James Alan Fox has this column about the media coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings. The obsession with the attainment of a new record is part of the reason why these shootings have become more common (although, in the greater scheme of things, they are still rare). Angry men teetering on the brink of madness are now provided encouragement for their actions by watching the acclaim being showered on others who act out their anger through mass murder. It can't be a good thing.

Glenn Reynolds points out, in this column in the NY Daily News, that if some students or faculty members at Virginia Tech had been armed (university policy currently prohibits carrying firearms on campus) they might have stopped the shooter before he did so much damage. Reynolds, the creator of the Instapundit blog, is himself a law professor who faces the same restrictions on his campus.

In the wake of the incident the issue of gun control, of course, has come back on the radar.

David Frum makes an important point. No matter what we do, we cannot escape the Grim Reaper.

We are learning more about the shooter. Apparently, many people on campus saw signs of a deeply disturbed young man but couldn't do much about it.

There are other things going on, of course. David Ignatius writes about the trouble that is brewing in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Last night I watched a program on PBS called "America at the Crossroads". It featured Iraq War proponent Richard Perle as he travelled the globe debating war opponents, and trips to Iraq and Afghanistan. I thought it was refreshing to see another point of view on PBS. Apparently, that was the whole idea behind the series, according to this article in the Weekly Standard, that describes the dispute between noted conservative Frank Gaffney and PBS about a show he is producing as part of the series. It seems Gaffney wants to feature the struggle facing moderate Muslims as they battle the Islamists, but he is tussling with the show executives about the final cut. Gaffney believes it is a manifestation of the liberal bias at PBS but, as a long-time media professional myself, I believe it could very well be grounded in technical differences, which seems to be the case if you believe the Weekly Standard account. I hope Gaffney and the PBS folks get their differences straightened out, as it seems to me the documentary could be an important addition to our national conversation about the issue.