Heds must roll

I'm a huge fan of punny headlines whether they're on the signs outside Tire Discounters, the marquees in front of churches, or atop the newspaper page.

The tumblr Heds Will Roll posts not-quite-used headlines that are universally outstanding puns.

34 years ago today...

Vaccines are not harmful

Vaccines help us.

They do not cause autism.

They do not cause intestinal distress.

The only study that ever showed that they caused those problems was a lie.

Jenny McCarthy is killing people.

Read it - with pictures - here.

Get with the herd, folks.

The end is nigh...

Very cool...meteor in Russia fell to Earth during the daytime...lots of video of it streaking across the sky before the breakup and crash...

Gun control...my thoughts

This is largely coming together as a stream of consciousness. I don't know that I can be entirely rational about this...

The school shooting in Newtown, CT was a tragedy.

I certainly responded to it differently, though, than did many people, partially I'm sure because of my background.

I don't have children of my own. I don't teach at an elementary school, and in all honesty I don't always empathize well with people this distant from me. Our principal was in the hallway crying the afternoon of the shooting. I, on the other hand, was just thinking that these were people I didn't know. It was tragic for them to have died and horrific for them to have died this way, but these were people I didn't know.

Mass shootings like this both are and are not rare.

Since 1982 (source and source) there have been sixty-one mass shootings - at least four people killed by a single shooter - since 1982. Thirty years...sixty shootings...two a year.

That is both far too frequent to be ignored and far too rare to be of earth-shaking concern. Yes, we should legislate to reduce the chances of these events happening again, but we shouldn't focus on large-number killings to the exclusion of the far more frequent gun deaths that occur in drips and drabs - one or two at a time - all year long, every day of the year.

Mother Jones has done a great job of building a statistical profile of these sixty-plus events...

• 49 of the 62 listed shooters obtained their weapons legally
• 103 of the 145 total weapons used were semiautomatic handguns or assault weapons
• gun ownership - as a percentage of population - is declining while gun ownership - as a measure or total guns owned in the US - is rising...perhaps people are becoming more set in their gun-owning, gun-stockpiling ways

You can see an interactive map of all the events and a chronological listing of all the shooters and victims on Mother Jones's website.

After the weekend PHS put out two large banners and invited our students to sign them, messages and condolences for the people of Sandy Hook and Newtown, banners to be mailed to Sandy Hook so that they could...

Because they need to...

I have absolutely no idea why Sandy Hook would want our banners, no idea what they are going to do with our banners or all the snowflakes.

I remember reading about the impromptu memorial at the Oklahoma City bombing site, at the Murrah   Federal Building. People of the community piled thousands of things...stuffed animals, photos, mementos, things...on the chain link fence surrounding the bombing site. The items from that fence were - and as far as I can tell still are - "cleaned, catalogued and used in some way that fits with the mission of the memorial."

With all that we've heard is being sent to Newtown - stuffed animals, cards, wooden angels, snowflakes, giant signed banners - the people there will have to make a decision of their own: whether to keep everything, throw it all away, or pick and choose what matters and what doesn't.

They don't need our banners adding to that burden.

On a spectacularly good day in the United States, a dozen people are killed with guns.

• January 1 - 24 killed
• December 31 - 20 killed
• December 30 - 26 killed
• December 29 - 32 killed
• December 27 - 35 killed
• December 18 - 12 killed - the quietest day since Newtown, four days later

Slate has been tracking these deaths every day since Newtown. They show the deaths in icons, male and female, adult and child symbols.

This is where we should be focusing our policy attention. If we take the nineteen days of full data on that page as an average, we have 416 killings - an average of 22 a day. In a year, that's more than 8000 people a day killed with guns in the United States.

This is the bigger tragedy and the one that should be leading our legislative conversations.

Thanks, as is so often the case, to NPR for pointing this post out.

The Journal News in Westchester and Rockland counties of New York published an interactive map of every person possessing a legal pistol permit in those counties. It isn't necessarily a map of handguns or handgun owners, but it is permit holders.

