James Lee, a 43-year-old Washington, DC, resident, was shot [1] and killed by police following a four hour standoff at Discovery Channel headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Lee carried a handgun and had several gas-filled canisters strapped to his chest. His hostages -- two employees and a security guard -- were unharmed.

Reports have characterized Lee as a radical environmentalist. In 2008, he attempted to organize a weeklong protest against the Discovery Channel for what he perceived to be dangerously ineffective and inaccurate programming. You can sample his manifesto here [2].

Several readers of multiple online [3] news [4] outlets [5] have gleefully seized on the moment to take Democrats and the left to task for their perceived radical environmental agenda. Respectfully speaking, these people are idiots -- a person who calls babies "disgusting" and "filth," who takes a gun to the Discovery Channel because he thinks it'll save the world, is a person who needs urgent psychiatric help, not a political affiliation.

According to his Myspace [6] page, Lee was single and had no children. The man was lonely, misguided, and fuming after years of being ignored. His story is a sad but by no means representative one, and thankfully he was unable to hurt anyone before it came to an end.