Okay, make that three stories in a week

Olympian Pistorius In Custody After Woman Killed

Oscar Pistorius is an athlete who is a double-amputee whose legs were amputated below the knee before his first birthday due to a congenital condition. He campaigned to be able to run in the regular Olympics, and competed in the last Summer Games. I had followed a little of his story out of curiosity, and he's also visited at least one of our hospitals, I think, as an inspiration and role-model for children in similar situations.

Many South African media outlets had reported that the dead woman was Pistorius' girlfriend Steenkamp and that he may have mistaken her for a burglar and shot her.

It was reported that the she may have been trying to surprise Pistorius for Valentine's Day and he thought she was an intruder breaking into his home. The shooting prompted discussions on talk radio shows about the country's gun control laws.

How awful.

UPDATE: Pistorius has now been charged with murder. Police have been called to the house before for incidents of a 'domestic nature' and neighbours heard shouting at the time of the shooting. It remains to be seen what really happened.

Food for thought

A mother's anger: Stop linking autism to violence

I've just listened to NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre suggest we need guns in our schools because "our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters."

I cringed.

After his further suggestion that the United States create a nationwide database for the mentally ill, I got angry. Leaving aside the issue of medical privacy laws, I found it ironic that an organization so vehemently opposed to gun registration would propose such a measure.

So horrible

27 Killed in Connecticut Shooting, Including 20 Children

The gunman, who was believed to be in his 20s, walked into a classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where his mother was a teacher. He shot and killed her and then shot 20 students, most in the same classroom. He also shot five other adults, and then killed himself inside the school.

Another body related to the shooting was at another scene, the authorities said, declining to provide more specifics.

A law enforcement official identified the shooter as Adam Lanza and said that a brother, Ryan Lanza, had been questioned.

My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.

Dear God

I'm just really getting started with my day, even though it's late, because I was so tired from the stuff yesterday and the attempts at walking with some weight-bearing. So I went to check the news and found this.

26 reported killed in Newtown, Conn., school shooting

A lone gunman killed 26 people at an elementary school here, including 18 children, in a terrifying early Friday morning shooting spree.

The Associated Press and local media reported the shooter, an unidentified 20-year-old adult male, was also dead inside Sandy Hook Elementary School. A second person was in custody and undergoing questioning. Two handguns were recovered at the scene. Mayor Mark Boughton said several victims had been taken to local hospitals.

Groups of students — some crying, some holding hands — were escorted from the school by teachers. Some witnesses reported of up to 100 shots. There were unconfirmed reports that the assailant, dressed in military style assault gear, shot most of the victims in a kindergarten classroom.

Another story I saw said the gunman was thought to be the father of one of the students, who had driven up to Connecticut from New Jersey. [Update: This was later proved to be false.]

I have not read the news for two days

One thing I am glad to hear about is the physical improvement and increasing support within Pakistan of Malala Yousufzai, the fourteen-year-old peace activist and advocate for girls'education who was shot, along with two classmates, by the Taliban. I meant to write about it here, and then well, you know the rest. I don't do cutting and pasting well on the tablet, so I won't link to a particular story, but I did manage to get her name right should you want to search.

I can't imagine living in such a repressive environment as that advocated by theTaliban, nor can I understand why anyone would try to kill a child for daring to suggest that all children should be allowed to go to school no matter their gender. School was such an important place for me as a child. I can't imagine not having that. My best wishes are for their recovery, and for peace and access to education for boys and girls alike in her country.

So it does, indeed, look like a hate crime

Sikh temple shooting suspect Wade Michael Page was white supremacist

I didn't want to jump to that conclusion, but of course it was my first thought when I heard that a Sikh temple had been targeting for a mass shooting, innocent people going about their activities in preparation for worship and a meal, attacked for being different. Whether the shooter did this because he hated those he perceived as 'other' or if he mistakenly, like many, believed Sikhism to be some off-shoot of Islam (which it isn't at all), I don't know. As he is dead, we may never really know. On the other hand, he will not harm anyone else again. Sadly, though, there are plenty of people like him out there. Fortunately the greater number of people are tolerant and supportive or diversity.

Thinking of those killed or injured, their families and friends, and the Sikh community itself, in this time of sorrow.

UPDATE: On the subject of hate crimes, I saw this while looking at other news:

‘Suspicious’ fire leads to destruction of Joplin mosque

About a month after the Joplin Islamic Society’s roof was damaged in a suspected arson, the entire building burned down in a suspicious early morning fire on Monday, leaving little but charred remains.

People sometimes stay there during Ramadan, which is going on right now. To lose a house of worship during a holy month must be even more bitter, but at least no one was hurt.

