to hell in a handbasket

It's been obvious for a while that the world has become outrageously dangerous. Wars, unrest, militant fanaticism, famine, and diseases of epidemic proportions have become the norm rather than the exception. It's appalling how well we have habituated to them as background noise in our daily lives that it takes a special kind of crazy to snap us into attention.

And if this past week is any indication, we're going to hell in a handbasket.

No one is safe, least of all our kids...


Andres Behring Breivik, 32
Killed 92 people in Norway, some with a bomb explosion, most with a leisurely shooting spree. The screams of the youth at the summer camp he targeted, overhead by survivors and people they frantically called for help on their cell phones, did not deter him from his murderous rampage. On the contrary, he apparently reloaded and calmly tracked down the wounded to finish them off.
This terrifies me.


Leibby Kletzky, 8
Young boy walking home alone from day camp for the first time, after begging for permission to/rehearsing the route with his mother, was abducted by someone in his own community, killed and mutilated for absolutely no apparent reason. The massive optimistic search for Liebby ended with a horrible thud, when his remains were found in different plastic bags, some in the trash.
As the mother of an 8-year old, this disturbs me to my core.


Amy Winehouse, 27
Soul-jazz singer who made headlines for her erratic (alcohol & drug fueled) behavior, was found dead in her home of a suspected overdose. I know that I am supposed to care about the loss of a human life, any human life, but I cannot even manage to produce a modicum of sadness for this wretched person who really died of self-inflicted bad, bad choices. How desensitized am I getting that the only thing I seem to be able to muster is a bleak:"what a waste!"?

And that scares the shit outta me!