All the news unfit to print for Saturday, April 21, 2007
Dead babies wave their arms in celebration! Ratzinger rethinks Limbo
Vatican panel urges ending "limbo"..
Limbo, of course, is the Catholic tenet that unbaptized babies are punished by not going to Heaven, but are not bad enough that they have to go to Hell..
Pope Benedict XVI now says that there is hope for the salvation of these babies..
For centuries, Catholic women who had stillborn babies or lost their babies immediately after birth were told that their children would never be in good fortunes in their afterlife..
REUTERS PHOTO
I know net blogs are expressing their shock at the Senator, but I am actually happy something off the cuff happened in the thus far dull campaign for president--and not only that, but the "bomb Iran" song was a little flashback to the old McCain that so many came to love in 2000..
....Horrific.. traumatic horror seen by students, parents, and the world. The face of a killer that tore through the flesh and bone of students and teachers at Virginia Tech...
A brief pause for some other notable random rakings from the day..
John Murtha says President Bush's Iraq plan requires a draft..Firefighters and clergy are the most satisfying jobs..
The would be candidate.. Republicans desperation for a candidate turns to actor Fred Thompson.. A Capitol Hill welcome for LAW AND ORDER star..Rutgers coach gets book deal after Imus firing..Scientist: End cremation because of global warming..Supreme Court upholds late term abortion law..A horribly deadly day in Iraq..John Edwards' $400 hair..
The random raking seem almost trivial today. So many other things to ponder. Worry about. Pray about.
I am not trying to be negative but it's been a pretty bad week. Suffering from sea to shining sea and beyond. Guns raised in violence; warfare flaring. So many long for a simple, quiet, and serene night of sleep. A night in which there will be love and happiness surrounding their minds.. but instead they sleep in pain. We are all connected. Humanity does not exist alone. It's a maze of paths that almost always ironically end up being connected with each other in the end. And perhaps it's not coincidence.
During trying weeks like this there is a reaching out to a higher power. A belief system seems to sustain us. At least we try to make it that way. We attempt in our simple human minds to explain the unexplainable.. to believe the impossible.
Through snow and rain and wind and heat, we are all connected. So many nameless faces you pass each day with a story.. So many people alone. Desolate. And at the same time, so many happy and in peace.. a happy medium never seems to be reached.
...But it's Spring. A rebirth of the eternal. God bless this country..
With each gun that fires a newborn's smile comes to light in the world.. with each death comes a new being of possibility.. someone that could cure cancer. Heal the world. End war. Lead us. Souls go away just as new ones arrive. The magic and mystery of life.. but sadness of loss..
No words can explain the images of the a killer. No words can ever justify what we witness on our nightly news.
Some parents may be afraid to bring children into the world. But maybe.. just maybe.. that child will heal this world forever.. end the strife. End the misery... Emanciate the world of hate and war... A glimmer of hope can arrive during a trying period of loss and hate. Latch on to that hope. Hope is the way of the world. It can make this world move forward. It can sustain us like nothing else.
Hope.
Hope..
Between his first and second shooting on April 16, a large box was sent to NBC News containing videotape and photograph--made by killer Cho Seung-Hui..
NBC News turned over the information to authorities.. it aired tonight on NBC News..
Cho Seung-Hui bought a gun from Roanoke Firearms over a month ago for $571.. Virginia Governor Tim Kaine said today, "People who want to take this within 24 hours of the event and make it their political hobby horse to ride, I've got nothing but loathing for them."
The owner of the firearms store said he feels terrible about his store's invovlement with the deadliest shooting in American history..
One victim of the bloody rampage has received widespread attention--and rightly so.
He is Liviu Librescu, a survivor of the Holocaust.. He was killed when he used his body to barricade a door before Seung-Hui was able to gain access.. during this time several students jumped and fled to safety.. Librescu was 76 at death. Death after a long hard life of stuggle.. struggling in the end to do something herioc: Save others.. A chilling reminder of how painful and tragic life could be--and how heros among us will emerge when least expected to give a glimmer of hope that maybe this is all worth it after all..
Expect to hear more than a fair share of "troubled loner" stories along with reasons why such a dramatically horrific crime occurred. But the story won't be changed. What happened, happened. And as a result, Cho Seung-Hui will now be included with famous mass killers.. The Korean that moved to America 15 years ago. Now a dead killer with a face that will forever be synonymous with the scars he left on a school and a nation..
The "Question Mark" killer Cho was a quiet shy man.. seething with rage. He scrawled "ISMAIL AX" on the inside of one of his arms. Some experts say that this may be a reference to the Islamic account of the Biblical sacrifice of Abraham...
His writings raged against "rich" kids.. Other students called him the Question Mark Kid..
He's a question mark, no more.. His actions define him.
"Laura and I have come to Blacksburg today with hearts full of sorrow. This is a day of mourning for the Virginia Tech community and it is a day of sadness for our entire nation. To all of you who are OK, I'm happy for that. To those of you who are in pain or who have lost someone close to you, I'm sure you can call on any one of us and have help anytime you need it. People who have never met you are praying for you. They're praying for your friends who have fallen and who are injured. There's a power in these prayers, a real power. In times like this, we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God."
"On this terrible day of mourning, it's hard to imagine a time will come when life at Virginia Tech will return to normal, but such a day will come. And when it does, you will always remember the friends and teachers who were lost yesterday, and the time you shared with them, and the lives that they hoped to lead."
