Looking for someone to blame in the aftermath of tragedy

Yesterday's shooting rampage at Virginia Tech was a horrible tragedy.

Yet surprisingly -- or perhaps, not -- it didn't take long for the finger-pointing and blame-assigning to begin. The campus police and university officials were criticized for not locking down the campus following the first shootings.

Before the day was out, family members were calling for the resignation of the university president. One student said the administration had "blood on its hands."

Obviously, emotions were at a fever pitch in the aftermath. And it's difficult to fathom that a single person can do something so twisted, so ... evil. We struggle to make sense of something we can never understand.

But you know what? Sometimes, bad things happen. And sometimes, even the best and smartest people around can't prevent them.