Public Reaction to Mass Shootings

Unfortunately, the United States is the world leader in mass shootings--one, occasionally two people with weapons going to a public place and shooting people.  Sometimes it is a random act and sometimes the shooter has a motive of anger or revenge.  It is always shocking to us because it occurs in our common spaces--our shopping malls, movie theaters, schools or work places--where we feel relatively safe.  We don't expect to be wounded or killed when we are in the store.
The typical blather has been heard after this latest shooting incident in Colorado.  Gun control, terrorism, and mental health care have been among the topics explored.  Included in this are questions about Barack Obama and Mitt Romney's stance on those same topics. 
It is not the discussion or even the talking points that are so irritating.  It is the self appointed experts, blathering along, seemingly without a care about the losses to the families or trauma to the community that are so irritating.  Also, it becomes increasingly difficult to strike a balance in public expression:  after Columbine or Virgina Tech did we have a presidential proclamation or put the flags at half staff?  Did political discourse grind to a complete halt?  What to make of ABC News deciding that a certain man named Holmes was the shooter without fact checking something as simple as age?
At some point we will have to ask questions, but now, with families still reeling from the physical and psychic trauma and little or no information about the shooter and his possible motives, is not the time for such things. Stick to just the facts, mam, and keep the self appointed experts and professional arguers away.

Some Existential Thoughts Provoked by Whitney Houston

In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world

--Jesus Christ, as quoted by John (John 16:33b NIV)

Unless you have hidden under a rock, you are aware that singer Whitney Houston was found dead in a hotel room in California Saturday afternoon. The Observer is around Ms. Houston's age--you could say we grew up together. I remember attempting to sing along with her in my first car after I graduated college--a Ford Escort. However, this post is not specifically about Ms. Houston's premature and somewhat unexpected death--it is about how it is that the landscape around you keeps changing as you get older.

Your relationship with technology changes--you've seen the changes both good and bad. You took your professional boards over 2 days with a pencil. You wrote your papers on a typewriter. You remember that if you were not home, tough luck reaching you on the phone. You remember music on large thin plastic discs. To a greater or lesser degree you've accepted the changes--even found them to be a substantial improvement. I am thankful every day for computers to write things on--so much easier for me!

The celebrities and sport stars you grew up with--the athletes, actors and singers you enjoyed over the years change--they retire, change their work, and die. You find yourself having to explain who someone is, or what they did to be famous or what their area of excellence was. You also make references that require explanation--we call them "memes" now--"Round up the usual suspects." "Make him an offer he can't refuse." "Go ahead, make my day."

To live is to change. It is almost literally "change or die." If you stop looking around you at the world and fully living in it and taking hold of the new, you will stagnate. You will stop growing a legacy. The relationship with the past is a tricky one: too much looking back, and a person can get stuck in many ways from wistful memory to regrets to roots of bitterness. Blundering on without consideration of the past also hurts; mistakes are repeated, the joys are neglected and passed over, and important content is destroyed. It is a little like a city and its old buildings: some must come down to allow for vibrancy and growth going forward, yet a city that does not treasure its physical history is not as rich as one that respects the structures of the past.

I have become more conscious lately of the fact that I may die. I am asking questions about my life--what will last, what will be of benefit to the world. As I watch the world around me change the questions become even more pointed. It is not about stuff, it is about what you do for others ongoing that will last. I pray that I have done some good for others during my life so far, and I pray that I can continue to build others up and teach others in a way that is positive.

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.

--John Wesley, Christian evangelist, Anglican priest and founder of the Methodist Church.

The Biggest Story?

Topically challenged right now.

It's a lot more fun to talk about the holidays, the Chiefs, the weather or just about anything else then the current set of news headlines while hanging around the kitchen table these days.

The news media is this weird mix of holiday feel -good stories, horrid crime stories and sports headlines.

Just wondering here--what is the biggest and most important thing that is before us?

Do the folks at City Hall think the same things are important that we, the citizens, think are important?

How much does the media have to do with our priorities--that what they report is what comes to our attention--makes the most noise--and provokes us to call for action? Is what creates the noise really the most important thing?

Just wondering.

You Can Not Make This Stuff Up

Is this world just falling apart? Some of the stuff that happens is just not conceivable--if you were a writer, the publishers would turn down your manuscript because it was too implausible.

