"His bigboned Texans follow him into the mist."

The Ft. Hood shooting has made a few things painfully clear. We are truly living in an age of paranoia. With any event of this magnitude it's now a given that people will seize upon it as yet another conspiracy. Whether the conspiracy is something as straightforward and political as an attempt to damage Obama or tar American Muslims, or something more esoteric, as in a piece of "processing" theater to induce more generalized panic and fear, is another question.

Another thing that is clear is that this paranoia is fed by the instantaneous nature of our communication. Early reports from the media, telephone calls, tweets etc. talked about three shooters and that info later turned out to be wrong, which is normal; in the heat of things there is confusion and facts are later clarified. But of course the conspiracy-minded individual is going to see this as a re-writing of history in order to suit whatever theatrics "they" are trying to put over.

Michael Hoffman, who we've already talked about on LoS, has interpreted the shooting as an alchemical ceremony: "Ft. Hoodwink". His take on it seems to be that it's a Zionist mindfuck to draw attention away from what is happening in Israel and to denigrate Muslims in general, as well as bolster support for our increasingly futile engagements in Afghnaistan and Iraq. He makes much hay of the date: the 5th of November, day of the infamous Gunpowder Plot and basis for the "V for Vendetta" comic and film. He equates Ft. Hood shooter Nadil Hasan with Guy Fawkes and by implication Lee Harvey Oswald: patsies in a cleverly orchestrated "lone nut" scenario. See also R for Revelation (of the Method)

Comments upon his article have made some pretty interesting "synchromystic" insights.

"Anonymous" points out this took place in "Kill-een" Texas and that Ft. Hood sits on the latitude of 31:13, a mirror image (As Above, So Below) reflecting the number of people killed and wounded in the attack(an inaccurate figure as it turns out). Further points by the same or another "Anonymous" raised include the fact that Hasan is a Virginia Tech graduate ('nuff said), and that the BBC reported that the shooting began at 1330 local time and that the dead and injured totaled 13 and 30. This commenter also points out the prominence of the words "processing center", "theater", "ceremony" and "graduation" in the report. Remember that latitude!

What is potent for us is that LoS recently wrote about Howard Barton Unruh, an Army veteran who is described as the first mass shooter in US history; he killed 13 people. Mr. Hasan--shades of Hassan i Sabbah--as in "Nothing is True Everything is Permitted" and the leader of an unorthodox sect of Muslim assassins--is an Army guy who also killed 13 people.

Another recent news story that was actually heavily reported but mixed up a bit in the wake of the Ft. Hood shooting was the execution on November 10th of the "Beltway Sniper" John Muhammad. The beltway sniper incidents totaled 13 dead and wounded. Muhammad was an ex-Army reservist. So: 13-13-13. Army-Army-Army.

How more interesting a coupling could you get than the name "John Muhammad?" One of if not the most common name in America paired with the most common name in the Muslim world reinforces the idea that the Islamic terrorist behind the curtains could be anyone, it could be your neighbor, the guy named John....Muhammad!

We don't think this is a conspiracy of cryptocrats nor a sleeper cell of Jihadis--but we'll see what facts eventually come to light. Maybe Hasan was a terrorist.

The sad thing is how this is already being used to implicate all Muslims in the military--and by extension all Muslims in America as: being terrorists or being sympathetic to terrorists; people who represent a threat; citizens who must thus be purged or subject to tighter controls.

By the way, have you heard that "political correctness can kill"? Have you heard about the Marine reservist who thought a Greek Orthodox priest was a "terrorist" (as well as a robber and molester) and hit him over the head with a tire iron before chasing him down the street? This happened in Tampa, the Big Guava, the Cigar City, one time home of your LoS crackpots.

Sometimes a lone nut is just a cigar.

Postscript:

Ft. Hood was named after John Bell Hood, a Confederate general with a "reputation for bravery and aggressiveness that sometimes bordered on recklessness." (faithful Wicky-p). After the war he became a cotton broker and ran an insurance company:

"His insurance business was ruined by a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans during the winter of 1878 – 79 and he succumbed to the disease himself, dying just days after his wife and oldest child, leaving ten destitute orphans, who were adopted by families in Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, and New York."

Perhaps Ft. Hood was not the most propitious of names....