The public reaction was interesting and almost universally negative.

The map is just information. It isn't condemnation. It isn't celebration, but people clearly saw it as one of those depending on what they brought to the information.

• How about a map of the editorial staff and publishers of Gannett and Journal News with names and addresses of their families...
• This is CRAZY!! why in the world would you post every licensed gun owner information?? What do you hope to accomplish by doing this. This is the type of thing you do for sex offenders not law abiding gun owners. What next? should i hang a flag outside my house that says I own a gun? I am canceling my subscription with your paper today!!!
• So should we start wearing yellow stars of david so the general public can be aware of who we are??
• We live in a free society. I am not at all ashamed of my ownership of a few handguns. While I understand the right of the local newspaper to post this, given to them by the first amendment of the very constitution that gives us legal license holders the right to possess the firearms they have published for all to see. While I totally agree (in principle) with their right to access this information, I think that the actions and reasoning behind this are not only questionable, but as a subscriber to their local newspaper, I think its irresponsible to post this information.
• Yeah, but where are the Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Communists and Unionists?

Personally, I view this the way I view most sunshine laws. Sunshine, in general, is good. Everyone benefits from sunshine on the dirty cracks and actions, and anyone who is committing good actions shouldn't be worried about a little sunshine.

We require registration for legal ownership of guns. As long as we do that, any records such as these are public - to be seen by any of us.

From Greg Easterbrook on ESPN...

"Today, the number of concealed-carry permits is the highest it's ever been, at eight million, and the homicide rate is the lowest it's been in four decades."

Both facts are true -- but does one explain the other? Read this remarkable pre-Newtown article that escaped notice because it ran in a Saturday edition of The Wall Street Journal (Saturday is the week's lowest readership day). Shootings, the Journal reported, have risen almost 50 percent in the United States during the past decade -- which ought to be perceived as a shocking increase in gun crime. Yet homicides are declining, because fewer people who have been shot are dying of their wounds.

Improved medical care, the proliferation of hospital trauma centers and more helicopter ambulances are among factors improving the odds that a gunshot victim will live. Unlike on TV shows, where a bad guy who is shot expires instantaneously, an adult gunshot victim may survive the initial trauma. If bleeding is stanched and the victim reaches an emergency room in the "golden hour" before complications, chances of living are favorable. Especially important to improved survival of gunshot victims, the Journal reported, is that large numbers of medics who served in Afghanistan and Iraq have come home and taken jobs as EMTs. They have all-too-realistic training in keeping gunshot victims alive -- something the Army and Marine medical staffs have gotten much better at.

It may be that research and training on ways to save people hit by bullets represent an unintended consequence of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But two and two usually equal four, and putting these two articles together suggests it is medical progress, not the proliferation of guns, that is the first cause of declining homicide rates.

Cause and effect is notoriously difficult to guarantee and notoriously easy to misread.

Increase in gun ownership and a decrease in gun deaths at the same time doesn't necessarily mean that one lead to the other.

As always, post hoc ergo propter hoc.

From JoBlo.com...



and a re-edited version...

Final thoughts...

• I have never owned a gun. I have only shot an air rifle and then at empty cardboard boxes a few times nearly thirty years ago. I don't come from guns. I don't know or understand guns. I don't feel afraid in my home.
• We must eliminate guns from our society - real guns, fictional guns, toy guns.
• Legislating real guns retroactively is going to be amazingly difficult to get short of prying them from gun owners' cold, dead hands.
• I understand that the second amendment guarantees the right to bear arms, but that doesn't mean that we have the right to bear assault weapons. 
• When the second amendment was written and ratified, we had just come out of a war with a King, we had just overthrown a tyrant and wanted to ensure that we didn't have to do it again. I'm not sure we have that same need at this point. It seems blasphemous to suggest overturning an amendment to the constitution, particularly one of the bill of rights, but I'm pretty close to saying that we need to do just that.

