Thanks for pointing it out, Dave.

When they started with the "facts" and insinuating causation, I quit listening. With your book fresh in my mind, I refuse to speculate on "why" no matter how many facts they get. I am thankful he is still alive and for once, we may get an actual answer straight from the shooter.

It must be weird for you in a way, but when something like this occurs, you spring to mind as my go to guy to get a lucid take on what has happened.

Your point is clear and obvious now, but, that's because I have been listening to you Dave.

The jumping to conclusions was obvious in some of what I have heard since the shooting was first reported, but there are those who now aren't rushing to judgment and hopefully, some understanding will develop.

To my mind, only in terms of there being deadly shooting involved and leaving tragedy and grieving people, behind.

The mix of emotions leading to it and the age and life circumstance of the shooter--rathter different from Harris and Klebold, to my way of thinking.

thanks, everyone.

my mind reels with the possibilities and i think it's useful to discuss them in small group--as long as we know that we're discussing possibilities and probabilities, and keeping an open mind. but discussing it on TV, or now even on the web, we know where that leads: mythology.

i've come to the point of view that it depends on the size and scope of your audience. if you are six people sitting around a dinner table, theorize to your hearts' content. if you are a tiny blog, maybe still OK. but probably not, because small blogs get picked up by big ones, and you never know what you're going to be part of: and of which future myths you are helping solidify.

Yes it is. Please check out my blog on the subject here on Open Salon.

The real perps are the war criminals in Congress, at the White House and those at Fort Hood, who not only are perpetuating a war based economy, which not only is ruining this country, but perpetuates violence. Furthermore the shooter yesterday, while I make no excuses for any act of murder, cracked, like many other of our soldiers both here and abroad, who are doing exactly the same thing, in both shooting other soldiers and committing suicide (which is essentially what this was yesterday, since I don't think he actually thought he would survive).

The shooter not only had repeatedly heard awful tales of men and women who's lives and psyches had been permanently ruined and damaged by immoral wars, but had repeatedly asked for an honorable discharge on the grounds of religious beliefs. For which he was refused. That is religious persecution. For of course which the real perps will never be punished. He had also been taunted for his religious beliefs, which his superiors had done nothing about. That is also an act of religious persecution and a war crime for which his superiors will never be punished for. And is appalling.

I suggest you check out MY blog on the subject here on open salon. Since naturally women don't count as anything or get credited or quoted by the mainstream media.

But I guarantee you, that this will happen again and again.

And what is MOST appalling about all of this, in addition to the fact that members of Congress are personally profiting off of a war based economy, is that the shooter yesterday is being portrayed as some kind of aberation when in fact he displayed the same kind of behavior as many of our other soldiers both here and in both theatres of war, who are not only shooting other soldiers under horrific psychological pressure and repeated tours of duty in amoral wars, but the mounting suicide rates that DOD is DOING NOTHING ABOUT.

That is the real war crime here.

For which you can blame our national leaders, starting at the top, with the bastard who sits his ass in the Oval Office.

And if you think these wars about terrorism, or we even have a chance of winning in Afghanistan, I would also suggest you read my blogs on those topics too.

Not to mention look up what is happening in Iraq right now with multinational foriegn oil companies moving in as of now, signing contracts with extra dollars per barrel of oil they extract and further raping the country AGAIN, as every other occupying foreign Empire has in the region. And as every Empire has gone to war in Afghanistan has done to control the resources and the long desired oil pipeline and oil in THAT region.

This whole situation is FUBAR beyond belief.

And will only lead to further tragedies like Fort Hood, further tolerance for violence, if not acts of it both here and abroad, further underminiing of our civil liberties, further diverting valuable resources we need to keep here to rebuild OUR country to a cleantech and sustainable economy, and further concentration of wealth and undermining of democracy, as, historically, economically, war time economics do.

I hope you do check out my blog here or at http://margueritearnold.wordpress.com.

What happened yesterday is just a precursor of more to come unless the American people rise up NOW and say NO MORE.

It is a tragedy, a sign of the rampant corruption of our elected elites, and affects every American, whether they are in the military, out of work, or are having their paychecks cut so Wall Street can make huge profits, th

excuse me, got cut off...the pharma industry can make huge profits, the elites in Congress can channel the appropriations for both to their spouses and relatives, and they can continue to get paid and bought off by all of the above to undermine the will of the people.

What is really at stake here is Democracy itself.

And if people don't realize that, and rise up and stop it NOW, then, as Paul Krugman so aptly wrote, we are all proverbial frogs in pan of slowly heating water who don't jump out before it's too late and don't realize that they are being boiled alive.

Speculation is an important tool, but many TV journalists often jump to it as a first response thus muddling the facts. That in turn paints conclusions in the minds of viewers. That is perfectly obvious from the Columbine shootings and many others.

Dave I'm glad you followed Newsweek's offer to you and invited a guest blogger to your blog. And in turn, them reinforcing the key point of your piece: That some people do not wait for the facts to be vetted. (In addition to using someone else's well read blog to self promote their blog.)

Lady, all of your comment is nothing but personal political view proselytizing. The remaining is assertion of facts that either haven't been established yet as fact, or are simply wrong.

No numbers on how many patients this person saw have been given. The numbers of what the concentration of those patients were "horror" stories is unknown. People seek help for a multitude of reasons related to active duty status, (even in a war zone,) not just the battle and gore that causes emotional melt-downs in people.

Not being given an honorable discharge because you asked for it on religious grounds is not religious persecution. The Romans persecuted the Christians by nailing them to crosses, not by letting them into the military. The military allows all faiths to be practiced, and the acts of a few idiots, does not constitute: Persecution. It illustrates that there are ass-holes everywhere, no matter where you work.

The number of incidents of soldiers shooting other personnel is low enough in numbers to be called aberrations, and the cause of suicides in all demographics vary. Not all people who are members of a certain group commit suicide by virtue of being in that group, and the studies that determine causes, and generate statistical data for those causes, take years, sometimes decades to perform.

This war is indeed wrong, but it still has facts. You know less than zero about the shooter or what caused or motivated him to do it. You have less than zero knowledge of what he intended the outcome to be for himself.

brian, thank you so much for that. really well said, better than i could put it. i'm afraid marguerite illustrated my point: what she chose as The Reason could in fact turn out to be what drove him, but statistically speaking, probably won't.

the point is, we have no way of knowing yet. he could be left-handed, an avid basketball fan and a cigar-smoker--all could be true, but unrelated. (btw, i'm making those all up, as examples.)

coming to conclusions now . . . still foolish.