Unbelievable. Especially now.

WELL . . . it would appear you now have your Don Imus answer. At least to the part about how serious CBS Corp. chief Les Moonves was about this:

“There has been much discussion of the effect language like this has on our young people, particularly young women of color trying to make their way in this society. That consideration has weighed most heavily on our minds as we made our decision.”

Do Asians count as people "of color" to CBS? Or are they not, and they're just fair game? Is it OK to make vulgar and racist slurs about some of those created in the likeness of God but not others?

From tomorrow's edition of The New York Times:

CBS Radio suspended two hosts from an FM station in New York City today after an Asian-American advocacy organization complained about the broadcast of a six-minute prank phone call to a Chinese restaurant that was peppered with ethnic and sexual slurs.

The call was first played on “The Dog House With JV and Elvis,” a midmorning show on WFNY, on April 5, the day after Don Imus made his comment about the Rutgers women’s basketball team on WFAN, another CBS-owned station. The call was then replayed on “The Dog House” on Thursday, a week after Mr. Imus was fired by CBS Radio.

In the skit, a series of apparently unsuspecting employees of a Chinese restaurant are berated by a caller who tells one woman he would like to “come to your restaurant” to see her naked, especially a part of her body he refers to as “hot, Asian, spicy.” The caller also attempts to order “flied lice,” brags of his prowess in kung fu and repeatedly curses at several employees.

In a statement on Sunday, the four New York-area chapters of the Organization of Chinese Americans, an advocacy group, demanded an apology from the show’s two hosts and from CBS Radio, and called for the firing of the hosts and their producer.

In an interview today before the suspensions were announced, Vicki Shu Smolin, president of the organization’s New York City chapter, said she was mystified that CBS would allow the call to be broadcast in the first place and then would permit it to be replayed in the aftermath of the Imus incident. (“The Dog House” has been waging a broad campaign in support of Mr. Imus both on the show and on its Web site.)

“I just see plain ignorance in the CBS management — of the community, of who we are, of what we’re all about,” Ms. Shu Smolin said. “If they don’t fire the D.J.’s, it will be a double standard.”

She promised to rip a page from the playbook of the Rev. Al Sharpton, who led the charge for Mr. Imus’s dismissal, by staging protests of CBS Radio and boycotting advertisers on WFNY.

“They don’t think they’re going to get any backlash from the Asian-American community,” she said. “They’re definitely wrong.”

In an e-mail message sent this afternoon, a spokeswoman for CBS Radio, Karen Mateo, said that the two hosts, Jeff Vandergrift (JV) and Dan Lay (Elvis), had been suspended “without pay until further notice.” Mr. Vandergrift, Ms. Mateo said, had apologized on today’s show. The show, which began on WFNY (92.3 FM) in January 2006, can be heard outside the New York City market only via the Internet.

HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: First airing, day after Imus said what he said about the Rutgers women's basketball team.

Repeat airing, week after Imus got fired. Like I said, all you need to know.

Trash is as trash does. That's what my mama says.

Give me Charmin or give me death!

Global warming: The science behind the theory that we're heating up the world and sending ourselves to ruin -- or a close facsimile thereof -- probably is absolutely rock solid. It's likely happening just as most scientists and international bodies contend.

But something about the way it's being sold to us smells -- the politicization of the cause and the mindless celebrification of it, too. What is a deadly serious subject is starting to acquire the slightly sweet-sour stench of unseriousness.

And that ain't good.

How are we to take global warming seriously when we have the spectacle of the Stop Global Warming College Tour, featuring An Inconvenient Truth co-producer Laurie David and rocker Sheryl Crow? Actually, I probably would be taking the tour much more seriously if they didn't make the mistake of blogging on Washington Post.com . . . and providing such Drudge-worthy fodder as this from Crow:

Crow (4/19, Springfield, Tenn.): I have spent the better part of this tour trying to come up with easy ways for us all to become a part of the solution to global warming. Although my ideas are in the earliest stages of development, they are, in my mind, worth investigating. One of my favorites is in the area of forest conservation which we heavily rely on for oxygen. I propose a limitation be put on how many squares of toilet paper can be used in any one sitting. Now, I don't want to rob any law-abiding American of his or her God-given rights, but I think we are an industrious enough people that we can make it work with only one square per restroom visit, except, of course, on those pesky occasions where 2 to 3 could be required.

[Emphasis mine -- R21]

HELLO! OPERATOR! Get me the New York Post and get it pronto . . . Page Six! Yeah, the gossip column.

Hello? Page Six? Yeah, I think I got a big scoop for you. Here's why Lance Armstrong broke up with Sheryl Crow . . . you ain't gonna believe this! Peeeeee U!

Al Capone sues Jean Valjean because he can

Bribers (a.k.a. major record labels) get upset at college kids for "stealing" their overpriced crap. Overpriced? Hmmm . . . .

OK, make that "Bribers and price gougers get upset at college kids for 'stealing' their overpriced crap."

BUT YOU KNOW, in the past, drugs and prostitutes have been employed to get radio programmers to play certain records.

OK, "Bribers and price gougers and pushers and pimps get upset at college kids for 'stealing' their overpriced crap."

And by God, something has to be done about those college kids illicitly downloading albums on the Internet.

From The Associated Press:

Another round of threatening letters is on its way to suspected music pirates at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with 19 more students accused of illegally downloading music, the university said Friday.

It's the third batch of students targeted at the university, bringing the total number to 80.

The Recording Industry Association of America filed "John Doe" lawsuits against five UNL students last week, alleging copyright infringement. Those five students have not been identified, and university lawyer John Wiltse told Nebraska regents at their Friday meeting that the alleged violators will not be identified unless the recording industry obtains a subpoena.

Otherwise, the process is fairly anonymous. The recording industry group's letters are sent to the university, asking officials to pass them along to alleged offenders.

In late February, the association sent letters offering discounted settlements to 400 computer users at 13 universities. Since then, more than 800 new letters have been sent, offering students the option to settle with the group.

Some UNL students already have settled with the organization. Tom Keefe, who works in Student Legal Services at UNL and has handled some of the settlement offer letters, said students could have settled within 20 days of notification for a $3,000 fee. After that, he said, the offer jumps to $4,000.

UNL still hasn't heard back from the recording industry group on a request for reimbursement of for costs to track down the students accused in the first two rounds.
Regent Jonathan Henning suggested that students who illegally download files be the ones to pay the university's investigation costs.

