"The shooter did not miss his intended target and did not chamber another round, leaving the spent cartridge in the rifle."

Wrote the lawyers for Tyler Robinson, quoted in "Charlie Kirk Suspect Fights Death Penalty, Says No Others Were in Danger/Prosecutors say they can seek the death penalty against Tyler Robinson because he also endangered people near Charlie Kirk, who was shot in the throat last year. Mr. Robinson’s lawyers note that the gunman struck only his target" (NYT gift link).

"She was trying to find the humor in her own story, that of an American parent, but one who had been wrongly held in a prison in Italy for years..."

"... for the 2007 murder of her roommate when both women were studying abroad there. But the sold-out audience, 150-strong, at first only occasionally tittered at her gags about life in prison, tabloid infamy and the idiosyncrasies of child-rearing.Then, she told a joke about her daughter’s favorite game. It’s called 'Momma goes to Italy,' Knox said. In the game, her daughter grabs the bars of a jungle gym at their local playground and screams, 'Let me out! Let me out!' Knox mimed a wild-eyed convict desperately grabbing the bars of a prison cell. The audience’s snickers turned into the night’s first belly laugh."

From "Amanda Knox Takes the Stage, Reclaiming Her Story Through Comedy/In a solo show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Knox is trying to turn her tabloid infamy into stand-up humor, despite an intense backlash" (NYT gift link).

"These MAGA mouthpieces complaining about Candace Owens are just getting a taste of their own medicine."

That's the top-rated comment at the Washington Post article, "Conspiracy theories about Charlie Kirk’s death are still raging, infuriating friends/Right-wing influencers sparred over the case this week as a court hearing laid out detailed evidence in Kirk’s shooting" (gift link).

"Firefighters used ropes to rescue her and the couple’s two children, a 7-year-old girl and a 4-year-old boy, from the mangled Tesla."

"The children were uninjured, the authorities said at the time. The California Highway Patrol quickly determined the crash had been 'an intentional act.'"

From "Charges Against Man Who Drove Family Off Cliff Are Dropped After Treatment/Three counts of attempted murder against Dharmesh A. Patel were dismissed after he completed a court-ordered mental health program, prosecutors said" (NYT).

It was a 250-foot drop.

"'He can drive home tonight,' said [Steve Wagstaffe, the San Mateo County district attorney], whose office opposed the diversion program and had asked the court to bring Mr. Patel to trial. 'It’s like the case never happened.'"

"Casper weighed a little over 104 pounds at the time, which means the boy — who was 4 feet 2 inches tall when he died — gained roughly 150 pounds in less than two years. His diet consisted largely of potato chips and French fries...."

From "Michigan Couple Are Charged With Murder After Death of Morbidly Obese Son/Seven-year-old Casper O’Brien weighed 255 pounds when he died last year. Prosecutors said he was bedridden and subsisted on little more than snack foods" (NYT).

"Last Friday Kuzovkov protested outside the Russian embassy in Berlin with a satirical painting of Putin and Joseph Stalin."

"It depicted a tiny Putin sitting on Stalin’s lap. He also stuffed a Russian flag into a bin during the protest, which was staged on the Russia Day national holiday.... On Saturday Kuzovkov posted a painting on Telegram showing [Chechen leader Ramzan] Kadyrov and his teenage son, Adam, as pigs. His work included sexually explicit images of Kadyrov that suggested the Chechen leader was gay. He also mocked Apti Alaudinov, the commander of Chechnya’s Akhmat special forces unit...."

From "He made Putin look grotesque. A gunman shot him dead in a car park/Two Belarusians have been arrested over the killing of Robert Kuzovkov in Poland. The case may be murkier than it first appears" (London Times).

  

"I even talked to her. I have a habit of joking and saying, ‘Nobody dies on my shift.’ And I told her, 'Duda [Eduarda], nobody dies on my shift.' Even though I wasn’t on my shift there."

Said a nurse named Rayza Dias, quoted in "Bungee jumper who plunged from 130-foot bridge without a cord was still alive when she was found, nurse reveals" (NY Post).

