Mouths will foam

Nightmarish images on all news media:  

That horrible man with blood on his jaw from his clipped ear, pumping his fist as if in victory.

A roaring sea of red and white - unsettlingly like Hades on Canada Day, except with twisted faces topped with scarlet baseball caps, torquing their hands into one-finger salutes, while their contorted mouths form "F*** YOU" through snaggled teeth, over and over at the news cameras.  (We didn't get much of that in Ottawa, not even on Canada Day.)

The shooter, some foolish young man, apparently a registered Republican, with an automatic rifle so beloved of Republicans these days, is dead.  The report from the Secret Service sounds so damn American:  "neutralized and now deceased" - as if those are two different things.  Someone killed in the crowd and already hailed as a hero; two others seriously injured.

And all this on the eve of the Republican convention.  Mouths will foam.

I will find other things to occupy what passes for my mind.  And, just for the record, I'm not in favour of anyone getting shot.  The last thing we need are martyrs.