Money and bad news.

A father's despair over money problems at a family-owned skin-care clinic in the East Bay led him to shoot his wife and their two children to death before turning the gun on himself, police said Tuesday.

What a depressing nutgraf.

Okay, so I'm not blindly optimistic. I know this kind of stuff happens in the world. But I just don't understand...I read the rest of the story. They were a happy, laughing family. Appearances aren't ever what they seem. There always so much more going on beneath the surface that most people don't realize.

What's the thought process behind doing something like this? I think Mike said the other day when he was telling me about a 15-year-old who had shot police officers, that there wasn't any thought behind it. And in that case, I guess he was right.

But this man was aware of what he was doing. He left a note for employees at the clinic he and his wife owned, saying they might receive some "bad news." He left behind a note explaining his decisions. According to another SF Chronicle story, one possibility is that "familicide" is caused by someone believing that there's no other way out. It's altruistic to them.

And to think, all this was about money. Money. I hate that money can cause something like this. But you look at other headlines and read other stories, and it comes out - people are willing to kill because of money, whether it's because they want it, or they don't have it, or they don't want to give it away.

What's this world coming to?