Ann on The VT Mass Murderer

Let’s Make America a ‘Sad-Free Zone’!

From the attacks of 9/11 to Monday’s school shooting, after every mass murder there is an overwhelming urge to “do something” to prevent a similar attack.

But since Adam ate the apple and let evil into the world, deranged individuals have existed.

Most of the time they can’t be locked up until it’s too late. It’s not against the law to be crazy — in some jurisdictions it actually makes you more viable as a candidate for public office.

It’s certainly not against the law to be an unsociable loner. If it were, Ralph Nader would be behind bars right now, where he belongs. Mass murder is often the first serious crime unbalanced individuals are caught committing — as appears to be in the case of the Virginia Tech shooter.

The “Breck Girl”

Blue Star Chronicles covers Mr. Edwards adventures rather well.  🙂

More Packing Success

It’s almost time for another trip to the new house in Tennessee.  I’ve got lots of boxes all piled up in the dining room, plus a couple of suitcases ready, so probably Friday, I’ll be heading south again.  This trip, I’m going to start hunting for a new headboard.  A new bed MUST have a new headboard, right?  Naturally, if we have a new headboard, we must have a new chest, and a couple of new night stands to match.  It only follows, right?  🙂

Evening Snack (4/18)

Drop in Hormone Use Linked to Breast Cancer Decline

New federal statistics provide powerful evidence that the sharp drop in hormone use by menopausal women that began in 2002 caused a dramatic decline in breast cancer cases, according to an analysis being published Thursday.

I took those hormone thingys for many years, for a good reason which I won’t get into now. I finally had it, and weaned off them. Not easy, let me tell you, but well worth it. There are herbal types pills that are a great substitute, at least in my experience. Perhaps, with the drop in HRT and incidents of breast cancer, many others have had success too?

Bush, Democrats Give No Ground on Iraq

President Bush sparred across the table with Democratic congressional leaders opposed to the Iraq war on Wednesday in a prelude to a veto showdown over a conflict that has claimed the lives of more than 3,200 U.S. troops.

Ya know what would be nice? If both the President and Congressional leaders would agree on a new direction. Instead of using our military as police, or packing up and leaving, how ’bout we start looking towards actually winning and then leave?

Meeting leaves Republicans believing Thompson will run for president

Former Sen. Fred Thompson met with more than 50 U.S. House members this afternoon and his Tennessee colleagues were left believing more than ever that he will run for president.

“He was called presidential and he was. He was called electable and he is,” Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Chattanooga, said after the meeting at the Republican Club of Capitol Hill.

Cool! Now, do NOT disappoint us Fred!

Denver area schools evacuated amid bomb threats

Pleasant View Elementary School in Golden received two separate bomb threats today. At about 12:35 p.m., the school received a threat, prompting officials to evacuate the students. After a search of the school, the students returned to their classes.

An elementary school? This copycat nonsense is getting out of hand.

This may look like a UN plane… but Sudan used it to bomb Darfur

Britain and America threatened yesterday to impose new sanctions on Khartoum after a United Nations report accused Sudan of disguising its military planes and helicopters as UN aircraft and using them to attack villages in Darfur.

I get the impression the head honcho in Sudan is not going to be shaking in his boots. I wonder if the Useless Numnuts are going to issue a “strongly worded” warning?

AA pilots protest bonuses

American’s pilots expressed frustration over the fact that their bosses – 874 executives and certain key employees – stand to collect more than $160 million in stock.

I can understand their frustration, but are they aware that the stock can lose value and the execs will end up with zip? Granted, I’m more inclined to side with the pilots on this one. Having your pay cut and then to see the ones who cut it with a few hundred grand each would chap my hide too.

Board files complaint against Ziegler

The state Ethics Board filed a complaint today against Supreme Court Justice-elect Annette Ziegler, saying she improperly acted while a Washington County Circuit Court judge on five cases involving a bank for which her husband is a director.

I thought this issue had already been resolved. Guess I was wrong.

Judge upholds ban on anti-gay T-shirts

Two students at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville — who say they are deeply Christian and believe homosexuality is immoral — brought their complaint to federal court. They wanted to wear the T-shirts a day after the Gay/Straight Alliance holds a day of silence today. Last year, one of the students who filed the complaint wore a “Be Straight, Not Gay” T-shirt and the school wanted the “not gay” stricken.

Isn’t this like a free speech issue? When I was in high school, way back in the dark ages, we weren’t allowed to wear anything with any kind of printing on it, it was a rule, and we had no problem. My, how times have changed.

