Mar. 13th, 2003
Also: Is there a non-cynical answer to the question about why the Elizabeth Smart story got big news, apparently starting with the girl's disappearance? It's certainly a happy thing to hear (and I'm made happier to hear that others are happy too), but I'd think that child kidnapping, and sometimes subsequent recovery, happens often enough around the country that a case involving otherwise unknown people shouldn't make national headlines. Of course, now it's interesting because there's a mutant religious nut involved and everyone loves to hear about that, but he didn't come into the story until just recently, right? (And I grant that I could be wrong about the Smart family being somehow famous before this... maybe I missed something.)