Monday Morning Musings

On Saturday afternoon, Gene Atkins shot his grandmother seven times following an argument.  Then he kidnapped his girlfriend and sped away in his grandmother's car.  A police pursuit ensued during which he fired at police through the rear windshield of the car.  He crashed near a Trader Joe's in the Silverlake area.  More shots were fired as he headed inside.  The manager of the store, Melyda Corado was shot and killed in this exchange of gunfire.  Atkins eventually surrenders.

Now the Monday morning quarterbacking begins.  Should police have returned fire when there were bystanders in the field of fire?  Was Ms Corado slain by a shot from Atkins or by police officers returning fire?

It is most definitely a bad choice for cops to hold fire, or return fire in that situation.  I remember my military law enforcement trainer talking about this very scenario.  "Your choices in this situation are bad and worse.  And you won't know which is which until after the dust settles."  Even if it turns out that this woman was killed by a bullet fired by a cop, I won't condemn or criticize that cop.  He or she was trying to save lives.

* * *

When will adults learn?  When someone tosses a ball to a kid, don't steal it.  Fortunately, the Chicago Cubs stepped up and got the kid an autographed baseball.

But here's the thing.  What's not on this video is that a few innings earlier, the man who took this ball helped the little boy get a game ball.  Photos of the boy with both baseballs showed up after the game.  Seems he's not such a bad guy after all.  Unlike this woman.

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It is Monday morning and I'm extremely exhausted.  Played trivia Friday night, Saturday afternoon and early evening and most of yesterday afternoon.  All three events required drives of 80 miles or more, round-trip.  I can't call in sick to work today in spite of how I'm feeling because I have a number of clients coming in today.

Time to "power through" another long day.  At least we were victorious in the big one on Sunday, where my four teammates and I split the $1,000 first prize.

* * *

The first Guardians of the Galaxy movie was released in 2014.  The "offensive" tweets from the film's director James Gunn were sent out between 2008 and 2011.  The production budget for the first Guardians movie was just under $200 million, but it ran over and came in at over $230 million.

Given the financial commitment involved in making this movie, and the risks involved, why didn't Disney make sure there were no "skeletons" in James Gunn's background?  Did they know about these tweets and ignore them?  Did no one discover them between the time the first film was a big hit in 2014 and the sequel was released in 2017?

I'm beginning to think that high schools and colleges should offer courses in the risks of using social media.

* * *

Random Ponderings:

I can't quite make the connection between Donald Trump talking about Vladimir Putin's denial of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election was "strong" but in a later interview Trump claims to have told Putin "...we can't have meddling."  Why would he need to say that in the face of that strong denial?

Kudos to Taylor Swift for not canceling an outdoor concert when it began pouring rain.

I will admit to having been pleased to see Equalizer 2 edge out Mamma Mia 2 at the box office.  Both films did well, but it's nice to see Denzel Washington on top.

Revoking security clearances for cause is okay.  Revoking security clearances because someone is criticizing you is not.

I enjoyed some of the films from Sacha Baron Cohen.  I won't watch his Showtime series though.

Is anyone surprised that Stormy Daniels' husband is alleging she cheated on him?