The Affordable Obamacare Act

Since last Thursday's Supreme Court decision that the Affordable Care Act (more commonly - and ofter derogatorily known as ObamaCare) is, indeed, constitutional but under Congress's authority to levy taxes not to regulate interstate commerce, much has been written and discussed.

Today I'm going to point out a few of the resources that I've found most helpful in my understanding of the case and the decision...

• SCOTUS blog's menu of Thursday's coverage and post-decision health care symposium
• NPR's coverage
• What the health care law means to people's lives (Planet Money - 19min audio)
• What the health care law means to you - great FAQ
• Rolling out the new health care law - good timeline of when things go into effect
• Judging the health care law - in-depth coverage of the various issues, both sides even
• Learn how Obamacare benefits you - Admittedly, the publisher (BarackObama.com) might be biased, but it does let you click through to see exactly how you will be affected 
• The Supreme Court's Ruling on Obamacare - CNN & FoxNews report - As always, I enjoy the Daily Show's coverage the most.
• Roberts' Rules of Order - a summary of the decision and the coverage
• Obamacare & the broccoli argument - Emily Brazelon - simplifying the decision's details & the next steps on Colbert Report (part 3 here)
• Obamacare & the broccoli argument (part 2 here)
• John Roberts' Obamacare swing vote (part 1 here)

Pardon our ramblings: Gabrielle Giffords & the tone of our discourse

(Please read the last couple of parts if nothing else.  I know it's long.  Feel free to skip the beginning; they're just ramblings.  The later part actually turns into something I'm kind of proud of.)

The shooting of Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday has been an interesting newsmaker.

---

The misreporting of the incident to initially include the Congresswoman's death was understandable in light of the likely chaos at the scene as well as the proliferation of amateur newsreporters via cellphone, twitter, YouTube, and the rest of Web 2.0.

I've actually been very happy not to have seen any sort of amateur video of the incident posted on YouTube...yet.  It's amazing that in our era of constant internet connectivity, omnipresent cellphone cameras, and unstoppable media leakage that no one has posted this video.  I will be even happier if no video of the incident exists or at least is ever posted online.

---

My CORE (our advisory students) today asked a number of really interesting questions about the incident.  Following our daily announcements, a separate announcement was made asking for a moment of silence for the six people who were killed in the incident.  After the announcement, I asked how many of my fifteen students knew about the event.  About half did, and we had a good discussion about the facts of the case for about ten minutes.

---

TheDailyWh.at covered the event via continual updates on their initial post.  I know I'm newish to the whole TheDailyWh.at thing, but they aren't one to give most news stories more than passing mention.  They aren't a news agency.  To me, the fact that they covered the event was surprising.

---

Much of the discussion after the incident focused on the increasingly angry and violent tone of our political discourse and how this might have contributed to the likelihood of such an attack.  On the surface this seems very reasonable and relevant.  I'm not sure that, upon further investigation, however that this connection should be automatically made.  The shooter - I'll say alleged shooter because the legal convention deems that I must label him thusly until conviction thought the idea of anyone but Jared Lee Loughner being convicted of this seems ludicrous - seems to be entirely unhinged.

His YouTube videos are nothing if not paranoid, and what little we know about the young man does not suggest someone driven to the brink by political decisions and rational if angry and vitriolic debate so much as a modern day Travis Bickle or Jack D Ripper, a man who has taken the smallest nuggets of political ramblings and allowed them to fester and foment within an obviously twisted mind until the only 'rational' response was the kill the enemy wherever they were to be found and identified.

The crazed actions of one man do not mean that an entire society's actions should be condemned.  Yes, we do need to shift our political - and non-political discourse - into a more civil direction.  While I disagree with Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin, turning them into demagogues and demons isn't any more appropriate a response than is their blind, angry lashings out.  Better, instead, to take the routes of Stephen Colbert and Tiny Fey in turning them into punchlines.  Humor will always win more converts than will vitriol.

---

Thankfully, very few people have reacted positively to the shooting.

