• The Daily News has an almost excessive amount of coverage of Monday's bizarre murders of five Amish school girls in Lancaster County by a seemingly mild-mannered 32-year-old milk truck driver, who subsequently killed himself.
• In more disturbing gun-related deaths, two Philly police officers have killed themselves in three days.
• And as we pass the 300 mark on the number of homicides in Philly this year, the state House of Representatives soundly rejected the last bit of big gun control legislation up for consideration - the perfectly reasonable one-gun-a-month limit. Sigh.
• Another seemingly mild-mannered guy who definitely wouldn't like the one-gun-a-month limit is Drexel Hill resident Charles Conner. Conner has been building a stockpile of weapons in his rowhouse, including rifles, handguns, hunting knives, Samurai swords, and the materials to make bombs, complete with instructions. His weapons were confiscated by police - and not for the first time - after he was arrested following a DUI last Wednesday night, and then started making "terroristic threats," which included quoting Commando to a health-care worker: "I like you. I'll kill you last." Maybe the guy thinks he's Arnie?
• And just so we have one bullet point that's not about guns and violence, here are a couple of fun fundraisers coming up: bowl with Senator Barack Obama for just $100 on October 11th at Lucky Strike Lanes (the money will go to Chaka Fatah's congressional campaign), or walk with your pooch along MLK Drive on October 21st, after paying a $20-$25 registration fee in support of scholarship and student programs.

Photo of Barack Obama preparing to speak (or possibly to bowl?) by Flickr user super-structure