After two really NICE mornings (and not-so-bad days) we're going back into the 90s again here in the Heartland...with higher humidity and a chance of some showers ('ya get better odds at the casinos).
And welcome to POST NUMBER 1600...!!!

(where's the trumpets and the damn pigeons, anyway???)
Yeah, been a while coming, but there we are...who'da thunk it, eh?
Some days, I can hardly believe it, but given the way the world turns, there is never a loss for things to bloviate about, that's for sure.
So, while were awaiting the arrival of said showers, let's see what else has been going on ...
*** We're finding out a LOT more about the man who shot up the Aurora, CO movie house this past Friday, right after midnight.
Apparently he had a penchant for online purchases...of AMMO...about 6000 rounds or thereabouts.
Makes you wonder WHY he would buy THAT much if he was only planning the theater shootings.
And you also have to wonder WHY he didn't make a break for it afterwards...he just basically waited for the police to take him into custody.
The sad part (and the liberals will hate me even more over this one) is that he managed to "lawyer up" as fast as he did.
If it were up to me, he'd STILL be waiting to get a lawyer.
The way I see it (and I know it's SO damn Draconian of me) he FORFEITED any rights HE had when he took the lives (and rights) of the 12 he killed, as well as the fifty or so he wounded (some still in serious or critical condition), so, in the interest of being FAIR to everyone involved, the ONLY right left to the shooter would be "the right to sit there and take a beating until we get all the information we're seeking"...period.

I know that goes against a lot of what I believe, but under such conditions, such as an aberration like this, following every single rule and regulation while trying to pursue justice doesn't cut it.
In my eyes, there is no amount of true Justice that will ever manage to bring back those killed and fully heal those wounded, including the families and friends of the victims.
What I have seen over the decades is nothing less than a "kinder, gentler" penal system...a molly-coddling if you will of those guilty of such heinous crimes. "The right to a speedy trial" I believe is the phrase, and yet, time after time, we see society's monsters sit year after year on death row, awaiting the NEXT appeal, or retrial for some lame-ass excuse that tosses out cases hand-over-fist.
I've seen a growing lenience with the judges, and a perversion of our laws by defense attorneys, and it makes me sick.
And even if we do manage to get them sentenced to death and the sentencing is carried out, it's more like a damn euthanasia, instead of a manner of death befitting the atrocities these pieces of crap are guilty of.
Cripes, you euthanize the family PET when it gets old or too inform to continue with it's life. Fido of Fluffy goes to the vet and never returns home, thanks to a needle that "puts them to sleep"...been there, had that happen more than once.
And it breaks your heart to HAVE to do that, but the beloved pet is suffering and "can't be fixed"
To take THAT sad venue and then carry it over onto the realm of "penal and societal justice" just doesn't seem right to me.
Hang the perps..gas them,. electrocute them...execute by firing squad...ANYTHING is better (and more deserving) than a peaceful nodding out into the afterlife through a chemical cocktail introduced into the body.
When it comes to death penalties (and incarcerations in general) our country is one of the more relaxed cultures, and yet, we also have some of the highest per capita crime rates.
Try getting away with the kind of sh*t that goes on here in say, TAIWAN...or SINGAPORE...
And here's a WIKI to back this up:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate
Switzerland has one of the LOWEST gun-crime rates in the world, and yet...damn near everyone is "encouraged" to own a firearm.
Here's a link (with video) that explains this curiosity:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/why-switzerland-has-the-lowest-crime-rate-in-the-world.html
Wonder why the SWISS don't have the problems we do in America?
Could it be that they're NOT and "entitlement" nation?
Perhaps it's because no one there is a HYPHENATED Swiss?
Maybe they don't have GHETTOS or allow behavior that drives parts of THEIR cities into such disrepair and squalor?
Could it be a lack of MINORITY people?
I think it may be a mix of all of the above, and that works for them.

What is SUPPOSED to work HERE in America, USED to...and then something went wrong.
Our country stopped allowing people to succeed or fail by THEIR OWN HAND, supplanting it with a "We're here to help" mindset, that was supposed to assist people in helping themselves...and yet, over the decades, that has failed marvelously.
But our government doesn't see it that way...they would want to do EVEN MORE...for the same reasons.
Isn't that like tossing good money after bad?
I would contend that when you manage to truly LOWER crime rates, the incarceration rate and (obviously) the rate of those out to death by the penal system WILL fall proportionally.
But whenever you become so permissive a society, and forego the morals and values that help found this nation, the results will be typical...and predictable (as we see every day on the news).
Now, I said all THAT...to say THIS...
*** There will always be a very small group of people...individuals actually, who will, for some reason or another, manage to fly well under the radar when it comes to being able to spot behaviors that are as far out of the ordinary as the Aurora shooter.

Some will in fact border on genius, because there is always that fine line between genius and madness.
It's rarer still that there will never be some indicator of such behavior somewhere.
You would think that as a nation with one of the BEST health care systems and research abilities on the planet, it would be hard for us to never spot such a person.
And yet, we do.
It's difficult for me to believe that a person can just go off the deep end, with no provocation or underlying factors in place beforehand whatsoever.
Every person has a button, that when pushed would turn any one of us into someone we would never want to become, or even care to know.
Inside all of us resides that "other" side...and yet, we're not ALL Ted Bundy...or Jack the Ripper, right?
We are ALL killers...that's just the way we're made, BUT, we have a safety valve in place...that keeps us all from doing the unthinkable.
We have a set of mores..principles to live by, religious values we embrace...call them what you will, but they DO WORK (and quite well).
Most all of us arise each day, and say "today I will not kill"...and we believe that as we go through our lives.
What we, as a society need to do is recapture those things that keep us from giving into our own selfish desires.
And we need to instill such things in our children as soon as possible, if we are to avoid such calamities as we've been witness to over the last 72 hours. Our nation's future depends on such things.
I think we ALL have the capacity for such good inside of us, rather than the evil that would love to raise it's ugly head.
I don't believe that's a false presumption, either, but a sincere knowledge that we ALL can do better than we have been doing.
I'll get off the old soapbox now...the rest is up to us all.

Have a great week.
Be well, make a difference to someone, and...
Stay SAFE out there, America.