One online comic retailer, however, posted a link to the news story in a forum on what appears to be his personal blog.  He headlined the post "1 down, 534 to go" referring to the combined number of Senators and US Representatives.  (See the post cached if, as I did earlier, you have trouble seeing the original post.)  In the post, he appears to be endorsing the armed attacking if not outright killing of members of our government.  The post was linked to from Comics Alliance, and that's how I found out about it.

The poster in question - Travis Corcoran - is the proprietor of Heavy Ink, and online comic distributor.  Corcoran runs a very political blog in which he openly advocates for the right of the people to bring up arms against their oppressors, oppressors in the name of the American government.  After the furor that the "1 down" post raised, Corcoran posted an entry clarifying his political beliefs.  In it, Corcoran admits that his post was intentionally callous but that he does not endorse the shooting of politicians because...

I think that today, there is little or no serious prospect for rolling back government by taking up arms. That, alone, disqualifies the idea of a revolution in 2011.

...a position that he bases on his Catholic beliefs and a Vatican catechism on Just War (to which he incorrectly links - corrected link here, scroll to 2309).

Admirably, Corcoran has allowed a discussion of his positions on a Heavy Ink forum.  Equally admirably, the tone of that discussion has been absolutely respectful and a spectacular example of how intelligent, rational discourse can be held over an issue that could very well devolve into the sort of violent name calling that has been so recently decried in the media.

I highly recommend reading the forum discussion to see how well discussions can be held when everyone involved takes the high road but is still willing to state their case.

Thank you to Travis Corcoran, Comics Alliance, Heavy Ink, and most especially to Heavy Ink's forum writers for inadvertently pointing out such a spectacular example of high-minded discourse.

---

The original title of this post was "If ever a boycott were in order", and my intent was to eventually point out the hateful writings of Mr Corcoran and discuss the consequences that a person's choice to make their private views very public can have on their professional lives (something of which I am constantly aware as I write this blog every day), but as I read the Heavy Ink forum, I felt my disappointment with Mr Corcoran's espoused beliefs lifting as his customers (many now more properly titled former customers) remained rational and friendly while putting forth their opinions.

I don't take advantage of Heavy Ink's services and likely would choose not to after reading Mr Corcoran's missives.  In spite of my turning of this post into something more positive than I may have initially intended, please do remember that our greatest weapon in protesting or disagreeing with the merchants who service us is our purchasing power.  If you firmly believe strongly that your merchants are doing wrong - politically, economically, racially, whatever-ly - do your due diligence and research, inform them of your views and your intent to take your business elsewhere, give them an opportunity to right their actions, and if they choose not to change, speak with your wallet and take your business elsewhere.

Boycotts can be powerful things.

(By the way, did any of you know that boycott came from Charles Boycott who was the first person to be boycotted?  I love Wikipedia.)

I never would've guessed...

Brooklyn?

Who knew?

So cute and cuddly...until the kill

Look at that.  Isn't it just adorable?

That's Knut from the Berlin Zoo.  He was a newborn a few years back, and clearly his trainers were getting him ready for a life of dismembering his food.

Did you have any idea that about twenty years ago - in March of 1990 - a zookeeper at the Cincinnati Zoo had her hand and some of her forearms ripped off by a polar bear?  (Source: Orlando Sentinal)  She was later awarded $3.5 million because of the unsafe working conditions and improper training at the zoo.  (Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer & Cincinnati Magazine)  A coworker of hers was fired for reporting those unsafe working conditions to federal authorities but won a wrongful termination suit.  (Source: lawyers' website)

As of 2002, the zookeeper, Laurie Stober, was running a program called Full Circle Therapy that helps to "build self-esteem and confidence for kids who have been abused, neglected or marginalized due to disability".  (Source: Cincinnati Enquirer)  The last online mention I can find of Stober's Full Circle Farm is in a National Alliance of Mental Illness of Hamilton County, Ohio newsletter from April, 2007.

So, how cute's your little Knut now, folks?

Ok, actually, he's still really cute.

