Yesterday, yours truly had the pleasure of being trapped in the midst of Atlanta's very own Snowmageddon. A couple of inches of snow and scads of ice turned a 30-minute trip into a seven-hour ordeal. But at least I didn't have to spend the night in a grocery store or a school, as hundreds had to overnight.
The above shot is I-75 facing northbound, a ghost town compared to last night. Meanwhile...
- It doesn't take much for black Americans to lose their lives in these United States. For instance, all you have to do is inspect a shed on your newly-purchased property:
A man from Barboursville, W.Va., fatally shot his new neighbor and the neighbor’s brother without warning as the two men were inspecting their property, New York's Daily News reports.
Rodney Bruce Black, 62, told authorities that he thought his victims were breaking into a building he owned. However, although the building is on land that once belonged to Black’s family, that was not the case anymore.
One of the victims, Garrick Hopkins, 60, and his wife had just purchased the property next door to Black and were planning to build a house within the next few weeks, Sheriff Tom McComas told the Daily News on Monday. Hopkins invited his brother, Carl, who was 61, to inspect the property with him Saturday afternoon.
Black saw the two men looking into a shed and, allegedly without warning or calling the police, took his rifle and fired at the men. They died at the site. Both men leave behind their wives and children.
Of course, race isn't being factored into the shooting.
- Then again, it doesn't take much for anyone to lose their life, these days. Could you imagine getting killed over poetry?
- The parents of this seven-year-old girl are thankful their child wasn't killed behind this:
7-year-old girl suffered a mild concussion after she was beaten unconscious by four boys at Thomas Claggett Elementary School in District Heights, Md., on Tuesday, Fox 5 reports.
The incident occurred during a recess in the school's gym, into which 75 students were allegedly crammed, with only about five teachers supervising the crowd. The teachers apparently did not see the attack.
The girl was taken to the Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., where she was diagnosed with a mild concussion.
Needless to say, her parents are outraged and can't fathom how this could have happened, the news site reports.
"That's my baby. I bring her to school and that's the last thing I expect is a phone call informing me that my daughter is unconscious," the girl’s mother, Phersephone Holland, told the station.
Her father, Rodney Smyers, said this was not the first time his daughter had been bullied and attacked at the school, having come home with bruises before.
"One incident, she came home, she had a split in her lip," he said, acknowledging that he had not expected school officials to allow the situation to get this out of hand. "It's an ongoing problem."
An ongoing problem that school officials apparently won't take seriously until someone dies or lawyers get involved. I say it's past time for the parents to open a can of legal whup-ass on the school district.
- Remember the as-of-yet unidentified 18-year-old who flung racial insults at Kim Kardashian, resulting in a quick laying of hands by Rev. Kanye West of the Church of Yeezus? Guy's looking for a cash settlement. Figures.
- Unlike most people, I could care less about what Justin Bieber's doing. Whatever it is, he'll get off lightly and not miss a beat.
- I could also care less about some white Russian socialite making an ass of herself. The only lesson she'll learn from this is how to hide her fetish for "ethnic furniture" a bit better.
- Contrary to what designated bleach-blonde talking head Martha MacCallum thinks, the solution to sky-high arrest rates for minorities isn't abstinence from demon weed.
- Twitter finally sees Black Twitter. As a potential cash cow. Funny how certain black issues, activities and products only get recognized when someone finally figures out how to make money off of them.
- In his State of the Union address, President Obama threatened to veto a new sanctions bill for Iran, in light of careful negotiations over that nation's nuclear program:
“The sanctions that we put in place helped make this opportunity possible,” he said, but added, “let me be clear: if this Congress sends me a new sanctions bill now that threatens to derail these talks, I will veto it. For the sake of our national security, we must give diplomacy a chance to succeed.”
Which sent the co-sponsor of said bill, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) walking sideways away from it:
“I did not sign it with the intention that it would ever be voted upon or used upon while we’re negotiating,” he told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. “I signed it because I wanted to make sure the president had a hammer if he needed it and showed him how determined we were to do it and use it if we had to. But with that being said we’ve got to give peace a chance here and we’ve got to support this process.”
Introducing a new set of sanctions on Iran in the middle of diplomatic talks smacks of the highest levels of stupid.
To those in the Atlanta metro area, stay warm and stay safe. Winter Storm Leon's work isn't done just yet and the state of Georgia is still under a state of emergency.
