By Dan Bilefsky, Alan Cowell and Sebnem Arsu, New York Times, Jan. 10/11, 2013

PARIS — Three Kurdish women, including a founding member of a leading militant group fighting for autonomy in Turkey, were shot to death at a Kurdish institute in central Paris, police officials said on Thursday, potentially jeopardizing efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in the decades-old conflict.

News reports identified one of the women as Sakine Cansiz, a founder of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, known by the initials P.K.K. Another was identified as Fidan Dogan, the head of the institute and a representative of the Kurdistan National Committee. The third woman was Leyla Soylemez, a youthful Kurdish activist. [....]

Analysts in Turkey argued that it seemed to be no coincidence that the killings had come just days after reports of the peace negotiations involving Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the P.K.K. who was incarcerated in 1999 in a fortresslike prison on the western Turkish island of Imrali. While Kurdish militants blamed Turkey for the shootings in Paris, Turkish officials said the women could have been killed because of feuding within the P.K.K. [....]

Zachary Goldfarb and Chris Cillizza, Wash Post online, earlier this afternoon.  No reference in this brief article to Lew's views on financial sector regulation and oversight.

President Obama is set to nominate White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew as his next Treasury secretary, choosing a longtime expert on the nation’s budget challenges, as the country faces an imminent battle over the debt limit, according to two people familiar with the matter.

........

Obama’s selection of Lew is likely to delight many congressional Democrats, who see him as an effective negotiator and someone who fights for Democratic values. But it may disappoint Republicans, who grew frustrated by his negotiating style during talks over the budget.

.........

A native New Yorker, he was the White House’s chief negotiator during the 2011 budget talks — at a time, like now, when the nation was facing a battle over raising the debt limit.

I found this article online. Prepping is, apparently, a lot of work.

There it is in black and white.

Holmes reportedly had as much Vicodin in his system as killed Heath Ledger. His psychiatrist had been reprimanded for prescribing medications very liberally - including to family and friends.

Painkillers and antidepressants kill normal senses in the body in order to kill depression, pain and anxiety. Police apparently said that he seemed abnormally calm and seemed to "not have a normal emotional response to things." He actually seemed to literally wait outside in the parking lot for police to arrest him after he murdered all of those people. That is really strange - usually even the worst serial killers avoid police.

His pupils were also seriously dilated in his booking photo, which is most likely the cause of heavy duty medication.

Drug use comes up in nearly all of these mass killings. Read Peter Hitchens' coverage - it is worth reading. You shouldn't go ban all prescription drugs, that is obviously ridiculous, but drugs are passed out in our society way more liberally than they ever should be.

It doesn't make sense that there seemed to be factions that think guns should be freely available but that overmedication is a problem and sides that think the exact opposite. Both guns and medications are dangerous enough that there should be serious regulations on them - more so than we obviously have.

You should only be able to own a gun after going through a serious screening process at least ten times as difficult as getting a driver's license. You should only be prescribed medication if you have a demonstrable mental or physical illness that requires the actual medication you're being given. Advertisements should either not be allowed or should be required to have huge warning labels.

We have such regulations on cigarettes and getting cancer after forty years of smoking is certainly not as scary as an overdose or getting shot in the face.

Philip Rucker, Washington Post, this morning

Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, launched a campaign Tuesday that they said would push for stricter gun laws and counter the political influence of the National Rifle Association.

...........

“Enough,” Giffords said in an interview with ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer, saying that she was spurred to action after last month’s slaughter of 20 young children and six educators at a Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Giffords and Kelly announced in a Tuesday op-ed in USA Today that they would launch Americans for Responsible Solutions, which will raise money and spur a national conversation about gun violence. They write that it will “balance the influence of the gun lobby, and will line up squarely behind leaders who will stand up for what’s right.”

“We can’t be naive about what it will take to achieve the most common-sense solutions,” the couple writes. “We can’t just hope that the last shooting tragedy will prevent the next. Achieving reforms to reduce gun violence and prevent mass shootings will mean matching gun lobbyists in their reach and resources.”

Giffords and Kelly write that, “as gun owners and survivors of gun violence, we have a unique message for Americans.”

...........

 

Highly recommended lecture (3 million+ views) on the US processed & fast food industries, politics (should excite Daggers), obesity, and the toxicity and damage done by the last 30 years of putting more and more high fructose corn syrup in almost every processed food.

Over an hour long (can you tear yourself away from Dagblogging for that long?).

Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, explores the damage caused by sugary foods. He argues that fructose (too much) and fiber (not enough) appear to be cornerstones of the obesity epidemic through their effects on insulin. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public.

Dr. Lustig was on the D. Rehm Show today.

Dr. Lustig's book (comes out Dec 27, 2012), "Fat Chance: Beating the Odds Against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease": http://www.amazon.com/Fat-Chance-Beating-Against-Processed/dp/159463100X

In Focus with Alan Taylor @ theatlantic.com, Jan. 7, 2013

14 photos: [....] Presented here are the winners from the three categories of People, Places, and Nature, captions provided by the photographers. [....]

As it typically does in the US National Security State, deceit and radicalism result not in recrimination or loss of credibility, but in reward and promotion.

OTTAWA — Disclosing details of behind-the-scenes discussions about tales of melting banknotes could endanger national security or international relations, says Canada’s central bank. / In response to a formal request from The Canadian Press, the Bank Of Canada released 134 pages of internal records — almost completely blanked out — concerning allegations its new polymer bills melted in the scorching summer sun. / The bank began issuing $100 polymer banknotes in late 2011, saying they were harder to counterfeit than paper notes and would last much longer. / Unconfirmed reports of cooked currency emerged in July when a Kelowna, B.C., bank teller said she had heard of cases in which several bills had melted together inside a car.

Alabama’s Department of Homeland Security has released the above six-minute video on how to survive a mass shooting incident.

The sobering video is more disturbing than graphic, but the advice seems sound.

Two things to note as you watch: First, the lack of a deus ex machina. No one comes to the rescue with a pocketed firearm. The possibility isn’t even addressed. Secondly, you have to wonder what the grade-school version would look like.

I dunno; Huffpo would not lie to me;

would she?

I was surprised by this little squib from a nothing blog!

But the info looks goooooooooood!

I already said elsewhere I like the guy!

the end

#11 is funniest.