Adam Walsh Case Closed

John Walsh has been known as the host of  ‘America’s Most Wanted’ since 1988.  What you may or may not know is that his son, Adam was abducted from the Hollywood Mall (FL) on July 27th, 1981. He was only 6 years old. On August 10th of that year, Adam’s head was found in a canal in Vero Beach.

I was two years old at that time. But I grew up in Hollywood, FL just a few minutes away from where Adam Walsh was abducted. And while I was too young to remember the incident at the time it happened, the reverberations in the community were felt for years. I can clearly remember my early years at school when we would have assemblies and they would have police officers and teachers telling us about the Adam Walsh story and that we must not under any circumstances talk to strangers. I know that all kids get the “strangers speech” but we had a terrifying real life example that was discussed with us over and over again. I can even remember watching the movie ‘Adam‘, with my mom. And I can remember her crying her eyes out at the end of it.

They closed the Adam Walsh case today, 27 years later. The man who the police, and John Walsh, believe committed the murder died in prison 12 years ago. But for a lot of kids who grew up in Hollywood, Adam’s story will live with us forever.

O.J. Headed to Jail

I remember June 17, 1994 very clearly. I was 14 years old at the time. Before that famous Bronco chase, O.J. was a universally liked celebrity. He was one of the greatest running backs in NFL history and after he retired from playing football, O.J. was an NFL sideline reporter, he was in those Hertz Commercials, and he had parts in the ‘Naked Gun’ films. So even though I was too young to remember him as an active player, I was very aware of who he was. As it turns out, neither myself or anyone else knew the real O.J. Simpson.

The trial was the driving news story every day until October 3, 1995 when the jury acquitted O.J. of murdering Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. Nothing in my lifetime outside of 9/11 seemed to consume people in this country as much as that trial did. Nothing divided people in this country like it did either. The trial came on the heels of the Rodney King beating and the L.A. riots that followed. The whole situation felt like another powder keg waiting to blow up. I remember very clearly being at school the day the jury was going to deliver the verdict. The teacher had a TV in the classroom and he put the event on TV. There were a few guys in the class who made it very clear to anyone within earshot that if O.J. were to be convicted, they were going to “get” the white boys after school. Being one of only two or three white boys in the class, and knowing that these were the type of guys who would live up to their word, I’m pretty sure I had a nice little ass kicking coming my way if justice was served.

Still, I can’t say that I felt any relief when the verdict came down. As the trial wore on I felt it was very, very, clear that Simpson was guilty. The most uncomfortable thing about the immediate aftermath of the trial was the split amongst blacks and whites upon the verdicts. I didn’t know any black people who thought O.J. was guilty and I didn’t know any white people who thought he was innocent. It was the first time in my young life I realized that America viewed life through racially tinted lenses. It was not a pleasant revelation.

If he was smart, O.J. would have disappeared after the trial. He didn’t. O.J. had no problem playing in golf tournaments or going out to dinner or just generally carrying on with his life as if nothing ever happened. I suppose his acquittal afforded him those rights. In 1997, he lost a civil suite to the Goldman family that found him liable for the death of Ron Goldman. Ironically, this was the beginning of the slow end for “The Juice”. The lawsuit stripped him of much of his wealth and arguably caused O.J. to wind up in the predicament he was in this afternoon. His latest trial was a result of him trying to reclaim some property which he said was stolen from him.

This time there is no threat of rioting in the streets. The start contrast in the interest in this trial compared to the murder trial is not all that surprising since nobody died as a result of his latest crime. O.J. may be all over the news tickers today and possibly even on some front pages tomorrow morning. But being that the trial was going on the same time as the election (I’m not sure if the trial was even on TV) I don’t think that anyone was following it too closely. The news networks don’t even seem to agree on how long he has to spend in prison. I’ve heard that he has anywhere from 6-9 years minimum if he is paroled and a maximum of 15-33 years if he serves a full sentence depending on the source. Although I do find it interesting how a person can go from being one of the most polarizing figures in society to a story that everyone will forget in a week.

O.J. was a completely pathetic site in the courtroom today. He looked like a completely broken person. What a waste of a life.

Somali Pirates: Bold and uh… Hungry.

Another ship has been sea-jacked by Somali Pirates. I think that Discovery Channel should scrap ‘Deadliest Catch’ and give these guys their own reality show.

They have assaulted at least 9 different ships so far and have demanded millions of dollars in ransom. Desperation and hunger lead to brass balls I guess. And as long as some of these countries are willing to negotiate with these guys they’ll keep on doing this shit. I certainly don’t mean to sound cruel by suggesting that they don’t negotiate, thereby putting the hostages at even greater risk. But I just think more lives will be protected in the long run if they send a message to these pirates that there will be no ransom.

It’s not like it’s easy to hide a giant ship so I don’t see how these guys would be able to make any money on the black market with the cargo or the vessel itself. The only way they’ll make any money at all is if they are getting paid off.

Mumbai

I have no idea how old the person in this picture is. But if it wasn’t for the AK-47 and the blood (is that blood on his face?) this looks like a high school or college kid on his way to school. Then again with the world the way it is today, kids bringing guns to school is all too common.

I think this photograph represents the reality of global terrorism. The look on that young mans face seems to say so many things. Determined, crazed, desperate, focused, calm, all at the same time.

There is no piece of policy that any government can enact to prevent this from happening again. Exactly where and when it’s going to happen next is anyone’s guess but I think it’s safe to say this is something that’s going to be copied again and again. What makes this incident so frightening is that all it took were guns and people with no regard for human life. Both commodities are all too plentiful.

I can’t imagine what the victims families must be going through. And this thing isn’t even over yet.

Obama Speaks!

Is it me or does it seem like it’s been a while since we’ve seen or heard from Barack Obama? [Insert your Dick Cheney/Undisclosed location cliche here]. Sure, Obama is still all over the news every day but it’s more about what he will or won’t do rather then him actually doing or not doing something.

So today he holds a press conference announcing the grand prize winners of his “be a part of Barack Obama’s Hope Change Economic Team” contest that he’s been holding since before the election. I’ve never heard of any of these people. But according to the talking heads, they are all smart, bipartisan, and will stimulate the shit out of a mothafuckin’ economy.

How they will do this is unclear. Then again I’m not entirely sure that the talking heads really know who these people are either. The best part of today’s press conference was the “analysis” that the CNBC talking heads (I swear to god they had 8 heads on the TV screen at one time) provided afterward. They spent an inordinate amount of time analyzing what the Dow Jones was doing during different parts of the press conference as if the market was a sentient being. They noted that the market reacted well during the initial part of Obama’s statement, and that went down when he was vague about raising or lowering taxes.

Look, I don’t know a damn thing about the inner workings of the stock market. But after watching CNBC today, I don’t believe that anyone there does either. I am aware that the next President’s statements can have an effect on people’s confidence in his ability to handle the economy and what his plans may be. But I don’t think stock brokers on the floor of the NYSE are buying and selling stock after every sentence he utters in real time.

As of this moment, it looks like the Dow is going to be up for the day and that tells me that overall, people were encouraged by Obama’s statement and felt a little bit better about investing for today, at least. But the folks on CNBC would have you believe that people were watching this press conference and changing their retirement plans with every syllable. Truth be told, I don’t believe that the press conference had much influence on the stock market’s rebound today.

The pattern of the market violently dropping and then bouncing back some has been going on for quite some time now. Again, I don’t think that anybody really knows what is going on or what is going to happen tomorrow or an hour from now. But for those of us who are counting the days until Obama moves into the White House, it was nice to finally see him again.