Gunman Kills 12, Wounds More Than 50 At Colorado Movie Theater

Not long after the 12:05 a.m. start of a showing of the new Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises at a theater in Aurora, Colorado, a man armed with a rifle, a shotgun, two handguns and two gas cannisters, and wearing a gas mask, body armor and a riot helmet, entered the theater, set off the gas cannisters, and then opened fire.  Twelve people were killed, the number having been originally reported as 14.  The man later surrendered to police in the theater's parking lot, without resisting arrest.  The suspect has been identified as 24-year-old James Holmes, who lived 4 miles from the theater, and was a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado's graduate program in Denver.  When police searched his apartment, they found it to be booby-trapped.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post and ABC News.

In a related development, ABC's Brian Ross suggested a possible Tea Party connection to the shootings, because a man with the same first and last names had a page on a Tea Party website.  Ross later apologized for making that incorrect report.  James Holmes (the Tea Partier) has since been interviewed by the Daily Caller.

In a strange twist, one of the victims killed in Aurora had escaped from a shooting in a mall in Toronto, Canada on June 2nd.

FBI Faulted For Political Correctness

A report on the Fort Hood shooting has faulted the FBI for ignoring evidence against Major Nidal Hasan, who later allegedly killed 13 people and wounded 23 others at Fort Hood in November 2009, because of "political correctness".  Hasan had been in contact with known terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, but was still determined not to be involved in terrorist activities.  Apparently, the FBI was more concerned about being accused of "islamophobia" than about stopping potential islamic terrorists before they take American lives.  For one thing, you'd think that Hasan's "Soldier of Allah" business card might have raised an eyebrow or two.  Since the Obama administration has called Hasan's actions "workplace violence" instead of "terrorism", I'd say that PC is still holding sway.

Read more at Fox News and the Huffington Post.  You know it's a serious matter when those two outlets agree.

The Useless Box

You know that someone has too much time on his hands when he designs a device that does nothing more than turn itself off. 



If you want one, for just under $40, you can get your own.

The "Real Story" Of Obama

Duh Progressive is mostly a satirical website, but they include a section called True Op-Ed, in which writers get into some serious subject matter.  In today's true opinion column, Nick Taxia gives us what he believes is the "real story" that President Obama would like to tell.  In doing so, Taxia delves into the history of the United States and of the European colonization of Africa, as seen from the Marxist perspective, and how all of that has left its mark on Obama's political philosophy.  An except:

Obama's story actually begins in 1885, when the Germans began a "protectorate" colony over the Sultan of Zanzibar's possessions along the Kenyan coast.  Soon the British followed, establising their presence in the country three years later.  From then until the conclusion of World War I, the British and Germans bickered over how much they would possess of Kenya and which resources they would gather and exploit.  Following the Germans' defeat in World War I, the British gained full dominance over Kenya, which as anyone can imagine, did not please native Kenyans much.

Read the full article.

Jon Lord 1941-2012

Jon Lord, who played keyboards for Deep Purple and Whitesnake until he retired in 2002, died yesterday of a pulmonary embolism, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.  Lord was born in 1941 in Leicester, England and took classical musical lessons as a child, but later was influenced by blues-style organ playing.  He combined both influences playing the Hammond organ, often with distortion effects, but also played piano during his time with Deep Purple.

Jon Lord was one of the founders of Deep Purple, along with guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and drummer Ian Paice.  From 1968 to 1976, the band had three different lead singers (Rod Evans, Ian Gillan and David Coverdale) and three different bass players (Nick Simper, Roger Glover and Glenn Hughes, who also contributed some lead vocals).  The founding trio stayed together until 1975, when Blackmore left and was replaced on guitar by Tommy Bolin.  Deep Purple disbanded in 1976, after which Coverdale founded Whitesnake, which for a time included both Lord and Paice.  In 1984, the Gillan-Blackmore-Lord-Glover-Paice lineup reunited, and stayed together until 1988.  Subsequent lineups have included Joe Lynn Turner (who had sung with Blackmore's group Rainbow) or Gillan on lead vocals, and Joe Satriani or Steve Morse on guitar instead of Blackmore.  After Lord retired, Don Airey replaced him on keyboards.  Today, the lineup consists of Gillan, Morse, Airey, Glover and Paice.