From the comments over there: "I just don't get how not one but two [actually, three] bungee 'professionals' can literally be carrying a jumper across the platform and fail to notice there is no bungee cord attached to the jumper! Then again, how can a jumper fail to notice there is no bungee cord attached to themself? BTW, does anyone know how common it is for jumpers to be carried and tossed off the platform vs. jumpers walking the platform and diving off it on their own steam?"

"I am the son of man. I just killed the man of sin."

Said the voice on the 911 call, quoted in "James Handy, Veteran Actor, Is Stabbed to Death/The 81-year-old actor had parts in films including 'Top Gun: Maverick' and 'Arachnophobia.' The son of his girlfriend was arrested and charged with murder" (NYT).

The suspect, Michael Gledhill, who lived at the home with his mother, flagged down police officers and told them he was the person they were looking for, the police said.

"Surveillance footage showed two people dousing a vehicle with gasoline and blocking the doors as the vehicle and its passengers burned."

"One person managed to escape the vehicle and has been speaking to Italian news media about the harrowing event. Mohammad Taj Alamyar, 35, who is originally from Afghanistan, told investigators that he and the four others, who were from Afghanistan and Pakistan, had been working on the region’s strawberry harvests. He said they had asked the men who had arranged their work and accommodations, and who were driving them back from a shift on a farm after work, about wages that had been withheld, prompting the violent response...."

From "Four Men Are Burned to Death in Italy, Highlighting Abuse of Foreign Workers/The immigrants had been working as fruit pickers in southern Italy, the authorities said, apparently as part of a system of criminal labor trafficking" (NYT).

"The San Diego mosque shooters were 'radicalized online,' cops say — as it’s revealed they wore Nazi symbols and etched racist statements on their gear..."

"... as they opened fire outside an Islamic Center, killing three people in the process. The two teens 'did not discriminate on who they hated,' law enforcement officials said in a press conference Tuesday, adding they had recovered over 30 guns and a crossbow in connection to the suspects. A livestream video of the horrific attack, currently being probed by the FBI, shows Cain Clark with a Black Sun symbol, which is associated with Nazi Germany, square on his chest. Nazi SS commander Heinrich Himmler had the symbol inlaid into the floor of the Wewelsburg castle. Another symbol associated with a small online neo-Nazi group, the Atomwaffen Division, can also be seen on one of the shooters’ shoulders. Atomwaffen is the German phrase for 'atomic weapons.' Also seen on the handgun of one of the shooters is the statement, 'race war now,' right above a swastika. Neo-nazis and white nationalists are known for promoting race wars to overthrow the government or create a white ethnostate...."

The NY Post reports, in "San Diego mosque shooters were ‘radicalized online,’ wore Nazi symbols, inscribed vile 3-word message on guns."

"Former Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax shot and killed his wife inside of their home and then shot and killed himself."

So say local police, quoted in "Former Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax kills wife, self amid divorce proceedings, police say/Fairfax served as lieutenant governor from 2018 to 2022 and previously ran for governor of Virginia" (NBC News).

The former lieutenant governor, who was 47, served in the role from 2018 to 2022 under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. In 2019, two women accused Fairfax of sexual assault years earlier, prompting Virginia Democrats to call for his resignation.... 

When he ran in the Democratic primary for governor in 2021, Fairfax, who was Black, said during the gubernatorial debate he was treated like George Floyd and Emmett Till when Democrats immediately called for his resignation after the women made the allegations.

"A Visit to the Unabomber Cabin, 30 Years After the Arrest/A complicated piece of American heritage and culture sits intact in the F.B.I. headquarters."

This NYT article is inspiring 2 types of response response from commenters over there.

The first type:

Although this was quite the story 30 years ago, I have no interest in preserving this structure and potentially romanticizing or mythologizing it like we did with the outlaw murderer, Jesse James. Please don't speak of this killers hut in the same breath as Thoreau's or Lincoln's cabins. I say put a match to it and post the video. 

 The second:

Saying this may put me on a list, but everyone should read his manifesto, "Industrial Society and its Future." It's one of the most compelling and profound analyses of what ails the modern world I've ever read. Just to be clear: just because his ideas are worth engaging with doesn't remotely justify his barbaric crimes.

