Tuesday morning hodge-podge

My mind is going in about a dozen different directions today, so I figured I'd just post all the crazy thoughts in one entry.

Weirdness every day that I drive to work. I drive along a rural road before hitting a major highway and there is a big power tower thing (if that makes sense) and it is covered in vultures every day. There are several of these large towers - maybe a dozen - along this stretch of road and the vultures aren't on any others - just this one. *shrug*

I try not to be judgmental. Stop laughing. Really. I don't do it on purpose. I have tried to cut Michael Jackson some slack and not assume he is a pedophile simply because he looks like a freak. However, the evidence is looking more and more like he is a sicko.

Further evidence that parents need to educate their children about the proper handling and dangers in handling firearms. This 5-year-old shot his mom with a gun his dad left sitting out. (link may require a free registration to view, sorry). I have questions about how the kid was able to pull the trigger. It requires some force to do so. But, more than that, parents need to talk to their children about what they do if they find a gun. In our home, we start these talks with the kids when they're about 3 or 4. We educate them and don't just expect them to know. We tell them that if they find a gun they 1)leave it alone and don't touch it and 2)go find an adult. Now, we also take some of the mystery and excitement out of it for them by allowing them to handle unloaded weapons in mom and/or dad's prescence. Our eldest has been taken to the range to shoot his little 22 shot gun. The 5-year-old still hasn't earned the privilege. The boys have to be able to stop immediately when we tell them no. This goes for anything from touching a hot stove to walking into the street. If they haven't mastered stopping and freezing when we yell NO, then they can't handle the guns. No ifs, ands or buts about it. This is a very sad story, but hopefully, the mom is going to make a full recovery and the dad will talk to his son about how to properly handle a gun. God, this is sad. Poor kid.

Even sadder to me, this day-care driver only received 10 years probation for leaving an 8-month-old infant in a carseat to bake to death two years ago. 10 years probation. That baby didn't even get 10 months to live and this jerk is only going to get 10 years probation for his crime. This mother will never have her precious baby back and this baby will never get a chance to live and he gets only probation. That is a travesty. I know accidents happen, but I also know that when I'm babysitting my neighbor's children, I'm even more cautious with them than I am with just my own. I feel like if someone has entrusted me with the care of the most precious thing in the world to them, I need to treat it as such. Just makes me sick.

The world is a scary place, I'm convinced. But, this story further supports that statement. The BTK killer is a scout leader and is president of his church congregaton. How awful is that? This link tells the story of a man who was 5 at the time the BTK killer tortured and murdered his mother in front of him and his siblings. What kind of monster not only tortures and kills a woman, but does it in front of her children? These poor kids never had a chance. Never. And, that poor mother knew she was dying in front of her children and there was nothing she could do to protect them. I'm sure she died fearing that her children would be hurt, too. God bless her soul and I'm sure this man will burn in hell. I hope they have the right guy.

And, finally on a much happier note, the Lebanese government resigned. "Many in Lebanon accuse Syria and Karami's government of being behind the slayings of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and 16 others in a huge Feb. 14 bombing, pressing hard in the two weeks since for the government to resign and for Syria to withdraw its roughly 15,000 troops positioned in Lebanon," according to the story. Maybe there is hope for freedom for Middle Eastern countries. The timing says something to me, too. Afghanistan's and Iraq's free elections and now this. Now, if we can get the nukes out of Iran, we'd be doing much better, too.

On a very weird and lighter note, Rich Gannon took a massive paycut to keep the Oakland Raiders under the salary cap. His 2005 base salary was pared from $8 million to the veteran minimum of $765,000. The Raiders were at $10.9 million over the $85.5 million salary-cap limit as of Friday night, according to NFL Management Council figures. They have to be in compliance with the cap limit by the league-mandated deadline today. They had to clear some room for
Randy Moss and his $7.25 million 2005 base salary. Wow.