Today's edition of quick hits:
* President Obama spoke on reducing gun violence at an appearance in Minnesota today. He spoke to an audience dominated by law-enforcement officials, which itself reinforced a larger truth: the police support new laws on gun control and gun safety.
* On a related note, Greg Sargent has a good piece questioning the political utility of Republicans going up against cops in the fight over gun policy.
* The Associated Press is reporting that the week-long hostage standoff in Alabama has ended, and that the kidnapped child is alive. The kidnapper is dead, though preliminary reports do not yet say how he died.
* Extraordinary: "Speaking on camera for the first time since she survived an assassination attempt by the Pakistani Taliban last year, the young activist Malala Yousafzai began with the words, 'Today you can see that I'm alive.'"
* A case worth watching: "The Justice Department, along with state prosecutors, plans to file civil charges against Standard & Poor's Ratings Service, accusing the firm of fraudulently rating mortgage bonds that led to the financial crisis, people briefed on the plan said Monday."
* Chris Kyle's death is a terrible shame.
* Here's a tip for Michael "Heckuva Job" Brown: don't joke about the Superdome -- ever.
* I'm a big admirer of Samantha Power's work, and I'm sorry to see her return to private life.
* Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is taking a bold stand in support of Boy Scout discrimination.
* Some of the allegations against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) may be unraveling.
* John Sides challenges some of the assumptions surrounding political science and gerrymandering.
* I'd sure love to know what "ethnically challenged families" means.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Leave a Comment:
Worrying about the death of a mass murderer (Chris Kyle) is a waste of time. (this BTW is the general consensus yesterday among most of the combat veterans I know)
it was bad enough he did it, worse that he came back and created a career among the crazies bragging about it.
I guess "two good guys with guns" couldn't defend themselves against one "bad guy." Taking people with PTSD back to relive their bad dreams at a shooting range is proof that this is an example of the Darwin Awards at work.
TC- pos is the best possible label I can apply to you...
Live by the gun, die by the gun.
These are the expanded costs of war that nobody brags about before we commit soldiers to PTSD (not) in defense of our liberties (n)or defense of our home soil. This one is on the Deciderer's head and his henchmen's heads as well. Congratulations Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, Ms. Rice and Mr. Rumsfeld; your trained killers have come home!
I will second that motion
TCinLA your insult to a dead soldier is not only classless it is UnAmerican. You do not demean service members for following their orders fighting for the nation, and you certainly do not talk ill of the dead without cause. For you to attack a veteran who killed in battle is flabbergasting and pathetic. You are no better than Joe Walsh. Congratulations you've made it to the bottom of the barrel.
Common on Benen! You know damn well that "ethnically challenged families" means n!ggers. Surprising that this CONservative group is promoting charter schools. I thought the big push was for public funding of private schools, especially those that have the 'right' religions behind them. Amazing how those pushing public school defunding want to use that money to fund schools that have no accountability.
Is it just me, or is tone-deafness considered a feature rather than a bug for Republicans these days? Brownie, McCain, Romney... they're all woefully not funny.
Have you ever seen a genuinely funny Republican...Ever?
I mean seriously...and No Dennis Miller doesn't count, I said "Funny"
Democrats are a riot, though. I love it when they get all personal and tear up, or let the lip quivver. I use to think it was only Bill Clinton- but HRC has learned from him, Obama gets that certain "serious, yet pouting" look right before he gets preachy. I don't care who you are- now that's funny.
Rusty, let's not forget the crybaby in chief John Boehner. This guy cries when you hand him a wooden hammer.
Mark- I can agree with you. Seems we put Obama, Hillary and Boehner all in the same bucket. You are spot on.
Ethically challenged discusses Ethnically challenged?
I continue to be awed by Malala Yousafzai. She is so freaking brave. Seriously. RESPECT.
I am so glad she is alive.
The common denominator to all of this pain is still the availability of machines that use burning powder to propel lead projectiles into people. Everything else is just froth.
There is absolutely no justification, in the 2nd Amendment or elsewhere, to have such efficient machines of death so easily available in a modern civilised context.
Those who oppose gun reform say that guns are perfectly safe as long as you get training in how to use them safely. Being a good marksman and practicing at a shooting range are considered, by them, to be safe ways to use firearms. Chris Kyle was well-trained, he was an expert marksman, and he was at a firing range; but he was still shot dead. Bottom line: Being near guns puts a person in more danger than not being around guns. More guns=more people shot to death. Fewer guns=fewer people shot to death.
I find it deliciously ironic that when Ron Paul makes one of the very few sensible statements he has made in his political career (the one about treating PTSD), the usual suspects on the right go ballistic and start screaming bloody murder. Whatever the ethical considerations of Kyle's work as a sniper, it seems quite obvious that he was phenomenally good at it. However, that does not mean that he was qualified to conduct "desensitization therapy". That sort of therapy is a gradual process:
http://www.simplypsychology.org/Systematic-Desensitisation.html
One does not simply throw the patient in at the deep end, so to speak, at the start of the "therapy". As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I submit that whatever Kyle's good intentions, his hubris* proved to be fatal for him.
* In Kyle's case, another example of "My ass is golden" that has disastrous consequences.
