Surprise, surprise on Monday morning — crystal-clear skies with twinkling stars, a rare sight for us here on California’s north coast the last few weeks. Until right now, fog and more fog.
And a welcome sight for an otherwise just another self-loathing, asshole Monday.
Shit over the weekend makes one wonder if everyday isn’t Monday. A load of US violence in the worst way: In Phoenix, a “quiet” guy shot to death four members of one family and their two dogs, and then killed himself, barking dogs apparently the fuse that set the bomb; in New York, a Chinese immigrant killed his cousin’s wife and four children, who were “cut and butchered with a kitchen knife,” one of the kids only 18-months-old,
(Illustration found here).
Meanwhile, in Baltimore a city firefighter and his girlfriend were gunned down by a local cop, who then shot himself. The news called it a ‘love triangle.’
In Forty Fort,Pennsylvania, a daddy shot and killed his 1-year-old daughter,and then himself. The girl would have turned 2 on Tuesday. Cops reported: “We are still conducting our investigation, but our quick run through is that he has not had a criminal history, or any domestic disputes.”
Also, in Syracuse, New York, a 17-year-old high school senior was stabbed to death after a party late Saturday. The kid was an honor student, member of the school football team and ran track. During a memorial yesterday, his mother cried: “Somebody pray for me.”
And that’s just the highlights — personal, dumb-ass horrors without a seeming motive. Other than those barking dogs.
On Friday, to start the weekend off in the right direction, a guy killed two people in Ridgecrest, California, and then led cops on a shoot-’em-up chase that ended with them killing him.
From the LA Times:
The man called Ridgecrest police early Friday morning with a warning: He planned to “wreak havoc” on the Central California community.
Less than three hours later, the caller — already suspected of killing one person and wounding another — lived up to his word.
He led authorities on a high-speed, 35-mile chase on a Mojave Desert highway, shooting at authorities and other vehicles and forcing drivers off the road.
At some point, the gunman’s trunk popped open, revealing a man and woman inside.
When the driver later opened fire on the two hostages in the trunk, officers shot and killed him.
Ridgecrest — which spent part of the morning locked down — was “very shook up,” Mayor Dan Clark said.
No shit.
So one can see America is violent, and most likely the most violent for ‘ordinary’ killings — not war.
Some US cities are more violent than some entire countries — a new study points out this horrible shit:
New York, with a population of more than 8 million, had 237 people killed by guns in 2012, for a rate of around 3 gun homicides per 100,000 people. New York is a comparatively small dot. Still, New York has more gun murders per capita than Argentina, which has a population over 41 million.
…
If it were a country, New Orleans (with a rate 62.1 gun murders per 100,000 people) would rank second in the world.
– Detroit’s gun homicide rate (35.9) is just a bit less than El Salvador (39.9).
– Baltimore’s rate (29.7) is not too far off that of Guatemala (34.8).
– Newark (25.4) and Miami (23.7) have gun murder statistics comparable to Colombia (27.1).
– Washington D.C. (19) has a higher rate of gun homicide than Brazil (18.1).
– Atlanta’s rate (17.2) is about the same as South Africa (17).
– Cleveland (17.4) has a higher rate than the Dominican Republic (16.3).
And so forth, and so on.
In Iraq this weekend, worse, but yet that’s a uncalled-for war zone (via antiwar.com):
Across Baghdad, a series of coordinated attacks took place during a 30-minute spree of terror.
A bomb in the Shabb neighborhood left eight dead and 18 wounded.
Seven people were killed and 15 more were wounded when two car bombs exploded in Nahrawan.
In Hurriya, five people were killed and 12 more were wounded in a blast at a market.
Another market bombing left six dead and 14 wounded in Abu Dsheer.
A roadside bomb in Bayaa left five dead and 11 wounded.
Six people were killed and 18 more were killed at a market in Sabaa al-Bour.
A bomb in Mashtal killed four people and wounded seven more.
Three people were killed in a bombing in Baladiyat.
A shitload of people worldwide are hatting Mondays, too.