Wade Michael Page in the Crosshairs?

Not that the symbolism counts for much, so deep is the horror and contempt for Wade Michael Page. Still, the inclusion of this photo on his My Space page could be seen to weigh on his own viability. Whereas his rampage is almost exclusively framed as a homicidal act, it seems apparent his action on Sunday was also a suicide. After his attack inside, he came out of the Temple and riddled a policeman with bullets before being killed by a police marksman.

Beyond the inflated number of hate symbols, including the swastika and two versions of his vaunted Celtic Cross, you have to wonder whether it was actually lost on Page that his head is in the crosshairs. And then, can you make out the word on the pad in the illustration on the table? Maybe it says “Knots?” If the word and the rest of the drawing is hard to make out, though, it seem fairly clear there’s a noose there, a reference to murder — but perhaps the symbol is more ambiguous than that. If homicidal rage is also self-hate displaced, the photo suggests Page’s prospects might not have been much better than those of his victims.