• From the “Big Government” Department – The governor of Missouri has called out the National Guard in response to renewed strife in the Saint Louis suburb of Ferguson.  I’m curious to see if the actual soldiers are as well equipped as the county police that showed up earlier in the crisis.  My gut tells me that they won’t have as much body armor and night vision, and their MRAP’s, if they even have them, won’t be as polished and clean.  Of course, they will be wearing camouflage for a reason.
• From the “Pros from Dover” Department – In related news, Arabs in Gaza are tweeting pointers to the rioters in Ferguson.  Advice on how to deal with tear gas and rubber bullets are intermixed with encouraging words.  You know, if you’re going to have to stand up to police when you’re burning down gas stations and looting businesses that don’t have armed people in front of them, you could do worse than to listen to those guys.
• From the “Bad Law” Department – A man in Texas is about to go on trial for the murder of the drunk driver who killed two of his children.  It is alleged that the gentleman went to his home after the accident, got a gun, and killed the man who ran down his sons while they were pushing a car down a dark road.  The gun in the case has never been found, the accused had no gunshot residue on him after the shooting, and no witness has come forward to say that he was the one who killed the decedent.  Prosecutors seem to be basing their case on the fact that the father was seen at the scene of the accident that killed his sons, and that he had bullets in his house that were of the same type and caliber of the ones used to kill the drunk driver.  Why the prosecutors are taking such flimsy evidence to trial is beyond me.  This smacks of “yeah, probably, but can you prove it?” to me.
• From the “Bad Things” Department – A police department in Illinois is under fire after two M-16A1 assault rifles (And yes, in this circumstance, that term is appropriate), which the department received from the federal government, went missing.  It appears that Officers Harpo, Chico, and Groucho have no idea who had access to the rifles, who lost the rifles, and when they lost them.  Now, Illinois is one of those states that have pretty onerous licensing of guns and gun owners.  What would happen to one of the common plebs if they couldn’t account for the whereabouts of their guns?
• From the “Par for the Course” Department – The mayor of Monticello, New York, has been arrested on corruption charges, along with the cities building inspector.  The mayor was a member of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, so him being accused of a crime follows a pattern followed by other MAIG members.  Honestly, if I was on a jury, and was told that the accused was an active member of MAIG, I’d give that information the same weight as I would if I were told they were a member of MS-13.
• From the “Same As It Ever Was” Department – Over the weekend an isolation facility in Liberia was ransacked and many of its patients, who were being screened for Ebola, fled into the neighboring slum.  Some of those patients have come to other hospitals, but it is unknown how many people they have come into contact with and subsequently put at risk for hemorrhagic fever.  Additionally, it is unknown how many looters have infected themselves by using equipment, including mattresses and bedding, which they stole from the isolation facility.  If you’ve seen this movie before, you’ll understand why I’m hoping international flights out of Liberia and the other countries dealing with the epidemic become very rare and very controlled.
• From the “Just Happy To See Me” Department – A man in New Mexico was arrested after a police officer noticed a meth pipe in his waistband.  The man had asked the officer for help after a bug flew into his eye, but having drug paraphernalia in plain sight led to a search, which led to drugs and other pipe, as well as a two-foot sword.  The sword was being carried down the suspect’s leg, which leads to questions of a sheath, but I’ll let you go down that path yourself.
• From the “Familiar Story” Department – A man in Florida, who makes his living as a player in the only real sport in North America, was arrested recently after police found cocaine in the back pocket of his jeans.  The man claims to be shocked, yes, shocked I say, that there were drugs in his pants, since he had been wearing them for three days and had no idea how it got there.  His cousin Mookie and the criminal mastermind Sumdood were unavailable for comment.

So, apparently a new horror movie is coming out, and some jackass decided that Louisville ought to have an event that commemorated the idea of the movie.  Apparently, in the movie, there is a period of time every so often where all laws are suspended, meaning that people can rape, rob, murder, and loot to their heart’s content, and everyone is responsible for their own defense.  For those of us who don’t live in Detroit or Oakland, this is supposed to be scary.

Anyway, a Twitter post saying that Louisville ought to have their own ‘purge’, and the media has picked it up and is running with it like their hair was on fire.  To tell you how shrill the alarmists have been, a football scrimmage and a minor league baseball game are being changed so that they don’t coincide with the 8PM to 6 AM period when people are expected to lose their damned minds and burn the River City to its foundations.

So, because some twit decided to slash a photoshopped DVD cover on social media, the newsies and city fathers are cautioning people to be vigilant.  Irish Woman, who normally has a very good head on her shoulders, has asked me to make sure that the shotgun and pistols are ready to go, and when I jokingly asked if I could get the AR out of the safe, she told me that was a good idea.

What can we learn from this?  Well, we now know that you can get at least a small percentage of Americans to freak out if you can get ominously threatening Twitter posts to go viral.  Imagine if a terrorist organization wanted to mess with us at almost no cost.  All they would have to do is have a few people drop warnings that on Wednesday at 8 PM Eastern, something bad was going to happen.  They could then pop a bag of halal popcorn, sit back, and watch people get spun up.  Do that a few times, and the populace will become indifferent to them.  Then, you issue the warning, and actually do something.  After that, all it will take is a hint of something on social media, and the country will lock itself behind doors and order pizza.

People, we need to get a grip.  My guess is that, at most, we are looking at a few goobers in cheap plastic masks going booga-booga downtown.  There might be some vandalism, and they might mixed up with the normal bands of roving ‘youths’ who spend their warm summer nights knocking over liquor stores and old ladies.

As for me, I’ll be at home, enjoying my pizza, and doing a function check on the AR, just to make my wife feel better.  After that, I’m going to have a discussion with her about risk management, and go to bed.

If I’m wrong, I’ll see you all on the national news.