No surprises.

Sunday's shooting at a church in Knoxville, Tennessee is shocking in only one respect: That it doesn't happen more often. Turns out the uneducated, unemployed truck driver who walked into a unitarian church with a 12-gauge shotgun and 76 rounds of ammo is one of North America's millions of brainwashed, bitter and flagrantly hateful right-wing nutjobs who pin their failings on evil 'others' of every imaginable stripe. Police found a note that stated he 'hated the liberal movement' and was upset with 'liberals in general as well as gays'.

So of course he felt justified to murder a 60-year-old 'liberal male' and a 61-year-old 'liberal woman' and wounded six other 'liberal strangers'. Know what else his note said? That liberals have 'hamstrung America's war on terror'.

Give that man a primetime Fox News talk show!!!

My mom, brother and niece live outside of Knoxville. In my 20 years of traveling to East Tennessee I've met many people like this murderous loser who are encouraged by frothing right-wing radio and TV cretins to hate their countrymen and women for holding beliefs different to their own. It's no surprise whatsoever that police found this guy owned books by America's multi-millionaire preachers of hate and intolerance: O'Reilly, Savage, Hannity.

And I can tell you straight away -- there are millions of North Americans who believe what this guy did was long overdue.

I know the neighborhood where this shooting took place -- my brother and his wife rented a house among its tree-lined streets and multi-story brick homes before buying a home in the foothills of the nearby Smoky Mountains. It's no hillbilly haven: The University of Tennessee's sprawling campus is just down Kingston Pike and massive SUVs are parked outside upscale shops and restaurants for miles. So what was it about this church that set this nut-job off? It advocates for women's rights and gay rights, provides sanctuary for political refugees and feeds the homeless.

Again: It advocates for women's rights and gay rights, provides sanctuary for political refugees and feeds the homeless.

Liberal values all. Values I would be proud to stand up and call my own. And in the United States of America in 2008, values that can get you blown away by a shotgun-wielding madman.