Within hours of Maj. Hasan’s gunning down dozens of his unarmed US Army comrades, National Public Radio was on the air with the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD] explanation for his murders, a well-acknowledged psychological syndrome.

And although Instapundit gives NPR good marks for digging into the actual facts of the murders yesterday, this morning NPR returned to its usual fare [I heard it myself, from some "reporter"], what a wise man once called the “dictatorship of relativism”: that there are two theories:

a) That this had something to do with Islam, or

b) That the murderer “snapped” at the prospect of being shipped with his unit to Afghanistan on Friday.

The beauty of NPR-ish relativism is that truth is subjective. If

a) doesn’t float your boat because it raises untidy questions about the nature or modern practice of Islam,

you can pick

b), which makes you all warm and fuzzy and as a bonus makes the Major a victim of the American war machine.

Who’s to say?

NPR [and the New York Times and CNN] presented these as equal possibilities. Hmmm. Let us reason together, as a somewhat less wise man once said:

Maj. Nidal is a psychologist, not a combat officer. So what did he have to fear in Afghanistan, then?

Getting his ass blown up by some homicidal or suicidal [probably both] Muslim maniac, mostly. That’s just a fact. I can feel that.

So if he suffered from Pre-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PPTSD], suffering PTSD in advance, it was related to fear of Muslims who kill indiscriminately, of which there are many. Such a fear is not unfounded, because there are a lot of such folks in the Afghanistan area, which is WHY THE UNITED STATES IS IN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE!

[Sorry for shouting. But geez, ipso facto.]

So then, the only explanation is that Maj. Hasan’s Pre-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was Pre-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder By Proxy [PPTSDBP]: the fear of counseling the actual US combat troops who actually would get blown up by Muslim murderers.

So he just cut to the chase and wasted them all himself back in Texas before they even deployed?

OK, thanks, NPR, NYT, CNN, Chris Matthews, et al.

I realize that makes sense in your reality, where there is no reality, only the opinion that makes you feel OK, makes you feel best about yourself.

And that’s why I’m miffed about all this—not that something relatively predictable happened, but that the media, applying the moronic standard of relativism, can’t tell the difference between the remotely possible and the reasonably probable.

As NPR posed the question, both get equal standing, and it insults their intelligence far more than mine, and even their listeners and contributors.

What, do they think we’re stupid?

Unfortunately, they do. Some of us don’t mind and NPR calls them “members,” meaning they give NPR stations money. Other of us do mind, I guess. We’re what NPR fundraisers call “freeloaders,” who listen but don’t contribute.

I can occasionally bear my intelligence being insulted, but damned if I’ll pay for the privilege.

The answer is a) That this had something to do with Islam. Truth is not a matter of subjectivity, nor is it up for a vote.
__________
CNN: So the first moments of Thursday afternoon, can you tell our viewers, you know, where you were, what happened, how it all unfolded?

PVT Joseph Foster: I was sitting in what they call station 13, it’s where we get, basically, our final outs of our RSP (ph) system and I was sitting in about the second row back when the assailant stood up, screamed and yelled Allah Akbar (ph) in Arabic and he opened fire.

[Via Mudville Gazette, transcribing a CNN interview with one of the actual victims. He got shot.]