It was a curious day. We got dumped off down in Pentagon City...and walked to the Pentagon. It's about a half-mile walk...so I didn't suffer.
As for the shooter...well...every bit of information that came out today...made me consider the guy bi-polar. I don't think he'd been in control of himself for well over twenty years.
The problem is that you've got fifty thousand people like him in the US...walking around and a threat to society. Forty years ago...we would have taken state action and had him put into a state facility. Today...no one wants to confront someone and put them into a institution.
The sad thing here is that he really could have hurt just about anyone...even out on the bus station platform....and made this a lot worse.
Friday, 5 March 2010
Gossip, Really
Up until yesterday...for almost two hundred years....the Supreme Court had missed out on a part of Americana....celebrity gossip. Yesterday, history changed.
Chief Justice John Roberts was reported in one major gossip column as preparing to step down from the Supreme Court.
The supposed reason? Personal reasons.
The funny thing is that the judge actually released a comment that the report was completely untrue.
Never before...in the history of the court....had gossip news been a factor. I sat and pondered over this. What diabolical person dreamed up a story like this and faked the gossip news folks?
Well...yes, it could have been the White House. I could say Joe Biden sitting there....thinking of ways to slam the Supreme Court and just offering up inside information to some Delaware gossip queen.
But then, I considered the problem of law clerks in the Supreme Court. They often stand there and play gossip while doing their daily work. It could be that a couple of folks decided to pay-back some guy they disliked and fed him false information on the Judge...anticipating that he'd run off to get the news to the right people.
So tonight...you can imagine Chief Justice Roberts....sitting at home....smiling at the portrait of Lady Gaga in a lusty pose over his desk...and noting how he'd moved up in the world to be admired via the gossip columns of California. He would sip a bit of Pabst Blue Ribbon....and laugh over how they almost got it right when he fed the data about himself...just to get his name in the news. And Joe Biden is sitting there and wondering how he could get himself into the gossip columns.
Chief Justice John Roberts was reported in one major gossip column as preparing to step down from the Supreme Court.
The supposed reason? Personal reasons.
The funny thing is that the judge actually released a comment that the report was completely untrue.
Never before...in the history of the court....had gossip news been a factor. I sat and pondered over this. What diabolical person dreamed up a story like this and faked the gossip news folks?
Well...yes, it could have been the White House. I could say Joe Biden sitting there....thinking of ways to slam the Supreme Court and just offering up inside information to some Delaware gossip queen.
But then, I considered the problem of law clerks in the Supreme Court. They often stand there and play gossip while doing their daily work. It could be that a couple of folks decided to pay-back some guy they disliked and fed him false information on the Judge...anticipating that he'd run off to get the news to the right people.
So tonight...you can imagine Chief Justice Roberts....sitting at home....smiling at the portrait of Lady Gaga in a lusty pose over his desk...and noting how he'd moved up in the world to be admired via the gossip columns of California. He would sip a bit of Pabst Blue Ribbon....and laugh over how they almost got it right when he fed the data about himself...just to get his name in the news. And Joe Biden is sitting there and wondering how he could get himself into the gossip columns.
Just Another Day
I finished work yesterday....and quietly walked the halls out to the Metro exit of the Pentagon. I stepped via the turnstiles where five cops stand vigil over the interior entry point. I walked out the door at precisely 4:37. I walked 200 feet then to the Metro bus site and calmly stood there for six minutes and then went home on the express with just one stop between the Pentagon and my exit on the "Pike".
Around two hours later....at the same entry/exit point....some nut job from California approached the guards. He acted like he had an idea and was reaching for it....then drew a pistol. He hit each cop at close range but you have to remember.....the cops for the Pentagon are about the last folks you want to mess with. They've got some nifty jackets on, that took the punishment of a bullet. So they stood there and were bounced back a couple of feet and kinda dazed....they drew pistols and shot the guy in the head.
The two cops did suffer some wounds but it didn't amount to an awful lot. The shooter? He died a couple of hours later.
The best folks can say....is that this guy had a fantasy of the government being behind 9-11. He believed a lot of things that just weren't true. I'm guessing he should have been on medication. This was merely an adventure for this guy from California.....to have "death-by-cop", which has become popular lately.
For me? Well....the Pentagon has shut down the subway station and the bus station. So the best I can do today....is ride the bus to the Pentagon City area....get off.....and walk around half-a-mile. It's a fair distance but at least it's not raining.
I sat and paused here....pondering what took place barely two hours after I left. He could have entered my bus and killed people there. He could have walked into the subway area and killed people there. In some ways.....you question how things happen and feel lucky. In the end.....a couple of cops were lucky. And you've got a nutcase that is off the street.
That's just another average day in DC....sadly.
Around two hours later....at the same entry/exit point....some nut job from California approached the guards. He acted like he had an idea and was reaching for it....then drew a pistol. He hit each cop at close range but you have to remember.....the cops for the Pentagon are about the last folks you want to mess with. They've got some nifty jackets on, that took the punishment of a bullet. So they stood there and were bounced back a couple of feet and kinda dazed....they drew pistols and shot the guy in the head.
The two cops did suffer some wounds but it didn't amount to an awful lot. The shooter? He died a couple of hours later.
The best folks can say....is that this guy had a fantasy of the government being behind 9-11. He believed a lot of things that just weren't true. I'm guessing he should have been on medication. This was merely an adventure for this guy from California.....to have "death-by-cop", which has become popular lately.
For me? Well....the Pentagon has shut down the subway station and the bus station. So the best I can do today....is ride the bus to the Pentagon City area....get off.....and walk around half-a-mile. It's a fair distance but at least it's not raining.
I sat and paused here....pondering what took place barely two hours after I left. He could have entered my bus and killed people there. He could have walked into the subway area and killed people there. In some ways.....you question how things happen and feel lucky. In the end.....a couple of cops were lucky. And you've got a nutcase that is off the street.
That's just another average day in DC....sadly.
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