked up freak.

Ishmael

 

[FunkNStein]

Doesn't the whole world lump all Americans together?

Nope - I've not heard of a European refer to a Mexican as an American, despite the fact that we share the same continent. Or an Arab refer to Canadians as such. One continent, three identities.

 

[busybody..]

Well

Maybe it seems that there is a MUSLIM angle to this

As I suspected

Consulting the Oracle


The details of the killer's last day begin to emerge. One of those early details states that "Cho also died with the words in red ink on the inside of one of his arms."

An incomprehensible detail dredged up from the midst of an incomprehensible crime. Our reaction? 'What Can It Mean?' is the question that arises in millions of parts of the global hive mind. And when incomprehensible questions arise in the human mind we have a long, long history of going to ask the Oracle. And so millions do.

But today our Oracle is not found in a crack in the rock, a temple dedicated to Amun, or from patterns found on bones or entrails. Today our post-modern Oracle is closest to the classic "Voice from the Sky" -- the Oracle of Google.

And so we consult this Oracle because in the age of information even oracles are easy. We plug in Ismail Ax (without quotes) and hit search. And because 'Ismail' is the Muslim variation of 'Ishmael' a million minds go "Ah HA! -- The Muslim in the woodpile. Launch your blog post software.... and follow it down.'

And follow it down they do into the ever darkening and more tangled link forest; looking for that elusive but conclusive "Muslim connection" because many have convinced themselves that no act of senseless mass violence can occur without a Muslim connection; that insanity can come from any human mind and not just the Muslim mind.

Deep in the link forest you will find, among other things, that 'ismailax.com' is already taken. Registered today and parked to await further developments. And you can go on into the now rapidly growing forest of links to Ismail Ax as the speculation about "Ismail Ax" grows. You can go on ever deeper tomorrow as the Googlebots sweep the web, and next week ever closer to what may reside at the heart of that phrase. What you are looking for is, of course, not just more clues but a final answer, something that "explains it all."

In the end, like the center of Peer Gynt's onion, it won't be there. In the end your quest for the answer will always be like the final scene of Blowup. You go back to find the who and the why and the what. You go back to find the murdered body you saw out of the corner of your eye or in an extreme blowup of the frame. You go back to find the proof of what you think you saw. And it isn't there. It will never be there.

Instead you always find yourself back where you began: Asking the Oracle of Google, hoping that in your time away, it has got a newer, better, brighter answer to illuminate the darkness that we all carry within us.

Maybe someday, if we ask long enough, if like lab rats we press the return key often enough, if we can find just the right search phrase with all the right Boolean operators in the right order, we will finally get "The Answer." Maybe that's the reason for the persistence of the Oracle of Google's "I feel lucky" option.

So. 'Do we feel lucky? Well,do we?'

 

[busybody..]

Ismaili
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


The Ismāʿīlī (Urdu: اسماعیلی Ismāʿīlī, Arabic: الإسماعيليون al-Ismāʿīliyyūn; Persian: اسماعیلیان Esmāʿīliyān) branch of Islam is the second largest part of the Shī'a community, after the Twelvers (Ithnāʿashariyya). The Ismāʿīlī get their name from their acceptance of Ismāʿīl ibn Jaʿfar as the successor-Imām to Jaʿfar aṣ-Ṣādiq, wherein they differ from the Ithnāʿashariyya, who accept Musa al-Kazim, younger brother of Ismail, as their Imam.

Though there are several sub-groupings within the Ismailis, the term in today's vernacular generally refers to the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī community, who are followers of the Aga Khan and the largest group among the Ismailis.




[edit] History
The Ismāʿīlī are found primarily in South Asia, Syria, Saudi Arabia,[1] Yemen, China, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and East Africa, but have in recent years emigrated to Europe and North America.[2] The Ismāʿīliyya and the Twelvers both accept the same initial Imams from the descendants of Muḥħammad through his daughter Fāṭima az-Zahra and therefore share much of their early history. However, a dispute arose on the succession of the fifth Imam, Jaʿfar as-Sadiq. The Ismāʿīlī became those who accepted Jaʿfar's eldest son Ismāʿīl as the next Imam, whereas the Twelvers accepted a younger son, Mūsā-l-Kāzim. Jafar's son had died and they wanted his grandson, Muhammad, to succeed as the next Imam and not his brother.[2]

A branch of the Ismāʿīlī known as the Sabaʿiyyīn "Seveners" hold that Ismāʿīl's son, Muhammad, was the seventh Imām and, after Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl, the spiritual authority of Imāms continues until the present day.[3].

