There's a reason that on Tickerforum I am quite-rigorous about insisting that all the conspiracy theory nonsense go in the "Tinfoil" area of the forum.  This should serve as a sufficient example:

ORLANDO, Fla. – A Chechen immigrant shot to death in central Florida early Wednesday after an altercation with an FBI agent shares a similar background to that of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects who authorities were questioning him about at the time.

Ibragim Todashev's Chechen roots and mixed martial arts background mirror that of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston bombing suspected killed in a shootout with police last month. The two also had lived in the Boston area.

When this story broke the usual nuts were out claiming that the FBI had executed this guy and that there was no reasonable explanation for shooting him.

Did they read the second paragraph?  Mixed martial arts background eh?  So if some guy goes MMA on your head, and you're armed, you're not going to shoot him?  Like hell.

Might I remind everyone that a soccer ref was punched by a player (once!) and died as a consequence?  Fists are not deadly eh?  Tell that to his family.

But that's not the rub here.  No, you might remember that there was an unsolved triple-murder near Boston that was believed to be related to at least one of the Boston Bombers.

It appears that the guy who "went nuts" implicated himself in those triple murders, which, it appears, was over something rather simple: drugs.

Those who say that there was "no reason" for the FBI guy to shoot this suspect have a bit of a problem here.  If the person being interrogated realized that he had just implicated himself in three Murder 1 charges it is entirely plausible that he might have made a "best effort" attempt to escape and/or kill the FBI agents involved.

Folks, I don't care if you like cops or not, if you trust the government or not, or if you believe the official stories or not.

Self-defense is always justified no matter who you are.

Until or unless further information is developed this particular incident looks, at a distance, like perfectly-legitimate self-defense by a law enforcement officer who was assaulted by someone who, at that point, appears to have been involved in and implicated himself in committing three murders.

Now this is a good one...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Police in North Carolina are searching for a man who stole an excavator from a construction site and used it to make off with a 2,000-pound automated teller machine.

That is quite amusing.....

Use an excavator to rip the ATM off its base and then stick in the getaway pickup.

I always say watch what they do, not what they say.

As we enter the Triduum this evening I must offer the title of this article as an open question.  

Why?

Pope Francis has decided to shun a grand papal apartment on the top floor of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace in favour of a modest two-room residence.

His spokesman said he was "trying out this type of simple living" in a communal building with other priests.

There is something particularly appealing about a man who says a given thing, and then lives that thing.

Oh, and he's eating in the communal dining room too.

And he has been seen out and about rather than cowering in the corner or behind armed security, as recent Popes have done as well.

Maybe there's a reason for hope -- not to be found in our economy and certainly not in the US Government, but rather in something a bit older and more..... refined.

"Tradition", one of the most-abused words in our language, means actually returning to the "old ways."  

Today, I do wonder....

Coming soon to a theatre near you....

And remember, the sun can rise twice in one day.  Ask the people who lived here:

... that is all.