"Did this really happen?"

I asked Grok about this, a sentimental story about a stolen mail-truck getting reconfigured into a library and parked permanently in the forest.

Grok was all: "Yes, this story really happened—it's based on a genuine (and pretty wholesome) incident in Montana.... This matches real-world reports of the event.... It's the kind of charming, low-key tale that spreads because it's quirky and heartwarming...."

I said, "I was going to call bullshit on that. What does that say about me?"

Grok: "It says you're a healthy skeptic..." etc. etc.

Me: "How do you know I'm not a diseased skeptic?"

I didn't read Grok's long answer. I said: "Blah blah blah. You should have just said I'm such a healthy skeptic I'm even healthily skeptical about whether I'm a healthy skeptic."

IN THE COMMENTS: tim maguire wants to know, "Do we stop caring about the theft because it has books in it?" I say, "I'll ask Grok to write a murder mystery where the murderer hollows out the torso and installs a couple shelves and lines up some classic novels — murder mysteries. When the body is discovered, it's deemed so damned sweet that the death is chalked up as natural causes."

Grok complies:

"The American Cornhole League said in 2023 that Webber was a 'shining example of our slogan — anyone can play, anyone can win.'"

That's the last line of a Fox10 article with the headline "Quadruple-amputee cornhole player accused of shooting man to death during argument."

Dayton James Webber, 27, is a professional cornhole player. He was 10 months old when he had a blood infection that cost him his limbs.

It's hard to picture a quadruple amputee shooting a gun, but we are told that he was also driving a car, he shot the front-seat passenger, and there were also backseat passengers, and when they got out of the car and declined to pull the victim out of the car for him, Webber drove off with the victim still in the front seat.

And so it goes for the shining example of the notion that anyone can do anything.

By the way, who knew there was a professional cornhole league?

"I swear to God if I were a young woman today I would choose celibacy over having the government in charge of my body. Stripping woman of the right to bodily autonomy is in itself a form of rape."

So writes one commenter at the Washington Post article "Woman charged with murder after allegedly taking abortion pills, going to hospital/The 31-year-old Georgia woman went to the emergency room with severe pain after allegedly taking abortion pills at home, according to police and court records."

We're told "Alexia Moore delivered a 22- to 24-week-old fetus 'with cardiac activity' in December, according to an arrest warrant, which cited Moore’s medical records. The newborn, a girl, died within an hour."

Delivered a fetus? The child was born alive, then died. I think they mean that they detected cardiac activity while it was in utero, so they delivered what was, on delivery, a baby.

"Aaron Spencer, who won the Lonoke County [Arkansas] primary race on Tuesday, is accused of shooting the man who allegedly sexually assaulted his 14-year-old daughter."

"He’s awaiting trial for murder. His town wants him to be sheriff" (London Times).

In the early hours of October 8, 2024, Spencer awoke to find his daughter missing from their home. His wife called 911 while he drove around looking for her. He spotted his child in the passenger seat of Fosler’s truck, followed the vehicle and forced it off the highway. After both men exited their cars, Spencer shot and killed him, court records allege. Prosecutors say Spencer shot Fosler 15 times and then “pistol-whipped” him in the face. Court records say he then called 911, stating: “Michael Fosler is f***ing dead on the side of the road for trying to kidnap my daughter. I had no choice.”

"I imagine that had they survived, Rob and Michele would be more heartbroken than furious."

"I do not think they would have wanted to see their son castigated as he has been.... Even in conversation with me, a person they had dined with only a few times, Rob and Michele Reiner recognized the depth of their son’s suffering as a call for their own compassion, and they recognized that Nick’s behavior was often outside his control.... The law proposes that he either knew, or could not know, right from wrong. But psychotic logic does not translate this way.... [H]is crime is itself his punishment; the horror of awakening to one’s own psychotic acts exceeds any third-party punishment. Under the Trump administration, aggressive 'justice' and judgmental positions that ignore scientific expertise are in fashion.... His case will be heard in California, where, one can hope, understanding of human suffering can still sometimes outstrip rageful cruelty. Nick Reiner’s parents were not vengeful people; no one need be vengeful on their behalf."

