Eight Dead in Mass Shooting Saturday near Dallas

Yet-another mass shooting with several people dead has occurred in the US. On Saturday a gunman opened fire at a shopping mall in Allen, TX, a suburb of Dallas. Eight victims were killed and at least seven others wounded. The gunman used an AR-15 military-style rifle. Example coverage: CBS News article, 6 May 2023.

In the few days it's taken me to write about this on my blog— it usually takes me a few days to catch up because I really hate writing about this epidemic of tragedies half our political leaders absolutely refuse to do anything meaningful about— more facts have come out about the murderer. Apparently he's a right wing extremist (no surprise; most mass shooters are) and white supremacist (again, no surprise; many shooters are) who has multiple Nazi tattoos on his body. Example coverage: CBS News article, 9 May 2023.

Civil Jury Finds Trump Liable for Sexual Assault, Defamation of E. Jean Carroll

This just in! A jury in Manhattan this afternoon found former president and 2024 candidate Donald Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation of E. Jean Carroll. Carroll alleged that Trump raped her in a department store fitting room in the 1990s. The jury awarded Carroll damages of $5 million.

I am surprised by this verdict. Just last night I remarked to my spouse, after the case had gone to the jury for deliberation earlier in the day, that I thought there wasn't enough evidence to prove the allegations. Carroll testified that it happened, and a few friends testified that she told them about it years ago, but there was no hard evidence of an assault.

Now, this is a civil law trial, not a criminal case. The standard of proof is lower. Plaintiffs only need to show that allegations are supported by “a preponderance of the evidence”. Perhaps I'm mis-intepreting what preponderance means, legally, but I'm not sure it wasn't met.

Trump didn't help himself in this trial. In a videotaped deposition he defended his "Grab 'em by the pussy" comments in the infamous Access Hollywood tape from several years ago. At the time he minimized his statements as "locker room talk". He repeated that characterization on social media within the past week. But here's the thing: the phrase "locker room talk" describes idle boasting that is exaggerated or untrue. When challenged about that quote in the deposition, Trump defended it. "Historically that's true," he said, reaffirming that in his worldview powerful men have the prerogative of being able to have their way with any woman— "unfortunately or fortunately."

Perhaps more crucially, Trump undermined one of his own lines of defense in the deposition. "She's not even my type," Trump has said numerous times, broadly implying that she's too fat, or old, or unattractive for him to even consider touching sexually. Yet when the plaintiff's attorney showed Trump a picture of him standing next to Carroll at a public even years ago, Trump misidentified Carroll as Marla Maples, one of his ex-wives. "That's my wife," Trump said matter-of-factly in the videotape. One can easily conclude that if Carroll looked enough like Trump's ex-wife for him to confuse them in a press photograph, she is the type he found physically attractive.

Exploring Red Bluff from the Bottom of the Canyon— and Back to the Rim!

Mississippi Travelog #6
Foxworth, MS - Thursday, 26 Apr 2023, 1pm

Whew, this is getting long: three blogs now about Red Bluff canyon in Mississippi. And I'm going to stuff 6 pictures in this entry to get 'er done.

Once we climbed up through the creek at the bottom of the canyon our views opened up into this crazy, colorful badlands:



The bottom of the drainage was generally easily navigable. It was only going up the sides that would get steep. And going up one of the sides was what our trail map called for. We could see that trail— or, rather, we could see part of it. Another part of it had eroded away recently, leaving it impassable. So we explored various side canyons to see if there was another way out climbing up over the edge.



We had fun exploring around the bottom. The colors down here are so crazy. All the earth around us is dirt, BTW. Dirt in bright hues of yellow, orage, red, and even purple. Purple dirt!



Alas, we couldn't find a safe way up and out over the rim that wouldn't involve a lot of dangerous scrambling— on loose dirt, no less. Fortunately we had plenty of time this afternoon, having canceled redirected our previous plans so that all we have to do is get back to New Orleans tonight for a flight tomorrow. Thus we could explore all these canyons to our hearts' content and then retrace our route back out the bottom and climb back up the side of the hill.



Down below the canyon we walked along the railroad for about 100 meters from where the creek crossed it to where the trail back up the side began.

"Is this a live railroad line?" we wondered.

"Don't walk on the tracks; what if a train comes?" someone worried.

"Don't worry, if there's a train you'll hear it from a long way off," I responded.

Well, the answer to the first question is Yes, it's a live line. We heard a train approaching as we were about to start the ascent back up. We waited to see it— because, yes, we heard it long before it arrived. And surprisingly it was a Canadian train! That's sure far from home down here in southern Mississippi. (You can tell it's Canadian because of the CN emblem on the engine— Canadian National. And all the rail cars have "Sorry for the inconvenience" printed on them in English and French.)



Climbing back up the hill took some huffing and puffing. It seemed like it would take a long time but it didn't. The canyon isn't quite as deep as it looks from some angles. I don't think it took us more than about 15 minutes to get back up to the rim. And the views were beautiful.

Once back at the car we actually skipped opening the car and instead continued further around the rim toward the other side of the canyon. Up here there's a use trail that skirts around where the road has collapsed into the canyon and picks it up on the other side.



We got out to the remnants of the old road. It's actually the new old road.... The fragments here are from where they rebuilt the road further back after the original road fell into the canyon.

After checking out the views from the opposite side of the canyon we headed back to the car. At this point it was almost 1pm. We'd been hiking for almost 4 hours. That's twice as long as we expected to spend here. But the time spent has been so worth it! In beauty we walk.