MURDEROUS THUG ALREADY KILLED BEFORE YESTERDAY

We won't mention his name -- but include his photo above as reference. He's the one with the grey hair and beard. Below him is Tomasz Kaczowka, one of two people he killed yesterday after he set a home on fire -- and sat back and waited until fire personnel came to the scene.

He opened fire, killing Kaczowka and another -- and left two others seriously wounded.

You can hear the chilling emergency-radio calls at the bottom of this post.

Yet what's most shocking about all of this is that the murderer had already killed. He admitted, according to reports, to killing his own grandmother back in 1981. With a hammer. And he spent 17 years in prison for the crime. Seventeen years for murdering your own grandmother? Witha a hammer? What the fuck?

WHY DOES THE NRA HOLD SO MUCH POWER?

Perhaps I am just naive to the power of the dollar -- but I will never get it how the NRA, with 4 million members, holds as much power as it does, while other organizations, with considerably more members -- sometimes millions more -- don't. Wayne LaPierre of the NRA refuses to back down on his adamant belief that gun laws don't need changing in this country. So how cares what he and the NRA believe. In the greater scheme of things, LaPierre and his 4 million members can buzz off. Do they really make that much of a difference at the ballot boxes?

FACEBOOK AND TWITTER – A BLESSING & A CURSE

Man do I love Facebook.

Man do I love Twitter.

Wow do I hate Facebook.

Wow do I hate Twitter.


It hit me hard today. Among my 1,200 friends on Facebook -- much more so than Twitter -- are hoards of bigots and assholes. Among them are people I've never met before, and now know, for sure, I'd never want to meet.

Among those 1,200 (it's likely fewer than 1,200 now, actually) are people who absolutely don't get it that 20 children and seven adults were murdered in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14 -- and they don't get it that something, somehow, needs to be done to fix this.

As much as social media has been a blessing in so many ways -- hell, I met my half-sister and half-brother on Facebook for the very first time -- it's a curse, too. And as much as I appreciate the free-flow of ideas and opinions, perhaps I am just getting to old to accept that someone -- many someones -- think Wayne LaPierre, of the National Rifle Association, is a hero of some sort.

I saw his presser. You saw his presser.

A hero. Really?

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF NRA PRESSER

It's always intriguing to see how the newspapers cover press conferences differently. The headlines. Above the fold or below? Does it make the front page?

Here, then, is a look at how some major dailies handled the presser. Two things stick out.

First, the N.Y. Post took a pretty strong view that the presser was, let's just say, out of line.

And the Boston Herald didn't see much merit in it at all, apparently.

More front pages after the jump. Click below to see them.

CORY BOOKER ON GUN CONTROL

Booker

Cory Booker, the Democrat mayor of Newark, N.J., has weighed in on the gun-control debate. I'll report, you decide. Click here to read via the Huffington Post.

THE SEARCH FOR ANSWERS: WHERE WAS GOD IN NEWTOWN?

The Canessa Commentary
By KEVIN CANESSA Jr.

NEWTOWN, Conn. -- 

There's this photo -- I've searched near and far for it, but can't find it -- where the people seen in this photo, taken Sept. 11, 2001, were fused together with a facsimile of Jesus, with Jesus's hands and arms extended, as if he were welcoming them into his kingdom. In the days following 9/11, the photo made its rounds, then on e-mail, since there wasn't social media back then.

The symbolism was striking. The people were real. And it was a rallying cry for those of us who were in great emotional pain following the terrorist attacks of that awful day. The idea was simple -- and it was one we used, as teachers at a Catholic school -- to answer the question the teens were bound to ask us: "How does a good and gracious God allow such awful things to happen?"