"They're the ones stealing," he said.

Regents asked Wiltse why the university complied with the recording industry's request to forward the letters to students accused of illegal downloading.

"Certainly I agree that the university shouldn't be an enclave for thieves," Henning said, but asked why the university should forward the letters.

Wiltse said they relayed the letters to give students the opportunity to respond and possibly settle to avoid costly lawsuits and litigation.

From MediaWeek:

The Federal Communications Commission announced Friday it had settled with four of the nation's largest radio groups, closing investigations into the broadcasters' payola violations. Under the consent decree, Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting and Entercom Communications have agreed to pay a combined $12.5 million to the FCC, resolving allegations that the broadcasters accepted cash or other consideration in exchange for airplay.

In addition to the $12.5 million payment to the FCC, the broadcasters have agreed to implement certain business reforms and compliance measures.

“Today, a unified Commission sends a resounding message to the radio industry: payola, in any form, has no place in radio and will not be tolerated by the FCC,” said Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.

“Pay-for-play broadcasting cheats consumers, musicians and the law. It denies consumers choice in what they hear, it deprives musicians of the exposure they need to survive and it is illegal,” added Commissioner Michael Copps. “Today the Commission takes action against payola. While not a lethal blow, this action makes real, tangible progress against unacceptable pay-for-play practices.”

From Spacelab:

“Airwaves belong to the public, not the highest bidder,” those are the wise words spoken by Eliot Spitzer, New York’s [then] attorney general. [He's now governor -- R21] He is the catalyst who started the ball rolling in uncovering the payola scandal. On Friday, April 13th the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ended the largest payola investigation to date since the law was passed in 1960 by invoking a consent decree.

Major record labels such as Universal and Warner went under investigation during the summer of 2005 for paying radio stations to play their selected music. Ironically, those same mainstream labels are fighting people (or shall I say IP addresses) for illegal P2P activity claiming a loss in profits; while behind closed doors they are participating in illegal payola churning out the dough to radio stations.

Radio stations also received hefty fines in conjunction with the consent decree for accepting money and gifts under the radar. According to Digital Music News, the biggest bill went out to Entercom totaling $4 million. The FCC is also demanding radio employees receive routine training on payola rules and hire compliance officers at each station.

This week's music

HERE'S THE LINEUP for this week's Revolution 21 podcast, as promised:

Podcast 27

In Memoriam . . . .

1 Amazing Grace

Aaron Neville, 2003

2 Reflections of My Life
The Marmalade, 1970

3 God Grant Me Tears
A Ragamuffin Band, 1999

4 Absalom, Absalom
Pierce Pettis, 1996

5 How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Live)
Al Green, 1997

6 Hymn
Jars of Clay, 1997

7 No More Fear
Aaron Thompson, 2002

8 Miracles Out of Nowhere
Kansas, 1976

9 Hold on to Happiness
Mugison, 2004

10 When You're Gone
The Cranberries, 1996

11 Us And Them / Any Colour You Like
Pink Floyd, 1973

12 One For Sorrow, Two For Joy
The Innocence Mission, 2003

13 I've Been Loving You Too Long (to Stop Now)
Otis Redding, 1966

In memoriam . . . .

We all know what this week's episode of the Revolution 21 podcast is about . . . what it had to be about. We cannot overcome the horror that lurks among us if we do not confront it. We must grieve for its victims and celebrate the light of the world -- and those souls' light in this world -- so that the darkness triumphs not.

Trouble is, I've had a hard time motivating myself to do the program this go 'round. One of the elements of this program is me talking . . . at least occasionally. It's a basic ingredient of human interaction, given that I can't shake your hand across cyberspace or give you a hug . .. particularly when we're all hurting to one degree or another.

But the deal is . . . what the hell can I say? In a very real way, words fail. Utterly.

Words cannot capture the groaning of broken hearts.

Words fail.

I THOUGHT ABOUT speaking of how the great failure of our age -- the great failure of most of human history -- is our failure to solve many pressing crises without somebody (or many somebodies) ending up dead.

I'm sure you can name any number of things for which our miserable "fix" is kill, kill, kill. And now, we have a crazed college student killing 32 innocents in what seemed, in his deranged mind, to be a fitting coda to a tortured and miserable existence.

And on it goes, with nothing seeming to break our addiction to violence, revenge and death.

WHILE I THINK THERE'S TRUTH in what I intended to say, what I intended to say is also pretty obvious. And while obviousness might be tolerable here in writing about the podcast, my blathering obviousness hardly would contribute to a fitting memorial to the lives -- the shining futures and the future generations -- we've lost this awful week in the Year of Our Lord 2007.

So I decided to shut up, restricting my poor insights to the Pod-O-Matic and Blogspot domains. In the show this week, the music and the context will speak for itself.

And I pray it will be worthy of the departed we grieve today. May God rest them, every one.

(To listen, see the podcast player at the top right of the page, or go to the Revolution 21 homepage and click on "Podcast."

Bring on the Comfy Chair!

THERE.

You can be assured of Revolution 21's abiding non-heretical nature. At least when we're talking traditional Christian beliefs.

You scored as Chalcedon compliant. You are Chalcedon compliant. Congratulations, you're not a heretic. You believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man and like us in every respect, apart from sin. Officially approved in 451. Chalcedon compliant 100% Pelagianism 67% Nestorianism 33% Monophysitism 33% Docetism 0% Arianism 0% Apollanarian 0% Adoptionist 0% Donatism 0% Gnosticism 0% Monarchianism 0% Albigensianism 0% Modalism 0% Socinianism 0% Are you a heretic? created with QuizFarm.com

NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! But when it gets here, I've nothing to fear.

Happiness is a warm gun???

If you ask me, the conservative chattering class has not exactly covered itself in glory this tragic week.

In fact, I'll start with one sad specimen who brings to mind -- after reading his post on National Review Online's blog The Corner -- the words Virginia Tech poet-in-residence Nikki Giovanni used in recalling madman Cho Sueng-Hui: "I've taught troubled youngsters. I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a really mean streak."

John Derbyshire:

As NRO's designated chickenhawk, let me be the one to ask: Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake—one of them reportedly a .22.

