Today's shooting at The Mall in Columbia in Maryland was like a scene out of "Black Friday."

     In my novel "Black Friday" published last October, two heavily armed Arab terrorists entered the fictional Galleria Mall in Maryland plotting to carry out an unprecedented terrorist attack on American soil during the busiest shopping day of the year.  Today a heavily armed man entered the Columbia Mall in Howard County, Maryland and killed two people in a second floor store before killing himself. 

     First, we need to pray for those affected by the attack whether it be the victims, their families and friends or those who were inside the mall at the time of the shooting.  Second, the parallels between "Black Friday" and today's shooting are too much not to ignore.  Just months after the attack at the Westgate Mall in Kenya, it was only a matter of time before a heavily armed person would enter a mall in the United States and kill people in the process.  I remember speaking to a group of friends while I was in college about Columbine which at the time had just happened.  I said to them that "With this generation of grade and high school students at the present, we are going to see shootings at colleges in the future."  Tragically Virginia Tech took place in April, 2007 and have since repeated itself throughout the United States several times over including a few occasions this week.  I hate to say this, but we have now graduated to attacking shopping malls.  I'm very concerned that this won't be the last shooting/attack at a mall, but quite possibly the first of many.  After that festivals, dance/nightclubs, concerts and sporting events will likely experience this disturbing trend if we are not vigilant when it comes to preventing this from continuing. 

     As Americans we must do everything we can in order to prevent this from happening again.  Therefore we must educate ourselves about this threat as well as the root causes of violence.  Therefore we will become aware of the potential causes and prevent future incidents such as today's from occurring in the future.

CNN Situation Room Segment 1/7/14

I just listened to what I consider to be a priceless opening segment on The Situation Room on CNN.  The ever popular Wolf Blitzer began the show with Robert Gates upcoming biography Duty which will be released a week from today.  After watching the segment, I would consider it not only my duty, but the duty of every American to buy a copy.  In the segment a reporter mentioned that Duty has already received some serious buzz especially on the New York Times and Washington Post websites.  Click on the links below to read them:

New York Times Link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/world/asia/obama-lost-faith-in-his-afghan-strategy-memoir-asserts.html?ref=robertmgates&_r=0

Washington Post Link:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/robert-gates-former-defense-secretary-offers-harsh-critique-of-obamas-leadership-in-duty/2014/01/07/6a6915b2-77cb-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html


I'm also going to throw in a couple of other links make that three other links for good measure:

Swampland:  http://swampland.time.com/2014/01/07/in-memoir-gates-slams-biden-reveals-he-nearly-quit/

Visalia-Times Delta:  http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/usatoday/article/4358481

Washington Examiner:  http://washingtonexaminer.com/robert-gates-notes-that-joe-biden-is-always-wrong-about-foreign-policy/article/2541712


In the interview, Gates writes that Vice President Biden has been wrong in every major foreign policy in the past 40 years while praising him as a man of integrity.  John McCain proceeds to support that assessment later on in the interview.  Gates also writes that although President Obama was not afraid to make tough decisions regarding the War on Terror, he was not confident in his war strategy.  After learning these bombshells, I won't be sleeping better at night knowing this.

The CNN reporter proceeds to mention that one of the tough decisions that President Obama made against the advice of his advisors was and I quote "The killing of Obama...oops I meant Osama bin Laden."  Did he say his true feelings about the president?  Well Jay Leno will likely have a field day about this as well as every late night comedian.

Another note about John McCain's propfest when it came to Vice President Biden, Mac proceeds to all but announce that he will be running for a sixth term as a U.S. Senator from Arizona.  he states that he is at the top of his game and he is not afraid to continue on serving as the Senior Senator from Arizona.  Wolf Blitzer then says that he hopes that McCain "continues on as Senator for a very long time." McCain proceeds to reciprocate that he hopes that Blitzer "continues on in The Situation Room for a very long time."  Looks like another propfest is on!

Well, I've been watching The Situation Room since the epic opening segment and all I can say is that it has lost edge despite the fact that a CNN reporter quipped that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie will "piss off some people" since he signed an immigration bill today.  Now I will be waiting to see when the latest sounding off by Dennis Rodman will regain the momentum that tonight's opening segment had.  I know I haven't watched The Situation Room in years, but it looks like that it's becoming as entertaining as Shepard Smith aka the Jim Rome of news broadcasting.  Like Romey, Shep is not afraid to dish it out as needed.

Everyone I'm now going to write another chapter for Deception which I hope is finished and published later this year.  Stay warm.  It's 4 degrees in East Rochester with a wind chill of  at least -15 and this is considered to be warm as compared to the rest of the nation!  Even Alaska is warmer than us!

The last thing the War on Terror needs

Could there be a new al-Qaeda in the making...click on the following link to find out: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/07/opinion/dont-create-a-new-al-qaeda.html?ref=alqaeda&_r=0

al-Qaeda may or may not be on the verge of being defeated.

Link work clicking on to read more: http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2013/07/12/terrorism-at-a-moment-of-transition/

NSA Controversy in the making...

Congress could be getting into the act against the NSA.  Click on the following link to read this:

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/01/04/nsa-wont-say-whether-it-spies-on-congress/#us?hpt=us_zite1_featured