I feel so sorry for this man, and for the others who lost loved ones in this horrible act

Afghan Father Tries to Cope With Shooting Rampage

Wazir — who [in addition to his 7 year-old-daughter] also lost his wife, five other children ages 2 to 15, his mother, his brother, his sister-in-law and his nephew — said he would travel to the U.S. for the trial if given the opportunity but the death penalty for just one man would not be enough. The only child he has left is his 4-year-old son Habib, who was with him in another town when the shootings occurred.

And the most heart-breaking quote:

Then he brought up his 2-year-old daughter, Palwasha, and his eyes brimmed over with tears.

"I can still feel her small hands on my face and feel her pulling my beard," Wazir said as he cried and shivered in the warm air. "Even when I saw her burned body, she still had that beautiful smile."

I don't understand how anyone who is also a parent could possibly shoot children to death in such a rampage. But that is what Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales supposedly did, in all premeditation. And I feel sorry for his wife and children, for whom he has been a hero, but now he will be known as a murderer.

I hope justice prevails in this case. There may be mitigating factors in this case--post-traumatic stress from multiple tours of duty, among other things. But it is still a despicable act, and at the very least our country needs to make sure it takes responsibility for its part in sending him there and arming him, and to also give him a fair trial and hopefully people like Wazir some sense of justice, which, I'm afraid, will never restore what was taken away from them on that terrible night.

A despicable act

Gunman Kills 4 at a Jewish School in France

The same gunman is suspected of killing several French soldiers, all of whom were black or Arabic. Killed were a rabbi who taught at the school, his two sons, and the daughter of the principal. A teen was injured. It happened while kids were being dropped off at the school by their parents. I cannot imagine the horror they felt as this played out, and I feel for those who lost loved ones, especially the rabbi's wife, who has lost three at once. I hope they can catch this person before there are more deaths.

I understand the need for public safety

but I am incredibly saddened by the deaths of so many rare and exotic animals in Zanesville, Ohio. I do not believe that this man should have had access to these animals in the first place, and should not have been allowed to keep them. I hope that Ohio joins most other states in regulating this, and I suspect my own state of Kentucky needs to as well.

I agree wholeheartedly with Delcianna Winders, Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement at PETA, who told HuffPost:

This is a tragic example of how things can go very wrong when people are allowed to keep exotic animals. Animals always pay the price and [this situation] is a perfect example of this.

Zanesville, Ohio Town Copes With Dozens Of Exotic Animals Set Loose, Killed

I am particular saddened by one photo of dead tigers, lions, and other creatures, which is on the following web page:

Ohio sheriff: Only one monkey remains missing

And then there is this video:


I hate it when animals suffer because of human actions. There is some hope, though. Six animals were saved--a young grizzly bear, three leopards, and two monkeys.

Six exotic animals saved from carnage settling in at Ohio zoo

A special web page has been set up by the Columbus Zoo for contributions to defray the cost of keeping the animals.

Let me just say, by the way

that I'd like to offer my deepest condolences to the victims and families of the horrible mass murder in Norway.

Norway survivor: 'I heard people begging for their lives': Norwegian arrested in killings of 92 people; 85 of which were slain on island, police say


Norway suspect Anders Behring Breivik 'admits attacks'

Disturbing

Taxi Driver Found Shot To Death In Cab

A woman made a gruesome discovery Sunday morning in Lexington when she found a taxi driver shot to death in his cab. Several people who live on Hedgewood Court say they feared the worst when they heard gunshots just before one o'clock Sunday morning. They later noticed a cab just sitting in the back of a parking lot.

It's in the Woodhill-Codell area, about halfway between where I live and where I work. I take the bus through there when the combo Woodhill-Richmond Road route runs late at night. It's gotten rougher over the last few years.

For all I know, I may have had this driver before on one of my cab rides home. He was from Morocco, and I've ridden with several cab drivers from Arabic countries. He leaves behind a wife and four-year-old daughter. I feel so sorry for them.

I do not think I could ever drive a cab for a living. You literally never know who you have riding behind you, what kind of weapon they may have, etc. It makes me nervous, as a woman riding by herself, to take cabs home at times, but at least they are required to display ID, etc. No one knows who a fare really is. The cab company has whatever name the person gives and a phone number, which could be public. Also, it may not have been a fare robbing him, but rather some sort of drive by shooting, etc.--someone heard a car speed off at the time of the gunshots. Unfortunately, he wasn't found until this morning, although people heard gunshots around 1 am, which makes me wonder if anyone even dialed 911 that night. It might have saved his life.

