Steven Hart on John Shirley's "Everything Is Broken"

via Steven Hart

John Scalzi once remarked that people who took Atlas Shrugged seriously tended to be people who (a) imagined that they would wind up on top of the heap if the novel’s comprehensive societal breakdown actually took place, and (b) would in reality last about five minutes in such a situation. John Shirley’s maliciously entertaining new novel Everything is Broken (Prime Books) brings the Ayn Rand scenario to an isolated California coastal town where the libertarian mayor has done away with all those Big Government encumbrances like publicly funded police and fire services, just in time for an earthquake-generated tsunami to smash what’s left of the local infrastructure. Dead bodies are everywhere, Galt Gulch is a debris-choked canyon under armed guard by a band of thugs, and the closest thing to Midas Mulligan is a meth-snorting psychopath in league with the increasingly delusional mayor. A mean book for mean times, Everything is Broken is a bracingly realistic disaster novel with a much-needed political chip on its shoulder. Even a Ron Paul follower should think twice about knocking it off.

I can't wait to read it. How about you?

Please leave a comment.

The Meaning of the Second Amendment

via The Propaganda Professor, a post from a few months back, which includes one of the clearest explanations of the different ways to understand the 2A that I've read.

“A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

But let’s cut to the chase, shall we? I lied. The passage quoted above is actually not the Second Amendment; at least it’s not the original version passed by Congress in 1791. It is, rather, a subtly altered version that states later ratified, much to the delight of the gun lobby, which almost always quotes the tweaked edition. Here’s the way the Amendment read as passed by Congress:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Notice the difference? The NRA is really hoping you won’t. But if you look closely, you’ll spot something that was missing from the other version. Actually, two somethings: little spermatazoid markings after “Militia” and “Arms”. They’re called commas, and they can drastically alter the meaning of a sentence. (Which sounds more appealing: ” a million dollars, and beads” or “a million, dollars and beads “?)

My contention is that the whole business is so antiquated and anachronistic that it's meaningless, but I love the Professor's take on it too.

What's your opinion? Since I realize we never tire of discussing this, and it is at the very center of raison d'etre here on the blog, what do you think the Second Amendment means today? Is that meaning different than it was in the beginning? How has it changed?

Please leave a comment.

The Secret History of Gun Control

via The Atlantic I love this story about the Black Panthers. The article contains much more though. What do you think?

In February of 1967, Oakland police officers stopped a car carrying Newton, Seale, and several other Panthers with rifles and handguns. When one officer asked to see one of the guns, Newton refused. “I don’t have to give you anything but my identification, name, and address,” he insisted. This, too, he had learned in law school.

“Who in the hell do you think you are?” an officer responded.

“Who in the hell do you think you are?,” Newton replied indignantly. He told the officer that he and his friends had a legal right to have their firearms.

Newton got out of the car, still holding his rifle.

“What are you going to do with that gun?” asked one of the stunned policemen.

“What are you going to do with your gun?,” Newton replied.

By this time, the scene had drawn a crowd of onlookers. An officer told the bystanders to move on, but Newton shouted at them to stay. California law, he yelled, gave civilians a right to observe a police officer making an arrest, so long as they didn’t interfere. Newton played it up for the crowd. In a loud voice, he told the police officers, “If you try to shoot at me or if you try to take this gun, I’m going to shoot back at you, swine.” Although normally a black man with Newton’s attitude would quickly find himself handcuffed in the back of a police car, enough people had gathered on the street to discourage the officers from doing anything rash. Because they hadn’t committed any crime, the Panthers were allowed to go on their way.

Bad Judgment..........But We ARM Them?

"This is my rifle, this is my gun; 
  One is for fighting, one is for fun."

Rick Perry wants to minimize the disgraceful actions of marines caught on video urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban fighters, while we are in negotiations in Afghanistan to end the war there.

I don't believe that this kind of behavior has ever been acceptable in any of the conflicts in which our military has engaged.  Certainly there have been incidents in the past; some were more tolerated than others.  In the Vietnam War, it was common for the Vietnamese and the Viet Cong alike to be referred to by American soldiers by derogatory terms like Gooks, inferior human beings.

