The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    NRA members! Watch out for Joe Biden!

    Well, I checked and it looks as if, even after Newtown and some stores pulling the gun off the shelves, sales of the Bushmaster rifle are up. Go figure. 

    Reluctantly I have to agree with DF that at least some of this is fueled by people who believe that the gun will be outlawed, and that it is counter-productive.

    Another stab: Fashion and gun control

    If we're talking about increasing gun safety through numbers reduction, the most effective words in the English language will be "Ewww," "So 2011," and "Jesus, what a pain in the ass."

     
    Our discussion of which weapons and ammunition to ban (See "Black Rifle Blues") is fraught with inconsistencies and plagued by the reality that sometimes, making something illegal increases its appeal.
     
    But MADD and the anti-tobacco folks understood that the perception of unfashionableness is among the world's most powerful forces, and used it to their advantage. It took a long time, but fewer people drive drunk now, and these days, you can go to a bar in quite a few places without coming home smelling like smoke. In the case of tobacco, this was accomplished by some lawsuits, a few bans, and a lot of encouraging people to see cigarettes as just not as cool as previously thought.

    Mindset

    I am reading the book by that name, by Carol Dweck, and am recommending it to fellow denizens and others I know.  

    Elusive Trope's picture

    There is No Evil

    Megan McCardle provided a prime example, as linked to by Michael, of one particular take on what transpired in Newtown as well as other mass shooting that tends to get in my craw [emphasis mine]:

    Most crimes are motivated by unlovely impulses that are at least comprehensible: the desire for money, sex, respect, revenge.  We don't do these things...But we can understand why people want to--we know what someone is after when they hold up a liquor store, or even kills their spouse for the insurance money.  Understanding is not sanction: these crimes still have the power to anger and horrify.  But they're comprehensible, and that comprehensibility is surprisingly comforting.  

    The alternative is Newtown.  When one tries to picture the mind that plans it, one quickly comes to a dead end....Trying to climb this mountain of wickedness is like trying to climb a glass wall with your bare hands. What happened there is pure evil, and evil, unlike common badness, gives an ordinary mind no foothold.

    Since we can't understand it, we can't change it.  And since we can't change it, our best hope is to box it in.

    Problem Solved! Bulletproof Backpacks Sales Soar!

    American exceptionalism, the wisdom of an entrepreneurial  free market, and job creation wrapped into one. The marketplace, not the government or the law, is always ready and able with a solution for any problem, for a price, so that a given American can 'save' themselves while others.....well for others, who aren't packin' and whose kids don't have $300 armored backpacks.....things may not turn out too good.

    coatesd's picture

    The Fiscal Cliff, the Republicans and the Ghost of Christmas Past

    As reports thicken of a possible deal between the White House and the House Republicans – a deal which will supposedly avoid the rest of us going over some fiscal cliff on January 1 – it is worth remembering at least four reasons why such a deal is probably best avoided,[2] and why cliff jumping (bungee[3] or otherwise) is completely unnecessary. Four reasons that take us from the current intransigence of the contemporary Republican Party back to the nineteenth-century origins of so much of that intransigence.

    jollyroger's picture

    Prez: "Cat food! It's what's for dinner. (And we ain't talkin' Fancy Feast, nor even IAMS..it's Meow Mix for you, Granny.)

    Notwithstanding public pronouncements to the contrary by Joe "too far over his skiis" Biden, and Harry "Mitt Romney pays no taxes" Reid, we learn today that Barry "shiv-in-your-back" Obama is feeling the pain of House Repugnants with such poignancy that he finds it neccessary to bargain away a big chunk of Granny's outyear meal budgets; throwing Boehner a bone as it were, by snatching it from Granny's teeth.

    Taking a stab (ha!) at gun laws and practices.

    Some of these may already be in place in certain locations. But here goes. This is a grab bag--some ideas are practical, some aimed at taking guns out of the hands of irresponsible owners, some are pure marketing. Regarding the assault weapons ban, maybe it's great, maybe it's dumb. My sense is that it probably needs some work. What doesn't?

    As AT pointed out, the law would have kept a gun out of Adam Lanza's hands if his mom hadn't been a "prepper." (And maybe he wouldn't have tried to buy one if she hadn't been. The investigation may reveal more about this.)

    jollyroger's picture

    One revolver per person. No semi-automatics, no shotguns, no hunting rifles.. Yes, we are coming for your guns.

    I offer for debate: The only legitimate purpose of a firearm is to equalize the odds while you await the police.  It will have a mandatory trigger lock, and someday a palm print activated safety.

     

    Therefor, if you feel the need (or have the greed) to wipe out unarmed mammals, use a Bow.

     

    All firearms to be licensed.  You may possess a revolver.( plus  a speed loader if you need it, and only one.)

     

    We will amend the constitution.

     

    Yes, we are coming for your guns, and we shall have them.

     

     

    Orion's picture

    For These Tragedies To End, We Must Change - SSRIs and Violence

    Hello all....

    I've taken down my posts recently. I tried to get away from this website and this discussion but -- I can't.

