[B Knotts]

and all you can think to do is call it tinfoil hat.

I wasn't "calling it tinfoilhat," I was bumping it to the tinfoilhat list, so that the more conspiracy-minded can look at it. The characterization of the attack as "random" certainly makes it of interest to such people.

[Zorobabel]

The driver of the bus described his attacker as "middle eastern." This from the doctor who treated him in Manchester hospital as reported in a live interview with news channel 4 Nashville.

[Dog Gone]

So, what's the significance of repeatedly asking the time? Since this was the only instance of this type of attack, and the other buses were halted only some time after this attack, it doesn't appear that this was a coordinated attack at all.

Obviously, we'd all like some more information about the attacker. The fact that he was a foreigner from the Balkans makes us wonder if he was doing this as a terrorist attack, but it's less obvious than if he were carrying an Egyptian passport and was obviously arab.

Certainly this type of attack wouldn't be something orchestrated by bin Laden. He goes for the more spectacular stuff. In the overall scheme of things, this is pretty small potatoes.

My own guess is that this guy had mental problems. If he is a Moslem, then perhaps he was literally on a Jihad and doing his part to kill Americans independently of any outside direction.

But it's also completely possible that this guy was a simple nutcase, and the repeated asking about the time seems to bolster that, in my opinion.