This is in the same dehumanizing that the right wing justifies towards others, towards those they see as different, those they see as not conforming, especially those who believe in other religions.  It is no different from Perry's fellow ultra-conservative religious right-winger, Michele Bachmann objecting to zero tolerance for bullying gay students on the grounds of that kind of bully is justified, even encouraged, by Christianity.  It is the same dehumanizing that we see the 2nd Amendment gun nuts use in calling the people they want to shoot Goblins.

Gooks.  Goblins. Fags. Rag heads. Different names, different people, but it's all the same hatred.  All of it dishonors us, all of that disrespect for other human beings shames us.  Shame on Perry for his stupidity about the Geneva convention; he clearly lacks the knowledge he needs to run for the office of President.  And shame on these American soldiers in Afghanistan; they should know better than to behave like this.  I'm sure he would find it unacceptable for Taliban fighters to do this to dead American soldiers.  These kids are criminals; these kids stupidly think that shooting people is entertaining, or that it signifies winning.  This isn't winning; this is losing. Their ignorance, their lack of humanity and lack of understanding of what makes people civilized jeopardizes their fellow soldiers, and our national security and foreign policy.

From the Guardian:

Four US marines identified by the military as the soldiers filmed urinating on corpses in Afghanistan are likely to face a court martial after an American military commander said such actions are a "grave breach" of the laws of war.
The Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) has interviewed two of the soldiers featured in the video laughing and making snide remarks as they urinated on the bloodied bodies of three Afghan men, who have not been identified. It is not clear if the men were members of the Taliban.
In attempt to dampen the growing diplomatic storm around the abuse, the commanders of US forces in Afghanistan on Friday ordered American troops to treat the bodies of killed enemies and civilians with "appropriate dignity and respect".
The soldiers were members of a sniper unit that completed a six-month tour of duty in Afghanistan's Helmund province in September and returned to Camp LeJuene in North Carolina where the video was passed around. The two others are believed to have left the military.
The nature of the charges are unclear although desecrating bodies is a crime under US military law and the Geneva conventions. 

The deputy commander of US forces in Afghanistan, lieutenant general Curtis Scaparrotti, said in a message to troops on Friday that "defiling, desecrating, mocking, photographing or filming for personal use insurgent dead constitutes a grave breach" of laws governing armed conflict. He said it also violates "basic standards of human decency, and can cause serious damage to relations with the Afghan government".
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, said she believed the men may be guilty of a war crime.

 and in an earlier Guardian article:

At least two of four US Marines shown in a video appearing to urinate on Taliban corpses have been identified, a Marine Corps official has told the BBC.

The BBC's Steve Kingstone says the official would not confirm the Marines' whereabouts, but reports suggested the unit involved was based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina - a major military base.
US media reported that the unit belonged to the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi told the BBC that this was not the first time Americans had carried out such a "wild action" and that Taliban attacks on the Americans would continue.
But a different Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the video "is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage".
However Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of the Afghan government's High Peace Council, told Reuters the video would "leave a very, very bad impact on peace efforts".

We are better than this; well, most of us are.

From MSNBC.com

Perry: Marines in video are 'kids,' not criminals

By ANNE FLAHERTY

updated 2 hours 25 minutes ago

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry on Sunday accused the Obama administration of "over-the-top rhetoric" and "disdain for the military" in its condemnation of a video that purportedly shows four Marines urinating on corpses in Afghanistan.

Perry's comments put him at odds with Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who said the images could damage the war effort.
"The Marine Corps prides itself that we don't lower ourselves to the level of the enemy," McCain said when asked about Perry's position. "So it makes me sad more than anything else, because ... I can't tell you how wonderful these people (Marines) are. And it hurts their reputation and their image."
No one has been charged in the case, but officials in the U.S. and abroad have called for swift punishment of the four Marines. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last week that he worried the video could be used by the Taliban to undermine peace talks.
A military criminal investigation and an internal Marine Corps review are under way. The Geneva Conventions forbid the desecration of the dead.
Texas Gov. Perry said the Marines involved should be reprimanded but not prosecuted on criminal charges.
"Obviously, 18-, 19-year-old kids make stupid mistakes all too often. And that's what's occurred here," Perry told CNN's "State of the Union."
He later added: "What's really disturbing to me is the kind of over-the-top rhetoric from this administration and their disdain for the military."
Later appearing on the same show, McCain said he disagreed.
"We're trying to win the hearts and minds" of the Afghanistan population, he said. "And when something like that comes up, it obviously harms that ability."

