A short time ago, I blogged about the Virginia Tech shooting. It was hasty and rambling and lacking in any sort of profundity. Since then, the media flared up into the full-on circus that I feared and expected. Most of the media outlets I listen to or read have reduced the coverage to a minimum. But last night at a grocery store, I was faced with the appalling tabloid cover promising juicy details on the killer's hidden homosexual life. Seriously.

There are few things more groanworthy than a bunch of middle-aged, white people claiming the significance of a Korean film (the incredible Oldboy) they haven't seen. People find themselves struggling madly for these answers when there aren't any, and will recklessly implicate things based on little more than conjecture and without a real consideration for actual psychology. The New York Times's A. O. Scott wrote an excellent reaction to this line of inquiry that I agree with wholeheartedly. It's a level-headed take that's much needed if we're going to continue absurd dialogues like this.