Most bizarre, instead of accusing the murdered childrens friends, family and colleagues of "blood libel" for noting Breiviks extreme right views, and that he is a former youth leader in Norways far right party, its leader expressed condolences on the party web site, concluding with "Today we are all Young Labor." Crazy, huh?

It is... complicated. He will probably remain in custody the rest of his life no matter what, but if found sane he could only be sentenced to 21 years; if medically declared insane he would probably be institutionalized forever. HOWEVER, if institutionalized as insane, he could, theoretically, later be declared cured by drugs and/or psychiatric therapy, which might require he be released. A criminal conviction would most likely cause him to remain in custody even after his sentence is complete, both to protect society and protect HIM from the victims friends and family, not to mention potential political retaliation (I doubt anyone would decide to "give him the war he wants," but fanatic extremists come in all political stripes.

Adding to the complication is that separate examinations have yielded conflicting diagnoses, and Breiviks behavior was not only chillingly methodical, but often rational in multiple ways, for extended periods. Crafting an incredibly detailed and convincing police uniform was, I hate to say, genius. That not only let him walk away from bombing the PMs office without suspicion, but be WELCOMED approaching Young Labors Utøya retreat with a gun, while his diversion kept all real police downtown seeking a bomber no longer there. This guy spent TEN YEARS planning, training and equipping for a massacre, always carefully avoiding anything that even might attract police suspicion. Breivik does not even have a traffic citation: He made sure that never happened. There were no warning signs because he consciously and consistently went out of his way to provide none. For ten years, as part of his master murder plan against dozens of teenagers.

Forget stopping him; how do we prevent something like that? How do we even spot him until the slaughter begins?

That kind of deliberate planning and preparation is pretty rational, but—murdering kids for their politics, in a one man war against insidious global conspiracy... that is not rational at all. He says he knew he it was an unspeakable atrocity the entire world would justly condemn (rational)—but he HAD to do it to save Norway and Christendom from Marxism, Muslims and multi-culturalism, even though he is only "culturally," not religiously Christian (irrational.)

The kicker: Lawyers must enter the plea their clients instruct, and Breivik insists, demands, he is perfectly sane, because otherwise his acts CANNOT be "political activism." If he is just another lunatic whose neighbors dog told him to murder strangers, his agenda has no relevance. How many remember Mansons political agenda? That may be much of why prosecutors claim him insane, so any political extremist tempted to follow in his footsteps knows that will forever invalidate their agenda to the entire world, reduce it to a madmans ravings (which his manifesto largely is.)