First Step

Supreme Court Upholds Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court upheld the nationwide ban on a controversial abortion procedure Wednesday, handing abortion opponents the long-awaited victory they expected from a more conservative bench.

The 5-4 ruling said the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law in 2003 does not violate a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion.

The opponents of the act “have not demonstrated that the Act would be unconstitutional in a large fraction of relevant cases,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

The decision pitted the court’s conservatives against its liberals, with President Bush’s two appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, siding with the majority.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia also were in the majority.

It was the first time the court banned a specific procedure in a case over how — not whether — to perform an abortion.

It’s a start! Now, if they could go even further, and overturn Roe V. Wade…..

Morning Coffee 4/18/07

2008 Candidates on Spot Over Gun-Control

Gun control has been treated with a mix of silence and discomfort in the presidential campaign, a stance that may become insupportable once the nation finds its voice in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech mass murder.

Democrats have been deliberately muted for months on an issue that, by their own reckoning, contributed to and perhaps sealed their defeat in the 2000 presidential election. That’s when Al Gore’s call for gun registration cost him votes in rural America and dulled the party’s appetite for taking on the gun lobby.

The knee jerk reaction of the emotional left has already been shouting for “gun control”. I’ll repeat the same cliche’: Guns don’t kill people….PEOPLE KILL PEOPLE! Perhaps if those of my generation hadn’t been so all fired up about this cause, or that, they would have been paying more attention to their kids, taught them to be responsible for their own actions, and stop blaming the rest of the world for their short comings, we wouldn’t be seeing the increase in violence these days.

Carnage leads to talk of allowing guns on campus

“I think people like the shooter (at Virginia Tech) would think twice,” said Robinette, who plans to attend law school out of state next fall.

“I don’t know if guns would have stopped him from trying, but it could have slowed him down before he executed 30 people.”

It may have not stopped all the the shootings, but I’ve no doubt that some of those kids would still be alive today if someone had been able to carry a gun on campus.

Last-Minute Payers Swamp Tax Servers

A flood of last-minute tax filers swamped the servers of Intuit Inc. on Tuesday, causing hours-long delays in getting forms sent in electronically to the government, said Harry Pforzheimer, a spokesman for the Mountain View-based company.

“We have talked to the IRS because of the amount of returns we are still filing,” Pforzheimer said. “It’s fair to say the IRS understands what the situation is.”

Oh, they might understand, but if the IRS actually cares, I’d be really surprised. What baffles me is the fact that everyone knows this is coming, yet they still wait till the last minute. Why? There’s actually plenty of time. If 3 1/2 months aren’t long enough, the someone has other issues.

FEMA to Take Lead Role in Coordinating Disaster Aid

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will replace the American Red Cross as the agency in charge of coordinating the provision of shelter, food and first aid to victims in disasters under an agreement disclosed by a Senate panel yesterday.

Are they bloomin’ kidding?? I just pray we don’t have any more disasters, natural or otherwise, if those yahoos are going to be in charge. Putting a government bureaucracy in charge of anything is a disaster all on it’s own!

Turkey: Three killed at Bible publishing house

Police were giving no immediate information about the attack. Dogan news agency said, however, that the three people killed had their throats slit. It said a fourth person jumped from a window to escape the attack, and was hospitalized with injuries.

I don’t think the Turks are quite a secular as they would have us believe.

HISD puts its check registries online

Houston taxpayers should have an easier time finding out where school districts spend their money now that more are posting their checkbooks online.

Not a bad idea. Perhaps Wisconsin should adopt a similar policy? 🙂

4 bombs kill 66, wound dozens in Baghdad

Four big bombs exploded across Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 66 people and wounding nearly 150 as violence climbed toward levels seen before the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital began two months ago.

To the west of the city, U.S. troops killed five suspected insurgents and captured 30 others in a raid in Anbar province, a day after police uncovered 17 decomposing corpses beneath two school yards in the provincial capital.

Perhaps the bad guys feel they have a free pass now that the Dhims have proved they are intent on doing the ‘cut and run’ dance?

Germany’s ‘Red Zora’ terrorist spared jail

A leading member of Germany’s Red Zora feminist terrorist gang that bombed sex shops and firms deemed to exploit women in the Seventies and Eighties was sentenced to a two-year suspended jail term yesterday after being on the run for 19 years.

A suspended sentence for blowing up businesses and putting people in harms way. Odd.  And more than a little disturbing.