Blossoms

Trees in bloom!

Here in Colorado, we have four distinct seasons. However, our altitude and latitude mean that the warmer times are shorter than in many places. So it is great to finally see, almost a month after the equinox, some signs of Spring. The American Robin is appearing with greater regularity, and now the trees and flowers are starting to bloom from the buds.

Walking to my car to go to lunch today, I pointed my camera phone toward this white blossom on the trees outside the building where I work and snapped this shot. The blooming tree with the building nearby, and the backdrop of the deep blue Colorado sky made a nice image of the season here along the Front Range. The quality of the camera in my phone continues to amaze me at how good the pictures actually turn out.

Nacchio Guilty!

Joseph P. Nacchio, the arrogant SOB who was CEO of Qwest Communications until his fall from grace, was convicted today by a Denver jury. He is guilty of 19 of the 42 counts of insider trading brought against him.

I have blogged about this criminal earlier, so I won't belabor it here. Just let it be said that finally, justice is being done. Along with Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom, and Jeff Skilling of Enron; Nacchio is now a convicted felon. He faces ten years on each count, as well as millions in fines and restitution.

Joe's constant mantra of "We have to make the numbers" will soon have a new number himself . . . the one on his prison uniform. I hope you find your cellmate attractive, Joe. You will be "buddies" for a long time. Oh yeah, one other thing. You might want to be careful picking up the soap in the shower! It couldn't happen to a more deserving crook.

Mass Killings

What is it about April and crazed mass killers. Twelve years ago today, Timothy McVeigh parked a truck filled with explosives under the day care center inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 innocent people. This cowardly act of domestic terrorism was somehow justified in the warped mind of McVeigh, based upon the BATF raid on the Branch Davidian cult and its leader, David Koresh, in Waco, Texas two years to the day earlier.

Then tomorrow is the eighth anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, where teacher Dave Sanders and twelve young students were killed in cold blood by the two misfits, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, who somehow carried out their evil deeds upon their fellow students. Rather than being the "Columbine State" for the beautiful flower, Colorado was now known as that because of the horror that turned an ordinary spring day at an ordinary high school, into hours of horror and death.

Now, another twisted and warped person takes out his personal issues and turns them into an excuse to commit mass murder, this time at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. This horrible excuse of a human being takes the lives of those in his campus community with complete disregard for the sanctity of every human life.

In part, I blame our lack of adequate health care for the problem. Even when people have good insurance, mental illness is not afforded the same coverage as physical ailments. Thus, the people who could possibly be brought to some degree of normalcy through medication and treatment, are instead let loose to bring terror down on their fellow human beings.

My very deepest condolences go out to the families and friends of the victims, as well as to the entire Virginia Tech community.