Wednesday Open Thread [1.30.13]

Um, where the hell did January go? Seriously, I was just ringing in the New Year a couple of days ago. What the hell?

Your domestic cat is a vicious hell beast that wants to kill everything it sees.

In a report that scaled up local surveys and pilot studies to national dimensions, scientists from the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that domestic cats in the United States — both the pet Fluffies that spend part of the day outdoors and the unnamed strays and ferals that never leave it — kill a median of 2.4 billion birds and 12.3 billion mammals a year, most of them native mammals like shrews, chipmunks and voles rather than introduced pests like the Norway rat.

This is horrifying, yet all to indicative of cowardly old racist gun owners:

Rodrigo Diaz, 22, was driving around with his girlfriend and two friends when he pulled into a driveway, thinking they had arrived at another friend’s house, his brother says. But instead he pulled into the driveway of Phillip Sailors, 69, who thought his home was being robbed, his lawyer says. Sailors then shot Diaz, according to the police report, citing what Sailors told officers at the scene. Diaz later died after surgery.

“Basically, what happened is they were looking for one of my brother’s girlfriend’s friends,” says his brother David E. Diaz-Valencia, 23. “The guy came outside […] screaming, ‘Get off my property!’ and he shot into the air. My brother was backing out fast because he was scared and he rolled down the window to say he was sorry and he was not doing anything wrong. Then the guy shot him in his head.”

Phillip Sailors should be convicted of murder. This was not self defense. He was not in imminent fear of bodily harm by any standard. Sadly, it is unlikely he will be executed.

What was the best thing to happen yesterday? Eric Erickson, James Carville and Mary Matalin all got tossed over board by CNN. It was a long time coming. Now if they can only get rid of Wolf “I LOUDLY REPEAT EVERY SENTENCE TWICE AND USUALLY INCORRECTLY” Blitzer, and then CNN might be watchable again.

William J. Adami, one of Delaware’s top advocates for those with disabilities after 22 years with the the Easter Seals, most recently as its president and chief executive officer, died Monday morning at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia after a courageous 8 month battle with cancer. He was only 56.

“Yesterday we had to get rid of our guns. Today we gotta grant amnesty… They’re running the no-huddle offense on us. We don’t even have time to catch our breath. They’re running play after play after play.”

That is Rush Limbaugh, on his radio show yesterday. Good. That is how I like my football teams, and my political parties and Presidents, to play.