Side Items
Rude Awakening: A 62 year old Illinois man shot himself in his sleep with a .357 Magnum because he was dreaming about an intruder breaking into his home. As if the embarrassment and pain wasn’t enough, this absolute smooth-brain wound up getting arrested because his Firearm Owners Identification Card had been revoked. Mark Dicara apparently had an incredibly realistic dream that someone was breaking into his home, prompting him to grab his .357 Magnum revolver and shoot at what he thought was an intruder. Turns out he shot himself in the leg and woke up with a gunshot wound. The bullet went through his leg and was safely lodged in his bed, taking a little nap after its surprise adventure
Juneteenth-Themed Police: Aurora, Illinois isn’t known for much, outside of being a suburb of Chicago. But they’re grabbing attention with their newly-unveiled Juneteenth police squad car, part of an effort to acknowledge the “troubled history between the Black community and law enforcement”. Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin claimed the cop car would "educate, empower and unite" the Aurora community through "conversation and community policing," which seems like a lot to ask of a car. I too enjoyed the Pixar classic “Cars”, but I’m under no illusion that automobiles will actually educate or unite us, unless that iconic Rascal Flatts track is playing in the background
Colonizing Guam: Three weeks ago, a category 4 cyclone named Mawar made landfall on the Pacific island of Guam, a US colony since 1899. Here’s a not-so-fun fact; People born on Guam are American citizens, but are politically disenfranchised while living on the island, having no vote in the US presidential elections and no representation in the senate. With this in mind, it should come as no surprise that Mawar cut off all communications as well as power and water to the vast majority of the nearly 171,000 people living there. We often think of colonization as an antiquated process that our ancestors witnessed, but this is what modern colonization looks like