Another weekend in America, another gunman stepping out of a car and opening fire on the innocent people around them. This time it was at an outlet mall in the Dallas area, resulting in eight dead and seven others wounded. The shooter was eventually killed by a police officer who happened to be nearby, but this massacre ensures that gun violence continues to be one of the most prominent and likely causes of death in a modern American society.
Of course Texas has some of the country’s most permissive gun laws, taking great pride and joy in the fact that it has more than 1 million gun owners despite the recent frequency and history of mass shootings. Many authorities in Texas say they have seen an increase in spur-of-the-moment gunfire since September 2021, when the state began to allow most adults to carry a handgun without a license. It’s a wonder we still need a license to operate a car, we should just allow anyone behind the wheel of these death traps. We’ve surrendered ourselves at this point to the fact that innocent people will be killed on a regular basis so that, in the unlikely scenario that the US becomes a dictatorship, people will be able to shoot at soldiers.
Hell of a trade off.
Side Items
Revisionist Garbage: Some fawning idiot reporter decided to release one last-ditch effort to sympathetically profile Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced genius/scammer founder of Theranos. The opening of the article makes clear that the subject is an egotistical woman unable to accept the consequences of her actions. Apparently Holmes has focused on highlighting her motherhood, in an effort to garner some support before a long prison bid. She has dropped the ridiculous voice and stopped wearing black turtlenecks all the time, so I suppose there has been some progress
A Most Beautiful Sight: A Chicago River Snapper (chonkosaurus) was spotted recently, looking absolutely luxuriant on the water. Always great to see this natural beast thriving on what was once such a toxic river, but is slowly getting cleaned up and restored. There’s still hope to clean things up and enjoy Chonkosaurus sightings. It’s not too late friends
Horse Race & Horse Death: A beautiful horse named “Mage” ran around a track the fastest yesterday, winning the 149th Kentucky Derby, despite the fact that most people around the world would be better served with literally any other usage of that money and attention. If you think the horses have it good, remember that one turned ankle or mistimed step is likely to be their last, as two more horses were euthanized during races yesterday. At some point we’ll have to revisit the name of the sport, maybe change it from horse-racing to horse-gladiators or something