Arizona Rep. Giffords' shooter called very disturbed.

[J Wolfsberger]

The override is that an atmosphere was created in which such an individual would be somewhat more likely to turn to irrational violence(this is Arizona, remember) because the concept of irrational violence has been constantly adverted to by the screwball right-wing.

Conversely, I could blame the Left wing blogs that "targeted" Rep. Giffords for insufficient fidelity to their policy goals. I could assert that a certain prominent politician gave him permission when he told his supporters "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

I would be wrong to do so. As is anyone who asserts that somehow this tragedy is the fault of people they disagree with politically.

As more information emerges, the perpetrator looks increasingly likely to be suffering from schizophrenia. If that is the case, then he interprets any speech, writing, or interaction in any form in his reality, not ours.

News reports say he isn't cooperating. If he is, indeed, schizophrenic, it's more likely that he's blocked any recollection of his actions, so we'll probably never know what happened in his reality to lead him to this violence. If that ever does come out, it won't be political, it will be something along the lines of "Buddha used the CIA mind control ray to tell me to kill Rep. Giffords because her unintelligent use of grammar was keeping me from nirvana." Because that is, unfortunately, how the schizophrenic mind works.