At the very least, count the shots and jump him reloading or changing hands. Better yet, just jump him. Handguns aren't very accurate, even at close range. I shoot mine all the time at the range, and I still can't hit squat. I doubt this guy was any better than I am. And even if hit, a .22 needs to find something important to do real damage—your chances aren't bad.

Yes, yes, I know it's easy to say these things: but didn't the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything? As the cliche goes—and like most cliches. It's true—none of us knows what he'd do in a dire situation like that. I hope, however, that if I thought I was going to die anyway, I'd at least take a run at the guy.

Columnist Mark Steyn expands upon Derbyshire's rant, while refusing to go all the way there:

Point one: They’re not “children.” The students at Virginia Tech were grown women and — if you’ll forgive the expression — men. They would be regarded as adults by any other society in the history of our planet. Granted, we live in a selectively infantilized culture where twentysomethings are “children” if they’re serving in the Third Infantry Division in Ramadi but grown-ups making rational choices if they drop to the broadloom in President Clinton’s Oval Office. Nonetheless, it’s deeply damaging to portray fit fully formed adults as children who need to be protected. We should be raising them to understand that there will be moments in life when you need to protect yourself — and, in a “horrible” world, there may come moments when you have to choose between protecting yourself or others. It is a poor reflection on us that, in those first critical seconds where one has to make a decision, only an elderly Holocaust survivor, Professor Librescu, understood instinctively the obligation to act.

Point two: The cost of a “protected” society of eternal “children” is too high. Every December 6th, my own unmanned Dominion lowers its flags to half-mast and tries to saddle Canadian manhood in general with the blame for the “Montreal massacre,” the 14 female students of the Ecole Polytechnique murdered by Marc Lepine (born Gamil Gharbi, the son of an Algerian Muslim wife-beater, though you’d never know that from the press coverage). As I wrote up north a few years ago:

Yet the defining image of contemporary Canadian maleness is not M Lepine/Gharbi but the professors and the men in that classroom, who, ordered to leave by the lone gunman, meekly did so, and abandoned their female classmates to their fate — an act of abdication that would have been unthinkable in almost any other culture throughout human history. The “men” stood outside in the corridor and, even as they heard the first shots, they did nothing. And, when it was over and Gharbi walked out of the room and past them, they still did nothing. Whatever its other defects, Canadian manhood does not suffer from an excess of testosterone.

I have always believed America is different. Certainly on September 11th we understood. The only good news of the day came from the passengers who didn’t meekly follow the obsolescent 1970s hijack procedures but who used their wits and acted as free-born individuals. And a few months later as Richard Reid bent down and tried to light his shoe in that critical split-second even the French guys leapt up and pounded the bejasus out of him.

MEANWHILE, TWO MORE voices on the right decide the solution lies in Gunsmoke. Or The Big Valley, perhaps. Maybe Bonanza or The Wild, Wild West:

Michelle Malkin:

There's no polite way or time to say it: American college and universities have become coddle industries. Big Nanny administrators oversee speech codes, segregated dorms, politically correct academic departments, and designated "safe spaces" to protect students selectively from hurtful (conservative) opinions—while allowing mob rule for approved leftist positions (textbook case: Columbia University's anti-Minuteman Project protesters).

Instead of teaching students to defend their beliefs, American educators shield them from vigorous intellectual debate. Instead of encouraging autonomy, our higher institutions of learning stoke passivity and conflict-avoidance.

And as the erosion of intellectual self-defense goes, so goes the erosion of physical self-defense.

As news was breaking about the carnage at Virginia Tech, a reader e-mailed me a news story from last January. State legislators in Virginia had attempted to pass a bill that would have eased handgun restrictions on college campuses. Opposed by outspoken, anti-gun activists and Virginia Tech administrators, that bill failed.

Is it too early to ask: "What if?" What if that bill had passed? What if just one student in one of those classrooms had been in lawful possession of a concealed weapon for the purpose of self-defense?

If it wasn't too early for Keystone Katie Couric to be jumping all over campus security yesterday for what they woulda/coulda/shoulda done in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and if it isn't too early for the New York Times editorial board to be publishing its knee-jerk call for more gun control, it darned well isn't too early for me to raise questions about how the unrepentant anti-gun lobbying of college officials may have put students at risk.

The back story: Virginia Tech had punished a student for bringing a handgun to class last spring—despite the fact that the student had a valid concealed handgun permit. The bill would have barred public universities from making "rules or regulations limiting or abridging the ability of a student who possesses a valid concealed handgun permit ... from lawfully carrying a concealed handgun." After the proposal died in subcommittee, the school's governing board reiterated its ban on students or employees carrying guns and prohibiting visitors from bringing them into campus buildings.

Late last summer, a shooting near campus prompted students to clamor again for loosening campus rules against armed self-defense. Virginia Tech officials turned up their noses. In response to student Bradford Wiles's campus newspaper op-ed piece in support of concealed carry on campus, Virginia Tech associate vice president Larry Hincker scoffed:

"[I]t is absolutely mind-boggling to see the opinions of Bradford Wiles…The editors of this page must have printed this commentary if for no other reason than malicious compliance. Surely, they scratched their heads saying, 'I can't believe he really wants to say that.' Wiles tells us that he didn't feel safe with the hundreds of highly trained officers armed with high powered rifles encircling the building and protecting him. He even implies that he needed his sidearm to protect himself."

The nerve!

Glenn Reynolds in the New York Daily News:

On Monday, as the news of the Virginia Tech shootings was unfolding, I went into my advanced constitutional law seminar to find one of my students upset. My student, Tara Wyllie, has a permit to carry a gun in Tennessee, but she isn't allowed to have a weapon on campus. That left her feeling unsafe. "Why couldn't we meet off campus today?" she asked.

Virginia Tech graduate student Bradford Wiles also has a permit to carry a gun, in Virginia. But on the day of the shootings, he would have been unarmed for the same reason: Like the University of Tennessee, where I teach, Virginia Tech bans guns on campus.

LEMME SEE HERE. We have a bunch of college pansies who live in a screwed-up, infantilized state of their Boomer parents' making and are incapable of walking and chewing gum at the same time, much less navigating a perilous and ugly "real world."

Therefore, the solution to the problem of The Horror at the gates of Dear Old Alma Mater . . . is to arm the twits like the Terminator himself.

"Hasta la vista, baby!"

(BLAM!!!!!!!!)

