Humpty Dumpty

 If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, and builds bombs in his spare time and then blows himself up in an RV full of explosives, he's not a duck. He's a suicide bomber.

Speculation about motive runs rampant whenever someone chooses to go out in a blaze of glory. Many, including myself, have chosen to eschew the suggestion that Anthony Quinn Warner "was blown up" in the explosion on Christmas Day in Nashville. This is reminiscent of the turn of phrase, "Alex Smith broke his leg in the game." Alex Smith did not sit down on the field at any point and wrench his tibia with his own hands until it snapped. It had a whole lot more to do with the three hundred pound linemen who dropped on top of him as he attempted to escape. 

To be clear: Anthony Quinn Warner is the opposite of Alex Smith. Mister Warner most definitely broke his leg and the rest of himself. On purpose. This does not make him a victim. It makes him a suicide bomber. Which is what he was. Not an enigma. And definitely not a victim. Choruses of "he was quiet, he kept to himself," ring out. Which doesn't make it a surprise as much as a confirmation. If you're building a bomb, over the course of a year, with you sights on detonating it inside a recreational vehicle it's not something that you tend to broadcast. 

However, when a girlfriend of this "lone wolf" reports to police that her quiet boyfriend is building a bomb "in the RV trailer at his residence," you might want to take a closer look. And maybe just a little closer than peeking over the fence, as Nashville authorities apparently did. Nothing to see here. Move along. Allowing Anthony to complete his science fair project and prepare for the eventual splattering of himself and the RV across a city block. 

I have nothing against people who take their own lives, fundamentally. The pain and suffering experienced by many individuals that does not allow them to continue living is something I can only imagine. It's the murder-suicides that get my dander up. Mister Warner chose to take his own life? Okay. That's unfortunate. Mister Warner wants to obliterate a city block along with his own existence? Not so much. Several other people were injured in the explosion. If his hope was to destroy the AT&T building in front of which he had parked, he managed that and damaged several other buildings nearby. And even though a pre-recorded warning told anyone nearby to evacuate, he might have saved everyone a lot of trouble by going out in a less catastrophic way. 

But that wasn't the point, was it? The point was to make a mark. Christmas Day. Exploding Winnebago. All the king's horses and all the king's men will spend weeks if not months or years trying to piece this whole mess back together again.