Ever read those sci-fi novels that show America under martial law, scores of dead, all after some barely noticed event?

Like this one?

Possible leak detected at chemical weapons depot

The Army says a low level of mustard agent has been detected in a building storing chemical weapons at the Pueblo Chemical Depot.

About 2,600 tons is stored at the Pueblo depot, about 100 miles south of Denver. The agent is slated for destruction.

Captain Trips baby. Captain Trips.

This apparently is the cover of Glenn Beck’s new tome:

Uh, Glenn? Trying to tell us something? Whats up with the East German military garb?

Dylan could be new sat-nav voice

Music legend Bob Dylan is “talking to a couple of car companies” about becoming the voice of their GPS system.

He continued: “I probably shouldn’t do it because whichever way I go, I always end up at one place – on Lonely Avenue. Luckily I’m not totally alone. Ray Charles beat me there.”

Larry Knechtel dies at 69; bassist, keyboardist for ’70s soft-rock group Bread

Knechtel played keyboards and bass with the Wrecking Crew, a group of L.A. studio musicians, before joining Bread in 1971. His arrangement of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ won a Grammy in 1970.

Larry Knechtel, a member of the 1970s soft-rock group Bread, who had a wide-ranging career as a studio musician, has died.

Knechtel played keyboards, bass guitar and harmonica as a member of the Wrecking Crew, a group of Los Angeles studio musicians that included future headliners Glen Campbell and Leon Russell and session drummer Hal Blaine. Knechtel played with Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas and many others.

Burn Victims

Retired Sgt. Michael Maynard can no longer feel his feet. He began to notice the problem four years ago while working as an air-traffic control specialist in the Army. After a year at Camp Taji in Iraq, Maynard took off his boots one night and found that a hot piece of metal had slipped inside—hot enough to tear away his skin. Somehow he hadn’t felt it.

The Pentagon insists that burn pits pose no long-term health risks. But this summer, an Army research article surfaced that suggests otherwise, and individual physicians are now saying that the type of heart and lung damage they see among returning soldiers can only be explained by prolonged exposure to toxic emissions. One soldier stationed in Hawaii was told by Army doctors that his cystic lung disease and shrinking abdominal aorta were probably related to his burn-pit exposure at Camp Speicher in Iraq. He is believed to be the first to have the link officially documented.

Wal-Mart worker accused of beating boss with bat

Police in New Haven accused a Wal-Mart worker of beating an assistant manager in a store aisle with an aluminum baseball bat after getting reprimanded for the second time in a few days. Officer Joseph Avery said Tuesday that police are still looking for the 26-year-old suspect. They plan to charge him with first-degree assault and breach of peace.

Avery said the worker grabbed the bat off a shelf and hit 29-year-old assistant manager George Freibott nearly a dozen times at about midnight Monday, after Freibott wrote the worker up for poor job performance.

Hmm, can’t explain why this story seemed interesting…

Fla. court OKs force against retreating attackers

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s “stand-your-ground” law allows the use of deadly force for self-protection even if an attacker or intruder is in retreat, an appellate court said Wednesday.

“The statute makes no exception from immunity when the victim is in retreat,” the panel wrote in an unsigned, unanimous opinion.

Shooting someone in retreat is not self defense, it’s retribution.

The Entertainment Value of Snuffing Grandma
A nation of children roots for the Mafia

By Joe Bageant

Every day I get letters asking me to weigh in on the healthcare fracas. As if a redneck writer armed with a keyboard, a pack of smokes and all the misinformation and vitriol available on the Internet could contribute anything to the crap storm already in progress. Besides that, my unreasoned but noisy take on this issue is often about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit. None of which has ever stopped me from making a fool of myself in the past. So here goes.

There ain’t any healthcare debate going on, Bubba. What is going on are mob negotiations about insurance, and which mob gets the biggest chunk of the dough, be it our taxpayer dough or the geet that isn’t in ole Jim’s impoverished purse. The hoo-ha is about the insurance racket, not the delivery of healthcare to human beings. It’s simply another form of extorting the people regarding a fundamental need — health.

As always, Joe tells it straight.

Michael Jackson’s Hair To Be Turned Into Diamonds

Two weeks ago, the video of Michael Jackson’s harrowing fire accident during the filming of a Pepsi commercial was released. Now, the hair collected from the accident is to be transformed into a diamond collection.

John Reznikoff owns a large collection of celebrity hair, including pieces from Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Albert Einstein, and Marilyn Monroe.

He ain’t in the ground yet, so there are still marketing dollars to tap. Let’s see…maybe his spleen could make a handbag? Imagine how much that would fetch, after all, he only had one, right? Hell, just roast him like a pig and sell bbq Jackson.

This is one sick society.

Baby boomers still getting high, agency says

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Baby boomers, now well into middle age, are still turning on to illegal drugs, doubling the rates of illicit drug use for the older generation, according to U.S. government statistics released on Wednesday.

“This continued use poses medical risks to these individuals and is likely to put further strains on the nation’s health care system — highlighting the value of preventing drug use from ever starting.”

Really? You think that’s what the data says? Huh. I take to mean that perhaps the majority of illegal drug use by middle aged people- which is pot- proves that all your bluster about health risks have been forever a lie.