HEADLINES: 24 Hours Of Sick . . . Sicker . . . Sickest

Sick: A mute swan owned by Queen Elizabeth II was discovered “killed, cut up and cooked on a river bank close to Windsor Castle in Berkshire,” MailOnline (The Daily Mail)  is reporting.

Sicker: Georgia shooting suspect Michael Brandon Hill, accused of holding two school employees captive and firing an assault rifle at police, had nearly 500 rounds of ammunition when he entered Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy yesterday, CBS News is reporting.

“Hill was arrested earlier this year for allegedly threatening on Facebook to shoot his older brother in the head ‘and not think twice about it,'” the network reported, citing a document from police.

The school is named after Ron McNair, an American astronaut and hero who perished with six other American astronauts and heroes in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.  (See speech by President Reagan on RealClearPolitics.com; the speech in remembrance of the astronauts brought a country to tears and will be remembered by many for capturing the essence of Reagan’s views on what it means to be an American.)

Sickest: Christopher Lane, a 22-year-old Australian living his dream of playing college baseball in America, was shot and killed yesterday in Duncan, Okla., allegedly by three “bored” teenagers.

Lane was killed for “the fun of it,” the Washington Post is reporting, quoting prosecutors.

Baseball is America’s national pastime. Lane fell in love with the sport from far, far way. Several Australians have played in Major League Baseball, following their dreams to America.  Dave Nilsson made the MLB All Star team and played in the Olympics for Australia. The PP Blog also has memories of Australian Craig Shipley, who played in the majors and now works for MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks franchise.

CNN is reporting that some people in Australia have called for a boycott of America over concerns of being shot.

The killers of the Queen’s swan, the gunman inside the Georgia school, the murderers of Lane while he was jogging on an American street  . . . well, even President Reagan would have a hard time helping the freedom-pursuing people of the world see these actors and these acts in a context that made any sense at all.

It is just sick — and it makes Americans and people across the world sick at heart and left to wonder where it all is headed and where it will stop.