Where does creative writing end and criminally actionable psychosis begin? Salon asks the question in an article about the frequent dilemma of English instructors across the nation ( Read more... )

I had posted a link to this article previously but it seems more timely now. Clearly we need to sort out some of these issues. I think that we also need to consider how brains develop in teens and young adults and how that affects judgment. Do we need to make some legal distinctions in how we can intervene for young adults? Or overhaul the whole ( Read more... )

I am really tired of all these deranged killers and their manifestos. It's time for those of us who are kind and caring, decent human beings to create our own manifestos of positive intent!

So what would be in your manifesto? I'll be working on mine.

I'd just like to point out that the vast majority of depressed or otherwise mentally ill people don't engage in mass murder. We are far more likely to turn our feelings inward on ourselves. Also, most of us have the sense to get help or accept it when offered. Apparently students and faculty reached out to the Virginia Tech killer and he refused to ( Read more... )

I am already tired of everyone saying that the campus police at Virginia Tech should have waved a magic wand and closed down a huge commuter campus after one body was found in what looked to them like an isolated, personally motivated murder. Given that the "person of interest" in the first murder doesn't match witness descriptions of the shooter, ( Read more... )