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Accused Craigslist Killer Offers Larger Lesson: You Don't Really Know Someone
Tweet Share on Facebook April 23, 2009 Comment (11)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
How many times have we heard a long-time acquaintance of an accused killer say something to the effect of, "He never could have done something that horrendous."
As a local news reporter in the 1980s, I must have covered a dozen stories in which it was my assignment to speak to friends, neighbors, acquaintances of accused murderers, burglars, or you-name-it varieties of violent criminals. Not a one of them told me, "Oh yeah, he did it. He's a scary human being."
Yet here we go again in the case of accused Craigslist killer, Phillip Markoff. We don't know yet whether Markoff is guilty of murder, but it's natural for people to speculate whether he could have done it. And, typically, his friends and family are expressing disbelief:
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Gov. Schweitzer Should Keep Horse Slaughter Out of Montana
Tweet Share on Facebook April 23, 2009 Comment (22)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Keep your fingers crossed that Democratic Gov. Brian Schweitzer soon vetoes a bill that would allow horse slaughter back into the United States.
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Internet, Bloggers' Half-Truths Are Killing Newspapers and Journalism
Tweet Share on Facebook April 22, 2009 Comment (32)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
No one can deny the Internet is a life-changer. As a social networking tool, it is nonpareil. Many married couples would never would have met but for the Internet. Employers find employees and vice versa from around the globe—people whose paths never would have crossed but for the magic of cyberspace. But the Internet has its downsides, and one of those is that it is causing the demise of American journalism—as we know it or have known it for centuries. The Internet is single-handedly responsible for the death this year of the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, and the conversion to online publishing of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Christian Science Monitor.
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Weak Gun Control Laws Show America is Crazy, Numb to Violence
Tweet Share on Facebook April 22, 2009 Comment (109)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Wanna get fired up?
Check out the Chat Room and its four disparate views on the gun control debate. I most closely agree with Tom Mauser, who came by his credentials the hardest way imaginable—he lost a son at the Columbine slaughter 10 years ago. He writes about America's inconceivable numbness to mass gun slayings.
What he says is all too true: If 25 people are slaughtered all at once by a lone gunman, the event may stay in the news cycle for a couple of days—maybe longer if the victims are children. But if a gunman slays one or two adults at a holdup in an inner-city neighborhood, it merits minimal coverage in local news outlets these days. How have we become so inured to gun violence that it takes a mass killing to grab our attention? He writes:
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If Polo Horses Were Poisoned, Perpetrator Deserves the Death Penalty
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2009 Comment (74)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
It's not that I want to write about animal cruelty as often as I do. It's just that evidence of cruelty continues to abound. Whoever perpetrated this alleged crime should be punished severely:
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Hybrid Car Sales Down With Price of Gas--Are Americans So Short-Sighted?
Tweet Share on Facebook April 21, 2009 Comment (13)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Let's hope commentators and business experts who believe hybrid car sales are down because gas is cheap (for the moment) are wrong. I hope my fellow Americans are more forward-thinking in the major purchases than whether gas is $2.00 or $4.00/gallon. It may be just above $2.00/gallon right now. But we all know as soon as U.S. and world demand rises, pulled from the doldrums as countries come out of the recession, gas is going right back up to where it was.
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Republican Swap: Meghan McCain for Sarah Palin and Michael Steele
Tweet Share on Facebook April 20, 2009 Comment (29)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Although Meghan McCain can sometimes come off a bit, shall we say, different, she gave a speech at the Log Cabin Republicans meeting this weekend that shows she has a brain and represents the views of lots and lots of young people and young members of the GOP. The quote is reported by our own Washington Whispers:
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Susan Boyle's Rocket-Like Rise to Harmonic Hymnal Heaven
Tweet Share on Facebook April 17, 2009 Comment (120)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
For those of you who can't get enough of Susan Boyle, I highly recommend Mary Elizabeth Williams's lyrically-written piece on Susan's rocket-like rise to harmonic hymnal heaven. I don't agree with all she says—I for one am not obsessing about Boyle, I'm just thrilled at her success. But the piece is worth a quick read nonetheless:
Boyle's success doesn't change the world. Television competition remains as contrived a beast as you're likely to find. The duckling-into-swan motif will be familiar to anyone who witnessed the similar metamorphosis of the equally ordinary looking, vocally gifted Paul Potts on "Britain's Got Talent" two years ago, or any makeover show you can name. When Boyle first bursts into song and jaws promptly drop in unison, the show's hosts note with satisfaction, "You didn't expect that, did ya?" They obviously did. Simon Cowell's blissed-out expression during her performance may be the result of the cash register ca-ching ca-chings no doubt ringing in his head. And, because we are a short-attention-span universe, the "I'm so sick of Susan Boyle" comments are already racking up.
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Republicans Must Learn From Palin's Brave Admission That She Weighed An Abortion
Tweet Share on Facebook April 17, 2009 Comment (55)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin displayed one minute aspect of her personality that even I could take a shine to. Speaking last night to an anti-abortion rights dinner in Indiana, Gov. Palin told the crowd about her struggle with her fifth pregnancy last year. She found out she was pregnant while on a trip out of town. Her son, Trig, was born with Down syndrome. She actually said publicly that she considered having an abortion on that trip—not an easy admission, especially before such a judgmental group:
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Why Singer Susan Boyle, No "American Idol," Is a Big Deal
Tweet Share on Facebook April 16, 2009 Comment (185)By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Of all the online commentary I've seen on the Scottish answer to American I dol, singer Susan Boyle, this from Entertainment Weekly is by far the most, er, moronic:
