HIGH ACHIEVERS GO TO MORNING CLASSES. Stephen Spruiell at Phi Beta Cons reflects on the Virginia Tech death toll.

One of the saddest things about this event is that the victims all seemed to be among the most accomplished and promising people at Virginia Tech. My wife was particularly distraught when she read about Librescu, who we all know by now know survived the Holocaust and escaped from Communist Romania only to be gunned down in his own classroom. I told her that I guess Librescu had to survive those ordeals so that he could save 10 lives on Monday. What else can one say when confronted with something so seemingly senseless?

Early-morning classes tend to have a higher proportion of "accomplished and promising" students precisely because that's a good time for motivated morning people to complete their schedules. There's accumulating evidence that the shooter viewed his shortcomings as the result of the successes of others: what better time than the 9 am class to take out his frustrations?