The Summer of George

In a media-driven culture, one tends at the beginning of each calendar year to wonder what weird, unpredictable things fate (or, more practically, the media) will throw in our path. And so we are invited to watch the trajectory --  the downward spiral, if you will (and you just might) -- of one George Zimmerman.

Now, it doesn't help that his soon-to-be ex-wife comes off as a calculating, flaky shrew, changing her story at almost breakneck speed, and apparently insisting as part of the divorce petition that Zimmerman pay for a permanent life insurance policy on himself, with her as the beneficiary (is this a common thing, or a Florida thing?).

Let's just agree that both George and Shellie Zimmerman are reprehensible human beings, shall we? While George may be guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, his post-acquittal conduct seems by and large to indicate an asshole who seems to think he got away with something. I dunno, maybe it's just me, but even if I had justifiably killed an attacker who was legitimately threatening my life, I still would think at least twice before making my first stop the gun factory that manufactured the killing machine that protected me.

Actually, Zimmerman's visit to the Kel-Tec facility says as much about the corrosive nature of America's gun culture as it does about Zimmerman himself. Look, there are only two people who know precisely what transpired between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin that fateful night, and anyone who says different is full of shit, and filtering what they think they know through an amalgam of personal assumptions and prejudices. But Zimmerman's visit serves as an affirmation to a the sizable contingent of folks who need and enjoy such an affirmation. And that, not guns themselves, is the problem.

Now that a husband-and-wife visit to The Biggest Loser seems to be out of the picture for George and Shellie Zimmerman, it will be interesting to see where George's path takes him. At the rate he's going, it's not hard to imagine him trying his tough-guy bullshit on some Florida cracker that sees him as just another fat Mexican, and gives him the beatdown he seems to be cruising for.