Read more at CNN Entertainment, MassLive, Billboard, the Daily Mail and MTV News.  I've also found a Deep Purple fan site that has lots of information about the band.

Drink Up, Warthogs!

My all-time favorite military aircraft is the A-10, known as the "Warthog" because of its ungainly appearance.  Powered by two turbofan engines, its top speed is about 450 miles per hour.  It can carry an assortment of bombs and missiles, but its most formidable weapon is its built-in 30mm machine gun, designed for destroying enemy tanks.  All these weapons are intended to be used mainly against targets on the ground, although I once read about one using its cannon to destroy an airborne Iraqi helicopter.  Because of its firepower and relatively slow speed, I call it the "offensive lineman" of military airplanes.  I'm pretty sure that the A-10 is the last thing that some jihadis see before meeting Allah.

The fuel supplies for the A-10's two engines are mutually segregated, which enables it to test new types of fuel with one engine, while the other uses a traditional fuel in case the new fuel doesn't perform.  With this in mind, the variant designated A-10C is now being used to test new fuels at Elgin Air Force Base in Florida, including some based on alcohol made by fermenting sugar extracted from biomass.  We can now offer a toast to the A-10, and mean it literally.

Read more at the Daily Mail.

Go here for more on the A-10.

Hillary Taunted By "Monica" In Egypt

Protestors in Alexandria, Egypt had some choice words for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to a newly-reopened American consulate, in the process displaying a pretty good grasp of recent American history, at least where her husband is concerned.  While throwing tomatoes and shoes at her motorcade, they shouted "Monica, Monica!" and "Irhal, Clinton!"  ("Irhal" is Arabic for "get out".)

Read the story at CNN and Yahoo.

Clarisse Grime, RIP

Do you know about Clarisse Grime?  Chances are, if you live outside of the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, you've never heard of her.  Unlike some other people whose deaths I have recently noted, she was not famous.  But I also believe that if the national media were less biased, Clarisse Grime would be as famous in death as Travon Martin.  However, unlike Martin, she was not murdered or killed in self-defense (depending on your opinion in that case).

Clarisse Grime was killed in a horrible accident.  A driver of an SUV lost control of his vehicle, causing it to hit a fire hydrant and a "no parking" sign, and then to careen down an embankment to where Grime and her boyfriend were sitting.  The location was about 50 feet from the street, near a sign for their high school, but they were still struck by the out-of-control vehicle.  Her boyfriend suffered only minor injuries, but Grime died at the scene.

Links For Friday The 13th

I'm not much into superstition, but on a previous Friday the 13th, I posted on Twitter, "Today, avoid black cats and liberals of all colors."  Here are some stories from the current Friday the 13th:

From Western Journalism, former Speaker Pelosi tells the Catholic Church to "drop dead".

From the Washington Free Beacon, the U.S. Olympic uniforms are made in (yeah, you guessed it) China.  The company that designed the uniforms is a donor to both Obama and the Democratic party.

From Patriots For America, a video report on the U.N. Small Arms Treaty.  The report claims that what the U.N. is really after is the ammunition.

From Michigan Capitol Confidential, the SEIU omits from their disclosure form a $12,000 payment to a company that was defunded by the Michigan State Legislature.

From Commentary, a report on Hamas summer camps for children.

From Fox News, a man's dying wish, to leave a huge restaurant tip, is granted.

Also from Fox News, an autistic man is found alive after being lost for 3 weeks in the Utah desert.

From NewsBusters, Howard Kurtz warns CNN that the "liberal media double standard" is apparent "to many people".

From ABC News, this one's from yesterday, but still important enough to mention.  Did the late Joe Paterno cover up for his former assistant Jerry Sandusky?

From Gateway Pundit, it's your tax dollars at work.  The federal government is giving away, not just cell phones, but air conditioners.

From EPA Abuse, how the EPA is taking over state's regional haze programs.

From Weird Asia News, are Japan's "concept cars" getting weirder?

From Yahoo News, a dishonest doctor in California found out the hard way that his patient was a real bitch.

Time For Some Hank

Hank Williams Jr., that is, with cameo appearances by Hank Sr.  From his new album Old School, New Rules, this song is called Takin' Back Our Country, in which Hank is as outspoken as ever.  The video runs for 7:12, but the song ends at about 3:40.  I guess the creator of this video had some technical difficulties, but it's no problem since the blank part is at the end.