One of the challenges to being separated is setting up two households where there was previously one.  Such is my life.

We did marginally good with what we had, and so far only a minimal amount of purchases and such to complete the picture.

As a lot of my free time is cleaning out stuff, moving stuff, dividing stuff and occasionally selling stuff, my blogging will continue to limited for a week or so.

But that won’t stop me from a few posts, including this round up of interesting links I found. 

First up, a pair of miracles.  The first brings echoes of Harry Potter:

 Baby survives Baghdad bomb in slain mother’s lap

A baby miraculously survived a Baghdad car bombing cradled in his mother’s lap as she was burned alive in a blast that claimed the lives of eight people on Tuesday, witnesses said.

Harry, of course was attacked by he who must not be named.  I have no such problem naming the bastards who nearly killed this child, and did slay its mother.

In a battle against nature as opposed to man, our second miracle:

The media hopped all over this tape, but it honestly shows little and supports the police account more then not. 

Surveillance Video: Gotbaum’s Last Moments At Phoenix Airport-  Attorney: Police Actions May Have Killed 45-Year-Old

CBS 2 HD has obtained surveillance video showing three different angles of last week’s arrest of Carol Anne Gotbaum at Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix.

The video shows the daughter-in-law of New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum reacting after learning she had missed her flight. It also shows Phoenix police officers move in on her, take her to the ground and arrest her.

Different angles show officers taking Gotbaum to a holding cell, where she later died mysteriously.

On the morning of Sept. 29, Gotbaum left her Upper West Side home, brought her children to school and flew off to Arizona. Plagued by a history of drinking and depression, she headed for an alcohol rehabilitation program in Tucson.

“I know when she landed in Phoenix, she was stone-cold sober,” said Gotbaum family attorney Michael Manning. “She got off the plane, called her husband, confident, committed, excited.”

You decide.

Mexico Dynamite Truck Explosion Kills 34

A dynamite-laden truck exploded after colliding with another vehicle on a busy highway in northern Mexico’s coal country, killing at least 34 people, including three reporters at the scene, state and federal officials said.

Authorities said the two vehicles crashed into each other Sunday evening, drawing a crowd of curious onlookers as well as a small army of police, soldiers, emergency officials and journalists.

Shortly after the crowd arrived, the wreckage caught fire, and the dynamite exploded, sending a ball of fire into the sky that consumed nearby cars and left a 10-by-40 foot crater in the concrete, said Maximo Alberto Neri Lopez, a federal police official.

The explosion raised further questions about the safety of Mexican trucks.

This weekend, Mexico began sending its first tractor-trailers across U.S. territory under a long-delayed, NAFTA-mandated program. Before, Mexican trucks were limited to 25-mile zone along the border.

Many in the U.S. fought the change, arguing that Mexican trucks are unsafe.

In the interest of full disclosure, bear this in mind.

No one can blame school administrators from being somewhat…err…well to pardon the expression, gun shy in the wake of the VT shooting. 

One of the dangers I blogged about earlier was the constant stream of experts all pointing to this or that as a warning sign of potential behavior so as to answer our burning need to know “why”, and who is to blame:

As soon as the news of the massacre had really sunk in, I waited for what I knew would inevitably happen.

The Blaming.

So far, we have the Devil, violent video games, Guns, hedonism, Guns, Al Qeada, Guns and occasionally Guns.

To me the whole concept of “why” is an exercise in futility.  As much as anyone could explain this, only the killer can come close, assuming he actually knew what drove him, and he took that with him to whatever awaited him in the afterlife.  All we get are speculations, theories, allegations, accusations and the like.

My conclusion?

As soon as the news of the massacre had really sunk in, I waited for what I knew would inevitably happen.

The Blaming.

So far, we have the Devil, violent video games, Guns, hedonism, Guns, Al Qeada, Guns and occasionally Guns.