OhmigawdOhmigawdOhmigawdOhmigawdOhmigawdOhmigawdOhmigawd!!!!!! Did I hit you? I AM SOOOOOOOOOO SORRY! I was aiming at the mad . . .

(BLAMBLAMBLAM!!!)

(Thud.)

To reference Reynolds' Daily News op-ed piece, do you REALLY trust a gal who's terrified to go to class without her handgun with that handgun in the classroom?

BUT THE BIGGER POINT these folks miss is a Big Point, indeed. In positing that the only sane way of existence anymore involves people having the right, if not the obligation, to carry concealed handguns absolutely everywhere -- especially amid the hallowed halls of academe -- are they not conceding that, basically, we're toast? Doomed?

Done dealin' as a functional society and that the New Dark Ages now are upon us?

Is that what they really mean to say? Is utter despair the only thing the American conservative movement has left to offer us?

If that's the case, how about a little intellectual honesty here. If the conservative chattering class thinks it's all over and life's now a matter of kill or be killed, say so.

And answer the question of why our soldiers fight and die to "bring democracy and freedom" to Iraq when any notion of civilized society already is a dead letter right here at home.

Right reporter. Right blog. Priceless.

Is anyone else as big a fan of the various NBC News blogs as I have become? They're all accessible at MSNBC.com, and sometimes they're just priceless.

When you can get skilled journalists -- and their talents as writers and storytellers -- away from formula journalism, away from policy wonkery, away from self-promoting blowhards and political hacks, well, sometimes humanity happens.

Here's part of a dispatch by Bill Dedman from the MSNBC On the Scene blog:

As the thousands drifted away from the candlelight vigil on the Virginia Tech drillfield Tuesday evening, a song rose from a circle of two dozen lights.

"O mothers, let’s go down. Come on down, don't you wanna go down? O mothers, let’s go down. Down in the river to pray..."

A woman in the circle, a generation older than the young men and women, said she had come up from western North Carolina to be with her son, a resident adviser in a dorm, an R.A. just like the first young man killed on Monday. She reached over to give him a hug as they sang on.

"Amazing grace, how sweet the sound..."

The group grew to 30, singing from the heart, tears on many cheeks. They all knew the same songs, the same harmonies.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine..."

Was this an organized group, a church choir? No, she said, "just Christians."

CAN I MOVE to Blacksburg, Va., now?

Sometimes I loathe my generation

His father . . . questioned whether his
son's free speech rights had been violated.

"I would have hoped that state officials
would know their First Amendment better
than they seem to," he said.

READ THIS, and you'll loathe my Boomer generation, too. From The Associated Press:

A University of Colorado student was arrested after making comments that classmates deemed sympathetic toward the gunman blamed for killing 32 students and himself at Virginia Tech, authorities said.

During a class discussion of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech, the student "made comments about understanding how someone could kill 32 people," university police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said.

Several witnesses told investigators the student said he was "angry about all kinds of things from the fluorescent light bulbs to the unpainted walls, and it made him angry enough to kill people," according to a police report. Witnesses "said they were afraid of him and afraid to come to class with him," Wiesley said.

The student, identified by police as Max Karson of Denver, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of interfering with staff, faculty or students of an education institution. He had a court appearance set for Wednesday afternoon.

His father, Michael Karson, told the Camera newspaper that the comments may have been misinterpreted and questioned whether his son's free speech rights had been violated.

"I would have hoped that state officials would know their First Amendment better than they seem to," he said.

University spokesman Bronson Hilliard said privacy laws prevented him from releasing personal information about the student.

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. Michael Karson's precious baby boy, Max, makes some truly disturbing public statements that indicate he just might be Columbine- or Virginia Tech-massacre nuts.

The boy, it is obvious, needs some kind of help. He needs to be checked out six ways from Sunday. Likely, he needs a psychological overhaul. And the fact of his arrest might, just might, make sure he can get the help he needs before the Angel of Death can make his next move out there in Colorado.

BUT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, as John Belushi (who could have used some help himself) used to say. No, Michael Karson is not thanking God, or his lucky stars . . . or whatever. He is not grateful that someone stood up to stand astride his son's raging dysfunctionality and yell "HELP!"

Michael Karson is decrying this awful abridgment of his baby boy's free-speech rights. What Michael Karson needs is a psychiatrist to bust him across the chops and tell him to shut the hell up.

Would that be a Freudian approach or a Jungian one, perhaps?

Do it.

The constitutional right to be nuts . . .

. . . even if that screws up others' constitutional right to life.

From MSNBC:

Based on emerging accounts of his behavior before his deadly attack at Virginia Tech, Cho [Seung-Hui] exhibited three characteristics that the experts say are common among school shooters:

He didn’t “just snap” but instead acquired the weapons weeks earlier.

He was considered a threat by others, even though he didn’t make any explicit threats.

Fellow students and teachers raised concerns about his behavior.

Cho caused a great deal of concern on the Virginia Tech campus before Monday's mass shooting, even being voluntarily committed to a mental health facility for a day or two in 2005 after he made a second unwanted contact with female students, campus officials said Wednesday. His writings and behavior in class alarmed other students and teachers. His roommates heard him talk of suicide.

But because he didn’t threaten to harm anyone, university officials said, there was little more they could do.

That's been the pattern in most previous school attacks in the U.S., according to a landmark study in 2002 by the U.S. Secret Service. Researchers looked at 37 school shootings and interviewed 10 of the shooters themselves.

In more than three out of four school shootings, the attacker had made no threat against the schoolteachers or students. But most attackers engaged in some behavior prior to the incident that caused others concern or indicated a need for help. The attackers posed a threat even though they hadn't made a threat.

Schools can do a lot more to deal with such concerns, said one of the authors of the study.

"The notion that a concerned teacher who tries to get someone to counseling and that there are no other options if the student refuses to go — that seems much too limited," one of the report’s co-authors, psychologist Robert A. Fein, told MSNBC.com on Wednesday. He has consulted with federal agencies on targeted violence, including terrorism, school shootings and workplace violence.

"I understand that students in college are not high school kids," Fein said, "but schools should be able to do better than that. This is not to cast blame on anyone. There's no cookie-cutter solution, and there probably are lots of 'right ways,' but the notion of having a team that can gather and examine information and determine 'we may have a problem here' and then work to figure out what to do, or ask others, or keep working on it, still makes sense to me."

