In February, when we ran a story about a kooky family-run business that was selling faux zombie insurance, I was fairly certain it was tongue in cheek. Now I'm not so certain — and under the circumstances, the term “tongue in cheek” is making me uneasy.

In case you've been away for awhile, this week a story went viral about a guy in Miami who was shot and killed by police while he was in the act of chewing off a homeless man's face. By any accounts the story is horrific, but the particulars of the case make it especially chilling — especially that after having warning shots fired at him by the cops, the guy looked up, growled, and kept on chewing.

Turns out the assailant was probably high on the synthetic street drug known as “bath salts” at the time of the assault. And that's a story unto itself — because on the face of it, bath salts are technically legal, which it would seem could open up a big can of liability for an unsuspecting purveyor.