The breaking storm

Back in July, in the wake of a gun attack in a Unitarian church in Tennessee, I wrote the following words:

Conservatives have been fed on a steady diet of hate by Limbaugh and his countless, countless imitators for the last sixteen years. The election of a black president is going to drive a lot of these people over the line into rage-fueled killing sprees and terrorist attacks.

As Weird Al Yankovic famously said, "Oh man, I hate it when I'm right." For no sooner is there a black president in the White House, then word comes from Brockton, Massachusetts about a 22-year-old guy named Keith Luke who decided to defend the white race by going on a shooting spree (hat tip to David Neiwert of Orcinus).

Luke allegedly forced his way inside the sisters' apartment with a 9mm handgun and a backpack containing two pairs of handcuffs, a blindfold, and a gag he had bought with his mother's credit card. He used the handcuffs to bind the elder sister's hands and then repeatedly raped her. When her sister came to the door and banged on it, Luke shot her multiple times, police said.

After shooting the woman at the door, Luke looked to her sister in a bedroom covering herself with a white teddy bear. He shot her through the stuffed animal, according to the police report.

Luke also shot at a couple of men who were trying to help the younger sister, then took off in his van. Spotting a 72-year-old Cape Verdean immigrant he knew named Arlindo Goncalves, Luke stopped his van, got out, shot him dead, got back in his van, and drove off. A witness to the shooting called the police. They pursued Luke, dodging gunfire, until he crashed the van. Luke told the police that he had been planning to end his killing spree by going into a local synagogue during a game of bingo and shooting as many Jews as possible before finally killing himself. Luke was ordered held without bail. The mayor of Brockton said investigators are inspecting a computer found in Keith Luke's home.

I wish I believed this was just going to be an isolated incident, but I don't. I think this was just the first act of a drama that's going to play out for the rest of Obama's presidency, and probably for decades to come.