Virginia Tech officials described a long chain of events preceding Monday's shooting and expressed frustration that their systems weren't set up to deal with a student like Cho, who had not made a threat or committed a crime. Since his erratic behavior did not cross those thresholds, they said they could do nothing more than recommend he receive counseling.

COULD SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN in what rational world can we not immediately institutionalize -- institutionalize until we're reasonably sure they're no danger to themselves or others -- someone who is such a wack job that he has half the university scared spitless? Like this, as recounted in London's Evening Standard:

The Virginia Tech gunman was taken to a mental health facility in 2005, it has been revealed.

Cho Seung-Hui was evaluated by mental health professionals after female students complained to police about him and his parents became afraid he was suicidal.

Virginia Tech police chief Wendell Flincham confirmed moments ago that Cho Seung-Hui had targeted two female students in November and December of 2005.
He made contact with the first woman through phone calls and in person. Though she complained to police, she later declined to press charges, referring to Cho's attentions as "annoying".

The matter was then handled within the university, outside the scope of police.

Cho instant messaged the second woman in December, 2005. She asked police to ensure he had no further contact with her, and police gave Cho a warning regarding the matter.

Later Cho's parents expressed concern to police that he may have been suicidal. They asked him to speak to a counsellor, and a temporary detention order was issued resulting in Cho being sent to a mental health facility independent of the university.

Under a temporary detention order a person can be committed to a mental health facility voluntarily or involuntarily. Mr Flincham said he believed Cho had gone to the facility on December 13, 2005 voluntarily. It is not yet known how long he stayed for, and any further mental health records are subject to privacy laws.

However according to the file seen by police, nothing was recorded that could have prevented Cho from purchasing a gun.

(snip)

Teachers and fellow students at Virginia Tech lived in fear of Cho Seung-Hui in the 18 months before he struck, it was revealed this afternoon.

A lecturer was so frightened by Cho's violent fantasies that she made up a secret codeword so that she could alert security without him knowing.

The alarm she felt on reading plays written by the Virginia Tech gunman was enough for her to contact police and university authorities.

British-born professor Lucinda Roy has revealed that if she had sensed he was about to erupt she was going to mention the name of a dead professor to her assistant - who had been told to call the police.

Students described Cho's descent from campus oddball to chilling loner with a loathing for "rich kids" as he began secretly photographing pupils in class, started going to the gym to "beef up" and had a military-style haircut.

It emerged today that at one stage students were so scared of his behaviour that only seven out of 70 turned up for class, forcing lecturers to give him one-to-one tuition.

One teacher even suggested today he was given A grades because he was so "intimidating and staff wanted to keep him happy".

Nikki Giovanni, who teaches poetry, said she threatened to resign if Cho was not taken out of her class. She said: "I think he liked the idea he was a scary guy. Some people like that. That is how they define themselves. Kids write about murder and suicide all the time. But there was something that made us all pay attention closely.

"Students absolutely would not come into class. They said, 'He is taking photographs of us. We don't know what he is doing. It is very strange'."

British-born professor Lucinda Roy was so concerned about Cho Seung-Hui that she had a secret code word designed to alert security if he became unstable

When she first heard of the killings Professor Giovanni said she immediately thought it would be Cho.

"When they said it was a shooting, I said, 'Okay...' When they said a young Asian, I said, 'For sure'. I knew when it happened that that was who it was.

"There was something mean about this boy. I've taught troubled youngsters, I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a real mean streak."

AFTER CHO STALKED a couple of women and his parents told authorities they feared he was suicidal he was "committed" . . . if being ordered to get outpatient treatment can be called such a thing. Riiiiight. And only after a professor had tried and failed to convince him to seek help -- and was told he couldn't be made to go.

Some students, some parents and some opinion mavens are all up in arms about the two hours between Cho's first murderous outburst and the university warning the student body. Why, they want to know, wasn't the campus shut down? Why, they want to know, didn't campus police and university officials go into full freakout mode at the first 911 call from the Ambler-Johnston dormitory?

Well, for one thing, they were -- from the appearance of things -- working off the entirely reasonable hypothesis that it was an isolated incident, maybe some kind of grudge thing, and that the killer was long gone. That is a reasonable thing for cops to think.

Even nowadays, thinking that what actually happened Monday was even a remotely likely outcome would have been a massive stretch of logic and imagination. University officials acted fairly reasonably, and they got bit in the ass by it . . . to horrific effect.

AND NOW YOU HAVE NUTJOB CONSERVATIVES railing on their AM-radio echo chambers that the horror that occurred could have been stopped if only, if only, half the student body of Virginia Tech had been packing heat. If only scores of Hokies had handguns and concealed-carry permits -- if only the administration of that university had welcomed turning the campus into a literal armed camp -- Cho Seung-Hui would have been turned into Swiss cheese after, oh, the first murder or five.

For the love of God, is it really necessary to have to make a detailed, footnoted case that no, we don't want college kids packing .44s and .22s and 9 millimeters and .357 magnums on campus? Have right-wing, NRA-loving radio blatherers so departed from reality -- so departed from any notion of what a civilized society looks like -- that they seriously think it would be a good thing to turn places like Virginia Tech into the Wild, Wild West?

Is this really the college experience that moms and dads want for their offspring? Do we only get to choose between society-as-armed-camp and Atrocity of the Day?

If this truly is what we've come to as a society, it's over, y'all. I'm outta here.

Point me toward Patmos. Or Lost Cove, Tennessee.

OR, MAYBE WE COULD TRY another tack. Perhaps we could resolve that if a loner student at Fill in the Blank U. looks like a nut, acts like a nut, writes really disturbing things like a nut and scares the bejeezus out of his classmates and professors -- like a nut -- we just go on the assumption that HE'S A NUT and immediately get him intensive treatment.

Before he cracks like a nut, and people die.

Do we get to send Bush to Gitmo now?

From the Washington Whispers blog on USNews.com:

Are We Already Operating in Iran?

He says he was only citing press reports, but Jimmy Carter's former national security adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, is drawing attention to claims that American military commandos are operating in Iran, possibly as terrorists targeting buses. "There are some legitimate questions that [Iran] may be concerned about, such as: Is it true ... that American commandos are operating in Iran? It's not an idle question," he says, adding: "I don't know, but I've seen allegations to that effect, and I do know that people are getting killed by acts of terrorism, and if it's not us, then who else could it be?" Brzezinski declined to confide his thoughts on the answer.

