Paul--he was more than an angry old man--he was a lifelong anti-semite, racist and Holocaust denier. A real scumbag in other words. Anywhere you go in the world these days, you go through to security to enter any jewish-related facility. It is too bad---but with people like him and terrorists like Hamas and Hezbolla, whose goal is to destroy Israel and the Jewish people, that is a small price to pay for security

The killer was a had a criminal record of terrorism and associations with known terrorist groups. We should expect the authorities to do more than pat down searches to stop terrorism. A couple of months ago, the FBI announced that they were stepping up their investigation of domestic terrorist groups. Unfortunately, they didn't were not successful at stopping the killer in Washington (or the killer in Kansas), but hopefully they are devoting enough resources to stop most similar attacks in the future. These terrorists are using violence for political purposes and we cannot let them get away with it.

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The murderer at the Holocaust museum is clearly demented and has been for a long,long time. This was an attempted suicide by cop by someone with history of crazy acts and a hatred of Jews, Blacks,Christians, Obama and Bush. He went into a high security building with an antique 22 rifle. That is a plinking gun or something you could use to hunt small rodents.

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I was fortunate to read the posts before they were deleted. What I saw was a call for intellectual and moral honesty and consistency. If one is appalled at the shooting at the Holocaust Museum as anti-Semitic,by a racist, white supremecist, holocaust-denying 88 year old nutcase, then one should not be selectively appalled and ignore the anti-Semitic shooting of military recruiters by a racist, holocaust denying, new-Muslim convert, nor ignore the racist, anti-Semitic, holocaust denying, Jewish conspiracy rantings of the pastor of Obama's church of 20 years, nor ignore that our President is giving the go ahead for nuclear buildup to a country which has vowed the annhilation of Israel, while simultaneously condemning Israel for taking defensive measures. I am taking a few generalizing liberties, but I think that was the gist of the comments. And I have to agree. We must have the courage and intellectual honest to be appalled at and root out, racism, sexism, anti-semitism, anti-any religionism, wherever it is found,not just when the perpetrator may or may not fit our idea of what is "dangerous". We also have to have the courage to call for our defense against perpetrators of such hate, regardless of who the perpetrator is.

Perspective, I don't agree with your assessment of the deleted comments, but that is neither here nor there. I was teeing up something much more personal, individual, it could have been you or me just visiting a museum of this sort and getting killed by a fanatic--not a terrorist, not someone part of a conspiracy, just a nut case--as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And what it takes so that you and I can go to public places like the SF Jewish Museum snd feel safe doing so. I was there last weekend, and had this incident in DC occured prior to my seeing the exhibit there, I am sure I would have had a different feeling as I got the security treatment. I am a pretty smart guy and have a background in matters international, the PA On Line editors did the right thing expunging the stuff on this thread (including some of mine) it was way off track from the tone and theme I hope we now can get to in upcoming discourse.

Perspective--what was deleted and what you trying to do again is turn this focus away from the issue--the Holocaust Museum shooting--to another forum for you to bash Obama. Introducing Wright, Ayers and Obama into this discussion was out of place, but unfortunately, there is a troika of posters (all of whom have posted to this thread) who try to hijack threads into another forum for them to bash Obama.

I agree with svatoid and moreover wonder why we allow Town Square to be filled with such accusatory and blame-filled posts--and then make no connection to the level of animosity throughout our politics at a time when families are suffering, this terrible incident reminds us of old wounds and we have just gone through another round of suicides. Isn't it time to try and pull together?

It is unfortunate that although the editors have "cleaned up" this thread, they still have left in Sharon's comment comparing the security guard and the intended victims of the shooter to "small rodents" ("That is a plinking gun or something you could use to hunt small rodents."). It is bad enough that they have deleted all comments regarding her posting, which IMHO, is a series of excuses intended to play down the actions of a dangerous anti-semite. But to leave in her analogy is ridiculous.