Last minute dinner invite

Had a great surprise tonight. Joe Sinnott’s son Mark called Denro to say he was in town with his wife Belinda and their daughter Erin, who’s attending college in Boston. Erin is a writer, who already has two published novels to her name, with a third in the works right now.

We all met up downtown and went out to dinner. I love talking comics and music, but I have to take a backseat to Mark and Dennis when they get going on sports. My sport is running, and being not far from the Boston Marathon finish line this evening, I’m wavering on my decision to give up 26.2-mile road races.

Another crazy, confused kid

Only a few details about accused killer Jared Lee Loughner have come to light. It seems that he was declined enlistment to the Army due to suspected drug use, although that isn’t confirmed yet. Also, Loughner’s targeting of Giffords apparently goes back to some contact he had with her in 2007 — before the Tea Party, and before Obama.

So it’s not possible to draw a direct line between the toxic political tone of the times, and what Loughner allegedly did. However, I’ve seen video of Giffords back in March saying that she was concerned about Sarah Palin putting crosshairs on Democratic districts. Based on that, Palin’s PAC was aware of how the map was perceived, and yet left it in place.