While I feel very sad for the woman and her family I think we all lose sight of the fact that they are first and foremost wild animals. History is full of examples of animals we think we've tamed attacking or killing.

People think they can keep wolves, big cats, apes because they love and "understand" them. Right up until a tragedy happens. i saw Ivan the ape that now lives at ZooAtlanta once while he was living in a shoddy mall in WA. 28 years in a dark corner of a store, alone. A tragedy in itself.

Is a jumping whale show at an overpriced amusement park worth a life? Three lives? Maybe we need to quit playing with fire. Learn to appreciate them as they should be, in the wild, from a long and safe distance.

My family moved from CA to MT when I was 9. We embraced small town life, built our log home by hand, worked with the locals to learn local farming skills, and to fit in to our new community. My mom worked for the police department, dad worked his way up to the manager of the biggest company in town. I went to elementary school, Junior High and High School with the children of the locals, I went to slumber parties in their homes. I babysat their children and taught them to ride in the summer, and ice skate in the winter.

I commuted home every weekend for 4 years of college to help with the livestock, helped barter our meat for the neighbors milk, eggs, vegetables and so on. When I graduated from college and got engaged to a local man his parents objected because I was a "Californian."

We didn't come in with big city "attitude" Mr.Stone, we were from a small (6K) town in Northern California. My grandparents were ranchers, my great grandparents were ranchers. It didn't matter that I was not from Los Angeles, I was from California. We were outsiders. It didn't matter that we contributed to the community, that we worked to be a part of our new city.

My parents worked hard for their successes, so we were outsiders that took the good jobs from locals. When we did things the hard way we were laughed at. When those things worked out it was dumb luck, or because someone "talked sense" to us. When things didn't work out the way we planned we were stupid city folk. When they did it was because someone told/helped/showed/did it for us.

I think the "racism" discussion here is limited by perception. It isn't race, it's being different. Outside, inside, eye shape, skin color, education, dialect, accent and a hundred other factors all can be basis for exclusion.

Exclusion is power. It's the small people in those small towns.

My daughter got some. BAD, BAD, BAD. The stench created by popping it drove us all out of the house. Not burned, just popped. Did not taste much like bacon, did not taste like good popcorn.

It's a Black Jack. The ball is metal, the handle would have had a piece of spring steel or sometimes a coiled spring. The broken end probably used to be a wrist strap. My Great Grandfather was a harness maker, and made these illegal little devils on the side for cash in the 20's and 30's. And yes, it's a head smasher.