To me the whole concept of “why” is an exercise in futility.  As much as anyone could explain this, only the killer can come close, assuming he actually knew what drove him, and he took that with him to whatever awaited him in the afterlife.  All we get are speculations, theories, allegations, accusations and the like.

Even after hearing about and seeing his sick manifesto of dementia, there are no real answers.  He rambled on in such a bizarre fashion that the only reasonable conclusion is that he is crazy, a conclusion that was pretty much evident by him shooting up a college campus and killing 32 people.

And so the airwaves are crowded with competitive experts all presenting “the reason”, as well as a bevy of friends, and acquaintances who cannot make up their minds whether he was a quiet guy, a creepy guy, a bizarre guy or a quiet creepy bizarre guy.

Just breaking now, former President Gerald Ford has died at 93.

Former President Gerald Ford dies at 93

Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House as the 38th president and the only one never elected to nationwide office, has died. He was 93.

"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," former first lady Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.

Ford was a very special president in many ways.  Entering the vice presidency as a replacement to Spiro Agnew, and then ascending to the presidency when President Nixon resigned, he is the only sitting president who was never elected.

He also stood in a strange dichotomy:  Being the last link to the Nixon era, by proxy anyway, he was both the symbol of the failures of corruption and a kind of healing to move forward.

via Drudge:

Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case  

Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party,

But… 

but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges, a defense attorney said.

This whole case has never made sense.  Consider this:

Joseph Cheshire and attorneys for the other players have said for months the woman told several different versions of the alleged assault.

Cheshire said Friday that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated, which he said led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges.

Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The players _ Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann _ all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and have cited a lack of DNA evidence in the case as proof of their clients’ innocence.

Open Trackback Friday

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Here are a few things that caught my eye:

The Washington State Supreme Court tells a family that they had no right to be warned a sex predator was moving into their community- the same one who later killed their daughter.

A Virgina couple was arrested in Baltimore for asking directions

English is now our National Language-not quite the same as official, but it’s close- Until the lawsuits of course.  And Harry Reid says that makes us racists. 

Question to readers-  Can a National Identity be racists?  Discuss.

And the FBI is still trying to find Jimmy Hoffa’s body.

Finally, a Friday funny

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I am trying hard not to laugh, because on the surface this just seemed like it had to be a joke. 

Patrick Kennedy-make that Rep Patrick Kennedy, the son of Sen Ted "can’t swim" Kennedy was involved in a car crash and is reputed to have gotten preferential treatment by the Capital Police.  And he may have been drunk.

Police: Kennedy Appeared Intoxicated At Car Crash

Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car near the Capitol early Thursday, and a police official said he appeared intoxicated. Kennedy said he had had no alcohol before the accident.

Of course. 

Kennedy was reportedly behind the wheel of a green Ford Mustang when it crashed into a security barrier at 1st and "C" streets Southeast.

Observation:  He drives a cooler car then his dad did. (1967 Oldsmobile Delmont 88)

No one was hurt, but there are reports that the car nearly struck a Capitol police cruiser and that it had been swerving, as if trying to make a U-turn.

Dad claimed he made a wrong turn too…Like Father Like Son.

So far, Kennedy HAS NOT been charged.

The call has been issued for Diane Sawyers resignation over a Primetime special that aired last Friday.  This is a case that illustrates the cold hearted callous disregard for people that the news sometimes exhibits in order to get a "good story."  And their actions have ensured a child abuser gets to go unpunished.

During the filming of a story on dysfunctional step families, ABC cameras caught a beating of a teenage girl by her father on video tape…and did nothing about it….for 4 years

Calls for Sawyer to Resign After Teen Beating Report

The shocking beating of a teenage girl by her father that aired during a Diane Sawyer report about dysfunctional stepfamilies has set off a firestorm.

State police officials in upstate Lake Placid say they are going over the tape of last Friday’s "Primetime" news magazine to determine if charges can be brought against the natural father, a Iraq War military reservist, and the teen’s stepmother.

The investigation — which includes the local Franklin County DAs office, police said — was only part of the fallout from the broadcast.