Greyhound bus rides can be unpleasant under the best of circumstances, but no one got a more gruesome and tragic ride than Tim McLean, a 22-year-old carnival worker, who was attacked, beheaded, and partially eaten by his seat mate, Vince Li, a mentally disturbed man. Li, who suffers from severe schizophrenia, became convinced that McLean, whom he didn't know, was an alien and that he had to kill him to save humanity.

Li has spent four years in a mental facility in Winnipeg, and now he is going to be allowed to make supervised visits to the outside world. The decision sparked outrage in Canada, but Li says that he now takes his medication, doesn't hear voices, and that he is "not a risk for anybody." Er, does this make anyone feel comfortable? Yeah, me neither.

But there's one more thing Li would like too. And it's a doozy.

A scary incident just unfolded up over U.S. airspace earlier today. A U.S. Airways jetliner that was flying from Paris to Charlotte, North Carolina was diverted to Maine, due to what an airline spokesperson described as a "security issue." The aircraft was even escorted by two F-15 fighters, according to a North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) spokesman.

Apparently, all the brouhaha stemmed from a passenger's odd, reportedly "mentally unstable" behavior. A woman aboard the flight -- identified as a French citizen born in Cameroon -- announced she had a "surgically implanted device," reports the AP. But the source spoke anonymously, because the subject matter involved sensitive law enforcement info. 

Wow, can you imagine? It had to be incredibly frightening to be a passenger aboard this plane!

HawaiiDid you get bit by the vacation bug the minute the weather started getting a little warmer? I sure did. The instant the sun came out and the snow melted, I immediately started dreaming of lazy days spent relaxing on the beach without a care in the world.

But as much as I'd love to jet away to an undisclosed tropical location and sip mango daiquiris under a palm tree, this year my family is playing it pretty low key and heading to the coast of Maine a couple of times. It'll be relaxing and fun, but nowhere near as luxurious as the types of vacations celebrities take each year. (Lucky ducks!)

And A-listers aren't only fortunate because they can afford to travel to super swanky destinations. They're also very privileged because they are able to take trips completely on a whim -- as long as they reserve a private jet a few days in advance.

Meet the world's most adorable suspected terrorist. She's got dark ringlets, a pink sippy cup, and she's all of 18 months old. Not 18 years -- 18 months. Little Riyanna was pulled off a flight from Florida to New Jersey because she's on TSA's "no-fly" list.

Look into this sweet baby face and tell me -- is this the face of a extremist bomber?

All jokes about toddlers and diaper bombs aside, WHAT THE HELL? How do you look a mother in the eye and say, "Well, it's not you or your husband. Your daughter was flagged as no fly." What kind of absurd game is this?

Do you have any big plans for Mother's Day weekend? I can't lie -- I'm being a bit selfish this year and indulging in a much needed girls' weekend away with my own mom. She and I don't get much one-on-one time, so this will be so nice and relaxing for both of us.

But even though we'll be gone most of the weekend, we're coming back on Sunday and celebrating with the rest of the family. There's no way I could go through an entire Mother's Day without spending some time with my favorite little guy! After all, I wouldn't be a mom without him.

Girls' weekends are always fun, but there are also some great options for quick Mother's Day getaways that the whole family will enjoy.

Remember when the thought of going through an airport scanner actually seemed preferable to a potential groping by an overly aggressive TSA agent? Those days are over. A teenage girl is claiming the full-body scanner at the Salt Lake City airport was so powerful it destroyed her $10,000 insulin pump.

Savannah Barry had a note from her doctor suggesting she avoid the scanners, but says TSA agents ignored her request to be patted down (really, a 16-year-old girl WANTED a pat-down, and they didn't think there might be a reason for it?). When her mom called the maker of the device designed to keep her daughter's diabetes from spiralling out of control, they said take it off. NOW.

So, my family and I survived the 16-hour trip from Baltimore to Disney World. Not only did we survive it, we had an absolute blast. It was as close to perfect as a trip with three young kids could possibly be. Hallelujah! But, that's not to say our trips have always been so successful. We've had stomach bugs, flat tires, and ear infections plague many a family trip. Thankfully, just not this one! It seems like, more often than not, family trips aren't all they're cracked up to be.

Forgetting your last one? Check out these confessions from the Scary Mommy Confessional on family vacations. And, plan a solo trip with your spouse ...

If the idea of an airport grinding to a halt for 10 minutes because of a puppy loose on the runway sounds silly, then I'm going to go ahead and make a wild guess:

You've probably never had a puppy.

Up until approximately eight months ago, I never had a puppy either ... but now that I have this adorably impetuous 40-pound (and still growing!) creature capable of dragging me uphill with all the force of a team of oxen, I totally get why departures were delayed at LaGuardia Airport in NYC yesterday.

Because Byrdie, the 30-pound Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, pulled a Houdini and escaped from her crate while being loaded on a plane to Memphis.

And of course at that point she did what any puppy would do in the same situation ... she ran like the wind! Free at last!