Musings on criminal justice...

This probably hasn't made national news (although the case was on America's Most Wanted a while back), but this week Buffalo area law enforcement officials made an arrest in a string of rapes & murders - going back all the way to 1981.  The accused has been known as the "bike path rapist" because the first murder and one last spring both took place on the Ellicott Creek Bike Path.  Possibly more - I'm a bit hazy on the details.  They're reporting that Sanchez's DNA is a 100% match in several of the cases.  It's very much a BTK-type situation (though way, WAY less twisted) of "Oh, he was such a nice guy, I can't believe he'd be the one to do such a thing."

Anyway, I have two observations/thoughts:

1. The first murder victim was UB student Linda Yalem.  She was murdered while out running on the bike path, and for the last 17 years there's been the Linda Yalem Safety Run to promote public safety for runners & walkers.  Assuming that Sanchez is, in fact, the man who raped and murdered her, he has some serious cojones.  Why?  Because in 1996, he ran in the memorial race.  Again, that's assuming that he is, in fact, the guilty party.  Which brings me to #2.
2. WBFO is of course doing a lot of coverage of this.  And today they were interviewing people in the UB community, many of whom were saying things to the effect of "Oh, I'm so relieved.  I'll feel so much safer going out walking now."  Well, pardon me, but I do not have 100% faith in our criminal justice system.  I'm not unconvinced that they've caught the guilty party, but remember: innocent until proven guilty.  Mistakes do get made.  And all cynicism about the system aside, just because one person has been caught doesn't mean that there aren't other potential attackers out there.  The world is not a safe place.

This is childsplay7's fault.

And I had to share it with all of you, because it broke me like I've never ever been broken before.

Richard Simmons on "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"  Audio probably ok, video completely and 100% NSFW.  (Though, oddly, safe for broadcast on ABC Family, so you be the judge.)

Reading List

UPDATED 1/17/07

Here are the things currently in my fun-reading queue, in somewhat priority order:

1. George R.R. Martin - A Feast for Crows
   
2. Gregory Maguire - Wicked
   
3. Gregory Maguire - Son of a Witch
   
4. Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys
5. Roger Highfield - The Science of Harry Potter
6. Sarah Dunant - The Birth of Venus
   
7. Joyce Carol Oates - The Falls
   
8. Thomas Friedman - The World is Flat
   
9. George Crile - Charlie Wilson's War
   
10. Maria Dahvana Headley - The Year of Yes
11. Esera Tuaolo - Alone in the Trenches
    
12. Jeffrey Eugenides - Middlesex
13. Ann Leary - An Innocent, A Broad
14. Gregory Maguire - Mirror, Mirror
15. Jhumpa Lahiri - The Interpreter of Maladies.  Pulitzer-prizewinning book of short stories, one of which I heard featured on This American Life (episode 221: Fake I.D.)
16. Geraldine Brooks - March
17. Andy Hertzfeld - Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made
18. Neil Gaiman - American Gods
19. Lynn Flewelling - The Oracle's Queen (Tamir Trilogy, Book 3)
20. Gregory Maguire - Lost
21. Tom Standage - The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers 
22. Philippa Gregory The Other Boleyn Girl
23. Chris Bohjalian - Trans-Sister Radio
24. Rose Wilder Lane - Ghost in the Little House (rec from beba)

I am, of course, open to suggestions of things that I need to add to this list.

Book Review: The Other Boleyn Girl

*love*  I plowed through this faster than I've read anything since Wicked.  Review is not very coherent, for which I apologize.

( Read more... )

So, yeah.  Fans of historical fiction of any period should read it.

Souls

Souls,
originally uploaded by CATeyes.

It occurs to me that anybody who looked at my Flickr favorites might think I'm obsessed with our simian friends....

They wouldn't necessarily be wrong.