What lesson can we learn from...? It's a common question put to the camera by that gee-whiz Jennings. Clinton's by-pass (should've stayed on his cholesterol meds), Hurricaine Frances (should've evacuated sooner), whatever -- lessons learned.

My sense of the universe must be more absurdist, because I'm skeptical of such ready didacticism. Sometimes tragedy, sometimes comedy, happens -- often a mixture of the two, if we're lucky. There are predisposing patterns to some events, but these aren't often easily marked.

It's as if we're a nation of scapegoaters or moralizing marms, imagining we can put our finger on the cause of every hurt or harm. At least, so the media configures us. I'd like to believe most of us aren't sitting before the babble box rapt, with our jaws dropped, waiting for this spoonful of medicine sugar-coated with a talking head's concern.

Perhaps it becomes more necessary for the news media to provide such antidotes to the poison they spread. Andrew Weil, among others, has charged American news media with a fear-based slate of offerings. The teases for the evening news and news magazine shows often playing upon our anxieties: Terrorists with nuclear bomb: how likely is it? Could you be the next victim of a superbug? We know the drill.

If we all learn our lessons, the implication is, we'll be kept safe from harm. I don't buy it. Might as well kneel down beside our beds and say our "Now I lay me down to sleep"s.

This shameless commodification of fear is unfortunately linked to a drive for easy answers to complex problems. Who knows why those two suburban snots shot up Columbine? Is it, as Moore tells us, the American gun culture? Is it out of control bullies? Is it neglectful parents? Who's to blame?

Hell if I know. Guess I haven't learned my lesson.