The News & Observer editorial writers usually go about their work with arrogant certainty, telling us all what’s what on the complicated issues of the day, their conclusions exclusively hewing to a lefty worldview. But today the scribes in the N&O‘s ivory tower are simply clueless, don’t have a thought, or an inkling, about what might have prompted Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan to murder 13 of his fellow soldiers. Today’s editorial is a blizzard of question marks:

All Americans want to know: Was this a random act? Was there something in Hasan’s recent experience that may have prompted it? Was there any way to have prevented it? Had there been any indication the suspect suffered from some kind of mental trouble? Were any of his victims known to him?

Meanwhile, our President was similarly perplexed in his Saturday radio address:

“We cannot fully know what leads a man to do such a thing.” And while the killings were “heartbreaking” and “despicable” and “devastating,” the president says, it is important to remember not only that Hasan’s fellow soldiers responded bravely in coming to the aid of the wounded but also that “Americans of every race, faith and station” have served in the U.S. armed forces. “They are Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers,” Obama says. “They reflect the diversity that makes this America.”

It would be comical if not so sad, that major newspapers and our political leaders are so quick to exhibit single digit IQ’s when a Muslim is involved. If the killer had been a Christian who attended church twice a week he’d immediately have been tagged a religious fanatic. But a Muslim who prays five times a day and refuses to have his photo taken with women must have been a victim of harassment or some absurd new malady, like pre-post-truamatic stress syndrome.