To make my night a little more interesting, I'm sitting here watching live streaming video of a high-speed car chase. It's riveting. The news camera is pointed down on the chase, and this guy (obviously) is driving like a lunatic at speeds ranging from 20 to 120 miles per hour. Just when you think he's finally given up, he slams on the accelerator. I'm trying to wrap my head around why someone would do this to begin with.

• Some prank version of a gang initiation.
• A really, really bad drug trip.
• Boredom.
• Desperation.

Any way you look at it, he didn't exactly think everything through. Let's see, steal a car, drive at over 120 miles per hour, get into a high speed chase that you'll ultimately lose because you're beyond outnumbered by the policemen chasing you, there's helicopters that circle Los Angeles pretty much constantly, and oh by the way, you'll probably run out of gas fairly quickly the way you're driving, and sorry, no 'tank of gas free' card is used in this game.

I doubt very much that the dude, when he first hatched his brilliant plan, thought it could possibly go wrong. And in the end, he was probably just as shocked that he got caught as was the 60-something valley resident who reportedly got in a fight with his wife, threatened her life, subsequently set their house on fire, but wound up killing himself in the process instead of her. No, seriously, he really did.