(emphasis mine)

IF WHAT'S BEING ALLUDED TO IS TRUE -- and note the "if" here -- what can it mean for us in this War on Terror (TM)?

Does it mean we have to decalre war on ourselves and send George Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of their brothers in waterboarding for a dose of their own medicine at Guantanamo Bay? Would that make it a civil war?

Or, alternatively, does than mean the war is over and we lose? Or -- being that we would have, in actuality, defected to the "terror" side -- would that mean that the war is over and we win?

Life -- and war -- was so much simpler in the 1940s when Tojo, Mussolini and Hitler were The Enemy and our president wasn't an Orwellian weasel.

No one has greater love than this . . . .

Words -- my words, or your words, or any words but those of ancient faith -- are utterly useless when faced with the image of an elderly Israeli professor, a Holocaust survivor, throwing himself at a gunman pushing at the classroom door and yelling for his Virginia Tech students to jump to safety from a ledge.

Liviu Librescu was shot to death Monday. On Holocaust Remembrance Day.

From The Jerusalem Post:

As Jews worldwide honored on Monday the memory of those who were murdered in the Holocaust, a 76-year-old survivor sacrificed his life to save his students in Monday's shooting at Virginia Tech College that left 33 dead and over two dozen wounded.

Professor Liviu Librescu, 76, threw himself in front of the shooter when the man attempted to enter his classroom. The Israeli mechanics and engineering lecturer was shot to death, "but all the students lived - because of him," Virginia Tech student Asael Arad - also an Israeli - told Army Radio.

Several of Librescu's other students sent e-mails to his wife, Marlena, telling of how he had blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said Librescu's son, Joe.

"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."

Librescu was respected in his field, his son said.

"His work was his life, in a sense," said Joe. "That was a good place for him to practice his research."

The couple immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978. They then moved to Virginia in 1986 for his sabbatical and had stayed since then, Joe told Army Radio.

And from the New York Daily News:

"When he heard the gunfire, he blocked the entrance and got shot through the door," his daughter-in-law Ayala Schmulevich said.

"He realized he had to save the students," she said. "That was the kind of man he was."

The hero educator was beginning a class on solid mechanics when all hell broke loose on the second floor of Norris Hall.

First came the terrifying gunshots from a classroom next door.

"It wasn't like an automatic weapon, but it was a steady 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,' 'pow,'" student Richard Mallalieu, 23, told The Washington Post. "We didn't know what to do at first."

The students in the class dropped to the floor and started overturning desks to hide behind as about a dozen shots rang out, he said.

Then the gunfire started coming closer. Librescu, 77, fearlessly braced himself against the door, holding it shut against the gunman in the hall, while students darted to the windows of the second-floor classroom to escape the slaughter, survivors said.

Mallalieu and most of his classmates hung out of the windows and dropped about 10 feet to bushes and grass below - but Librescu stayed behind to hold off the crazed gunman.

Alec Calhoun, 20, said the last thing he saw before he jumped from the window was Librescu, blocking the door against the madman in the hallway.

* * *

Glorified and sanctified be G-d's great name throughout

the world which he has created according to his will.

May he establish his kingdom in your lifetime and during

your days, and within the life of the entire house

of Israel, speedily and soon; and say, Amen.

Response:
May his great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled

and honored, adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One,

blessed be he, beyond all the blessings and hymns,

praises and consolations that are ever spoken

in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant PEACE from heaven,

and life, for us and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates PEACE in his celestial heights,

may he create PEACE for us and for all Israel;

and say, Amen.

Pushing that button, one way or another

Nuclear war (yeah)
Nuclear war (yeah)
Talkin' about (yeah)
Nuclear War (yeah)

It's a motherf****r,
don't you know.
If they push that button,
your ass gotta go.

THE BAND IS YO LA TENGO. The song is "Nuclear War." It's a catchy little thing, a classic call-and-response number, of which the band has cut several versions.

Most charming is the version where the response part is done by a children's chorus. Nothing warms the heart like an aggregation of what must be first graders happily singing "It's a motherf****r . . . ."

The time is a few minutes after 1 a.m., Central time -- just after 2 Eastern. It is Tuesday, April 17, 2007. I'm listening to the radio, via the Internet.

The station is WUVT, 90.7 FM, Blacksburg, Va. The student voice of Virginia Tech, where something truly unspeakable happened Monday morning -- ironically, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

THIRTY-TWO STUDENTS and faculty members lay dead, along with the 24-year-old student from China 23-year-old Korean student who gunned them down. Calmly. Bemusedly. Impassionately. Methodically. Mercilessly.

Why? Because he could, armed with a 9mm, a .22 and enough clips of ammo to do the job . . . and more.

It's a motherf****r,
don't you know.
When he squeeze that trigger,
your ass gotta go.

I GOT NO ANSWERS. None.

No answers as to why some foreign student blew away his (reported) girlfriend, her dorm-floor resident assistant, as much of the rest of the Virginia Tech community as he could . . . and then himself, as police closed in.

I got no answers as to why some students on the campus radio thought it in any way appropriate to play several versions -- one after another -- of a song proclaiming nuclear war to be "a motherf****r" on the public airwaves. I got no answers as to why anyone who wasn't raised by wolves would think it remotely appropriate to play such -- with a giggling introduction, no less -- when classmates and professors lay on morgue shelves and classroom floors remain caked with blood.

I. GOT. NO. ANSWERS.

Once upon a time, the God of Abraham told His people, Israel, to sacrifice the spotless lamb and mark their doorposts with its blood so that the Angel of Death would pass over their dwellings, and their first born would be spared the horrible plague.

Once upon a time, the God of Abraham sent His only begotten Son -- truly and mysteriously one with Himself as part of the Triune Godhead -- to be the spotless Lamb of God, to be executed and then rise from the dead, destroying death itself.

Once upon a time, that meant something. Once upon a time, we could conceive of ourselves as precious enough -- and wretched enough -- to warrant such extraordinary acts by the Creator Himself.

Now we kill with little passion and great efficiency, and we wallow in "motherf****rs" through the night while young victims of yet another American atrocity lay in cold storage. Waiting for grieving parents to carry them home, to bury their hopes and dreams, to bury the future -- the generations that will never be.