Yeah, might've seen this one coming

There are a lot of stupid contests out there (not this one, though - vote early and often), but I'm going to have to put in my nomination for stupidest contest as the World Sauna Championships.

If you haven't heard about the competition at this point - and it was in the news this weekend - here's the basic set-up.  Morons start off in a sauna at 110 celsius sauna while water is dumped onto the hot rocks every thirty seconds to keep the humidity at 100 percent.  From there they sit still...and suffer in silence.  No wiping the sweat - except from their faces.  No drinking water, no food, no nothing.  Just suffering.

Rick Riley took part in the contest back in August 2007, describing it like this...

A Belarusian started out sane, just sitting there. Every 30 seconds a pitiless stream of water came out from a ceiling shower in the center of the sauna and splashed on the molten-hot rocks, creating a 100% humidity level in the room that would melt gold. About two minutes in our man started rocking a little. At three his eyes started blinking oddly. At four he began twitching. At five his eyes got huge. At six he started swallowing each breath like a gulp of scorching soup. Then he started glancing around wildly, as if to say to the others, Are you mad? Don't you see what's happening? They've locked us in a Crock-Pot! He started wiping his eyes and mouth. He moved his hands out toward his thighs to rub them, then realized that's not allowed and did so anyway, crazily, as though he were covered in lice. The judges flagged him once, then twice. Then he lurched for the door, and he was out. Sanity and cool air whooshed back into his brain, and suddenly he was normal and smiling again. 

...


It was like walking into a bonfire and pulling up a chair in the middle of it. My strategy was to go in and keep time by the 30-second water splashes, but that plan was scrapped approximately seven seconds in. Thinking literally hurt. I tried to stare at the rocks and not blink, because blinking hurt. I tried to take very few breaths, because breathing hurt. I was sure flames were coming out of my mouth. My back seemed to have ignited. I was convinced my ears were literally on fire, but if I moved even slightly, they hurt more. I tried sitting up higher, but it was even hotter. I tried crouching down more, but then I was nearer to the unforgiving rocks. It was so awful I wished Barry Bonds were in there. Then came the hideous, cruel, pitiless splashes of water, each one lasting three seconds. I decided to think of something to get my mind off the torturous pain, so I began naming every National League team. I counted the Jets twice. I was just about to bolt into the fresh air when -- miraculously -- the tall, skinny guy next to me ran out. Amazing! I wasn't last! I had no idea how much time had elapsed -- four minutes? Six? I promised myself: When I get to the point where I can no longer stand it, I'll count 60 seconds and go.

Four seconds later, I decided I could no longer stand it.

So I started counting. One, two, three ... It was the longest minute of my life. At 60 I went barreling out. Watching other heats, I'd wondered why even losers came out grinning and raising their hands in victory, but now I knew. The cool air was so beautiful, so redeeming, so life giving. You could French-kiss Osama bin Laden. 

...(now, describing Rick Ellis, the only other American in the competition after his ouster)...



Then there was Ellis, who entered the quarterfinals with dozens of blisters on his body. "Man, I knew I was in trouble right away," he later said. "When I felt this big, half-dollar-size blister behind my back, I said, 'Okay, that's enough. I gotta get out.'"

He was the first out, at 4:15, and he was melting like the wicked witch. His forehead, his lips and his ears were giant lumps of pus. His triceps were riddled with pebble-size blisters, dozens of them. So much skin was hanging off him he looked like the world's most successful gastric-bypass patient. His forehead was a science-fiction movie. His nose was cooked like a forgotten kielbasa. And this was just what we could see.

He lifted up his shirt and there it was: this horrible, huge, pus-filled sac -- the size of a $3 pancake -- just hanging off his armpit. His wife gasped. TLC turned away in horror. When we dragged him to first aid the guy said, "You must go to the hospital. When these blisters break, you will lose lots of fluid and be highly susceptible to infection. We can't do anything for you here. It is too serious." 

