It's Paul Newman's Fault

Okay now we have to listen to all the do-dah about when, and of course, why the kid who executed all those people in Omaha fell through the cracks. As if the floorboards just suddenly opened up and he came crashing through.

Was it when he was showing everybody the Kalishnikov the night before he went on his rampage? Or when he was kicked out of his mother's house a year ago? Or when he got rejected by the military? Or lost his girlfriend? Or got fired? Or suffered from any of the other ISSUES he's had for years and years and years?

Nope. He's been slipping through the buttcrack of society one little splinter at a time. Each time he did something a little worse than the last time. Dropping hints about his distress like Hansel and Gretel leaving a trail of crumbs behind in the hope that they could find their way out of the forest. Not enough to get anybody's attention in time. But enough to let us know in retrospect that he was keeping his sanity together with bailing wire and string. 

Empty the barf bag of his life and something will fall out.

As her readers know by now, Mrs. Linklater believes there are two chances this kid was not subjected to an inappropriate sexual experience. Slim and none. But she'll keep an open mind. Once they can eliminate all parents and step-parents, siblings and other relatives, family friends, babysitters, teachers, coaches, scout leaders, camp counselors, teen pastors, priests, etc., etc.

The TV shirnks always bring up the possibility of some genetic predisposition to mental illness. Like it's a foregone conclusion you're going to be shooting up a mall from the time of your first poopy diaper. Bull hockey. First because too many people who have the "mental illness" gene live perfectly normal lives. Second, because people without the gene can become mentally ill, given the right circumstances.

Something has to light the fuse.

And this kid's fuse got lit a long long time ago. Everything that came after conspired to create the perfect storm that was unleashed a couple of days ago. Taking out all those people wasn't the result of some foregone biological conclusion.

It was as simple as a failure to communicate. Maybe someday, they'll just call shopping mall massacres the Cool Hand Luke syndrome.