I was reflecting on my reaction to this whole thing and I think I stumbled upon my core problem with media hysteria. We've been looking at locus of control as it relates to kids with learning disabilities. There is a tendency among these kids to believe that the things that happen to them are completely unrelated to what they're doing. The classic example is the kid that is always late to class. It's always the fault of other people or the system. It's never that he's stopping to see the girlfriend, get a soda, go to his locker etc... Anyway this is called an external locus of control, it breeds despair and subverts personal responsibility attacking the very core of our American value structure. I think that when media builds up these external terrors they are really attacking free society. We start looking to lawmakers to solve problems that can be addressed by the individual.

Yup...self-responsibility is the key to everything.

I blame the Christians, who started this whole "divine forgiveness" thing.

It's the fault of the Christian Church's teaching you can buy forgivness for anything.:(

Forgiveness and consequences can live together quite well. The whole Christian faith hinges on the fact that while there are earthly consequences for our actions, the eternal consequences were paid in advance by Jesus. The only caveat is, you have to redeem the coupon. God's not going to come up and shove it under your door.

One thing I see is a tendency of people to drag out the stocks and the pokers and such when something like this happens.

Bad idea. All that does is provide motivation for the sick fuckers to continue doing it.

Prosecute them, judge them and then punish them.

Take the guilty ones and line them up front to back 10 at a time and one bullet from this http://exit3.i-55.com/~suit/big_one/ ought to do it. 1:10 bullet to kill ratio. Cost effective, quick, and final.

That's true. I use e-mail now. God has to keep up with technology, it makes me more relatable.

Nice. Hangings in the public square would be good, too.

State judicial system: "...but with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified, and their shouts prevailed. So Pilate decided to grant their demand. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, the one they asked for, and surrendered Jesus to their will." -- Luke 23:24

God: "...if a man schemes and kills another...deliberately, take him away from my altar and put him to death." -- Exodus 21:14

I say let God have 'im.

Fine, kill the fucker and let God handle it from there on.