] MERIDIAN, Mississippi (CNN) -- A worker armed with a
] shotgun and a rifle went on a rampage at a Mississippi
] aircraft plant Tuesday morning, killing five co-workers
] and wounding eight others before killing himself,
] authorities said.
]
] Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie said the gunman
] was Douglas Williams, 48, a worker at the Lockheed Martin
] plant on the northeastern outskirts of Meridian, about
] 200 miles north of New Orleans.
]
] He said Williams opened fire during an employee meeting
] at about 10 a.m. Tuesday [11 a.m. EDT]. A company
] official said the gathering was a required annual
] business ethics course.

Oh my God, I can TOTALLY see this happening here.. I can name 5 people in my dept. right now who I see doing this very same thing.

I particularly like that it occurred during the business ethics course. I feel that way during ethics meetings.

Government contract workers are very stressed. Don't mess with them.

Workplace shooter described as 'angry' man

] HEMMER: Let me stop you a second. Was your son found with
] any of your weapons? Any of your ammunition?
]
] LOVETT: That's all they were found with. That's all they
] had. He's never had -- never once let on like he was
] interested in firing a gun. He's never fired a gun. And I
] don't think he would know what ammunition to put in what
] chamber. ...
]
] I've never trained him. I never had time to take him out
] to shoot. And he was just never interested in guns. And I
] was glad that he wasn't.

Way to pay attention to your kid, asshole.. "He was never interested in guns".

Father defends son accused in deadly plot

] Former Republican Sen. J. Strom Thurmond of South
] Carolina, the longest-serving member of the upper house
] of Congress, died Thursday night. He was 100.

For real, or did CNN just accidentally post his obit prematurely again?

Strom Thurmond dead at 100

Laughing Boy wrote:
] ] Young girls at a mixed primary school in Somerset have
] ] been banned from wearing thongs and G-strings after the
] ] headteacher deemed them "inappropriate".
] ]
] ] Concerned Anna Roxburgh, head of Hamp Community Primary
] ] School in Bridgwater, wrote a letter to parents after she
] ] saw four 11-year-olds wearing the risqué underwear while
] ] changing after sport.
] ]
] ] She said the "revealing" items could lead to "possible
] ] embarrassment" if they fall over in the playground or are
] ] spotted by boys.
] ]
] ] Although some parents slammed her decision, the move was
] ] welcomed by children's welfare charity Kidscape which in
] ] the past has campaigned for the withdrawal of sexy
] ] underwear for pre-teens.
]
] OK... what kind of parent lets their 11 year old wear a thong?
] Never mind - likely the same type of parent like Patsy Ramsey
] that lets her 7 year old daughter be in swimsuit competitons
] for beauty pagents. It's just plain sick - and people wonder
] how/why peophiles exist?

] What the hell is wrong with people?
] Laughing Boy

RE: UK: Headteacher Bans Young Pupils From Wearing Thongs

] WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cartoon characters Bugs Bunny and
] Daffy Duck will be used in public service messages
] educating Cambodians about land mines, the State
] Department said Wednesday.

Bugs Bunny to warn about land mines

] The 11,000 poets whose work is published on this site
] were part of the largest outcry of poets in history
] against the war. After the fall of Baghdad and other
] Iraqi cities, and as the fighting winds down, it is
] important for us to celebrate this eloquent demand for
] peace, and to pledge ourselves to continue this work for
] peace. We'd like to invite you to join us in a special
] event on the first of May -- a celebration of the voices
] of the many poets worldwide who contributed this spring
] to the poetsagainstthewar.org web site.

Poets Against the War

] An American citizen detained for more than a month as a
] material witness in a terrorism case in Oregon was
] charged today with plotting to fight against American
] soldiers in Afghanistan.
]
] The American, Maher Hawash, a 38-year-old software
] designer in Portland, was accused of conspiring with a
] group of six others who had already been charged with
] trying to provide material support to Al Qaeda and the
] Taliban.

Hawash Charged With Plotting to Fight U.S. in Afghanistan

] UMM QASR, Iraq -- Ahmed Ali believes Saddam Hussein can
] never die. All his life, the 23-year-old laborer has
] heard about the dictator's powerful stone.
]
] Saddam, the story goes, had the stone made shortly
] after he came to power 24 years ago. Its powers were
] first tested inside a chicken. One of his soldiers pulled
] out a gun and shot at point-blank range. The chicken's
] feathers fell off, but it lived.
]
] So the dictator implanted the stone in his upper arm.
]
] As the curtain falls on Saddam's reign, many ordinary
] Iraqis are reluctant to believe that their much-feared
] dictator has lost power, much less that he is actually
] dead. Stories abound of Saddam's mystical powers that
] have helped him elude assassination attempts and missile
] strikes.
]
] "The stone makes him bulletproof," Ali, a slim man
] with a Saddam-style moustache, said in a serious voice.

Talk about urban legends . . .

Myths About Saddam Fuel the Fears of Iraqis

] Thousands of people are responding to pleas having seen
] pictures of 12-year-old Ali Ismaeel Abbas lying in a
] hospital bed after a missile hit his family's home in the
] Diala Bridge district east of Baghdad.
]
] "Can you help get my arms back? Do you think the doctors
] can get me another pair of hands?" Ali, who wanted to
] become a doctor, had asked from Baghdad's Kindi Hospital.
] (Full story)
]
] "If I don't get a pair of hands, I will commit suicide,"
] he told a Reuters reporter.

At first when I read this, I thought that anyone who would say such a thing ("if I don't get a pair of hands, I will commit suicide") must be crazy, but then I got to thinking about it. How would I feel if I were missing limbs? Missing one, I could maybe live with. And of course, living in the good ol' US of A, I could get the medical treatment necessary to get, say, a prosthetic limb. Also, I have education and skills enough that I could get and maintain a job.. maybe not my current one if I couldn't type (actually my union would find me a job. woohoo!), but I could probably get the training to be able to learn to type again. But imagine being this child... imagine having NO hands, and living in Iraq.. what are his chances to live a normal life? (hell, after this war is over, what are his chances of living a normal life even if he hadn't lost most of his family and his arms?) Practically none. So after thinking of all this, I can see the poor boy's plight. I'd probably see no reason to go on either.

Think about how many children are facing/will be facing this same issue.

Yes, we may get the dictator out of power, and yes, Ali and all the others will never have to worry about chemical baths and electrocution again, but will his society ever be able to accept him? Not all countries are tolerant of people who are disfigured.

I'd probably want to kill myself too.

Ali's plea prompts huge response

] What started as an April Fool's joke involving bad
] grammar landed seven people in jail Tuesday.
]
] Sturgis police arrested seven Sturgis men for placing
] more than 20 threatening letters on various businesses,
] schools, banks and at the post office. At least 12 signs
] were posted Monday morning. Another 20 were put up
] Tuesday evening, according to Sturgis police.
]
] The letters all read "All your base are belong to us and
] you have no chance to survive, make your time."

'All Your Base' Signs Land Seven in Court