Years ago I lived in the Richmond Road-Lakeshore Drive area, and I heard gunshots come from that direction. We could hear them all across New Circle Road. I got away from the windows and called, as did several others in my apartment complex. They were tracing the gunshots by the location of the callers. I can't imagine not calling 911. The woman who found him thought what she heard was fireworks, and only recalled them after she found the body. But others knew the sound of gunshots. Why didn't they call?

It's sad. I'm not sure how many murders Lexington is up to this year. It's actually a fairly safe city, but such shootings are troubling.

Even in death, she gave hope

9-year-old shooting victim's organs help save child

A child, apparently in Boston, received an organ donation from Christina Taylor Green, the young victim of last week's shooting in Tucson.

The Most Rev. Gerald Kicanas, bishop of Tucson, spoke about the donations at Green's funeral on Thursday, but he did not specify where the recipient lived, according to the Arizona newspaper.

"She wanted to make a difference in her life. She wanted to make her mark, and she did so in so powerful a way that even she cannot imagine," Kicanas said, the Republic reported.

Please consider becoming an organ donor--it can be a lasting and wonderful gift of life for someone suffering.

Twitter was alight with reports

like this one, the news I missed today while I was working on other things...

Congresswoman wounded, six killed in shooting

There's a lot of stuff going around that may or may not be true. If YouTube videos purportedly made by the gunman are genuine, it sounds like he's a whackjob. But you never know. My thoughts and prayers are with the Congresswoman, who was severely wounded in the head, and with the families of those killed in wounded. One killed was a federal judge who apparently was shopping and stopped by to chat; another was a 9-year-old girl.

Sad.

Really? Because she didn't cook his eggs right?

News from Jackson, Kentucky of a man who killed not only his wife but four others, and then himself, over a spat that started with breakfast.


Victims' kin: Spat began fatal Ky. rampage: Sheriff says gunman killed five before killing himself on porch

I really wonder about people sometimes. You never known when the person next to you is about ready to snap. There has to be more to this story. I guess the breakfast was the trigger, but there had to be some emotional seething going on for some time, surely. My thoughts are with the families of the dead.

I was three years old and don't really remember the Kent State shootings

But I studied it when I was older, and it is a day from that era that is still very important to me...I even considered going to school there.

1970 Kent State shootings become enduring history lesson

Forty springs ago, on the day the Vietnam War came home as it never had before, Mary Ann Vecchio was there. She's the girl in the haunting photo — crying, kneeling over the student's body.

That was Kent State University, May 4, 1970, a few days after Richard Nixon, who'd campaigned for president on an implicit promise to end the war, widened it by invading Cambodia.

Across the nation, students protested. At Kent State, where two days earlier the ROTC building was burned down, National Guardsmen fired into a crowd and killed four unarmed students, the closest of whom was nearly a football field away....

In 12.53 seconds, 28 Guardsmen got off 61 to 67 shots. (Some fired into the ground or the air; 48 Guardsmen did not shoot at all, according to the FBI.)

Vecchio found Jeff Miller, whom she'd gotten to know over the past few days, bleeding to death. There was nothing she could do. She screamed, "Oh my God!"

Also killed: protester Allison Krause; Bill Schroeder, an ROTC student who'd been watching the protest and was shot in the back; and Sandy Scheuer, who was walking to class.

Nine students were wounded. One, Dean Kahler, was shot in the back as he lay on the ground. The bullet left him paralyzed for life. Another, Alan Canfora, ducked behind an oak tree as a bullet passed through his right wrist.

Canfora says today that after the Cambodia invasion, "We wanted to bring the war home. But we never expected that."

In school I read James Michener's Kent State: What Happened and Why. I recommend it, if you can find a copy. On Amazon used copies are almost $70 for a hardcover, $15 for paperback (and I'm not entirely sure where mine is).

For more on the events of May 4, 1970, check out the Wikipedia article on the Kent State shootings. The shootings are commemorated on May 4th at the university. Check out the Kent State website for more information.

Those drills matter (and courage does, too)

Teacher describes how he stopped shooting

During emergency drills at Deer Creek Middle School, teacher David Benke used to tell his students that if anything ever happened, he wanted to be able to 'do something about it.'

When he saw a man shooting at students as they were leaving the Littleton, Colorado, school on Tuesday, 'What was going through my mind,' Benke said, 'was that I promised.'

Benke tackled the gunman, who had shot and wounded two students, and with the help of another teacher and some bus drivers, was able to hold him until police arrived.

'I noticed that he was working a bolt-action rifle,' he said. 'I noticed that and realized that I had time to get him before he could chamber another round.'

The gunman did manage to hit two students, but neither died and they are expected to recover from their injuries. It was a scary situation that could have been far worse. The last bell had rung and students were streaming out of their classes to the buses.

