Everybody is an expert on snipers and psychopaths this week. We've seen all the movies, we know what these guys are like. Remember the sniper in Saving Private Ryan? Cold, efficient, ultra-religious. Remember John Cusack in Grosse Point Blank? He had emotional problems because he killed so many people. He almost didn't get the girl in the end.

I've heard people who play too many video games say they wouldn't want to be a sniper because it's not close enough to the action. I've heard people get into hyper stress because anyone could be next: never mind that we live thousands of miles away from where this sniper is. I've heard people say that his choice of victims is unfortunate--there isn't really a pattern, but those people who died...that's bad.

I didn't pay the sniper story much mind at first. It seemed like a one day thing (on that first day, at least). And after a few days, when it kept happening (he skips weekends, and has so far skipped this one, too), I began to wonder. What is going on? Someone this methodical should have something on his mind.

I don't know anything about the mind of a murderer. Not to say I haven't wanted to kill someone this week, I just never really gave it any serious thought. If a gun had been in my hand at that particular time, well, no more columns for Matt. But I probably would get those novels written in jail. Not much else to do except find someone nice to let me be their bitch.

A few years ago I was driving back home down San Mateo and I told my roommate that something big and bad was going to happen sometime. I know, the big prognosticator has spoken. This was after the Oklahoma City bombing, but before September 11th. Sometime there would be a huge crisis that turned the country to martial law that then turned into something even worse. Too many political science classes, probably. But there was something in the air that made me think a paradigm shift was coming.

I also lived through the last 20 years of the Cold War, perfectly aware that the end would come sometime in my life. And probably before I got laid (Beat ya, you fuckin' Rooskies! I got some before the Berlin Wall fell!). The 90s were a nice time in terms of being afraid of some huge Armageddon--that threat was gone. So since we weren't going to get offed in some huge flameball from the other side of the globe, we had to start eating ourselves.

We had the Unabomber (who actually started back in the disco era, but got really malicious and mega-maniacal in the 90s). We had Timothy McVeigh. David Koresh. The L.A. riots (which extended to many other cities as well). Ruby Ridge. All home-grown terrorists of a sort.

September 11th, 2001, changed this. These were people who infiltrated our system from the outside and used our resources against us. We started putting the wall back up again. We made it hard for people (99.9% of whom only wanted the 'better life' America affords) to get into our country. We made our enemies even more pissed. We started using inflammatory terms like "Axis of Evil" as if we are God's country and the rest of the world is full of immoral heathens. Do you think this is making the rest of the world like us more?

And now we've grown another malignant tumor. People from coast to coast are afraid. The sniper is not discriminating, he's just killing. It could be you, it could be me. Of course, the chances for most of us getting shot by this guy are even higher than winning the Powerball, but that doesn't mean we're not scared. It never stopped us from buying lottery tickets.

Think about this, though. People killed by this sniper are automatic heroes. Their families get to tell their stories to daytime talk shows and Larry King. The pictures of the victims might get on the cover of Newsweek or Time. Your spouse can trademark the last words you said as you walked out the door ("Let's have a good time today!"). Maybe there will be a memorial somewhere in Maryland with everyone's name on it. Cash payouts are almost a certainty. Wouldn't it be great to be a martyr for your family's prosperity? Isn't that the American Dream?

Of course people would miss you. Your family would be devastated by their loss (at least, that's the hope). Maybe it's not so great to be the martyr.

But perhaps this will actually put the war our Prez keeps talking about into perspective. The country gets in an uproar when ten people get shot by an anonymous sniper. The Prez wants to go into a country and kill thousands in the name of...well, the United States. Us. We are responsible for everyone who died in Afghanistan and everyone who will die in Iraq and wherever else the Prez gets permission to blow into submission.

If ten people hurt or killed makes us pause and consider our mortality, shouldn't we think twice about doing something even more inhuman to thousands of other humans?

Or does morality only count when Americans die?

Matt Worley would have been a sniper if he'd been in the Army. He used to knock the heads off rabbits back in the day. The rabbits might still be pissed.