Sad Day In Washington

Earlier today, just down the road in Lakewood, four police officers were slain in a coffee shop while preparing for their shift.

The murdered police officers from the Lakewood Police Department are Mark Renninger, Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold, and Greg Richards. Here is a link to a Facebook page dedicated to the memory of these police officers.

The police in the area are on the lookout for a person of interest, although, at the time of this post, he has not yet been called a suspect. He has a criminal history in Arkansas, where a long prison sentence was commuted by their governor. More recently, six days ago, he was released on bond after being arrested here in Washington for assault on a police officer and child rape charges. Read about him here.

This comes just a month after a police officer, Timothy Brenton, was assassinated on Halloween in Seattle. Tragic days for those that Protect and Serve.

My condolences to the families and friends of these officers.

Perseverance

I remember when one of my boats pulled into South Korea for a liberty port. The briefing that we received prior to pulling into port included the dangers of drivers in South Korea. We were told that it was the most dangerous country in the world for drivers and also the most dangerous country in the world for pedestrians. I don't know if these were true facts, but I do remember a few white-knuckled rides from Chinhae to Pusan. They may as well take out the gas pedal and brakes and put in an On-Off switch because the taxi drivers alternated between putting the accelerator on the floor and putting the brakes on the floor. Truly terrifying.

I want to share a heart-warming story that I just read about a South Korean woman that passed her written driving test on (or about) her 950th attempt. The test requires a minimum of 60 out of 100 to pass. She has been taking the drivers test nearly every day since April of 2005. After spending more than $4000 in application fees, she finally passed with a 60 out of 100.

The next step is to actually get behind the wheel for the driving test.

Cha Sa-soon, I salute your perseverance. Good luck on your driving test. I hope you pass this part of the test more quickly than the written part.

Also, I would like to say Good Luck to all of the drivers and pedestrians in South Korea. You need it.

Headline News

I just got home from work and thought I would like to see some election coverage. The local news hasn't started yet. I prefer not to watch election returns on MSNBC or FOX. I figured headline news on CNN would have some good coverage. I looked on the guide and saw that Prime News is on and thought that would be a good place to watch. After all, the description for Prime News is:


"The days top stories, as compiled by CNN's news-gathering unit, are presented."

I tune into to headline news and what kind of coverage do they have? If you guessed that they would be having an in-depth discussion of whether or not Anna Nicole Smith was high on drugs in the so-called Clown Video that was shot in 2005 or 2006, then you are obviously much more in touch with the pulse of CNN than I am.

CNN, you suck.

Guess I will have to stay up and watch the Daily Show and Colbert Report if I want to see something resembling real news.