But thankfully the gunman, who may be schizophrenic or otherwise mentally ill, as his father says he hears voices, did not have an automatic weapon. The teacher tackled him and then others helped hold him down and got the gun away from him. The school is a couple of miles from Colombine High, also in Littleton, and this had been something their system had prepared for ever since that tragedy. Here's to drills, and training, and brave teachers and staff. When the assistant principal, Becky Brown, who'd helped by getting the gun away, was interviewed about why she went towards the gunshots rather than away, said: 'Those kids are my kids, and it's important, and my teachers, we're like family.' That pretty much sums it up. These are caretakers of our children, and they have the right stuff.

It always seems more real when you put names to faces and to stories

Fort Hood victims: Sons, a daughter, mother-to-be

Several people were apparently getting or helping with physicals and vaccinations for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. One woman was three-months pregnant and had been transferred to Ft Hood just last week because of it. They each represent ordinary Americans who felt a duty to serve their country. Some made a career out of it, some had and remained in the Reserve; others were trying to get money for school. Each had a dream; several had children. Each potential future was shattered by a gunman, one of their own, and that is the most devastating rub of all. Soldiers are prepared to give their lives when fighting an enemy. They know they may even be part of 'collateral damage' in friendly fire. But when an officer and army physician/psychiatrist turns his guns on his comrades, that's another thing entirely.

Having grown up in the military, I understand the shock this must leave. My thoughts are with the dead, with the wounded, their families and friends, and for a community that has undergone a terrible blow.

How awful

Israelis rally after 2 murdered at gay center: Masked shooter opened fire in Tel Aviv, killing 2 and injuring 11

The centre was set up as a safe place for gay and lesbian youth--many still struggling with whether to come out to parents, families, and friends--could meet and receive counseling. An unknown gunman entered the centre on Saturday night and began firing, then escaped, leaving the normally vibrant Tel Aviv gay community concerned for further attacks. A counselor and a 17-year-old girl died; several others were wounded, some critically. Some parents of the wounded did not know the sexual orientation of their children until called to attend them in hospital.

What a horrible, hateful thing for someone to do. I hope they find the culprit soon, before there is other violence. I'm thinking it might be someone religiously ultra-conservative, but I may be wrong. It could just be a bigoted wingnut. But one thing's for sure--that person has to be stopped.

Conspiracy-riddled right-wing anti-Semitic lunatics and guns--a horrible combination

Guard dies after Holocaust museum shooting: Authorities say they're investigating a white supremacist as the suspect

A couple of thousand people were inside the building at the time. The guard who was killed gave his life defending them, and he is a hero. People tend to give security officers short shrift, but any place can be a target, and their actions are important. It's sad that a crackpot like this would be so driven by intolerance that he would shoot indiscriminately in a place that teaches tolerance and commemorates those who died from the systematic slaughter of a people in an effort to prevent such horrors again.

Here's a video where they discuss the role the assailant has played in Holocaust denial, white supremecy, etc. and whether the fringe, less empowered in the era of Obama, is more likely to pursue violence in hate crimes. There have been three high-profile shootings recently--a Muslim gunman who killed a soldier outside a recruiting office, the killing of an abortion provider in a church, and now this.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

For the Administration's reaction, see the White House Blog's On the Holocaust Museum Shooting, which is actually where I first heard the story.

Because robbers usually knock politely on the door at Halloween

Police: Man feared trick-or-treater was robber: Boy, 12, shot dead in S.C. after approaching home; father, brother wounded

SUMTER, S.C. - An ex-convict who thought he was being robbed gunned down a 12-year-old trick-or-treater, spraying nearly 30 rounds with an assault rifle from inside his home after hearing a knock on the door, police said Saturday.

Gods, can't people with AK-47s at least invest in peepholes? Or does this just go under a case of a paranoid ex-convict (for drug charges) shooting first and damn the consequences? I mean, okay, it's within the realm of possibility that someone might try a home invasion during trick-or-treat hours, but what is it with people shooting first before even looking at the person they're shooting at? We've had one of those cases in Lexington recently and the person was acquitted. They're dangerous, loose cannons, as far as I'm concerned, if they shoot a gun without even looking at the person at whom they're shooting. There's no sign that he was on drugs or alcohol at the time of the shooting, although a woman in the residence ran away with thousands of dollars and has been charged with obstruction of justice, so that may explain the paranoia of robbery, but you also have to wonder why anyone would keep that sort of cash in the house.

Seriously, though, my thoughts and prayers are with T.J. Darrisaw's family. It's a horrible tragedy, and I hope the shooter is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.