Here's what I am talking about: the mayor of a midmajor American city has to take cover because someone is shooting a firearm near him. Little tent cities have popped up in US cities of all sizes all across the country--and all these little cities have city problems--when they are not having meetings. Meantime, during a debate a man who wants to be the president forgets one of the three departments he would abolish if elected. Another man who wants to be POTUS has had five women come forward accusing him of being sexually harassing towards them.
Meantime, we have earthquakes in places like Oklahoma that usually don't experience them. We have F5 tornadoes in bunches. Snow falls on October 31 and some are still without power over a week later. An earthquake and tsunami result in radioactive food and automobiles in Japan.
On the sports front we have seasons that may never happen (pro basketball) and seasons that started by a whisker (pro football). A storied coach at a university for over sixty years fails to follow up on a credible report of statutory sodomy by one of his assistants and is unceremoniously sacked at once.
Overseas, people rise up and remove long time dictators in three countries. Other countries tip towards bankruptcy as their governments fight to maintain rule. One country in Africa, Sudan, actually formally voted to split in half and form two countries where there had been just one.
Finally, would you imagine a family with 20 kids and none of them were adopted?

Like I said, you can't make this stuff up.

A Crapload of Crap

Wow have we been riding the crap train in Kansas City--and nationally--these last few days newswise. Not one but two (2) incidents of multiple homicide in KCMO--three victims each--over the past few days. Also killings in the Golden Ghetto of JoCo KS. KCMSD losing accreditation. Our big college conference is falling apart-- yes the Big 12 whose championships we often host, who provides the scaffolding for our regional college rivalries--is in serious trouble. Oh yes, our professional sport teams continue to stink, even with the small rays of hope surrounding the Royals.

Nationally we have continued news of a poor economy with the most disheartening being the increasing poverty rate, decreasing middle class and concentration of more wealth among fewer people to the detriment of all-- yes it is a detriment if all the rich do is sit on their money or practice the godless philosophy of Ayn Rand. Politicians and economists are only guessing at what might actually help create the jobs we so desperately need, what would free up private enterprises to decide to hire people. I believe we are in a period of creating an entirely new economic order--doesn't this adjustment period stink? We seriously have to readjust our sights from an economy based on consuming and consumerism to one more inclined to being self sufficient and as self contained as possible, to serving one another, and to feeding into (rather then taking advantage of) hot economies in other parts of the world. There are going to be some hard choices to make, and a lot is against us,

So how is your week so far?

Debbie Wasserman Schulz More Evasive Than Jamaal Charles

This right here is why politicians are not well regarded and also why I would make a terrible politician.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz absolutely refuses to answer any question about the speech that James Hoffa gave in Detroit on Labor Day where Mr. Hoffa used some inflammatory language. She slides instead into some boilerplate answer about working on jobs (I am wondering if she might even be reading the answer off cue cards, especially in the first 45 seconds or so as she is seemingly unable to leave her eyes in one place.), and totally evades the question. When further pressed, she starts talking about the Tea Party's language.

Look, if you don't want to answer a given question, just say so. To evade, evade, evade, and ad hominium attack, just makes you look either stupid or duplicitous or both. There is a point where she says she would like to answer the question (1:53). One wonders how she might have answered the question about Hoffa if she could have talked straight. Maybe she would have said something like, "Jeez, that Hoffa is such a frigging buffoon. I told the President not to be near this union thug, that he would embarrass us. I hate being right." or the opposite, "We love it, I thought Hoffa rocks, he said what we are all thinking. " It doesn't matter which way it would fall, since we would never hear such straightforward honesty from a sitting politician.

Why I could never be a pol--I'd either answer the question straight or tell you straight that I had absolutely no intention of answering that question no matter how many times it was asked!

A Few Thoughts Early Monday Morning

What a news week we just had--an amazing new chapter written in the story of FUBAR that is the Kansas City Mo school district, a much hyped storm that rained more than anything, a surprise eastern earthquake and more.

I have to say that the thing that has dismayed me more than anything is the apparent incompetence of our government. Individually, the people at City Hall or in Washington, DC might be smart and able but when they get together it seems they can't find their way out of a paper bag.

Just a few thoughts early on a Monday morning.

