Heavy heart, bad times

Fort Hood is near Temple, Texas. Temple is very similar to Arlen, the home of the Hill family, and was long thought to be the primary inspiration for that East Texas ideal. So it's weird that my first reaction to yesterday's shooting was, "I hope Bill Dauterive is okay." But I think it's understandable--we put things into the contexts we understand.

Still, that's better than some reactions. Roy Edroso (he charts the fever swamps of the right-wing blogosphere so that you don't have to) sums up:

There will be plenty of small-time nutcakes making fools of themselves . . . but the more well-known and respectable rightbloggers are soiling themselves as badly as any of those.

The reason's simple, and the same as it was during 9/11: they think soiling oneself is a sign of patriotism, and consider those who pants are not full of shit to be traitors.

Another comment without context

The posting of which in context could no do one any good at all.

"Glad to see that you think I'm totally irrelevant in this process. But then, so are you."