Wal-Mart Moves On, Gunman or No Gunman

[Insert Wal-Mart here]

A couple days ago, December 28, 2005 to be exact, there was allegedly a gunman in Wal-Mart at the Long Beach Tone Center at (where else?) Long Beach, California. My family and I went to Wal-Mart to get Alka-Seltzer (if I add a link can you pay me Bayer?) and we were not allowed to enter because a gunman was supposedly inside. Somehow they did not know who the gunman was but one woman who had been turned away earlier said there was supposed to be a black man who had been waving a gun around inside the store...(no description...just a black gunman...I'm sure he was going to be ok...) "Everyone" (black males) was checked when they left the store. I had been there 30 minutes watching officers (I saw at least 6 black and whites) wander around lackadaisically. SWAT was not called in and Wal-Mat ade sure that, while no one was allowed to enter, customers who were already inside at the time would be ushered through the checkout lanes as they finished shopping.

[insert shopping cart picture here]

Isn't that a trip though? A gunman is supposed to be inside, no one is allowed to enter, but you can finish shopping. Wal-Mart needs to make a new ad... "Wal-Mart, not even a gunman will stop you from shopping here."

They Recovered Enough Bodies Anyway...

After 4 months of searching for bodies of Katrina victims in New Orleans, I hear searches have stopped. These searches have ended despite still missing people and unsearched rubble. I was recently watching CNN where I heard a New Orleans resident say (and I paraphrase) police, the state, the country is ending their search and the police say it is not their responsibility. Perhaps it was just easier looking through rubble in New York in 2001.

I guess it's that paradoxical situation where you can stop looking for your dead yet you can't pull out of Iraq. Maybe I'm sleepy and that's not the same thing.