The Show Going On Is the Right Thing

Pilot Bryan Jensen and his plane. (www.beastairshows.com)

Stunt and Delta jetliner pilot Bryan Jensen died today at the Kansas City Air Show when something went wrong during his routine. Because of where his plane landed--on the airfield between runways--the remainder of the show was canceled. However, plans are for the show to go on tomorrow.

That is the right thing to do.

Flying for humankind is an unnatural thing. The force exerted by earth's mass on objects near the planet's surface is a strong one. Gravity keeps us ground bound and only force and physics with a dollop of human skill enables us to get off the ground for even a brief time. Stuff goes wrong and when it does, it is usually a very bad thing.

Mr. Jensen clearly loved to fly. He started at 13, and by 16, when most of us were just happy to be able to drive cars, he had flown three different kinds of aircraft. At this time in his life, Mr. Jensen was flying 747s for pay after starting in commercial aviation at age 23 and has been doing aerobatics for 15 years.

The last thing this man would wish is that the air show fold up its tent for the year. He would want the celebration of humankind's ability to escape gravity for just a moment to continue.

Deepest condolences to Mr. Jensen's family and close friends who are no doubt stunned at his sudden death.

And may tomorrow dawn clear, crisp and calm--a perfect day for flying.

News link: KSHB...

Yob?

I kept seeing this word while reading coverage of the riots in the Daily Mail and other British news outlets---what is this "yob"?

I mean we all know that the Brits speak English just like we do--except not so much. So, to the interwebs for info on "yob." I discovered that the word was coined in the 1700s--an era that had a lot of violent moments. The reverse of "boy," it is indicating that the male in question is exactly the opposite of a normal good boy. Thus generally, yobs are male. However, thug and hooligan are easy synonyms and can be applied to both sexes. A variation on the word I saw was "yobbo" which is similar and generally used in Australia. There it also acquires the sense of what we call "white trash" here in the USA.

A look at the Urban Dictionary reveals that the Brits have coined lots of terms for the thug element among them.

On Riots and Other Mob Violence: Two More Interesting Links

There has been a lot of commentary written about the recent (and somewhat underreported in the US) riots in Britain. Here are links to two interesting items. Have to give a tip of the hat to Limbaugh for mentioning and/or quoting from these two interesting essays.

This post is a partner with the previous post with the two mayors. The events of past days have made me wonder if there has been a fundamental change in the moral character of people today. On the other hand my Bible tells me that without God, humankind is trapped in a cycle of evil and civil decay...

First we have Max Hastings at the UK Daily Mail talking about how the culture of entitlement played an extensive part in the behavior and choices of the British rioters. By the way, the Daily Mail did a very nice job of covering the riots.

Next we have former DOJ lawyer J Christian Adams on how mob action comes to work against the very moral foundation of our society.

The Daily Mail reveals that not all rioters were down and out or at society's edges--so-called "good people"will yield to the temptation of obtaining something for nothing, doing things because everyone else is doing it, or acting on emotions of envy, jealousy and anger if they do not have a strong moral foundation.

A Flurry of News Commentary...

Well it's been a long and interesting week in the national political scene hasn't it? Locally it's been interesting too. Going to hit some news items with some quick commentary--a flurry of punches like Ali in his prime...

Bernard Jackson--guilty of all counts. The only way this dude was getting off was if the defense could punch some "reasonable doubt" into the DNA evidence, since they had strong matches to the samples. That meant they had to get technical about collection, storage and chain of custody. The mere fact that the trial was so short tells me that either, 1) they had nuthin' nay bupkis in the way of testimony on the DNA evidence, or 2) the judge limited what they could do. The jury chose to go with the DNA and a rapist is convicted. To jail for a LONG time with this guy. Next is to put one Jeffrey Moreland behind bars for murder and rape. Another case with DNA evidence and a brave sexual assault survivor. I doubt Alonzo will shill for his case...

Buried in President Obama's statement about checks being in peril was the shear number of checks that the Feds issue to people. Part of it is demographics, as we are getting older as a country, but the shock was considering that out of the 300 million people in the U.S., 70 million of them got a check from the Feds. That is about 23% of the population. That doesn't include state programs that write checks, nor does it include programs administered by the state that have federal funding. I am concerned that so many in our country seem to be on this federal dole. Generally speaking, any production that comes from this benefit money is offset by the cost to the government of administering the programs that cut the checks. Here is a link to the CBS story and to this excellent comment made on HuffPost that popped up when I googled "70 million checks." Has the American character changed from one of self sufficiency to one of dependency?