    Reading some of the comments that I got which obviously misunderstood what I was saying made me at once sad that my attempts to articulate what I think is causing this horror were being misunderstood. I got paid to talk about public issues for several years but I found it really upsetting when I was getting comments basically accusing me of nonsense. It is much easier to stomach criticism and grow a thick skin when you are talking about institutional racism or economic policy than when you are trying to articulate the cause of mass murder. I especially felt uncomfortable with the fact that I was writing may be hurting or offending people.

    cmaukonen's picture

    And the blood continues to flow.......

    But what do you expect in a country where gratuitous violence, blood and mayhem make up the vast majority of the entertainment.

    Where a wholly unrealistic portrayal of the Wild West™ on TV and in the movies is still very popular and there are those who not only believe it to be real but also think it should be design for how this country should be living. Albeit updated a bit.

    Richard Day's picture

    GUNS, GUNS & MORE GUNS


    John Lott

    THE EVIL

     

    Guns, guns, and more guns

    Babes in the garden are gone

    Eden's been attacked!

     

    I can't stop cryin'

    Five year-olds are just dyin'

    Before our own eyes.

     

    There is no bizness

    Like show bizness on cable

    Now cliches abound

     

    Children have been wronged

    Families are in mourning

    Is there a morrow?

    http://dagblog.com/arts/tear-stained-friday-afternoon-haikulodeon-15661

    A post on guns, violence, and etcetera

    I'd intended to make no post on this topic. While I won't go into my views on the overall topic, my opinion is that nothing will change; not one single thing. Not two days from now; not two years; not in the next decade.

    But the usual thing that is said is starting to show up, again, from various sources and I (in a flash of wishful thinking) hope to stomp on it early in its appearance, whatever its variation:

    We need to have a conversation about gun control.

    jollyroger's picture

    Support your local suicide hotline

    It is perhaps easy to overlook that the final death in Newtown was that of the shooter.

     

    Don't get me wrong--I would have cheerfully supported snuffing this piece of shit preemptively were it possible, even though I passionately oppose the death penalty after a crime has occurred.

     

    That said, inasmuch as  the staggering majority of mass killings are  "murder-suicides"  it seems to me that a relatively accessible "mental health" amelioration of our  plight would be more adequate funding and personning of suicide prevention hot lines.

     

    MrSmith1's picture

    Some Christmas Silliness ... returns

     

    I was going to wait and re-post this next weekend, but perhaps we need a little silliness now.  

    It's a story I wrote many years ago, stuck in a drawer and forgot about.  

    You can't push a string

    Most governors are refusing to set up medical exchanges.Thank you , thank you , thank you.

     Understandably it's not a compelling topic today against the back drop of the Connecticut killings but maybe we'll look back on this period  as when we made the first step towards single payer.

    Fred On the Universal Soldier

    Today I read a column by my old buddy whom I have never met, Fred Reed.  I suppose it could be called a poem but it definitely is not a feel-good piece. After reading it I considered putting a link here but felt that it needed some context, so after thinking about it for a while I started doing some googling.

    jollyroger's picture

    Prez:"Boehner debt ceiling budget blackmail? Homey don't play that!" B.S.? Bluster? Bluff? Or Benko gambit?

    We hear tough talk from Prez (not for the first time...) vowing that any attempts by John Boehner to leverage a fiscal bargaining position by demanding concessions as a quid pro quo for raising the debt limit are non starters.

     

    Richard Day's picture

    MUSKRAT SALLY

     

    I commented on Mr. Smith's blog.

    http://dagblog.com/arts/friday-afternoon-birthday-party-haikulodeon-15615

    Mr. Smith writes Haikus.

    Anyway, I am worried about omens.

    cmaukonen's picture

    My Mom passed away this morning

    She did not die of cancer or a heart attack or a stroke. She did not have diabetes or any other disease. Some high BP but that is all. And she did not die of natural causes.

    NO she died from the most likely cause these days after entering a hospital. She died of a hospital acquired infection.

    TO PROTECT AND PRESERVE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT LEGISLATION INTRODUCED

    It was reported yesterday that Senator Begich, (D) Alaska, introduced his bill on Tuesday to build up, not tear down, Social Security!

    Begich's office says the bill would extend the solvency of the program for about 75 years, instead of until 2033, which is when reserves now are estimated to be exhausted.

    Richard Day's picture

    WE CAN STILL TAKE FIVE! THANK YOU DAVE BRUBECK

    I know so little about music....

    But I recall this tune from so long ago...

     

     

    I remember this!

    THANK YOU DAVE!

    You are still being heard!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Five

     

     

     

    coatesd's picture

    Obama at Half-Time: The Big Question

    Public conversation in and around Washington D.C. is currently preoccupied with the question of the fiscal cliff.  And rightly so, for very big things are at stake. Not least whether or not a political crisis will tip the economy back into recession, and whether an election result that mandated a tax increase on the rich can still be negated by Republican intransigence. Whether the fiscal cliff is a real one or a manufactured one,[1] and if real whether it can be circumvented without lasting damage to vital welfare programs,[2] all that remains momentarily unresolved – and as such, the legitimate subject of a daily deluge of argument.

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