Coverage of the Colorado shooting was exceptionally stupid on the first day, about politics and guns.It isn’t getting any more intelligent when discussing the shooter’s apparent mental health issues:

As mental health experts look at the shooting in Colorado, a Chicago psychologist points to certain patterns that are emerging which may offer insight into the mind of James Holmes.

“The Individual knows right from wrong, but perhaps does not have a conscience,” said Rush University Medical Center Psychologist Stevan Hobfoll, who used the shooting at Columbine, less 20 miles away from Aurora, as an example.

The 1999 Columbine High School shooting was orchestrated by seniors Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold. The violent crime left 13 people dead and 21 others injured.

In the case of Harris and Klebold, there was desire to harm others combined, with a lot of anger, which prompted the teens to commit the violent act, said Hobfoll. The two were described as loners, like neighbors have described Holmes, Hobfoll said.

Both Harris and Klebold were involved in online video gaming worlds, which created an alternate reality that fueled their anger.

“The whole gaming world can enter into that fantasy,” Hobfoll said. “It’s sort of a perfect world for them, because you can do it as a recluse and have others online supporting you.”

Really? We’re still fucking doing this, violent video games and The Matrix driving kids insane? If playing World of Warcraft was the problem here Mr. A would be out sticking up liquor stores. For fuck’s sake, anybody can find validation anywhere (even on a political blog) and what you’re saying by saying somebody shouldn’t be a maladjusted shut-in video game player is that they shouldn’t be a maladjusted shut-in, full stop.

Yes, the things you do have an effect on you, but you’ve got to have some stuff going on your own self before it’s triggered into a murderous rampage by playing too much Resident Evil.

Mostly, though, this is a perfect eample of a story that didn’t need to be done at all, NBCChicago, because speculation from one doctor miles away and boilerplate about how to tell if YOUR KIDS are the next Harris and Klebold does nothing except freak out people who have nothing to be freaked out about. News coverage for paranoid conversation at the next playdate just pisses me right off. We don’t have to have an opinion about everything that happens miles away.

And it’s not likeour city lacks fucked-up shit to be paranoid about, anyway. FAIL.

A.