Sunday 6th December

I went to Emmanuel this morning, but the weather is so cold I was glad to stay indoors for the rest of the day.  

The television has been dominated by the news you have probably heard  about the horrific mass shooting in California by terrorist extremists.   Even Obama came on television to address the nation about it this afternoon.   When I heard that he was going to make this broadcast I was expecting something rather Churchillian, along the lines of  "fighting them on the beaches etc" but it wasn't.

When these terrorists were being pursued the husband was driving and the wife was shooting out the rear window, and apparently it is extremely difficult - and takes a lot of training - to shoot from a moving vehicle, so this couple, and certainly the wife, were no amateurs.

And while we are on the subject of shooting, you may remember this from a previous post, and I was reading an update on it while having a little coffee break in the hospital waiting room.......

The guy running down the street waving a knife was high on hallucinogens, and he had been using the knife to scratch all the cars parked along the street.   As I think I've said before there seems to be no facilities here for treating the mentally ill, or criminally insane.    And the policeman who shot him was  charged straight away with first degree murder, so his  career was immediately over.  What a tragedy this is.  Instead of shooting him they should have done what our police force would probably have done - boxed him in with their cars, ordered him to drop the knife, and taken him into custody.  

But who am I to tell them what to do - I think I am getting a bit too uppity.   So I think on that note I'll sign off.