What the hell is wrong with the Puget Sound area this month?

The Pilchuck murders.
The Kirkland murders.
The Skyway murders.
And now, the attack on the Jewish center.

Since July 11, that’s 10 dead (so far). And the odd thing is that as best I can tell, all the area’s murders in the last 3 1/2 weeks have been from these four incidents. For an area with a low murder rate (1/2 that of Boston, 1/3 of Tulsa), 10 murders is a substantial number — and that’s before we add in the 7 from the Capitol Hill shootings.

What’s happening here? Is it all just a bunch of random, non-sensical events? Or is there some sinister thread tying everything together? Is it even worth pondering?

One last thing. Here’s a priceless quote from our friendly local bloggers who prefer three right turns to one left:

…An eyewitness quoted in this Seattle Post-Intelligencer piece confirms earlier reports the suspect believed responsible for the killing of one and wounding of five at the organization’s offices today did indeed say, “I’m a Muslim-American and I’m mad at Israel.” Moreover, police tell the P-I they’ll be trying to protect Seattle synogogues and Jewish organizations. Yet the FBI tells the paper the incident is not terrorism-related, apparently discarding the ascendant model of atomized terrorism rather quickly.

“Atomized terrorism.” Well, there you go. Brown equals terrorist. If it had been a Christian Identity sort who walked in and said, “I’m an Aryan; I’m angry at Israel,” would the neologism “atomized terrorism” get trotted out? Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean we’re all out to get you, guys. Just me.