Finally there was this item about the life span of Black men in prison as compared to those who are not imprisoned. This one made me think a lot, it did. As a health care provider, I have long been intrigued by studies that indicated that Black people did not receive the same care as White people. There are a lot of factors involved--some biological/physiological, some sociological--in both situations. It has some scary implications about the choices some Black folks are making about the way they live--that when they are free to chose, they make bad choices. Some would argue that even if they are out of prison they are not free--they are limited by the heavy influence of the slave past and the White prejudice of the majority. In addition, that Black poverty and stigma means they get "worse" health care. It's a really intriguing topic that might get a longer treatment at some time. It would be interesting to shake out the economic strata of the prisoners independent of race and see how it goes. In my opinion and observation, the poorer classes and those dependent on handouts seem to make poor personal health choices on a regular basis. Go to a state where most of the population is White and run the study based on economic status and whether or not a "welfare" check is received...now, that would make an interesting study.

That's all folks--wait, not quite. Check out this video...

How funny is that! Thanks everyone for reading and commenting and have a great evening!

Feels Like Monday...

So how is everyone doing today? Still a little tired from the weekend's activities? Already sick of heavy humidity?

What does everyone think of the Casey Anthony verdict? I didn't follow the trial closely but I really could think of lots of reasonable doubt, based on the bits I did see and read. Perhaps the prosecution over reached? If I was that prosecutor, I would be considering my next career, because reelection is not going to happen.

Why did this trial get a lot of media attention? It is not as if murder is not something that frequently happens in the United States, nay, in the state of Florida and unfortunately, it is not uncommon that small children meet death due to some sort of accident or trauma. Witness the crash Monday morning or the recent drownings of kids in the KC area. It was just the right combination, it seemed of an attractive but unpleasant defendant, a cute victim, all just the right age and racial composition. Does the trial get this much attention if everything is the same, but defendant and victim are Black? If the defendant is physically unattractive? My guess is no. The general public, and by extension, the media, can be incredibly shallow at times.

The final number of shootings in KC seems to be 10, with no reported fatalities as yet. It wasn't quite as hot as the initial forecast--in fact the weather was down right pleasant at times. (Not today, as it is filthy humid out there right now.) A few fire works related injuries and fires, but nothing too harsh. The man in North KC who blew his hand off was another one of these nut jobs that was messing around trying to make a bigger bang. If you stick with the consumer fireworks, you can still have a lot of fun and with a few sensible precautions, be pretty safe.

The Royals have completely shown their true colors and truly are bad this year. They just don't have the talent, and talent wins ball games. Oh, some good bits are there--defense is way better than last year, the middle relief pitching has been good, and the hitting has been better. However (related to "but"--- you know, there just had to be a "but" if they are on a pace to lose 90+ games again.), the starting pitching is by and large horrible, the hitting is inconsistent, and mistakes are being made. Still, I think the team is more fun to follow than in previous years, and there is room, however small, for a pinch of optimism.

That's it from this front porch tonight--we had too much fun blowing stuff up last night and we're a little tired. And the cat is a little jumpy--my youngest, it's her first Forth of July, and she was a little wound up last night at the end of the festivities. Startled easily would be an understatement.

How Did She Know?

What to say about the five year old who found her 18 month old relative too noisy and allegedly held the 18 month old under water in a bath tube until he was "quiet"? Here's the full story as related by the Kansas City Star. There is much not to like here, including the fact that small children were up so late, they were not being minded by a fully competent adult and other issues of circumstance.

The discussion has come up: Is a five year old capable of "murder" in the legal sense?

The answer is no. A five year old does not have the cognitive capacity to understand the permanence of death. That is a true fact.

Although I just now had a thought that completely creeps me out: How did this young girl know that if you hold someone under water it will make them quiet? Did she see someone in her circle of influence do this to another human being, or to a dog/puppy/kitten/cat/hamster/etc? I am not sure that at five I would have known that if you hold someone underwater they would be quiet. Wow, I just made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Another thought: The an alternative story: Something else really happened, the girl saw it and her five year old mind has put her five year old spin on it. In fact I have wondered: can the average five year old girl get the average 18 month old boy into the average bathtub of a non-modern house? Hmmm, makes you wonder.

