As I sat in the upstairs library lounge before my computer booking came up, I had time to ponder about life, the universe, and job-searching. I think my reflective mood was partly improvement in the weather, weak sunshine and a pale blue sky, with a chaotic band of cream and grey cloud lurking on the horizon.

Below, on the busy pavement, shoppers and idle youths wandered back and forth going about their business. There was an orderly calm to it all, nothing like what it can be on a saturday night, and it seems remarkable that society can be so well behaved when it wants to.

For those of us learning about current affairs in America, the news of a shooting doesn't seem all that shocking. Here in Britain we've become used to reports of gun crime across the pond, and the violence portrayed in imported film and television does nothing to dispell that view. We get regular reports of random slaughters. That said, I don't want to seem callous. As it happens I do hope the victim makes a recovery.

However, it seems that the Americans are shocked by the attack on one of their politicians. The violence of the incident was not desirable in any way, yet a country whose constitution supports the ownership of weapons, one whose history glamourises the use of them, one whose day to day lives seem punctuated by gun crime to outsiders like me, should be so shocked at the shooting is baffling.

I wonder? Is my puzzlement due to the inherently smaller world view of the British? What I mean is that although gun crime exists in America, it's spread over a much greater area, and to us, the impression is of a society prone to violence at the drop of a safety catch, because we naturally think in terms of a much smaller land mass.

Or is this merely the result of media coverage? Are the American journalists deliberately accentuating the madness of it all? I heard a female reporter on BBC America last night talking about the wierd smile the perpetrator had on his face as he stood in court. A witness stresses the villain shoots at a little girl. He may well be a dangerous oddball for all I know, yet the reports accentuate his dysfunctional habits. It's as if the public are being treated to a virtual execution. Almost as if a man is being led to the gallows for the public to see justice done.

But then are we so different? In the case of a recent murder in Bristol, a suspect was described by the media in preparation for his trial which as it turns out was not to be. Despite being an oddball himself, the suspect was released and apparently had no part in the killing. The difference then is one of style, both in how we live as a society and how we choose to report it.

What About The Jobsearch?

Oh yes, that continues, and what a strange endeavour it has become. Today I got an email from an agency telling me that they've received my CV from another source and they intend to file it for future use. That's jolly decent of them, especially since I've been sending them my CV for nearly three years in the vain hope they'd actually look at it.

I had to laugh at a job advert today. Apparently for this vacancy the applicant requires "gritty determinatioon". Must be a job as a recruitment consultant.