The competition has been going for a dozen years now, but it looks like it won't be lasting any more after what happened over the weekend.  Vladimir Ladyzhenskiy, the sixty-year-old Russian runner up in this year's competition, collapsed and died on his way to the hospital.

Here you can see Ladyzhenskiy (on the left) in the final before he collapsed...(source)

...and just after he collapsed and was pulled from the sauna...(source)...

...(source)...

While it is, indeed, tragic that a man died, I have to say that this may have been one of the most predictable 'sports' deaths we've ever seen.

The news in awesome science

John McPhee would be so proud.

Every so often we are lucky enough to be reminded that nothing we can do, nothing at all can ever keep nature in check.

The grounding of air transport all over Europe due to volcanic eruption this past week...

Scientists finding life in "Pitch Lake...filled with hot asphalt and bubbling with noxious hydrocarbon gases and carbon dioxide"...

Australia dealing with a locust plague the size of Spain...

I swear, man, there are things in science that continue to amaze me every minute of every hour of every day.

I am immenently useless

I write my own crap around here.

Sure, it's not always the highest quality detritus, but it clearly has my stamp on every word, image, and link.

You couldn't just replace me with a computer program.

Now, a baseball writer, on the other hand, should be worrying a bit because it seems that Northwestern University has found a way to write news stories about baseball games without a baseball writer.

For example, compare this recap from the New York Times on the Angels' 7-6 rally over the Red Sox...

In the hopes of channeling one of their most famous postseason moments, Boston reached back 23 years on Sunday and had Dave Henderson throw out the ceremonial first pitch.

It was Henderson’s home run that rallied the Red Sox when they were down to their last strike against the Angels in the 1986 American League Championship Series. Now with the Red Sox facing elimination by the Angels again, here was Henderson, proof that no game, no series, is over until the final out is secure.
But this time, all these years later, it was the Angels who made that point. Down to their final strike three times in the ninth inning — just as Henderson was in 1986 — Los Angeles scored three runs off Boston’s dominant closer Jonathan Papelbon, to win the game, 7-6, and eliminate the Red Sox from the postseason....

...to a recap written by the robot writers...

Things looked bleak for the Angels when they trailed by two runs in the ninth inning, but Los Angeles recovered thanks to a key single from Vladimir Guerrero to pull out a 7-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on Sunday. Guerrero drove in two Angels runners. He went 2-4 at the plate.

“When it comes down to honoring Nick Adenhart, and what happened in April in Anaheim, yes, it probably was the biggest hit (of my career),” Guerrero said. “Because I’m dedicating that to a former teammate, a guy that passed away.”

I'll admit that I'm not sure I could tell the difference.
Of course, nobody's going to replace Hal McCoy any time soon.

Today's wholesome cry

If you're wondering how a story of a family and a sunflower could bring me to sniffling, you should check out the story for yourself.

And I wasn't crying...I just had something in my eye...I petted the cat and have allergies...there was a breeze.

Awesome...

I had no clue at all that robberies like this really happened.

I kind of thought they were reserved for movies and tv shows.

The horrors of the RSS

These two stories were both up on the RSS from CNN today, and neither one has the least bit of cheer in it. I'm heading to bed with horrible thoughts about these and thought I'd share, folks...

• Mom's plea deal includes 'resurrection clause'
• Man decapitates 5-year old sister in front of officer

Affecting traffic in the Princeton area yesterday...

Good stuff at school yesterday...on the way in, I heard about the shooting on the highway about a mile south of school that was shutting down the interstate and directing everybody off right at good ol' PHS. Seems that a late night at a sports bar in the district turned ugly when one car pulled an assault rifle on I-75 and put at least nine bullets into an SUV. The SUV flipped into the off ramp, and the passengers didn't make it. All of this was before 3am.

In the least of the tragedies associated, a dozen teachers were late getting in because they normally roll south on I-75 and get here right at the contract time.

The Enquirer web article yet again allowed the high level of discourse to shine through in their comments section...

