In the Boston marathon bombings, 2 people killed 3 people using bombs in a crowded space.  Yes, many more people were injured, but only 3 actually died.

In addition, 1 security guard was shot and killed, and 1 cop was killed via friendly fire in the reckless shootout that took place in watertown, and 1 bomber was killed by a car.

But it's not guns that are dangerous...

Dylann Storm Roof, a 21-year-old who posed on his Facebook page (see one of the images above) with flag patches from Apartheid-era South Africa and the racist Rhodesian regime that governed what is now Zimbabwe.

And then there's this from NBC News:

   Sylvia Johnson, a cousin of church shooting victim Pastor Clementa Pinckney says she spoke with one of the survivors "and she said that he had reloaded five different times... and he just said `I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go.'"

Roof's uncle told police he was given a gun for his most recent birthday.

This complex, life-affirming, and surprising film stars Robin Williams in his remarkable final performance. BOULEVARD follows a married but closeted 60 year-old bank employee (Williams) whose life changes in unexpected ways after recklessly picking up a young male hustler. Kathy Baker, Bob Odenkirk and up-and-comer Roberto Aguire costar.

As a baseball fan I can think of many cases in the game where "the yips" either destroyed or altered a career: Chuck Knoblauch, Steve Saks, Mackey Sasser, Rick Ankiel. My most painful to watch was Mark Wohlers.

This of course brings me to the current case that may be the biggest fall from the sports precipice of all-time. Tiger Woods has gone from possibly the greatest professional golfer in the history of the game to possibly being the worst. In his last tournament Tiger made the cut and then proceeded to finish last by 29 shots.

Skip forward to this weekend's Tournament, the US Open where a tournament win would draw Tiger within 3 of the all time record of Major Championship victories held by Jack Nicklaus. A feat that not long ago was considered Tiger's destiny.

After the 1st round yesterday, Tiger found himself settled comfortably tied for 152nd place in a field of 156, 15 shots behind the leader after playing only 18 holes.

Jeb Bush touted his intervention in the Terri Schiavo case and support for abortion restrictions Friday in an address to a gathering of conservatives that views the Bush family name warily.

Speaking before the Faith & Freedom Coalition's conference, Bush said he would forgo a political speech in lieu of talking about his faith. But he made repeated reference to his record as governor of Florida, saying that when he was elected he insisted his administration would "build a culture of life from beginning to end."

And he defended his role in the Schiavo case, including his support for a law that ordered doctors to reinsert a feeding tube into a comatose woman six days after it had been removed under a court order. The law was later struck down as unconstitutional.

"When I was asked to intervene on behalf of a woman who could not speak up for herself, I stood on her side," Bush said. "I stood on the side of Terry Schiavo and her parents."

He warned that religious freedom is "under attack in ways that we've never seen before, " from the Obama administration and the "general culture."

He brings the same standard for proving the Muslim world objects to the violent and radical acts of others of the Muslim faith as he does to proving that climate change does not have a human component.

In other words, his standards will always allow him to keep holding on to whatever he believes; there will never be enough Muslims living lives that are as normal as anyone's, never be enough scientists and studies and research and evidence that will convince him of man's role in climate change.

He looks strangely cheerful.

Meanwhile, Roof's friend Christon Scriven, who is black, told the New York Daily News that his friend had told them his plans to for a mass killing.

'He flat out told us he was going to do this stuff,' said Scriven. But, he said, 'He's weird. You don't know when to take him seriously and when not to.'

memo?
Shrug

The Pope wants to talk this out.
There are certain environmental issues where it is not easy to achieve a broad consensus. Here I would state once more that the Church does not presume to settle scientific questions or to replace politics. But I am concerned to encourage an honest and open debate so that particular interests or ideologies will not prejudice the common good.

I've been reading about the Charleston church, the very historic and special AME Church that was invaded by one so full of hate.  What did it take in the mind, formation, and culture of this 21-year old white man to travel a significant distance from Columbia, S.C. to single out this Church.  (Yes, we do not know factually that he did "single out" this Church ... but, why not other places or other places of worship?) The Civil War era congregation of this famous AME Church--so symbolic as a place of unity and freedom--once had to pray in hiding.  Once, this Church was burned to the ground ... only to be rebuilt by dedicated parishioners.  The history of this Church is inextricably bound up with the trials of the Civil War.

