You don't have to be coy, Annie. We've all known Charles is crazy for years.

Just kidding!

Har!

You know, those kids at that dance party were REAL ZOMBIES.

The African gentleman has a point. Dressing up like zombies is tempting fate, flirting with the devil, maybe even calling him out. That's why such scenes make parentals nervous. And it provided Huff with the perfect rationale..."I'll show them what it's like to really be dead."

You're right. That is the perfect rationale.

Gumke's comment deserves a :rimshot:

In contructing discourse about the murders, it's valuable to use the events to reinforce stereotypes. "The weird guy on the bus persona" must remain "the other". Bus transportation is for the poor, it exposes to unusual voices in our community, and with those strange ideas floating among passengers, our subconcious fears disease, germs.

Power sides with those safe in their automobile and the industrial complex that creates the automobile interior environment. So we must aid in constructing an interior bus environment that is strange, exposed, unsafe.

This weird guy on the bus said... already reniforces several important stereotypes no matter how the sentence is completed.

That our "weird guy on the bus" is a double outsider (both BUS and AFRICAN) so he's especially dangerous already.

But what he's said is particularly horrifying.

We're scrambling to construct the murderer and have agreed that he's "not from here" he's "one of those rural people" and "he's a loner that Rave kid's didn't accept." All that is rational. Soon reporter Sanders will complete the psychological profile. A "scientific" explaination of the event.

It must be something along the lines of "Kyle Huff fits a familar psychological profile, an outsider loner, frustrated by not being one of the cool people, as he sat ingnored at that party his rage brewing..."

Almost the 1950's girl standing at the sidelines of the school dance smoking a cigarrette..different from the other girls, her dress a little off, just moved into town. No wonder she's the one who get's pregnant from the school Quarterback and ruins his life.

Once this profile is constructed we can all numb out again and get back to downloading songs for our I-Pods.

Except for the guy on the bus...He's reminded us that no one will ever know why this happened. The only fact is human beings, most likely every human heart contains terrific blackness. You might as well call it the devil as any other name.

But in these times we must block out that blackness.

The echo here...A athletic white American man walks into a living room where a party is taking place and opens fire with a semi-automatic weapon killing innocent people...

That story's too familiar...In fact we've been hearing it several times a week for years, just add a noun and you have it - A athletic white American man walks into a Iraqi living room where a party is taking place and opens fire with a semi-automatic weapon killing innocent people...

There's a flicker in the public mind that wants a rational reason why this is happening. We MUST find the reason Kyle Huff did this because there has to be a reason an athletic white American Male walks into a home and kills everyone he can.

The constructed identity of Kyle Huff just now must also serve to destract us from the dialating darkness all around us.

From the dawn of time shamans have warned that once blood is spilled upon the ground, unknown dark powers are unleashed. The bloodstain eventually seeps back into our own livingrooms.

Our man on the bus possibly meant to be our shaman, our Oracle, has opened the possiblility that the roots of recent events are forces of dark chaos being unleashed within us. Like the Sharon Tate murders in the 1960's the harbinger of a new kind of shadow passing over America. You might as well call it the devil as anything else.

But we'll keep stuggling to construct an identity for the murderer that reinforces current hierarchies. By golly one "red state kook from Montana" is not going to shut down our teen dance center. And remember to keep the discourse restricted to "dance center", "lonely outsider", "gun control", "better law enforcement".

Just like "Those Sharon Tate Murders are not going to stop our Summer of Love. According to the newspapers it was just a coincidence after all. Perfectly rational considering..." Rock Concert will not be cancelled because of murders.

But you might want to stay off the bus for a while, ride in your car for now. And if that dark cloud the bus guy mentioned should pass over you as you're driving roll up your windows, turn up your CD player and repeat...there's got to be reason for what's happened, I sure someone on the radio or internet will explain it away real soon.

After all blood, lots of blood is being spilled right now, by people just like you and me and it's just can't be possible that those old superstitions about rivers of blood, waking the devil, blood seeping back into your own village. Too bad we didn't get Kyle Huff over to Iraq, then he could've shot innocent people up to his heart's content and we'd never even read about it. Why the devil didn't the Army Recruiters get to Whitefish Montana...OOOps!

Being multicultural is one thing but I for one draw the line at listening to what some weird African is saying about the devil on the bus.

On an unrelated note, Jenny just inadvertently identified the prime reason Seattle refuses to embrace public transit:

Bus transportation is for the poor...

The Stranger has printed funny "I hate the bus" stories for years. The reason we want a monorail is so we don't have to ride next to stinky poor people.

I have no idea what you're talking about. I love the bus. I ride it almost every day. I do not consider bus-riders to be outsiders, I consider them to be insiders. Go Metro! I posted this story because it was something funny I was told. I hereby apologize for including the completely and totally irrelevant detail that I heard it on the bus, and hereby vow to smack myself in the face if I ever am tempted to type the phrase "on the bus" again. Ow.

I, however, hate the fucking bus, in part because it's slower than biking and more expensive than it's worth and, yes, in part because of the forced sociability with Others, be they African or European, stinky or smelling of rose water. So if you want to beat up on somebody for hating buses, leave Annie alone—I'm your man.

Slower than biking? In most places, it's slower than walking. Heck, it's slower than dragging yourself along the ground by your fingers.

Also, my objection to my fellow passengers has nothing to do with their poverty or their aroma. It has to do with their mental illness and/or their criminality, and before you say "but only one out of a hundred" realize that one nutjob can and does render a whole busload miserable.

Plus they don't go near where I have to go. And that's in the city; I won't even mention the 'burbs.

I don't bother using the bus where it's slower than walking: i.e. in downtown or between Capitol Hill and downtown. Anyone who waits 20 minutes for a bus just to travel a few blocks within a neighborhood is lazy.

Otherwise, I find it's efficient travel for the most part. I've walked the route from Capitol Hill to my pad in the U District in lieu of taking the 49. You can do it, but it takes about 30-45 minutes. Its usefulness really depends on your location and the location of your employer. I'm not surprised that Capitol Hill residents find the bus inconvenient; you can walk downtown and back very easily.

And this point is true:

and before you say "but only one out of a hundred" realize that one nutjob can and does render a whole busload miserable.

(OMG that's the 3rd Fnarf post I've agreed with in 24 hours. What the hell is happening?)

There are weird people on the bus, they are poor, they smell. I don't ride public transportation for that reason.

A monorail would attract more normal people because a lot of those poor people couldn't afford it.