He's NOT a victim, and PLEASE, let us not turn him into one.

Over spring break  a bit of  a disaster occurred in UC-Santa Barbara's off-campus residential community. In that particular case,  scads of high school students as well as a roughly equal number of young adults who attend other universities or no universities at al converged upon Isla Vista for some sort of event. Predictablly, things got out of hand rather quickly, and the "event" turned into a minor riot. Unfortunately for student of UC-Santa Barbara, blame for this was pinned on them when little evidence pointed to the the UCSB's student body having much if anything at all to do with the unrest.

Another incident took place last night. This situation was of a much more serious nature, and lives were lost. Six was the last body count I heard, although others may still be fighting for their lives.

I haven't driven anywhere near the crime scene today. To do  so would be painful and emotionally charged, and I'm sure that those involved with investigating the crime have plenty to do without curious rubber-neckers ogling the scene.

This particular tragedy was the work of one very narcissistic individual. I shall not mention his name here because he is not worthy of the publicity provided even by this lowly blog. I hesitate to touch upon the topic, but my conclusion is that those whose lives were lost merit  mention even if the amalgamation of lagoon scum deserves anonymity. The press is, as of yet, not releasing the names of those whose lives were lost. When the names are released, I will do what little I can to honor their collective memory.

This incident is neither the first nor the last of its kind.  I don't know enough about weapons to know if harsher laws in terms of the availability of assault-type weapons could have minimized the damage that was done, or if the weapon used was of a simple variety and is of the sort that will likely always be legal. Moreover, if I understand correctly, the BMW was the weapon of choice in the loss of some of the lives. I don't foresee BMWs being outlawed at any time in the near future.

Pond scum had apparently made a name for himself at several websites. my cousin showed me one particular off-tpoic comment he wrote at a particular board after which another poster commented, "Those sound like the writings of a serial killer."  The commenter probably truly believed pond sum's comments were stranger than garden-variety strange, but he/she probably had no clue as to how prophetic he or she truly was.

The perpetrator of this heinous act was twenty-two and was still a virgin, and for that, the residents of Isla Vista deserved to pay with their lives. he, the perpetrator, was, in his own words, a prefect gentlemen, but the ladies of a particular sorority were giving sex to other men less deserving than he. He had been in school two-and-a-half years - wait -- longer than that, and hadn't had sex. He attends a University of california and cannot correctly calculate how long he has been in attendance at the college or university level. Perhaps our requirements for entrance into the University of California are too lax if students there don't even know how long they've been there.

The whole dating quagmire is painful at the best, but many others before this amalgamation of pond scum have navigated it with the need to resort to mass murder.  My guess is that the perpetrator was aiming too high  in terms of those he wished to date versus those who wished to date him. Most of us figure this out very early in life.  When we first begin to notice the opposite sex (or same sex, for those who experience same-sex attraction), the venn diagram representing those we would choose to date and those who would choose to date us is typically two circles which neither intersect nor even touch. Eventually most of us become acquainted with reality. We socialize with others who aare not necessarily the girls or guys of our dreams,  but we learn a few social skills and have a bit of fun along the way. then eventually, if were lucky, something a bit magical happens:  the way we look in real life starts to a bit more closely resemble the way we looked in our imaginations, and people who wouldn't have given us a second glance in our earlier days actually notice us. That doesn't happen, in most cases, however, if we don't go through the motions and practice our social skills in our earlier years along with our fellow social inferiors.

The pictures I've seen of pond scum amalgamation do not portray a hideously ugly young man. Surely someone would have gone out with him, and might even have willingly had sex with him. I do hope they test his DNA, as a friend of mine was raped two years ago in Isla Vista, and if he's lying about never having had sex and happened to have been the perpetrator in her case, I'd like to see her get a bit of closure.

In any event, he appeared to have a type, from things he said in at least one of his videos.   It seemed tha he liked blonde sorority girls.  Though it's good not to get too heavily into stereotyping, I've not been a major fan of most of the sorority girls I've encountered in classes. Some have been merely snobbish, while others have been  outrightly nasty.  While no manner of rejection any of these girls gave to this man in response to offers of dates, sex, or anything else would in any way justify his actions, in this particular case, this creep's feelings were hurt, and he took it out on innocent bystanders.  if the sorority girls of which he spoke were the ones I knew, it's not hard to believe that any offer of a date (a more sexually explicit offer he may have made was sufficiently crude, in my opinion, that no response with which a girl might have come up would have been too rude for the situation)  might have been rejected in a publicly rude manner when a simple, quite, polite "no" would have sufficed. it's really no one's fault but his. At the same time, if he did make a polite request to one of those blonde sorority girls of his dreams for a date, and she rejected him in a loud and humiliating manner, I hope she's considering that she might have played at least a small role in this. I say this because I've seen the loud and humiliating rejections happen. Obviously, regardless,  that gives no one a right to kill anyone else.

This piece of pond scum seemed to think his BMW gave him  some sort of entitlement. I've never counted BMWs on campus, but I see them on a regular basis. I've read that the piece of pond scum's father works in he entertainment industry. That, combined with his BMW, would lead me to believe he was from at least a moderately privileged background.  While I have no way of  assessing relative wealth on campus, I'm comfortable in saying he is one of very many students from financially comfortable backgrounds. At UC-Santa Barbara, if a person wishes to distinguish himself or herself, it takes more than familial wealth in order to do so. Parents: don't think you can hand your kid the keys to a BMW and assume you've given him or her the keys to success in college or in life.