And it's as American as baseball, apple pie, and sex

I know that ultraviolence is the American way. It makes us feel righteous and strong. Violence is how we stay, ahem, “free.” Without violence, says everyone from the NRA to the U.S. military to the president, we would be overrun by, well, violence. It is in our blood and in our cells and deep in our gun-sucking culture and America without its violence is like a South Dakota Republican without his misogyny.

• Mark Morford