Either way, I hope someone evaluates this family. There's something desperately wrong here.

The Times Gets Burned

I am not a media critic or pundit. I am no expert on the trends of media. However, I have to think that the folks at the New York Times are trying to figure out what hit them yesterday evening.

I get email news alerts from the Times; I see these on my Blackberry. Thankfully, it is still a free feature and the little stubs of information do not count as articles against the twenty free ones per month. It's a great way to keep up with what's going on in the nation and the world, especially when you are on the go and can't get to radio, television or the computer. So last night I get one at 5:47 pm CDT. Titled "Up to 30 Dismembered Bodies Found Near Houston, Reuters Reports," it is startling to me. In fact, my very first thought is that it is an uncharacteristic story for the Times to give much play. It seems out of character. Well, my puzzlement increased when about an hour later I get another news alert. The title of this one reads, "Sheriff's Office Has Not Found Bodies at Site of Reported Graves, Houston Chronicle Says." This morning the story is more fleshed out. A person identifying themselves as a "psychic" told authorities that there were bodies at a certain house near Houston. She called back after the first search yielded nothing, and gave a second location. At the second location, a family's home where the people were out of town, authorities found blood--blood left from an apparent suicide attempt at the location in the recent past but no bodies. Now a new hunt is on, for the tipster.

It cannot be good for a news organization to have to put out a retraction an hour after it "breaks" a story. While it is good to be the first if you can to break a story, it is bad to break something that turns out to be absolutely nothing. In fact, this story so disappeared for the Times that it did not appear in the top three U.S. news items in the headline summary delivered to my email box this morning. It's very obvious that the New York Times is stumbling as it tries to find footing in the digital age, to retain its prestige as one of the nation's top news sources, yet be fresh enough to garner new readers and try to work the newspaper model, and make enough money to stay in business. In its efforts to do this, the Times tripped up last night. It will be interesting to see if there is any fall out.

The Roman Catholic Church and Wayward Priests: Why Don't They Get It?

I do not understand it, really. Why they don't get it.

Why is the Roman Catholic Church still dealing with sexually sinning priests by trying to cover it all up? Why don't they just act like normal citizens and go straight to law enforcement authorities with the first hint of trouble like anyone else? I suppose that part of it is bound up in their theology of Church--the belief in the Roman Catholic Church being the only certified and real expression of Church. It's a little harder to admit you have problems if you think your church's leader is infallible.

To make sure it's clear I have no axes to grind, let me just say that I am not Roman Catholic. I was baptized as a baby into the RC Church, but never confirmed. In fact, I didn't even know I was baptized as an infant until I was 28. I am a Protestant Christian, generally conservative to evangelical in theology and attend and have membership at a United Methodist Church.

That being said, let me wade into the case of Father Shawn Ratigan, the north Kansas City priest in custody with child pornography charges pending. His clerical supervisor, Bishop Robert Finn of KC-St. Joseph Diocese, is guilty of "the cover up"--big time. First, Bishop Finn, when learning that Father Ratigan's laptop was infested with images of under aged girls, some of which were "up skirt" shots, instead of reporting it to the law and letting the prosecutor decide what to do, elected to keep it in house, trying to decided if it was "bad enough" to worry about? (Evidently, it was bad enough to move the priest into a position where he would be less likely to be around children.) In addition, it seems the good bishop never looked at the offending photos himself. Then after the in house investigation, the offending laptop was turned over to Fr. Ratigan's family who "destroyed it." (A good strong magnet would remove all traces of memory from the machine--they would not have had to destroy it mechanically if they didn't want to.) As if that wasn't enough covering up, a letter from the principal of the school affiliated with Fr. Ratigan's church, written in May 2010, related many concerns about the priest's actions around minor girls. Again, the bishop chose not to read this letter himself, nor talk personally with Fr. Ratigan.

So we have the letter from May 2010, the pictures from December 2010, a placement away from the church and school as Fr. Ratigan received counseling--tantamount to me to be an admission by the church that the priest was in trouble--and finally, with Ratigan continuing to seek contact with children--law enforcement intervention was sought by a police officer affiliated with the bishop's office. It took one full year to get this pedophile away from the minor children of the St. Patrick's church parish and into the firm hands of law enforcement. Why? Why did it take so long?

