I don't think it's fair to paint these folks with so broad a stroke. Sure, many of them are using this as a means of slaking their bloodlust, but as often as not they're just people who want out of their shitty lives but lack the temerity to actually kill themselves.
Yet another sucky aspect of all this is that it'll be about a week or so before most of the news media goes right back to taking folks like this seriously, and acting as if their concerns are worth listening to. We live in a world where the Pope is a world leader, and Pat Robertson's thoughts are said to be of value.
Shit.