Sunday Update

Weighing heavy on our hearts and minds this morning is the act of senseless violence that took place Friday in Aurora, Colorado. Graduate school drop-out James Holmes opened fire in a crowded theater, killing 12 and wounding 59 more. Compounding the evil act, he stacked his apartment with booby traps that would have destroyed his entire apartment building and killed first responders. Reuters has more about the shooter's background.

These kinds of tragedies are always shocking, but sadly the responses are not. Satire website The Onion has an article that nails it.

It is human nature that when something like this happens, we want to find answers. We want to understand what causes it, because we want to prevent it. We want to make sense of the senseless. These are good traits, and this desire is what helps us to be civilized. Unfortunately, what always seems to happen is that in doing so, they miss the point that some things are simply senseless and tragic, and without rational explanation. Their words and actions after a tragedy can range from insensitive to downright hurtful. I can cut a little slack to those whose intentions are good, but I think you see the true colors of others when they exploit tragedies like this for political reasons.

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert blames the massacre on the separation of church and state. He says God was not there because society has said they do not want him around. You can't get any stupider than that. It's extremely ignorant and superstitious, as well as theologically unsound and just insensitive to the victims for this idiot to say something like this. His statements should be career-ending, but sadly we know they will not.

For those of us who actually care to help the victims of this tragedy, Huffington Post has published a list of organizations that can use your help. I think the need for mental health services will be tremendous going forward, so we're sending a few bucks to the Aurora Mental Health Center.

A young mother, 21 year old Sharaha Marie Darisse, (right) was charged with abandoning and endangering a child after leaving a toddler in a car seat yesterday at a Lewisville Walmart on Round Grove Road. Temperatures reached 107 degrees Saturday, setting a new record, breaking the previous 105 set in 1939. Police were told that the child had been in the car for 30 minutes* with the vehicle off and windows cracked, and was not looking good. Paramedics also responded.

A store security officer had opened the car at about 7:45 p.m., but was afraid to remove the child. Darisse came out of the store and started yelling at security. She was arrested at the scene after a short investigation and held overnight in Lewisville jail on $5,000 bond.

We are told that the child was okay, and went home with the father. *Update: Police said the child had been in the car for about 15 minutes.

The big news this week in North Texas has been that invasive zebra mussels have now been found in Lake Ray Roberts, which is upstream from Lewisville Lake. Our drinking water source now is at risk for a seemingly inevitable invasion by the bivalve pests, which clog water intakes and stick to hard surfaces, causing maintenance hassles and increased costs for water plants and boaters. Denton Record Chronicle has more.

Congressman Michael Burgess has introduced a bill to once again delay SGR cuts to Medicare reimbursements. It's time to put politics aside and solve this problem permanently so that seniors can access medical care, and doctors can see them without losing money.



This kind of sounds like a bad idea.