Is it because Fr. Ratigan is "conservative" like the pope and the bishop and was leading in a way that they approved of? (Please note, I have no clue what it means to be a conservative RC or a liberal RC.) Is it because of some distorted idea that clergy are somehow special and not constrained to follow the same laws and morals as laity? Is it fear of the public relations problems that admitting a pedophile cleric is among the priesthood?

None of that should matter. Protecting the people who come to the church looking to be spiritually fed, and in particular, protecting the children from harm has to be the first priority. When the Roman Catholic Church covers up, moving sexually sick priests from one parish to another, or not allowing enforcement of the law to occur in a timely manner, the harm done is far greater than if the crime was taken care of in a timely manner to start. When priestly misconduct is not disciplined by the hierarchy of the church, victims feel worthless and angry, outsiders view the institution as untrustworthy and stupid and those with issues about God have more fuel for their fire.

Absolute 100% transparency and ruthless work to extirpate sexually deviant clergy is the only course of action for any organization that calls itself a Christian church. Anything else is not acceptable, and furthermore, is not like the Savior the church proclaims.

Like I said, I do not understand why the Roman Catholic Church does not get this and incidents like this one keep happening.

Joplin Hit By Tornado Sunday

The problem with tornadoes is that when they hit, they are close to 100% destructive. The bigger, stronger, wider and meaner they are, the more we need the advanced notice to do what we can to protect our lives. However, they do not give the lead time of hurricanes, and they are random in appearance. This "thunderstorm-complex-capable-of-producing-a-tornado" makes no twisters, this one makes a little F1 that stays on the ground for five minutes--and we are bitching because the local media interrupted programming for warnings and watches. Then this storm produces--not nothing or a piddling F1 but an F4 or F5 tornado that is big, strong, wide and stays on the ground for miles--and we are left standing there with our proverbial mouths open.

I have looked at a lot of post tornado photos lately. I decided to put the Ruskin stuff I have in an album on Facebook, and so posted 40 something images there. (Linked here if you'd like to see.) Then a tornado as big or bigger (and from the looks of things, I'd say this monster was wider than the 1957 twister) hits Joplin, and now I am looking at eerily familiar images again.

That day, Sunday, it was well known that conditions were favorable for the formation of strong storms that could be tornadic. I remember looking at radar around 2 pm and noting a line of severe storms that blew up starting in eastern Jackson County and lining up to the northeast. The line was building south and moving SSE. It was this line, extended south, that produced the tornado that hit Joplin, as well as a smaller twister near Higginsville.

For the emergency managers and the people at the National Weather Service, the question is whether and when to put out warnings for a given area. For us, the population at large, the question is what shall we do in response to the warnings if they appear. Most sources are saying that Joplin had a 20 minute notice or so that there was a tornado on the ground in their area. That is not enough time to move very far to shelter, but it is enough time to find shelter in the general area you are in. The general consensus of experts is that tornadoes move too fast and too unpredictably to give a long lead time that would give enough time to evacuate and move out of the way of a storm. The usual counsel is to shelter where you are. Some hospital people are saying they had about five minutes notice. My guess is that they had five minutes between the time they decided this was the real deal and the time the tornado hit.

A balance has to be kept. People need warning so they can take the action they can. Warning without hazard makes people lackadaisical in their preparation and action. No warning, or late warning in the face of hazard creates unprepared people, and perhaps casualties that could have been avoided. Generally, warnings are issued erring on the side of safety. People need to help out what the NWS and emergency managers do by having an awareness of the world around them, both in terms of being in touch with media and in looking out the dadgum window every so often.

Photos--tornado clean up, separated by 54 years--both from the Kansas City Star.

IMF Nasty!

New York City is riddled with people with diplomatic immunity. From parking tickets to murder, foreign nationals under the umbrella of diplomatic immunity cannot be prosecuted. They like to flaunt it too, letting parking tickets accumulate under the wipers of their cars and parking in front of fire plugs. When I lived there, the state of New York issued these tags, but evidently the feds issue them now.

So it surprises this observer that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the head of the IMF, is actually being charged, and held without bail for an accusation of rape and sexual assault. Seems as if this ugly old geezer (allegedly) chase the help around a ritzy NY hotel and (allegedly) had the young lady perform sex acts on him. I am just surprised he was not covered by diplomatic immunity.

