This is What Ismail Ax Means

The answer to what "Ismail Ax" means came in the mail yesterday, in the form of a package to NBC. Ever since the Virginia authorities announced that the Virginia tech killer had the words "Ismail Ax" scrawled in red ink on his arm, there's been an internet frenzy to figure out what he meant by it. The answer is that Seung-Hui Cho -- the cholerically enraged psycho who, sadly for all of us, ultimately acted out his violent anger -- did NOT write Ismail Ax on his arm.

That's right. While the world would never have gotten a chance to see his arm and the supposed writing on it, we all got a chance to see the return address on the envelope he sent to NBC, where he has scrawled the name "A. Ishmael".

"Ishmael" as in the exact spelling used by Christians and Jews. "Ishmael" as in the exact spelling in the Bible. "Ishmael", as in not Ismail.

Yes, folks, the media (including the New York Times which persists in stating that the name is "Ismail" rather than "Ishmael") and the authorities' attempts to make this South Korean Christian's violent act into something, anything, to do with Islam or Muslims, was discredited by the killer himself -- see the photograph of the envelope (above, and in better quality also at this link) as provided by NBC.

And that's really all we need or care to know about Ishmael Ax -- the media is obsessing over this freak's horrible act, and has conveniently headlined him and it over the biggest story in the US today which is the trial of Attorney General Gonzales who, in the scope of his power, his violence, and his evil, has caused many many more deaths than a disturbed and powerless psycho like Cho.

No wonder some nuts are calling Cho the Manchurian Candidate. Maybe if the media stopped over-publicizing these crime sprees, then more psycho kids wouldn't seek to glorify themselves by making a "multimedia manifesto" (as NBC has called Cho's package) out of violent crime.