It's true, because.....

.....we so desperately wish it to be.

Thus: the recent e-mail about the 11-year old girl dispatching two armed assailants with a shotgun. I'll not reproduce it here, because it's easy to find. Internet wishful thinking at its finest, not only because the names used are highly questionable, but because we wish all 11-year-old girls could eliminate armed assailants. When it comes to these kinds of stories, I'm a real sucker for "Paris Hilton to go to jail for 45 days" .....even when I know that's not going to happen.

The real world is more complicated, even when it has a good outcome, as with the local case of a putative predator who got nailed by a good old classic Joe Friday police stakeout of a middle school, after a 12-year-old reported being accosted earlier in the week. I was somewhat frosted to learn in the newspaper account that the school authorities confirmed the girl's account, stating there had been "-similar occurrences." However, the story did not state if anyone in the previous cases, be it child, parent, or school officials, had called the cops. The police, whatever their supposed faults otherwise, can hardly be held to account if they don't know!