Senseless crime, 'killer' bees, credit cards and eateries

Here are some musings on a warm spring day:

 Few things are more disturbing than the thought of senseless violence, undeserved, unprovoked and as unpredictable as a lightning strike on a clear day — especially if it comes at the hands of a next-door neighbor. My guess is more details will emerge about the slaying in West Valley City of Kim Hain, and the suspect police arrested, 18-year-old neighbor Marty Vuksinick. In my years as a police reporter, I learned that truly random violence of this extreme kind is rare. But if it turns out the killer really was just high or mentally ill, it paints a scary picture of what could happen in any quiet neighborhood.

 Speaking of senseless and violent, North Korea is up to its old tricks. But last week's underground missile test — a real rock-smasher nearly as powerful as the bombs that struck Japan to end World War II — is complicated by what sources say is a struggle over who will replace ailing leader Kim Jong Il. I'd call it a hair-raising struggle, but there's no way you could tell with Kim.

My guess is the United States will continue to push for six-nation talks as it tries to get China to pressure North Korea and the United Nations to approve sanctions. All of which is about as effective as telling the bully who confronts you after school you're going to tell the teacher. Thuggish nations will submit to negotiations for one reason only — to extract more benefits from other nations in exchange for promises they don't intend to keep. President George W. Bush was criticized for lumping North Korea and Iran into what he called an "axis of evil." That was too provocative for many tastes, but it was honest and accurate.

Oh, and by the way, President Barack Obama, tell them we still want the USS Pueblo back.

Killer bees need a better PR department. They kill only one or two people a year. That would be enough to get me the death penalty, but it puts millions of aggressive Africanized honeybees on a level far below even the swine flu, let alone the regular flu. Now that they have been found as far north as Cedar City, killer bees are on the Utah radar screen. But don't worry. They won't make it up to the Wasatch Front where the winters are too cold — unless global warming really does heat things up around here.