BLAME AMERICA! Naturally, that’s been the first instinct of a lot of people writing about last week’s school shooting in Germany. But here’s a particularly dumb example by an American who used to live in East Germany. The problem, you see, is the absence of the “cradle to grave care and oversight” that the communist East German government provided.

Well, it was comprehensive. They even helped you along with the “grave” part, if you caused them any trouble, or tried to leave. And say what you will, the Stasi was damned good at “oversight.”