Writes Andrew Solomon, a professor of medical clinical psychology, in "My Hope for Nick Reiner" (NYT).

"By protecting the lives of preborn children with the same laws that protect people who are born, we are simply loving our neighbors in the womb as ourselves."

Said Southern Baptist Convention President Clint Pressley, quoted in "TN bill would allow death penalty for women who have an abortion/Tennessee has some of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country. The Human Life Protection Act prohibits all abortions from fertilization, without exceptions for rape or incest" (The Tennesseean).

Two Tennessee Republicans are seeking to impose the death penalty on women who have abortions, requiring the same penalties for women “involved in the homicide of her own unborn child” as defendants charged with homicide.... The bill specifically removes legal protections for pregnant women currently in statute, and classifies harm done to an unborn child as equal to assault on a person "born alive."

It would not apply to “a spontaneous miscarriage,” or to “unintentional death of an unborn child” after “undertaking life-saving procedures” to save the life of the mother and “to save the life of the unborn child.” No other exceptions are specified in the amendment text....

Imagine an oral argument in our current Supreme Court on the question whether the death penalty for abortion is cruel and unusual punishment. I suspect you'll want to say it will never come to that. 

"A shooter described as a 'female in a dress' killed nine people in a remote part of Canada on Tuesday."

"Seven people died after being shot at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School in British Columbia, while two more people were found dead at a nearby home. Another 27 people were hurt.... An alert was issued about an active shooter at the school.... The suspect was described in the alert as a 'female in a dress.' The local police superintendent later described the suspect as a 'gunperson' in a press briefing, without giving further details about their identity.... 'An individual believed to be the shooter was also found deceased with what appears to be a self-inflicted injury'.... Supt Ken Floyd, of the RCMP, later confirmed to reporters that the description of the subject in the police alert was accurate and that they had identified the suspect...."

From "'Female in dress' kills nine in school shooting/Suspect in Canada’s worst school massacre for 30 years described as 'gunperson'" (The Telegraph).

I'm seeing some commentary about the seeming oddity of saying "female in a dress" and "gunperson." Why not say "woman"? "Female in a dress" was the language of the alert, and it looks like typical police talk to say "male" or "female" instead of "man" or "woman." And police reports tend to have very brief factual statement about the suspect's clothing. That's enough to get you to "female in a dress." What about "gunperson"? Why not "gunwoman"? Who says "gunwoman"? It just doesn't feel colloquial. So let's not be too quick to put this terrible murder into the conventional mockery of wokesters who can't define "woman."

I'm not saying "gunwoman" isn't a word. It's in the OED. And here it is in a New York Times headline from 1923:

"Mr. Routh, a former roofer from Greensboro, N.C., never fired a shot during the thwarted assassination attempt on Sept. 15, 2024..."

"... a fact that his lawyer, Martin L. Roth, emphasized on Wednesday. A Secret Service agent spotted him outside a fence near the sixth hole while Mr. Trump was golfing nearby. The agent fired; Mr. Routh fled in his car and was caught shortly after.... Mr. Roth asked the court to consider setting aside the sentencing guidelines and instead sentence his client to 27 years in prison.... 'Defendant would be in custody into his 80s and would not pose any threat to cause harm to the public,' Mr. Roth wrote. On Wednesday, he described Mr. Routh as 'troubled,' but said he had 'a very good core.'... Mr. Routh told the judge before his sentencing on Wednesday that he was a do-gooder, saying, 'I’ve given every drop of who I am, every day, for the benefit of our nation.'"

From "Man Convicted of Trying to Assassinate Trump Gets Life Sentence/Federal prosecutors told the judge that Ryan Routh had 'plotted painstakingly' to ambush Donald J. Trump in 2024 at his golf course near West Palm Beach" (NYT).

Don't all assassins portray themselves as do-gooders?

I asked Grok. Full answer here. I'll just quote what Charles J. Guiteau, President Garfield's assassin, said after he was condemned to death: "I know where I stand on this business. I am here as God's man and don't you forget it."