In the face of persecution, the bulk of the Ismāʿīlī continued to recognize Imāms who secretly propagated their faith through Dāʿiyyūn "Callers to Islām" from their bases in Syria.[4] However, by the 10th century, an Ismāʿīlī Imām, ʿUbaydullāhu-l-Mahdī Billāh, correctly known as ʿAbdullāhu-l-Mahdī, had emigrated to North Africa and successfully established the new Fatimid state in Tunisia.[5] His successors subsequently succeeded in conquering much of North Africa (including highly-prized Egypt) and parts of Arabia.[6][7][5] The capital for the Fatimid state hence shifted to the newly-founded city of Cairo, from which the Fatimid Caliph-Imāms ruled for several generations.[5]

During the rein of the 16th Imām, al-Ḥakīm bi-Amrillāh, a movement emerged known as the Darziyya or Druze (after one of their leaders, al-Darzi).[8] Led by al-Akhram, Hamza and al-Darzi, they believed in the divinity of al-Ḥakīm, and urged others to join them.[8] The Imam himself never claimed divinity, and the leadership of the daʿwa categorically opposed the movement, denouncing its doctrine.[8] The movement's adherents went on to establish a stronghold in Syria where they developed their body of doctrine and sacred scriptures. Today, the Druze community lives mainly in Lebanon and Syria.[8]

A fundamental split amongst the Ismāʿīlī occurred on the dispute of which son should succeed the 18th Imam, Mustansir. Aḥmadu-l-Mustaʿlī, his younger son, was installed as Imam in Cairo with the help of Vizier Badr al-Jamali.[9] However, Imam Mustansir's elder son, Nizar, contested this claim and was imprisoned; he gained support from an Ismāʿīlī dāʿī based in Iran, Hassan as-Sabba.[9] As-Sabba is noted by Western writers to be the leader of the legendary "Assassins" (see Nizārī).

The Fatimid state eventually collapsed after Imām al-Mustaʿlī's successor Amīr was assassinated, but Imām al-Mustaʿlī held that Amīr had left a son named Ṭayyib who had gone into seclusion and that the imamate continued in his progeny during this time. They also regarded a succeeding chain of Yemeni Dāʿiyyūn as representatives of the Imām.

In time, the seat for one chain of Dāʿiyyūn was transferred to South Asia as the community split several times, each recognizing a different Dāʿī. Today, the Dawoodi Bohras, which constitute the majority of the "Mustaʿliyya" Ismāʿīliyya accept His Holiness the Syedna Dr. Mohammed Burhanuddin TUS as the 52nd Da'i al-Mutlaq. The Dawoodi Bohras are based in India. While lesser known and smallest in number, Alavi Bohras accept as the 44th Dāʿī al-Mutlaq, H.H. Saiyedna Abu Haatim Taiyeb Ziyauddin Saheb.

There has been, in recent years, a rapprochement between the Yemeni Mustaʿliyya and the followers of the Dāʿiyyūn based out of Mumbai. The Bohra are noted to be the more traditional of the two main groups of Ismāʿīlī, maintaining rituals such as prayer and fasting more consistently with the practices of other Shīˤa sects, although a reformist movement led by Asghar Ali Engineer (Progressive Dawoodi Bohras) has emerged within the sect, challenging the Dawoodi Bohra clergy in India and the movement has been largely unsuccessful.