• Bored_at_work

  Sounds about right. You wouldn't catch me dead at the Garage on a Tuesday night. $2 Tuesdays is the day of the week when all the hood rats and thugs come out and start mess.. INstead of keeping it at home, they get dressed up and plan on going there just to fight and act a fool. NOt my cup of tea.

• Like the Bible says "an eye for an eye".

  Bobish

  That's Old Testament. Check out what Christ had to say about that. Something about turning the other cheek.

• LibTwpThug

  Jesus is my homeboy. I know he preach the truth!

• MrPips

  Did someone throw a chicken wing at someone or something? Did they get "dissed" as a result and figure it's time to do some killin?
  
  So far it's been a two week long crime spree of raping, robbing and killing on the greater Cincinnati streets.
  
  I am so tired of living here.

• Waveontheway

  I'm not interested in the death penalty as a deterrent. I'm interested in the death penalty as a way of elliminating these monster psychopaths from the planet. Anyone agree?
  
  There is a genetic abherration that needs to be cleansed from the Earth, and it has finally manifested itself in spades in the Cincinnati Metro area.

• Montrell

  No surprise really. I imagine things like this will happen more and more often in Cincinnati in the future. The Cincinnati area has become awful in comparison with other big cities. Thugs, ghetto gangbangers, white trash...the influx of these types of people into the Cincinnati area continues at a rapid pace.

• helpmelord

  GOD in his wisdom is laughing at us! Those "Who Know" and those "Who think they know" what is right, truth, moral, good, evil. Its insightful to read these posts. It tells me the world is truly a dangerous place and the danger really does not come from the people who kill each other on the highway. What technology has done through the use of blogs like this is tell you how much "hate, judgement, racism, prejuidice, exist in the world. Its only the advent of technology that allows us to see both kinds (the inhumane -those that take lives and the humane- those that destroy lives through hatemongering). The 'murders' we see on the nightly news have always occurred since the beginning of time - Cain killed Abel, Ted Bundy, that clown in Chicago who ate the flesh of boys, etc.... but that's a small percentage compared to those that murder life through the spoken/written word. Maybe God will hear the words spoken in hate and respond in kind.

• keeco09

  This is a tragedy no matter what road they went sown to in life, even the worst criminals have someone who loves them and that is Jesus Christ, his gift of love is availible to anyone who is willing to receive it, so please don't be judgemental because therefore by the grace of God, go I. It's just ashame this had to be something straight out of a movie, and of course in movies people seek revenge and there goes the cycle it may never end. To see lives wasted and for what, what could of been that important to have a shootout on a freeway at 3 o'clock in the morning innocent lives could of been lost, what is this world coming to? I know big brother has some kind of surveilence (hope it's spelled right) where they could look into some video from outer space and see the whole thing and get the license plate of the other car or something, anytime I can google my mother's address and see a 360 degree view of her house with her sitting on the porch on a summer day come on people!

• FOXMOTO

  I have a HUGE problem with people who are sad these guys are dead. This is a great day in Cincinnati! Rejoice! No one innocent was hurt! Two career criminals GONE! F*** The families who raised these kids, too. They have contributed NOTHING but filith into society. Ban section 8! Lets regain our cities and streets from the ignorant, trash currently occupying it.
  AND NIKODIN, YOU'RE THE BIGGEST DA I HAVE EVER SEEN COMMENT ON THE INTERNET. IF SOMEONE PULLED A GUN ON YOU, YOU WOULD PROBABLY LET THEM SHOOT YOU YOU'RE SO IGNORANT. THE RIGHT TO BEAR ARMS IS AS OLD AS THE CONSTITUION ITSELF. YOU'RE A WALKING CONTRADICTION! WHAT DO YOU MEAN THERE WAS NO FASCINATION WITH GUNS WHEN YOU WERE A KID? WE DIDN'T MAGICALLY INSTITUTE THE SECOND AMMENDMENT 30 YEARS AGO! IT'S THE RAPPERS, THE FREE MEALS OUR COUNTRY GIVES OUT, THE SOCIAL NORMS ENTITILING THESE IDIOTS TO ACT THE WAY THEY DO. HOW CAN YOU BE SO NAIVE?
  