Not that I am sorry we are prosecuting him for a felony charge. Oh, no, no. Have at it, Mr. D.A. Incidently, kudos to the judge for recognizing him as a flight risk!

Saturday Night Ramblings

So how is everyone this chilly Saturday night? It is cold out there! These temperatures would have been OK to be out in if there was a bit of sun, or the wind was less.

We have all these big events out there--fall out from Osama bin Laden's death, continued unrest in the Middle East. In Egypt even the cops are afraid to confront the criminals that have been out being bad. Greece is still going broke and Spain might not be far behind.

Here in the U.S., we have a mixed economic picture that is very uncertain. A few aspects of the economy are even picking up. However, inflation is very real, the debt ceiling debate is getting wound up, housing prices are still falling, and the job situation is one step forward and one step back. Meantime the crayzee weather will impact the economy, from pressures on prices for building material to losses of soybean, corn and cotton crops in Mississippi River valley flooding.

Locally, three lives were lost when an inexperienced driver lost control of an SUV he was driving when it had a tire blow out. During the ensuring rollover, unbelted passengers were ejected from the vehicle. Two were dead on scene and one at the hospital. Please, people, with few and rare exceptions, you are much better off belted and staying in the vehicle during a crash. Just sayin' There were a lot of crashes today, despite it being dry out. There was at least one other fatality.

Rockfest did not turn into mudfest this year, but the endless parade of people requiring emergency medical service was and is truly amazing. There were ambulances coming and going from Penn Valley Park all afternoon and probably through the evening. Luckily this did not start in earnest until after the 4-ambulance-requiring crash in the northland was taken care of, otherwise the snap of a system overstretched might have been heard.

So have a safe Sunday everyone--drive carefully tonight. I just assume everyone is intoxicated starting at about 6 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and after 10 p.m. on other days. It's better than the alternative--everyone is stupid. Substances wear off, but stupid is forever.

OBL's Death and the Media

You know, with 24 hour media we can now beat something just about to death, as we have the OBL situation. Now, since there isn't a way to put a cork in every possible source, the way to secrecy is to obfuscate. Just keep dumping information over and over, with slight differences and confuse everyone. Then all get tired of the situation and say OK enough let's move on.

So I say to the Obama administration: Please shut up now. Too many explanations are raising too many questions. Too many explanations are exposing things to the world that we should have kept to ourselves--what we found, the tactics used, the stealth helicopter, etc. Just tonight the New York Times talked about how bin Laden had hands in terror plots over the years. My reaction was just stop, stop feeding the media.

One thing should be done: The photos and videos of bin Laden's death should be released. That is why we risked the lives of the SEAL team, to be able to prove without a shadow of a doubt that we did indeed kill Osama bin Laden. I understand the objection that radical Muslims will use it to gin themselves up, but they already can do that with just the fact of OBL's death at our hands. I also understand that it will not put the skeptics to rest, but nothing would. We might as well reassure the sane among us that we did this thing to completion.

Underrated Relief: The Electric Company

Power worker in Alabama works to restore electric service after last week's twister. (Birmingham News)

Before we leave the subject of tornadoes for the moment, I want to take this occasion to do a quick shout out to the electric utility companies. In 2002, Kansas City experienced a terrible ice storm, with at least one to two inches of ice accumulation. Needless to say, the electric service went out, due to ice on the lines and trees falling on lines. We were out for three days. On the morning of the third day, on our street was a forest green cherry picker truck. Now, every utility that serves this area has white trucks. When I and my neighbors went over to investigate, we found the crew to be from Houston, TX. After three February days without electricity needless to say we were happy to see them. They got to work and had most of us restored by evening. The one thing I remember was that they were happy to do it--to take the time to come up and do the work. Yes, they were getting paid, but they were away from family and hometown and the weather was still not the best--in spite of those things, they volunteered for the duty.

It happened again for Katrina recovery--I remember the convoy of KCP&L trucks that went down there as soon as it was considered safe to do so--just a day or two after the storm. Just a few weeks ago KCP&L went over to St. Louis area to help with their damage. Here's the company's press release about the ways they have and are planning to help in storm damaged regions. I think this is a really cool thing, the way these companies help each other, and by extension, us too. A big salute to all--be safe out there while you work!