The Dorner manhunt is a terrifying reflection on our society. The first thing I thought of when I heard of this story was that it sounded like a bad movie. Think about it. How many "Rogue Cop" action movies are out there?

Not to mention Dorner fits exactly the description of LaPierre's "Good guy with a gun" load of crap.

Terrifying.

Mich. lawmakers "don't want to be famous for transvaginal ultrasounds", yet have no problem making voters and unions take it in the shorts. Finally someone possibly treated fairly.

The Mental Health bill is interesting and a long time in coming but there are two things I worry about with it.

1) If Blunt is involved there has got to be a Republican angle to this that is not going to be helpful...like requiring mental health patients to attend church or something.

2) since this is essentially an expansion of an "Entitlement" program the Tea Party is going to make it an unfunded mandate or make sure it dies in committee.

That bias column frustrates me. I did one of the IAT tests linked from it twice - once where I got the "A then B" order, then once where I got the "B then A" order. First test showed a strong preference for A; second showed a slight preference for B. I'll admit that, being a member of group A, there's probably a slight subconscious positive association/bias with that group - but I could literally feel the effect of the order during the test. It was like learning to drive with the gas pedal on the right and the brake on the left, and then suddenly switching the positions of the two and taking a driving test.

EDIT: Of course, doing the test twice probably introduces its own error factors just by knowing what the test measures and having done the task before, and on an individual level there's no way to easily tease out those discrepancies. I get that this kind of test is useful in the aggregate with a randomized order - but actually performing it just left me frustrated, and with a feeling that I really didn't learn anything about myself from it.

Virginia has a mandatory minimum of 5 years in jail for having an illegal gun. We had a limit of buying 1 gun per month since the Douglas Wilder administration, but before that law was waved if you had a concealed carry permit. Now it's off the books completely. The law was enacted back when Washington, D.C. was the murder capital of the world, and the goal was to prevent gun trafficking to the city from Virginia. A pretty common sense law. In light of the Heller decision, and people in D.C. can now legally own guns, the merits of keeping such a law on the books is debatable.

Private persons can sell guns for a profit, but if it's a business you're running, you better check with the ATF first and get your FFL license. This doesn't necessarily mean that this woman sold the guns without a background check.

Most private gun sales happen on gunbroker.com It's an ebay of sorts for guns. However, for a seller to sell the gun to a buyer, the seller has to use an FFL (typically a gun store) to transfer the gun to the buyer. The buyer then has to pick up the gun at his designated FFL. The FFL's collect a fee for this, they handle the shipping, and the FFL conducts a background check before the buyer can take the gun home.

However, if I sell a gun to a person down the street from me, and we both live in the same state, then the commerce clause doesn't apply, and I don't have to go through an FFL. I have to be reasonably sure that the guy I'm selling the gun to isn't a criminal, is legally allowed to have such a gun, and isn't going to use it in a crime. If I know he's a criminal or if I know he's going to use it in a crime, I have sold a gun illegally. A private buyer, if they know what they're doing, will ask for the serial number of the gun before buying it, and check with authorities to see if the gun he's buying hasn't been used in a crime.

There's going to be a lot of stories like this with pending gun control legislation. Many people are rushing to buy guns, simply because the prices will skyrocket if some of these things become illegal, and they're looking to make some money off of it.

According to Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia (under miscarriage), 50% of all pregnancies end in a miscarriage, so there is a miscarriage for every live birth. There are probably 5 miscarriages for every abortion. Many forms of birth control cause a miscarriage.

The supreme court gor it right on abortion, making it easy during the first trimester, harder during the second trimester, and allowing the states to regulate it during the third trimester.

Population growth is exponential, and without birth control and abortion the world's population would bw way out of control.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/concerned-over-future-bp-safety-gulf-coast-organizations-and-supporters-demand-full-trial-full-disclosure-and-citizen-participation-192384181.html

Dear Ms Maddow in light of Energy Secretary Chu resignation and in light of the ongoing war on oil in the Gulf. We the people of the Gulf ask you to look at our plight. People are sick from the chemicals and the dispersants and the environment is quickly dying for the effects of 2 Butoxethanol and of the Oil that is washing on shore. I am but one voice in a lot of voices in the Gulf. It is an ongoing assault on our people and our Gulf and it continues.

Sincerely,

Trisha Springstead RN