This article was very well done; being concise, relevant and objective. Appreciated the author's putting this recent tragedy into the cultural as well as medical/psychological perspective and thanks also for keeping religion out of it, for the most part. It is fascinating however that the voices of an all powerfull divinity have appeared throughout history and are recorded in scripture, for what it's worth, revealling to us that it's something of a human condition about which we are very poorly enlightened, or at least have been. Recent medical/neurological science is opening this area for research and it is promising to bring us to a new and better level of understanding in hopes that we are no longer consumed by our combination of fascination and revlusion regarding this most unthinkable act of infanticide, in hopes of identifying it and preventing it.

Most poignant; the observation that punnishment for such a crime is irrelevant to the act and that the perpetrators are as victimized by their own defective mentalities and pay for it in ways unimaginable.

...wow, over 800 letters on this column. While the vast majority of them came from readers who would deny it, they are like fans and at the very least are a readership any other opinioned essayist, such as Ms. Paglia would envy.

As usual, a mixed bag of perspectives on some relatively high profile issues in the public forum.

According to the quiz I took at politicalcompass.com my politics are most closely aligned with the Dalai Lama's, about which I know very little philosophically and practically, but whose attitude and postivism I greatly admire. Anyhow, I'm somewhere to the left of what is called the center of political positions in today's scene, and I find a lot in common with Ms Paglia and I too wonder what's happened to the left to be cowed by the organization of smarty pants and organizational panjandrums that constitute authority today in fields ranging from "how to address climate change" (presuming it's actually occuring due to our activity and there is something we can do to alter it) to "what to do about Afghanistan"..the answer to which is evidently to continue to do what we've been doing and definitely not do the smart thing of buying all the poppies in the country regardless of how much they cost provided the cash goes directly to the farmers.

So, thanks Camille. For all the comments calling for your being ejected from the regular index of essayists, your unparalleled ability to stimulate the reader should insure you a long run here, and quite frankly I welcome it and privately I think we need a skewed perspective to balance the skewed perspectives we all have already.

But really, if fixin the exonomy required wearing a snazzy macho flight suit or bombin stuff or usin a chainsaw he'd be all over it, but I'm pretty sure that a guy with a degree in business like bush realized that your take the money and run like the devil...let the next guy clean it up...that'w why they call it "bein' the president", dude. Besides,he's busy workng with the his people in Korea on a problem; gettin' the animators to work for half wages so his animated memoires can be ready for the libary.

The author's points resound with me and I attribute it to equal part human nature and the amplificatio of those fears brought about, ironically, by the electornic media itself which sustains itself by simultaneously stimulating our anxieties and offering to selflessly provide us with more information about it. That they sell the presence of the viewers attention to advertizers and therfore the more the better, is all part of the game.

Perhaps I missed it, but what about the elephant in the room when it comes to handwringing; fears of global warming. Again our inate fear of the unknown and the compounding of every possible negative potential combines to create in us a hunger to "do something, anything and as soon as possible".

I'm hoping calmer heads prevail and join forces with those who will begin to act on the very real environmental problems we have and can be fixed right now, like overfishing, habitat loss, and pollution of the non-co2 kind.