Sustainable Grief

Another senseless slaughter, this time in Binghamton, New York, where a wacko, who in saner times would have long before been locked up for his own good, blew away thirteen souls studying for their citizenship exams. Naturally, the cable news leeches poured in to provide their non-stop breathless and earnest coverage, with analysis. The pols, of course, had to make a show of their concern, writ extra large; from the president in Europe on down. Rick Moran writes:

A press conference on the massacre in Binghamton was surreal. After Mayor Ryan made some opening remarks, Governor Paterson shouldered his way to the microphone to get a little national TV face time. He was followed quickly by Representative Maurice Hinchey (D). A written statement from both those gentlemen would have sufficed. Instead, we were treated to the spectacle of local and state pols sticking their faces in front of the cameras, using a tragedy for self-aggrandizing purposes.

As our president's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel would say: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste."