Many thoughts went through my mind when the news hit:

Just who were the shooters, and how could their parents not have known that they were extremely troubled?

How could it be so easy to get all those items into a school?

Why do we get upset about this incident when we are simultaneously bombing civilians in Yugoslavia?

The Trench Coat Mafia, possibly inspired by a scene in The Basketball Diaries (1995) is just another campus clique. Ever since the dawn of civilization, people have been hanging out with those of similar backgrounds and interests. (So much for diversity.) It's no different in the social setting of a high school. There are always the jocks, the rich kids, the brains, the druggies, the nerds, and so on. This is hardly news.

Somehow, though, one group expressed itself in horrendous violence. Alienation and hopelessness drive men to extreme acts, and American society has never wanted to face this. We create all sorts of verbal cosmetics and red herrings to avoid this issue. True, most of us will not commit mass murder, but all of us have felt extreme anger at one time or another. We were able to control ourselves, and, in many cases, had an acceptable outlet for our emotions.

Simply stated, the Columbine perps are nothing more than younger Lee Harvey Oswalds. Oswald, possessed of some intelligence and talent, nursed all sorts of delusions, and then decided to assassinate John Kennedy. How did America respond? With dozens of contradictory and inane conspiracy theories. Few wanted to accept that one deluded individual, a nobody acting alone, could kill the president of the United States.

Besides being fodder for scores of books and talk shows, the conspiracy motif diverted us from looking at what Paul Goodman called in the 1950's "Growing Up Absurd." Goodman's world of contradictions for youth is even more absurd now.

Look at the current occupant of the White House. Forget about everything else. He's killing innocents in the Balkans every day, in the name of protecting innocents. Clinton, OJ Simpson, and countless others have proven that Justice is merely a process. The results are either meaningless, or wrong, or both.

The economy is "good," as nearly every major corporation downsizes. We're all doing great--that's why Americans are working more hours than ever before. We're better educated with lower test scores, we have more means of communication, but communicate more poorly, and we're all more healthy, but we must drastically increase spending on health care.

What standards did the Columbine perps have? No matter how outrageous their behavior and dress, it had to be tolerated, since to do otherwise would be "judgmental." Besides, they were just going through a phase, weren't they?

Liberals, inspired by the moronic pronouncement of Voltaire--I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it--put Freedom of Expression (aka the first amendment) ahead of everything else. Voltaire's fantasy world, where it would be right to die for a lie, has come true again.

I wish the ACLU had to justify to the parents of the victims that a few lives lost are worth it, to preserve our "precious freedoms."

Ironically, the second amendment will come under more attack in the wake of this incident. It seems that nearly 40 years of increasingly restrictive gun laws not preventing such tragedies is lost on gun control advocates. Perhaps if the propane bombs had gone off, and had blown up the entire school, there would have been calls to outlaw propane tanks.

Yes. The Columbine perps grew up in a world filled with "process," but very short on end results. We have become absolutely blinded with the tyranny of process.

Chinese herbal medicine is praised by some, but why, I say, if it works so well, have the Chinese identified over 60,000 diseases? A woman calls in to a talk show praising her therapist, who has done wonders for her. How long have you been going to him, she is asked. 13 years now, she replies. Nobody laughs.

The boys went to school every day, their parents came home every night, time passed, but there was no progress, only process. In an environment where Michael Jordan is called a "hero," for merely doing something exceptionally well, and performers get notoriety in extreme sports, the kids must have learned that it doesn't so much matter WHAT you do, as long as you do it well. ("Hero" used to carry the connotation of risk to one's own life.)

Given sick minds, the boys felt that they COULD do something well. Tragically, they did.