The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

So I overheard a scary story on Christmas. I discovered an ardent gun-owner is also a sleepwalker. His significant other shared a story on how she felt he was going to kill her. He supposedly heard a loud noise, so he went to the safe and wasn't responding to his girlfriend. She thought he was sleepwalking again and was freaked out as he was loading his gun. Without uttering a word, he stood right in front of her with a loaded firearm, and it was this point she thought, "Well, I'm gonna die." Fortunately, he walked away, attempting to find the potential intruder (there wasn't one), and when he returned, he appeared to be fully awake and responsive. For as much as I've written about gun violence and measures to reduce its frequency, I had honestly never thought about the potential dangers of a sleepwalker owning a firearm until this past Christmas. Now, a shooting/murder while one is sleepwalking is incredibly rare. There have been only 68 documented cases ...

When it comes to the Trump-Russia probe and the possibility of an obstruction of justice charge, I hear two comments from analysts far more than any other: 1) Trump is likely guilty of it. and 2) It'll be difficult to prove. Why is this? Allow Cornell Law School to share with us the reason: "Obstruction of justice is defined in the omnibus clause of 18 U.S.C. 1503, which provides that 'whoever....corruptly or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication, influences, obstructs, or impedes, or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede, the due administration of justice, shall be (guilty of an offense).' Persons charged under this statute based on allegations that a defendant intended to interfere with an official proceeding, by doing things such as destroying evidence, or interfering with the duties of jurors or court officers. A person obstructs justice when they have a specific intent to obstruct or interfere with a judicial proceeding. For ...

I'm not going to beat around the bush (literally or figuratively); it's been a rough end to the year. I'm still not exactly sure what happened Saturday night. Everything's still kind of a blur (and yes, I was completely sober). All I can remember is alternately feeling warm and cold, being unusually shaky, and before I knew it, experiencing heart palpitations like never before, having extreme difficulty breathing, and reaching a point where I thought I wasn't going to live much longer. An emergency vehicle arrived shortly thereafter, rushed me to a local hospital, where I got fully hydrated and settled down, to the point where I was released early the next morning. It was a struggle the next three days, though, as I found myself having trouble sleeping, feeling anxious as deja vu struck me while laying in bed, and thinking about my breathing, almost paranoid about it, much more than usual. Four days after the frightening experience, while I still feel alternately wa...

So, I was kind of torn on what to do Friday night. My girlfriend was getting her hair done and wasn't going to be able to do anything until 11-11:30. My father had just returned to the States from Canada and was pretty tired, so if he and I were to go out, it wouldn't be for long. It had been roughly two months since I had gone to a local pub I frequented. I decided to try and please everybody, so I went with my father to a restaurant/pub to listen to a band for one set and have a drink or two. I then decided to go solo to that before-mentioned local pub, and told my girlfriend, if she wasn't too tired when she finished everything, she could meet me up there. I received an e-mail from her around 11:30 telling me she was done with everything, but was too tired to meet up that evening. Things had been going fine that night until about 1:45 am, and for the first time in my life, from that point until I woke up the next morning, I can't remember a single thing. Fortunatel...