While the President was in Blacksburg, Virginia, two Secret Service officers were injured after another officer accidentally fired inside the White House gate..
Some are saying it's the fault of the gun culture in America.. Virginia Tech President Charles Steger did say that the shooter was a student at Virginia Tech in his early 20s but will not as of this time release his name..
Federal agents say that the guns had seriel numbers that were filed off--important in tracing where the guns came from.. Eyewitness accounts say that the shooter had clips of bullets on his shirt.. physically, he was described as wearing a maroon hat and leather jacket.. One eyewitness told NBC news he looked like he knew what he was doing..
"Authorities were investigating whether the gunman who killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history was a Chinese man who arrived in the United States last year on a student visa.
The 24-year-old man arrived in San Francisco on United Airlines on Aug. 7 on a visa issued in Shanghai, the source said. Investigators have not linked him to any terrorist groups, the source said."
The SUN TIMES goes on to report that bomb threats the school received last week may have been a test by the gunman to see how campus security responded..
Still a developing story.. Still so many questions. Yet again, people examining the soul of America.. the soul of who we are as a people. For it's America, a free society, that has a story with such a dramatically deadly and horrific outcoming: The death of so many innocent people. The injury of many more.
Stories from inside the school.. stories of the gunman--still to be named at this hour--lining students up and executing them..
"Terrified students lined up against the wall of their classroom and shot, execution-style.
Doors chained shut by the killer to keep his victims in and police out.
Blood-soaked bodies piled on top of each other. These were the scenes of almost inconceivable horror at Virginia Tech University yesterday as a gunman claimed at least 32 lives before killing himself.
He was said to have quarrelled in a dormitory with his girlfriend, whom he believed had been seeing another man. A student adviser was called to sort out the row. But the killer produced a gun and shot dead both his girlfriend and the adviser.
Two hours later he rampaged through an engineering building on the other side of the campus in the town of Blacksburg, killing indiscriminately"
Details emerging of the lovers tiff and a lot of ammo..
"We were sitting in class and all of a sudden heard loud banging noises — thought it could be construction. Heard screaming through the walls and everyone started to panic. Heard shots down the hallways, everyone started to panic and jumping out of the window. We heard almost 40 or 50 shots"
Power outages still widespread in many portions of the Northeast.. Spring 2007 looks more like mid-winter. Trees that were nearing their blooming time snapped in half, dangling over power lines amid winds of 30 to 60 mph..
It was a giant storm.. I went to bed during light rain and awoke 4am to thundering snow falling rapidly with gusty winds slamming snapping trees.. No power. Lots of reading today. It was quiet. Peaceful inside.. chaotic outside.
..A truly horrible day. With the lack of power until now I have been listening on a battery operated radio and a windup radio about the horrific shooting in Virginia all day.. The death toll continuing to rise.. More on this soon..
An intense and dramatically bad Nor'Easter not only thundered snow around 1am today but also whipped winds that knocked down power lines, knocked over trucks, caused traffic accidents, downed trees.. misery.. power outages from North to South..
My little hometown was the worst hit in my area .. my backyard registered around 9 inches of snow before sunrise.. since it's April, the snow is vanishing quickly. Record rains in many areas.. high winds in a whole lot more. Power was off from the early AM until now. I am blogging this quick while I can.. The power came back on in adjacent towns only to go off minutes later. It was a storm to remember.. in April. Long after winter's departure.
All the news unfit to print for Sunday, April 15, 2007
The latest on the colonies collapsing..
Still lots of talk in a lot of circles about the possibility that our cell phone waves are destroying our very civilization..
Worries that the honeybee die-off will affect crops.. the colony collapse disorder has now shown up in Canada..
...AFP PHOTO
Just as I got done sipping my last drop of my second cup of morning coffee with two sugars and cream, I saw the cover this week of US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT about Americans' love--and possibly addiction--to coffee and other caffeinated drinks..
US NEWS REPORTS: "Overworked and sleep-deprived Americans young and old so crave a buzz these days that even alcoholic drinks come loaded with caffeine, and doctors are getting worried. In the past three years alone, the number of 18-to-24-year-olds who drink coffee daily has doubled, from 16 percent to 31 percent-and some of them go on to pop prescription stimulants such as Adderall or Ritalin for late-night study sessions. Energy drinks like Red Bull and Cocaine, with several times the buzz of a can of Coke, have mushroomed into a $3.5 billion-a-year industry.
I tried the high-octane "energy" drinks ... can't stand the taste. I tried to give up coffee for two weeks too and it felt like I was coming off a big drug high. I guess if you stop drinking caffeine for a day and the only thing you feel is a complete breakdown of energy coupled with extreme migraine headaches, it can't be good.
"Since scientists have never studied how caffeine affects growing bodies and brains, children who go through the day guzzling soda after iced tea after energy drink are serving as tiny guinea pigs"
The glorious rush of caffeine to the brain.. sleepless in America. Are the kids alright?
Just a little more than half a cup left of coffee in my pot. Time to finish it off. Over and out.
Expect to hear more than a fair share of "troubled loner" stories along with reasons why such a dramatically horrific crime occurred. But the story won't be changed. What happened, happened. And as a result, Cho Seung-Hui will now be included with famous mass killers.. The Korean that moved to America 15 years ago. Now a dead killer with a face that will forever be synonymous with the scars he left on a school and a nation..
Still lots of talk in a lot of circles about the possibility that our 
Just as I got done sipping my last drop of my second cup of morning coffee with two sugars and cream, I saw the cover this week of 
News