The Angel of Death has done little passing over lately.

This is America in these times. We have extraordinary freedom still, which we regularly exploit to unleash great horror upon the land. Maybe we're the Angel of Death.

It's a motherf****r,
don't you know.
The Culture of Death means
your ass gotta go.

Reconstruction may have ended 130 years too soon

From a Sunday column by Louisiana's Gannett capitol bureau chief John Hill, who apparently is dying to ask the $200 billion question: "What's a little casino-license shakedown between friends?"

BATON ROUGE - Former Gov. Edwin Edwards has done enough time in prison.

At 80, EWE is no threat to society.

He's done 52 months in prison, is a model prisoner and has health problems.

Edwards recently wrote a friend, wondering what public support there might be for a presidential commutation to time served, something that would get him out of the Oakdale prison and back with his family, most of whom are congregated in Baton Rouge.
The friend showed the letter to pollster Verne Kennedy, owner of Marketing Research Institute of Pensacola, Fla., who already was planning to conduct a statewide poll for a client. Kennedy, at his own expense, added two questions about Edwards to his statewide poll of 600 voters taken March 29 through April 2.

"Two out of every three says he's done enough time," Kennedy said.

Another interesting finding is that among the five most recent governors, "the guy in prison ranks very high in having gotten things done for the state," Kennedy said.

"Of all the governors since 1972, the imprisoned guy is tied for job approval. That's kind of unusual," said Kennedy, who has polled in all 50 states.

People in Louisiana believe Edwards "has served enough time and should be allowed to live the remaining days he has outside the prison system," Kennedy said.

Former Gov. Dave Treen is among those. Treen has for more than a year said there is no purpose in keeping Edwards behind bars.

Now, in a scientific poll, we know that 58 percent of those polled believe that Edwards has served enough time and should be released. That's close to 2-to-1, more than the 31 percent who think he should serve the rest of the 10 years.

AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE: Having moved away from Louisiana is like watching a family member holding a loaded gun to his head and not being able to do a damned thing to stop him from pulling the trigger. But living in Louisiana is like having your crazy-ass family member holding the loaded gun to YOUR head and not being able to do a damned thing to stop him from pulling the trigger.

Then again, maybe New Orleans ain't so bad

I've always known that Omaha was a deeply segregated city, in that Northern de facto way of committing apartheid. I've also known that Omaha is a prosperous city, if you happen to be of the Caucasian persuasion.

BUT GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY . . . I called up Omaha.com for a glance at the Sunday paper that will be in our driveway in a few hours only to find out that the Third World 'R' Us. If the "us" here in River City happens to be African-American.

The ugly truth is here. From the Omaha World-Herald's lengthy series-opening mainbar:

Omaha is known far and wide as the home of Warren Buffett, one of the wealthiest men on the planet.

But the Omaha metropolitan area also has another economic distinction: home to one of the poorest black communities you'll find anywhere in America.

Among America's 100 largest metro areas, Omaha has the third-highest black poverty rate.

Worse yet, its percentage of black children in poverty ranks No. 1 in the nation, with nearly six of 10 black kids living below the poverty line.

In fact, only one other U.S. metro area, Minneapolis, has a wider economic disparity between how black and white residents fare.

The endemic poverty in Omaha's black community is catching thousands of children in an all-too-familiar spiral: school failure, poor choices, kids having kids, violence, unemployment and hopelessness.

Amber Franklin is fighting those odds. The teen, who turned 16 on Thursday, hears it from her mom all the time: "Don't end up like me."

Her mom, Latressa Montgomery, got pregnant in high school with the first of seven children. She dropped out of Omaha North High School and later earned a high school equivalency diploma. But that was no ticket to a job that paid what she needed or offered a schedule allowing the single parent to be home nights.

Amber's family has bounced from home to home and relies on food stamps and other public assistance to bolster Latressa's earnings as a child care provider.

Amber sees how tired and stressed out her mother is. She dreams of another path: high school and college diplomas, then a career on stage and money for nice things.

"I just want to do it," she said. "I can't be like my mom, my brothers and my dad, all of them. I want to be more of a model for the younger kids."

But hardship surrounds her.

Cousins her age are pregnant. Three older brothers dropped out of school, and one has a criminal record. None is working, though one is in a job training program.

Amber herself recently served a day of in-school suspension for getting to school late too many mornings. She relies on her mother to drive her to school.

While indeed some children do overcome the odds, studies have traced a link between the economic well-being of children and their outcomes in life. And poor children's struggles ultimately cost us all in the form of social welfare programs, crime, weakened civic institutions and lost economic growth.

"There are tremendous societal costs when kids grow up in poverty," said Alan Berube, who has studied poverty for the nonprofit Brookings Institution. "It sets a lot of things in motion that are pretty hard to reverse later on."

Certainly dire stories and grim statistics about the economic struggles of blacks are not new in Omaha or elsewhere. But even demographers, city officials and some within the black community found the latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau surprising - and alarming.

Omaha's black poverty figures are even more dismal than those in New Orleans, where the stark plight of poor blacks in the wake of Hurricane Katrina put a spotlight on troubling national issues of poverty and race.

And the percentage of Omaha's blacks below the poverty line - an income of $20,650 for a family of four - has been rising in recent years.

"This is jaw-dropping," said Chris Rodgers, a black banker who serves on the Douglas County Board.

The new signs of the depth of black Omaha's economic malaise also come at a critical time.

Lawmakers in Lincoln are debating the future of school organization in Omaha, a debate largely driven by lagging achievement of poor children.

And there are several new, unrelated efforts to bring new economic vitality to north Omaha neighborhoods that are home to the vast majority of the city's black residents.

Such efforts - some emanating from city and business leaders and others from the black community - will be trying to succeed where numerous others before have failed to keep kids like Amber from being trapped in poverty's cycle.

So, why Omaha?

While it's sometimes difficult to separate cause from effect, it appears a number of factors are combining to give poverty a strong, multigenerational grip in Omaha's black community.

• Small black middle class -- While their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers were first lured from the segregated South to Omaha during the last century by the promise of good-paying jobs, many educated blacks now are leaving Omaha for opportunity, often in Southern cities with bigger middle-class black populations.

Those migration losses, confirmed by census data, and the struggle of Omaha employers to lure and keep educated blacks have made it difficult for the city to develop the black middle-class neighborhoods, social institutions and cultural environments found in cities with more thriving black communities.

