That's simply crazzee.  A few bad apples, I won't hold it against the bars of the Northwest, Big D.  LOL.
But I would have thought, if anything, it would have been more of a Timothy McVey anti-government type who checked out of the military with a few screws loose and thinks the UN is invading the US.  Those types seem to go for the extreme solutions like public floggings.
Whatever happened to our homegrown anthrax mailer?  I gotta say, not surprising at all.