Listen up, zebras! You try to escape, and you die!

A zebra who escaped from a circus was euthanized. In other words, killed.

Put some excitement into your life

Because you really could die of boredom.

Killer movie

How many films have killed at the box office? We know of one for sure - Avatar.

Very few people in this world know the day and hour of Death's visit

John A. Muhammad is among those who knew. Unlike his victims, who had no idea that Death would be calling on them.

Beauty and Joy in the face of Death

Thanks to the Jollyblogger for pointing us this moving set of pictures, chronicling the very brief marriage of Katie and Nick.

Columbine Revisited

A decade has past since Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on their murderous rampage.

The two teenagers who killed 13 people and themselves at suburban Denver's Columbine High School 10 years ago next week weren't in the "Trenchcoat Mafia," disaffected videogamers who wore cowboy dusters. The killings ignited a national debate over bullying, but the record now shows Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold hadn't been bullied — in fact, they had bragged in diaries about picking on freshmen and "fags."

Black Friday

Are you out there in the world, spending lots of money on clothing and electronics and toys and such? You're supposed to be, you know. Just be careful.

As Smokey the Bear might say: only YOU can prevent an economic depression.

UPDATE: Everyone is talking about the Wal*Mart stampede. I swear, that story makes me ashamed to be human. What is so important about a Tickle Me Elmo or a $3 DVD that people trample and stamp out a person's life for it? Black Friday, indeed.

a former "American Idol" contestant commits suicide

See? It's bizarre stuff like this that make me glad I'm not a "celebrity." I can't imagine what Paula Abdul thinks about that. The woman, Paula Goodspeed, had been stalking her for seventeen years. Seventeen years!

Here's the video of her audition for American Idol:



I'm sure most of those who watched the show found her amusing, like so many of the others who auditioned but clearly lacked any vocal abilities. The audition was over two years ago, so it would be difficult to say that her rejection on the show directly affected her decision to suicide. She probably thought about it, though. Some of the suicidal people that I have talked to have kept track of what they view as failures in their lives. Perhaps Paula Goodspeed did that as well, but it's something that we'll never know.

Leona Helmsley lets her money go to the dogs

People as diverse as Ann Althouse and Al Mohler are talking about Leona Helmsley. She has apparently let her billions of dollars go to the dogs.

Her instructions, specified in a two-page “mission statement,” are that the entire trust, valued at $5 billion to $8 billion and amounting to virtually all her estate, be used for the care and welfare of dogs, according to two people who have seen the document and who described it on condition of anonymity.

It is by no means clear, however, that all the money will go to dogs. Another provision of the mission statement says Mrs. Helmsley’s trustees may use their discretion in distributing the money, and some lawyers say the statement may not mean much anyway, given that its directions were not incorporated into Mrs. Helmsley’s will or the trust documents.

Helmsley had originally planned for some of the money to "help indigent people," but she changed her mind and decided to give them nothing. Only dogs - no other animals, no plant life, and certainly no human beings - were worthy of her money.

For the theists who visit this blog: Does this story in any way upset or bother you? Why or why not? Are human beings worth more than animals, are animals worth more than human beings, or are animals and human beings of equal value? What makes human beings so special?

For the atheists/agnostics who visit this blog: Does this story in any way upset or bother you? If you think the money should be given to help people, how did you determine that they are more worthy of the money than dogs?

death comes to all

Vanitas Still Life, by Dutch artist J. Falk. From the collection at the Indianapois Museum of Art.

From the accompanying plaque describing the work:

Popular among the Dutch, vanitas still life painting is based on the theme of death's inevitability. The symbolic meaning of the skull is obvious, while the rose and the oil lamp both serve as metaphors of life's brevity and fragility. The meaning is underscored by the Latin inscription: "All that is human is smoke, shadow, vanity and the picture of a stage."

James 4:14 - "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away."

Ask not for whom the cat purrs. He purrs for thee...

Oscar the cat has an unusual ability: he senses when some Rhode Island dwellers are about to die.

tattoos and death

Ann Althouse thinks this post is the best she's ever written. If you are so inclined to acquiesce to my request (and why aren't you?), you should go to her site and decide for yourself whether she's right. My relatives with tattoos should especially consider this.

Professor Althouse has an impressive Wikipedia entry.