As facts, narrative, snippets of background surface, we can deduce: (1) This particular AME Church, a place central to the Black community, does appear to have been the target as the individual is reported to have driven many miles past many places--past many Christian churches, certainly--to aim for the people in this one. (2) More than one report today states that the suspect spoke about his intent to aim the gun at Black people ... spoke to friends well prior to the shooting slaughter and, reportedly, stated his intent in the Church.  

As I look at pictures of the suspect, my emotions go back & forth from sad to seething.  The pouty, punky, almost arrogant look shown in photographs bring out my own seething sensation.  For those who remember re-runs of old classics, it is reminiscent of the ugliness of a Dorian Gray ... but with the mutilated ugly on the outside. Looking seconds later, there is this young person with apartheid patches on his clothes and ... whaaat?  If this person did this ugly deed--clearly filled with the racial hate he spouted and wore--you have to ask HOW THE HE!! he could believe those things?  How can any of his fellow travelers believe and hold such hatred?  What feeds it?  Where does it come from?

And hate and religion do share a common anything.

Why he did it needs to be, and will be, explored.

I see that a different Zimmerman is having some difficulty with a prosecutor . . . the prosecutor says that Mr. zimmerman has been raping his life-size toddler doll . . . in addition to spread child pornography on twitter . . .

The defendant has . . . essentially crafted a child-sized rape doll,"

Court has received largely positive reviews in the international film festival circuit. In his Venice review, Variety's Weissberg further wrote: "Outdated, elephantine courts are an easy target, yet it's the way Tamhane coolly exposes the flaws that renders the film so powerful, making clear that the problem isn't simply with what's on the books, but also with the people pedantically interpreting them."[12] Neil Young of The Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film at Antalya, stating: "Mumbai's Chaitanya Tamhane emerges as one of the world's most accomplished and promising film-makers under 30 with his quietly steely legal drama Court, a bluntly-titled chronicle of politically-motivated injustice."[13] In French publication Le Monde, Jacques Mandelbaum called Court "a major movie on the worrying state of freedom of speech in the Indian democracy" and lauded the "intelligence and sensitivity" of Tamhane's direction.[14]

It also received five-star reviews from London-based indie film site Dog And Wolf[15] and Spanish film site El antepenúltimo mohicano;[16] and four-star reviews from British blogs Cine-Vue and CultureFly.[17][18]

The good news for Rush Limbaugh: One month after being notified he was getting dumped by his Boston talk radio host station, the talker has a new AM home in the city.

The bad news: The station currently boasts a 0.6 rating, trails four non-commercial stations in the market, and becomes yet another big-city, cellar-dwelling outpost that Limbaugh is forced to call home.

The station, WKOX, is the type of "bottom-rung" affiliate that Limbaugh was rarely associated with during his halcyon days as the king of talk radio. But those days seem to be dwindling as the Boston fall from grace has previously played out for Limbaugh in places like Los Angeles and Indianapolis. In each instance, Limbaugh exited a prosperous, longtime radio home and was forced to settle for an also-ran outlet with miniscule ratings.

But the First Amendment has nothing to do with the fact that CAIR opposing an OK law that opposed Sharia law being introduced into OK is a  very telling thing.

And that was my point. But you know that. You just want to change the subject.

anne, unlike using phony science and something no true scientist would say is science, yes I am talking about "consensus," radical islamists are real and their actions speak for themselves.

Your problem is trying to define "moderate." And I find that rather tiresome myself. So let me restate. I think the "moderate" Muslims are restrained by the mixed signals that we are sending, and have sent, on the issue of the radicals.

I call attention to our ignoring the "Iran Spring" while jumping whole heartily into Egypt.

WKOX, whose cached website shows that it was formerly a Spanish-language station, will remain under the ownership of iHeartRadio, the media powerhouse whose companies were formerly branded as Clear Channel, but will be rebranded as TALK 1430. The station that formerly hosted left-leaning Air America programs will now feature commentators such as Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin, as well as Fox Sports in the morning.