Peggy Noonan links to an interesting article on American conservatism.

Clive Crook has some interesting book recommendations including something called 'dreaming in Chinese'.

Adam Lanza didn't have a good time at the school in Newton. Of all the people described in the article I bet he would have had on a typical day the least serious mental illness diagnosis. The Atlantic had an article the other day about upper class girls having a less stressful time in middle class schools than in upper class schools. The idyllic Newton wasn't idyllic for him. I wonder if he wasn't initially put down by peers in kindergarten. At some point too a teacher may have slyly cooperated with this; so his thought was 'even the teacher!' You know it was a day or two before that we had the shooting in Oregon. Do you recall a reporter breathlessly asking someone who left the mall, 'Did you see anyone being carried out?' In terms of banning things, I'm up for banning CNN. This case does suggest an association between suicide and the desire to murder. 'Knowing yourself' may be better than expressing yourself.

When I read, regarding mother, that 'she needed to stay with him' I assumed that it was a family of modest means. After reading the linked article, it seems that it is not at all true that she 'needed to stay with him' except from her enmeshment. Now it may be that some placement was tried and he was able to object; so guardianship laws would need to be looked at. Regardless of what one thinks of psychiatry or psychology, one of the values of the professional playing a role is that we are independent of the family structure, and one of the developmental tasks of a child is to participate in relationships outside the home. One of the perhaps unfortunate effects of these murders is that kids may be withdrawn from schools for safety reasons. From a preventive standpoint, I don't know that we want to go just 'voting people off the island,' perhaps like Palladin I like being on it. He was weird because he 'carried his books in a black briefcase rather than a backpack.' If there were indicators of outward violence they weren't cited in the article.

Exit, Voice and Loyalty recommended at the Atlantic. Other reflections on Albert Hirschman. And yet more. Also here by Fukuyama.

HuffPo has a good post mortem on the Romney campaign. This from a conference which included David Axelrod and senior Romney staffers.