local news in indiana is usually pretty dull. occasionally we get the stories about high schools that do stupid things, or the latest nail in bobby knight's coffin, but most of the time it's as dull as a child's "my first shave" toy razor. today we got our first big national story. a man from evansville tried to get on the white house grounds brandishing a weapon. he shot off a few rounds into the air & refused to desist, so secret service shot him in the leg. it was the lead story on naptown local news, & evansville is way outside our broadcast area. way to go indiana! for more details, try this link, but i'm not sure how long it'll be good: http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/02/07/whitehouse.lockdown.03/index.html

it's a big & developing story. on the 5pm news they already had people in evansville talking to neighbors & people who knew the shooter. the last blurb i heard about it was that the shooter was allegedly angry over being fired from his job at the irs.

(remember the first postal worker who went into the post office on a shooting spree after being fired? the one who inspired that stupid phrase "going postal"? i saw a feature on that in an episode of the tv show first person with errol morris. it was an in-depth interview with that guy's supervisor, who later got fired as a political scapegoat in the aftermath of the shooting. apparently the shooter there was always a nutso. in fact the reason that postal worker was fired in the first place was because he was violent & totally bananas. anyway, the supervisor in the show made a very strong point when he asked "do you know how hard it is to get fired from a government job?" they don't just axe you for any old trifle. those places are highly bureaucratic & disorganized. the only reasons you get fired are if you're a political scapegoat or if you fuck up royally. i mean set-your-coworker-on-fire-type stuff. now this story won't get as big as the postal shooting because nobody died [that we've heard about], but i wouldn't be at all surprised if they somehow twist this story into a tear-jerker about the irs firing him, instead of being just your everyday insane activity. i mean, if you're going to attempt to assassinate the president, you don't storm the white house, alone & on foot. that's just poor planning, typical of a former government employee. & it's insanely futile. [hmm... this aside is like 1/2 the sermon now... maybe i shouldn't've put it in parens after all. oh well])

like i said, evansville is way outside our broadcast area. it's practically in kentucky. i don't want this guy to represent (nor to reprazent) the hoosier state to the rest of the world. it's bad enough that "hoosier" means "redneck" (derogatory) in st louis slang (before i went to college, i never imagined that i would have to quantify the word redneck as derogatory, but apparently some people somewhere have convinced themselves it's a compliment. that's the kind of useful info you learn in college). let him represent the louisville area, where he belongs. what will illinois think?

speaking of the midwest, i'm already booked for another live appearance feb 24th in lovely urbana illinois. email me if i haven't spammed you about it already & want more info.