The largest part of the Nizārī Ismāʿīlī community today accepts Prince Karim Aga Khan IV as their 49th Imam.[6] The 46th Imam, Aga Hassan Ali Shah, fled Iran to South Asia in the 1840s after a failed coup against the Shah of the Qajar dynasty.[10] Aga Hassan Ali Shah settled in Mumbai in 1848.[10]

In 1866 a minority faction from among the Khoja Muslim community of Mumbai sought a court decree to deny the Aga Khan's authority and position as Imam (spiritual leader) of the community. They tried to re-cast the Khojas as a Sunni community, and thereby take control of all property held in trust for the community.[11] The Judge in this case, Sir Joseph Arnold, ruled that the Khoja Muslim community was Ismāʿīlī (and not Sunni), that the "Aga Khan" was its leader, that he was due the traditional tithes of the community, and that community property belonged to his Imamate.[10] He described the community as a having been "converted to and throughout abided in the faith of the Shi'a Imami Ismailis and which has always been and still is bound by ties of spiritual allegiance to the hereditary Imams of the Ismailis."[12][13]


[edit] Sub-sects
The Shia Ismaili are divided into the following major sects:

Nizārī, the largest community among the Isma'ilis, whose present Imam is Aga Khan IV
Mustaʿliyya, also known as 'Bohra', are further split into three communities:
Dawoodi Bohra, the largest branch of the Musta'liyya, whose current da'i is Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin
Sulaimani Bohra, named after their 27th da'i, Sulayman ibn Hassan, they are mostly concentrated in Yemen.
Alavi Bohra, the smallest group among the Bohras, they accept Saiyedna Abu Haatim Taiyeb Ziyauddin Saheb as their present da'i.
Druze, a community found mostly in the Middle East, which split off from the Isma'ilis after the disappearance of the Fatimid caliph and Isma'ili imam, al-Hakim. Today, the Druze consider themselves an independent religion, distinct from Islam, though they may occasionally identify themselves as Muslims under taqiyya (religious dissimulation).
Qarmatians, now believed to be extinct. The last known mention of them was in the 11th century by the Persian-Isma'ili da'i, Nasir Khusraw.

 

[busybody..]

And Yet There Are Heroes

It's important to see heroism in tragedy, too. A 77-year old Aeronautical Engineering professor who survived the Holocaust in Romania moves to Israel and comes to America on sabbatical. He decides to stay here. He adopts this country as his own, and helps save America by saving Americans--by putting himself between the gunman and his students. He survived Hitler and died in Blacksburg, but he died a hero.

Israeli professor of Romanian origin Liviu Librescu numbers among those killed in the Virginia Tech University massacre on Monday. According to the International Herald Tribune, Librescu sacrificed his life to save his students. He had blocked the access to the his class so that students can run from the attacker.

Librescu, 77, was teaching at the Virginia Tech University for 20 years.

Israeli media also announce the death of Liviu Librescu. The online edition of the Jerusalem Post reports that he was shot to death, while ynetnews.com writes that he was killed during his attempt to block the access to the class.

Alec Calhoun, a student who witnessed his death, told the Associated Press that he saw his teacher blocking the door to the class while some of her colleagues were hiding, while others were jumping out of the window.

The professor had been driven to school by his wife less than an hour before he was shot.

AP writes that his wife Marlina and sons Arieh and Joe have already started to prepare for his burial in Israel.His daughter-in-law Ayala has said the professor was very passionate of his work and a dedicated family man, while University colleagues described him as a "real gentleman".

Liviu Librescu graduated the Politechnical University in Bucharest in 1952 with a specialization in aeronautical engineering. In 1972, he received the Traian Vuia Award of the Romanian Academy of Sciences.

In 1979-1886 he served as mechanical engineering professor at the Tel Aviv University.

According to ynetnews.com, he and his wife were survivors of the Holocaust who immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978.

The-then communist regime in Bucharest did not allow him to leave the country, but that became possible after Israeli PM of the time, Menachem Begin, pressed Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to let him go.

Several years later he left for the US. He has teached mechanical engineering at the Virginia university since 1986.

He was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa of the Politechnical University in Bucharest In 2000

 

[Le Jacquelope]

I wonder if the woman in question was one of the victims?

Imagine going the rest of your life being known as the person who caused a maniac to go on a kill-crazy rampage. That would suck.

It also sucks bad to end up as collateral damage in such a situation. I'd much rather my murderer be a regular psycho. Dying over a female is bad enough. Dying over someone else's female is rock bottom.

Post of the year.

 

[Sean]

And Yet There Are Heroes

It's important to see heroism in tragedy, too. A 77-year old Aeronautical Engineering professor who survived the Holocaust in Romania moves to Israel and comes to America on sabbatical. He decides to stay here

Fucking immigrants.