A cheery little story from my neck of the woods yesterday. NY State Troopers responded to a 911 call from a house (OK, well, a trailer) in the Town of Vienna (which is about 20 miles north of Wampsville, in case you were wondering). There, they found some 21-yr old kid named Adam Theall holding his 3-month old son (with another 1-yr old son inside) and a shotgun, threatening to kill the kid if the police responded. When the troopers got out of their vehicle, guess what? He killed the kid. I’m not sure what’s left of a three month old baby when you shoot him with a shotgun, but I reckon it aint much. I hope to never find out for myself.

Anyhow, then Theall turned the gun on the Troopers, who, not surprisingly, shot the bastard (though they didn’t manage to kill him). He was airlifted to the hospital I work for (doesn’t seem worth the expense, what with our budget woes here in NY), where he’s in critical condition.

Maybe he’ll find Jesus in prison.

Speaking of the budget, our Governor says Monday is the deadline for the legislature to have a budget in place, or he’ll use the next emergency spending bill to impose one. Governor Paterson stated:

“Maybe somebody thinks I’m playing around. Maybe someone thinks this is a game. … But let me just say: That budget is going to get passed Monday.”

In a sign of just how much respect the Guv gets (here’s a hint; it’s about as much as Stanley McChrstal has for both the President and Vice President of the United States) – not just from the legislature, but even from within his own party – Manhattan Democrat and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver responded with:

“There is no deadline. April 1 was the deadline.”

Lest you think we have a bunch of do-nothing slackers running the State, I feel obliged to point out a spectacular bipartisan legislative success.

The state Senate voted unanimously Tuesday to ban using embalming fluid as a recreational drug.

By a 61-0 vote, senators voted to make it a misdemeanor to possess embalming with the intent to inhale it, ingest it or sell it to someone to do so.
[…]
Embalming fluid is combined with the hallucinogen phencyclidine, also known as PCP, and used to coat marijuana cigarettes….

Took a lot of guts, but they managed to ram that one through.

Speaking of ramming through, it’s time for me to get ready to try and ram myself through another day. It’s getting harder and harder.