The loss of middle-class blacks leaves Omaha's black community proportionately poorer and deprives youths like Amber of much-needed role models.

• Changing job market -- The unemployment rate among Omaha's blacks has been on the rise and in the latest census data ranks eighth highest in the nation, at more than 17 percent.

Several in north Omaha attribute recent spikes in poverty and unemployment among blacks to the influx of Hispanic workers into the city. The issue has not been studied locally, but some U.S. studies have suggested immigration depresses incomes of native, unskilled workers.

Others point out that if economic conditions for blacks are to improve, blacks need to stop fighting for jobs at the bottom of the wage scale and get the education and skills needed for good-paying jobs.

Compared with other U.S. cities, Omaha proportionally has fewer blacks working in higher-paying professional and management occupations and more working in low-skill labor, service and sales jobs.

According to a World-Herald analysis of census data, if Omaha's black work force were more like the work force for blacks nationally, the city would have hundreds more black teachers, doctors and nurses, accountants, scientists, computer specialists and executives.

While Omaha has more than an average percentage of blacks working in factory jobs, such work is not as plentiful or as well-paying as three decades ago.

• High school, college dropouts -- Gaps in education and training appear to be major barriers to Omaha blacks getting better jobs.

While states and school districts measure dropouts by various methods, two studies that tried to make apples-to-apples comparisons ranked Nebraska among states with the highest school dropout rates for blacks. Both calculated black graduation rates below 50 percent and placed Nebraska in the bottom handful of states nationally.

Omaha Public Schools officials use a measure they say is more accurate and puts their black graduation rate higher, at 65 percent. But they say there's no doubt poverty and school struggles go hand in hand. "Poverty is not an excuse for not learning," said Superintendent John Mackiel, "but it is a factor in not learning."

Omaha also ranks in the bottom third among the U.S. cities in the percentage of its blacks who have four-year college degrees.

And contrary to the national trend, the gap in educational attainment between blacks and whites in Omaha is widening.

According to projections by the Federal Reserve, jobs requiring postsecondary education are expected to grow much faster than those requiring less education - a trend that threatens to leave Amber and her young peers in school today even further behind.

• Single-parent homes -- Among the nation's 100 largest cities, Omaha in 2000 had the 11th-highest percentage of black households headed by a single parent. A teen birthrate for blacks that also ranks among the highest contributes to that ranking.

According to a Harvard study, a household headed by a single parent is almost three times more likely to be below the poverty line than one headed by two parents.

Amber's mom gave up trying to improve her earning potential after juggling college classes, an overnight work shift and care for her kids became too much. "The hardest time of the month is at the end, when you run out of food," she said.

• Racial segregation -- Using the two most common methods of measuring racial isolation, another Harvard study looking at the 100 largest U.S. cities ranked Omaha 40th and 45th in segregation of blacks.

Experts say residential segregation can significantly contribute to poverty. Adults in segregated communities can be cut off from employment centers and lack the social networks that can lead to better-paying jobs.

Black children growing up in poor, segregated neighborhoods are far more likely to attend schools with concentrations of low-achieving children who are at risk of dropping out. Such concentrations in Omaha increased in 1999 with the end of 23 years of mandatory integration busing.

In 2000, about half of poor black children in Omaha lived in a six-square-mile area bounded by 16th, 48th, Cuming and Fort Streets.

To be sure, Omaha's challenge is not unique. Black poverty plagues all major cities.
But although other cities more known for black poverty - New Orleans, St. Louis or Detroit - have many times more poor blacks than Omaha, they also have an even higher multiple of blacks with higher incomes.

The World-Herald's analysis of the latest census poverty data, done in conjunction with the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Center for Public Affairs Research, is believed to be the first comprehensive economic comparison between black Omahans and blacks in other U.S. cities.

That may be a reason the gravity of Omaha's black poverty hasn't been widely appreciated.

Others say the issue has simply been ignored by Omaha's white majority, a lack of concern that they say is rooted in racism.

"It has to do with a profound, profound indifference between the races," said Walter Brooks, a north Omahan who recently retired as a public relations specialist. "Omaha is a rich city, and that's what makes this so much worse."

Cell phones could bee the end of us

"Albert Einstein once said that
if the bees disappeared, 'man would
have only four years of life left' "

I HATE CELL PHONES. At best, they're handy in an emergency or in a pinch on the road.

At worst, they're a distraction, a hazard when driving -- or when you're in the path of distracted phone-yakking drivers -- and a facilitator of collapsing public decorum. They destroy any sense of privacy (or quiet time) we ever had, and they allow work to consume all of our lives, as opposed to just the part between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. (or whatever).

Well, we thought that was the worst about cellular telephones. Scientific studies are beginning to indicate the things might literally be the end of us. Really.

From The Independent in London:

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

The theory is that radiation from mobile phones interferes with bees' navigation systems, preventing the famously homeloving species from finding their way back to their hives. Improbable as it may seem, there is now evidence to back this up.

Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) occurs when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers, like so many apian Mary Celestes. The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives.

The alarm was first sounded last autumn, but has now hit half of all American states. The West Coast is thought to have lost 60 per cent of its commercial bee population, with 70 per cent missing on the East Coast.

CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

Other apiarists have recorded losses in Scotland, Wales and north-west England, but the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs insisted: "There is absolutely no evidence of CCD in the UK."

The implications of the spread are alarming. Most of the world's crops depend on pollination by bees. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".

No one knows why it is happening. Theories involving mites, pesticides, global warming and GM crops have been proposed, but all have drawbacks.

German research has long shown that bees' behaviour changes near power lines.

Now a limited study at Landau University has found that bees refuse to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. Dr Jochen Kuhn, who carried it out, said this could provide a "hint" to a possible cause.

Dr George Carlo, who headed a massive study by the US government and mobile phone industry of hazards from mobiles in the Nineties, said: "I am convinced the possibility is real."

SO, IT COULD BE that we're soon going to find out whether we love our gadgets more than we love life itself. How do you text "I'm starving to death" in 1337 5P34K?

Wouldn't it be the most delicious (sorry, poor choice of words) of ironies if the "meek" in the poverty-ridden "undeveloped" world REALLY DO "inherit the earth," because the First World kills itself off for the love of mammon?

And for the dread of being alone with our own thoughts.