I could see where a crowd of half police captains and half religious ministers would send a even stronger message.
"ethnically challenged"
Don't you know? That's code for "Danger: do not educate"
If 'vertically challenged' means short, then 'Ethnically challenged' would mean lacking ethnicity, which would be....
... homogenized white people without any concept of their family histories?
OMG! It means Wonder-bread People!
(Your family is from Italy, theirs is from Topeka.)
Most police and other law officers have wanted stronger gun control laws for at least half a century.
This would seem to counter the claim that everyone being armed reduces crime, but some NRA types only see in this another aspect of the supposed tyrannical government plot to take away everyone's guns.
@Big Gary
Where are you getting your info? Those in law enforcement that I know are stating that they do not support an assault weapons ban, considering that it has been tried ineffectively in the past, will eat up valuable resources, and focus energy in the wrong direction. Alot of those "NRA types" ARE law enforcement...
http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/assault-weapons-ban-endorsements
As long as you are permitted to have a gun, then it makes sense that you would want no one else to have one. See, how that works? YOU get to carry protection, but no one else does. That's the only reason any police personnel would want a gun ban. YOUR world is safer when you have a gun, but no one else does. That's why the government aims to disarm private citizens. They fear the angry population. Rather than do their jobs, they are working to weaken the power of the people. No, I'm not a Republican, but I will be voting that way in 2014, which sickens me. Dianne Feinstein is one stupid witch for pushing this issue when she knows it will do little to save lives. She's worried about herself, because the person who previously held her position was assassinated. This is not about saving any lives, except those who will still be carrying weapons of their choice. Very disappointing that Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes have jumped aboard the train. I thought they had more integrity.
Police officers in towns and cities usually do want stronger gun laws; the cowboy-type sheriffs in rural areas... not so much. Perhaps the two of you (Big Gary and Lisafp) live "under different geographical conditions"?
I'm sure it is statistically inevitable that some of those who are in law enforcement will also belong to the Gun Cult.
It seems as though every other day brings another right-wing amicus brief filed with the SCOTUS on behalf of one or the other of the two pending marriage equality cases. Today's contestant is Liberty Counsel (affiliated with Liberty University). Their brief was filed on behalf of Prop 8, and it's a pip. I'm not sure if it makes any actual legal arguments at all. Their argument seems to be that change leads to more change, and they'd like the Beaver's world preserved like a fly in amber, thank you very much. It's all very disgusting, and there will probably be many more of these briefs as there are so many right-wing groups who think they have skin in this game.
From the brief: "By destroying the traditional definition of marriage, the family structure will be dramatically transformed. Many boys will grow up without any positive male influence in their lives to show them what it means to be a man, and many girls will grow up without any female influence to show them what it means to be a lady."
So many things wrong with this statement -
1. No, it is not a legal argument. At best, it is a social argument.
2. It assumes that gay couples have no other family or friends - no men in the lives of lesbian couples, no women in the lives of gay men couples.
3. It assumes that only one way exists to teach boys to become men and girls to become ladies - never mind teaching girls to become women! (And I must say, not only is their approved way of doing either wrong, it's downright scary!)
4. It certainly flies in the face of all single-parent families, regardless of the circumstances that caused the absence of one parent.
If the SCOTUS decides to even read the brief (as opposed to it getting no farther than their judicial aides,) I can just see every one of them laughing their arses off - except maybe Thomas...
So much to object to. The 'gender is binary' claim seems to be the root of this particular brief, and it's just patently absurd.
It's about time someone started talking about some serious legal action against the extremely unethical conduct of the credit reporting agencies. Their role in the mortgage crisis was the definition of corruption. Not to mention they are highly powerful and hold our futures (both as a individually and as a nation) in their greedy hands. Either some serious regulatory oversight or just straight up dissolution needs to happen.
I'm not very hopeful that either will happen, but at least they are on the radar again.
I wonder if anyone around here read Sam Harris' piece on guns. He changed my thinking on a couple of things. It's long, but very well done.
http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-riddle-of-the-gun
I was just watching "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart"... You know the Iranian government is claiming they shot a monkey into space and recovered it alive, right?...
Well, Stewart showed the pictures of the monkey presented on Iranian TV, both pre-launch and after recovery, side by side... Surprise! Two different monkeys... Pre-launch, the monkey had light-brown hair... After recovery, the monkey has black hair and a different nose... Stewart explained it as Iran has also launched the first OPS (Orbital Primate Spa)...
Funny how nobody else in the media seems to have noticed...
On "The Colbert Report", Stephen revealed how the President's skeet-shooting photo was 'faked'... He had his cameraman focus on the photo, then pull back to reveal it was actually photographed on the stage where they faked the moon landing...
I love how Colbert lampoons the Right-Wing's paranoia...
The skeeters are just jealous because they cant afford the shotgun Obama is shooting in the photo. Penis envy?
Dr. Maddows, the 'smoke that in the wrong place' is, in fact, correct. It's from a port cut into the barrel to reduce lift from recoil. A commercial name for it is: 'magnaport'.
How much are arms sales legal & illegal a part of this debate?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/world/middleeast/us-foreign-arms-sales-reach-66-3-billion-in-2011.html?_r=0