  YOU PROBABLY BLAMED GEORGE BUSH FOR HURRICANE KATRINA.

Then, around 10:30 that same morning, here's what we got via the school email...

A little over an hour ago an individual entered a “business” in the general vicinity of the Scarlet Oaks Campus and stabbed a person.

As a result the Scarlet Oaks campus was put on lockdown. Since that time Scarlet Oaks has lifted their lockdown and is back to normal operations.

The only description of the individual (from police) is a male, black wearing a white and blue New York Yankees’ cap and baggy black trousers. Unknown on age, height, wgt., etc. The subject was last seen “walking west” on Kemper Road.

The police perimeter has also been lifted (in search of the individual). There is no information that the suspect is heading toward Glendale or any specific school. Obviously the police are investigating same.

The high school / middle school SRO is aware of the situation. Obviously we will monitor same.

It's a rough morning to be around the Princeton area...sheesh...

Another possibility, perhaps

From the AP article...

Travis the chimpanzee, a veteran of TV commercials, was the constant companion of a lonely Connecticut widow who fed him steak, lobster and ice cream. He could eat at the table, drink wine from a stemmed glass, use the toilet, and dress and bathe himself.

He brushed his teeth with a Water Pik, logged on to a computer to look at photos and channel-surfed television with the remote control.

But on Monday, the wild animal in him came out with a vengeance.

The 200-pound animal viciously mauled a friend of his owner before being shot to death by police.

Investigators are trying to figure out why -- whether it was a bout of Lyme disease, a reaction to drugs, or a case of instinct taking over.

...

Police said that Travis was agitated earlier Monday and that Herold had given him the anti-anxiety drug Xanax in some tea. Police said the drug had not been prescribed for the 14-year-old chimp

...

"I don't know the effects of Lyme disease on chimpanzees, but I will say that it's deceiving to think that if any animal is, quote-unquote, well-behaved around humans that means there is no risk involved to humans for potential outbursts of behavior," she said. "They are unpredictable, and in instances like this you cannot control that behavior or prevent it from happening if it is in a private home."

Connecticut law requires anyone who owns a primate heavier than 50 pounds to obtain a state permit. But Herold was exempted from the law.

"Given that the family in Stamford owned Travis before this law was put on the books, and the fact that over the years the animal did not appear to present a public safety risk, their possession of the chimpanzee was allowed to continue," said Dennis Schain, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Or, there is another possibility...and I'm just spitballing here...

Maybe he was a frickin' wild animal.

Monkeys aren't pets, folks.

They don't belong with the humans.

That's just a theory, though.

Hit and dragged

ick...

There are no pictures, no video, no sounds at today's link...just a simple news story of a very bad hit and run.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A pedestrian was struck twice by vehicles in Queens and dragged for 17 miles by the second vehicle before police found him dead in Brooklyn, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly told reporters Wednesday.

The badly mangled body was discovered under a van after several passing motorists motioned the driver to pull over, Kelly said. Police had not identified the victim Wednesday evening, he said.

The first driver called 911 to report he thought he had struck a pedestrian but did not see anyone.

It turned out the second driver, in a van, had driven over the man, whose body became lodged under its chassis, according to police.

Kelly said that the van driver stopped at one point during the drive on New York City's highways and roads because he noticed the vehicle was not driving properly. But he failed to find anything unusual, Kelly said.

Police are retracing the route the van drove in attempt to find body parts, he said.

No charges have been filed, Kelly told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

The year in photos

Sure, every newspaper does the "photos of the year." Sadly, however, there aren't that many honestly great photos taken each year. Instead, we get two-hundred-plus marginally acceptable photos from the Hamilton Journal News with like two or three decent ones mixed in.

And then a real list of great photos comes along - from boston.com. They've split their list up into part 1...part 2...and part 3.

Check some of their examples...then check out the full 120 photos...