for some reason, the previous post failed to, well, post -- until now. silly blogger.

in further bad news from my region of origin, it appears that missing und student dru sjodin is probably dead. or at least, so says the front page of the strib (check the link at left if you want). the lazy asses at the grand forks herald haven't posted anything new since early this morning, but the jist is there: her blood in the car.

no good! it's no good! and while i know bad things like this happen regularly, grand forks isn't supposed to be the sort of place where they happen. for good reason: rural midwesterners (BROAD GENERALIZATION ALERT), by and large, seem to have a poor sense of perspective when it comes to crime and criminals -- the sort of poor perspective, in fact, that lends itself to sentimental thoughts of old-fashioned retributive justice. the republican governors of north dakota and minnesota don't seem to be doing much to stanch the flow of hang-em-high rhetoric, either. (in fact, they're encouraging it.) the politics of this tragedy are precisely the sort of thing that makes me never want to move back home.

the combination of end-of-times advent lessons in church and generally evil US foreign policy and awful crimes in my previously idealizable hometown make it unpleasantly simple to think apocalyptic thoughts. i'm looking forward to christmas vacation.