Gun violence 12:33 PM

Wilson, M. 3 Detectives Acquitted in Bell Shooting. 2008, April 26. The new york times

Link Here

50 bullets. 50. Not one, not two, not 10. 50.

I understand that in the face of danger to themselves or the public, the police have been given the right to respond with deadly force. But how can that possibly spell pumping 50 bullets into a person? Call me crazy, but I feel like there are plenty of ways to stop a fleeing car driving through the streets of a major city, all of which probably don't involve handguns.


Remind me to avoid New York.

A Child's Welfare 1:23 AM

Texas tries to ease polygamist kids' culture shock from CNN.com

Link Here

This subject seems like it should be easier to deal with than it is. Sure, it seems great that 437 kids were taken out of what everyone is assuming is a cult down there at the Yearning for Zion Ranch. But the man accused of sexual abuse was, for all intents and purposes, cleared by a pretty solid alibi; now what do we do with all these kids? Perhaps the state, in placing these kids in foster care, is making a mistake. To process all these kids through court, get DNA testing, and investigate other members of the church, will take years. The effects of being shuffled from foster home to foster home in the state's care can be, for some, traumatizing. These kids, to boot, have no concept of the world outside their sheltered lives.

So the CNN article says that the state is trying to get their traditional clothes, and enforce a traditional diet, but for some reason I doubt that they will actually follow through. I can only hope that these kids don't end up being more damaged than they might already be.

Weathermen 4:09 PM

It seems that Obama's opponents are aiding and abetting terrorists these days. With every debate and every speech clip, they pollute the air with Mr. Ayers' name, somehow tying him to and his decisions to Obama. As a result, they will help Mr. Ayers, albeit indirectly, disrupt the democratic process once again by putting blinders on the American people to all the issues, like the economy and healthcare, that they should be worried about.

Jitters 12:12 AM

Not one, not two, but three caffeine delivery devices on the desk. Game on finals week.

Bitter?!? 1:47 PM

Hmm. I'm not so sure how Obama is going to get himself out of this most recent mess. Despite what his intentions were, he essentially gave both Mccain and Clinton a ton of ammunition to use weeks before some of the most important primaries. What makes it sting is the fact that this helps Mccain much more than Clinton because she is far too polarizing to be electable in the first place. Of all the things she could say after Obama's statements, she comes up with some story about her grandfather teaching her to shoot a gun and about how she's a god-fearing woman. Right, she love guns the same way she dodged sniper fire in Bosnia. And how the hell is she not part of the liberal elite? If there was a liberal elitist club, I'm pretty sure the Clintons would be co-presidents. Hillary is nothing more than a rich girl from the suburbs that knows nothing about just scraping by. She made 110 million dollars last year for God's sake.


All the while, Mccain is sitting in the wings watching and laughing as the two democrats self destruct. He's no idiot. Somehow he was able to go from a potential John Kerry VP to a Republican good 'ol boy without batting an eye. And we have yet to hear either democrat call him out on kissing the conservative right's ass for the past few months. Mccain is a guy that used to openly talk down to these TV preacher types, and now he's speaking at their churches.

What it all boils down to is that the republicans have a well oiled machine for getting politicians into office while the democrats sit around deciding whether Florida and Michigan should have a do over. They're going to let two candidates tear each other apart until the convention, at which point Mccain will have a nice solid conservative base behind him and tomes on how either democrat is an elitist, or out of touch, or inexperienced, or soft on terror. How can the democrats be so blind?

Meds 2:51 PM

"My teacher says I disrupt class, but someday I'll be disrupting social conventions."

This is the line they're using to sell ADHD meds? I guess that's because the more realistic:

"My parents give me prescription speed to shut my no good whinny face" or "the drugs make it so my parents don't have to beat me"

probably doesn't move drugs off the shelf. But seriously, at least people are actually attempting to make ADD and ADHD more accepted in the mainstream.