On Ft. Hood

...doing my bit for the general confusion of initial impressions:

• It is reported that the FBI is saying that there is "no terrorism nexus" in this thing. It strikes me as impossibly early to know that.
  
  
• If it is some kind of "terrorist attack", of the sort that everyone might imagine involving Islamist murderers, then it's just about the most foolish thing people like that could possibly plan.
  
  
• That doesn't matter. People that crazy can be counted on for rubbish like that from time to time.

Nine dead, now, twenty-seven wounded.

A mournful embrace for all.

~~~~~

4:53pm -- Fox News, presser with U.S. Army spokesman:

A shooter killed. "He was a soldier."

Two more apprehended. "The individuals involved were U.S. soldiers."

This is culturally important, ladies & gentlemen. In some ways, this is much worse than an attack by foreigners.

Very bad news.

Twelve dead, now. Thirty-one wounded.

~~~~~

5:35pm -- Fox News now reporting that the shooter killed was a U.S. Army major, a convert to Islam, allegedly known to be "upset" about his scheduled deployment to Afghanistan.

~~~~~

7:23pm -- The two other soldiers apprehended earlier are now released. Right now, it looks like it's all Nidal Malik Hasan in this. I have wonderments:

• I just heard a FNC interview with Hasan's cousin, in which the cousin stated in response to a question about "violent tendencies", that Hasan "wasn't even someone who enjoyed going to the firing range".
  
  
• I'd like to see an informed tactical analysis of this thing. Weapons? Magazine loads? Reloads? This guy sounds like a shooter. Does anyone really know anything about his tactical aptitude? He was a psychiatrist, recently assigned from Walter Reed. From the broad angle, he looks like a geek. Count his hits, though. Does anyone really know anything about his training?

What the hell is this? Good luck for the bad guy?

Does anyone but me conceive the appalling irony of twelve dead and twenty-seven wounded at the "Soldier Readiness Center"?

I'm serious. All this double-talk is really skeeving me out.

~~~~~

7:49pm --- FNC, now: Congressman John Carter (R -- Texas) is speaking to the weaponology of this. He reports that that another person has been arrested on-post. He reports a combat veteran telling him of hearing semi-automatic rifle fire. Shepard Smith bearing in mind that official Army reports do not restrict the on-scene weaponry to only two handguns.

~~~~~

10:18pm -- U.S. Army presser reporting now that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan is alive and in custody.