Picky, picky, picky

The nutcase who shot up a church in Knoxville, Tennessee, Sunday turned out to be a liberal- and queer-hater who decided that the best place around to find a couple was during a musical play starring Unitarian kiddies. So as we pry his warped claws from the barrel of his shotgun, would it be fair to say that the guy was bitter and clinging to religion and firearms?

Bittergate, you will recall, was that très grande scandale that occurred when Obama said some frustrated folks out in the back country reacted to their economic marginalization by fetishizing their weapons and working up peculiar interpretations of the Bible. That was considered very bad form because it suggested a snobbish disregard for the noble underclass.

Gunslinger Jim Adkisson, who successfully whacked two older folks sitting in their pews, turned out to be an unemployed Christian with a rather twisted view of the New Testament. But let’s not criticize him as a knuckle-dragger or any elitist terms like that—after all, he’s not a terrorist! Too bad Jesse Helms is no longer around to shake his head and blame the unfortunate incident on affirmative action.