New Orleans Mass Shooting, Complicated with Grenades

Just to point out, this wouldn't have even made the radar of national news if it hadn't been for the novelty of ALSO involving grenades in addition to being a mass shooting and the wounding of law enforcement.

We have a right to be free from fear of gun violence.  We have a right in order to reasonably bring that about, to have fewer guns with more restrictive ownership and transfer regulation.

We do not have life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness when we have to worry about people with guns shooting us.  This is true of domestic violence, this is true of crime, this is true of people who are otherwise law abiding but go off their nut committing crimes of passion, like the many - MANY - murder suicides we have seen, or just plain dumb-ass careless accidents, like the school children in Texas who were shot, or the woman walking her dogs, or the the couple of cases of hunters shot BY their dogs. 

In contrast to the bad result of people having firearms, we see relatively few constructive uses of firearms for the primary reason cited of self-defense, and many of those defensive uses could equally be accomplished with non-lethal means like pepper spray, or tasers and stun guns.

Our law enforcement officers should be safer in pursuit of their duty than they are. As I noted earlier, in all of 2011, there were NO fatal shootings of law enforcement officers in the entire UK, with a total population of 63 million people.  The entire country had a handful of murder suicides, and only one that I could find that involved firearms in all of 2011, compared to multiple occurrences every week here in the U.S., mostly involving firearms.  The number of suicides in the UK, in comparison is approximately half that of the suicide rate of the U.S,, where more than half of all suicides involve firearms.  Per the National Institute of Mental Health just having firearms in the home is a risk factor for suicides.  The use of firearms in crimes are relatively rare in comparison to the U.S., proving the argument that criminals will continue to have lots of guns is false.

Our gun culture is part of our violence problem.  Our gun culture is not making us safer or more free; it is making our country more dangerous, and in doing that it is making us less free, it is making us less civil and less civilized. 

Or, we could continue to have more of this, with or without grenades (From the New Orleans Times Picayune:

Gunmen shoot 5 inside home in eastern New Orleans; kill 3

Published: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 10:18 AM     Updated: Thursday, January 12, 2012, 8:30 PM

By Danny Monteverde, The Times-Picayune

Chaos broke out in eastern New Orleans today when gunmen killed three people and injured two others inside a red-brick ranch house in a quiet residential neighborhood. The violence continued when a gunfight broke out between police and the suspects after a car chase. Cops killed one of the suspects and shot two others.

Enlarge Michael DeMocker, The Times-Picayune Moments after being shot by police, a murder suspect is checked for signs of life by a paramedic with New Orleans EMS as a female suspect lies on the ground at Press Drive and Chef Menteur Highway on Thursday, January 12, 2012. The trio are suspects in the shooting on Devine Avenue that left five people shot, three fatally. 3 killed, 2 injured in eastern New Orleans gallery (16 photos)

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Police were called to 7427 Devine Ave. about 9:30 a.m., where they found a man and a woman dead inside the home, and two other women and a man with gunshot wounds, according to Officer Garry Flot, a department spokesman.
The three survivors were transported to a hospital, where one man later died, according to the Orleans Parish coroner's office.
A description of the gunmen, who allegedly escaped in a red Pontiac, was broadcast immediately, Flot said.
Police spotted the vehicle and a chase ensued. It ended when the car crashed into a sign in front of a Goodyear tire shop at the intersection of Chef Menteur Highway and Press Drive, according to Deputy Superintendent Kirk Bouyelas.
After the crash, a man got out of the vehicle and fired at the officers. The officers returned fire, killing him and injuring a man and woman who were also in the car.
The injured occupants of the car were taken to a hospital, Bouyelas said. They will be booked with the attempted murder of a policeman and the murders in the east, Bouyelas said. One policeman was also taken to a hospital suffering from what Bouyelas described as a "graze wound" to his leg.

5 shot, 3 fatally in eastern New Orleans; 1 suspect dies in police shootout Chaos broke out in eastern New Orleans today when gunmen killed three people and injured two others. A gunfight broke out between police and the suspects after a car chase. Cops killed one of the suspects and shot two others. Watch video

Bouyelas could not say how many shots were fired. However, nearly three dozen evidence cones were placed at the scene. One couple, who did not want to be identified, were in a Walgreens across the street from the tire shop when they heard "a bunch of pops outside." They came outside and saw the dead suspect and police.

OR, we could tighten up our regulation on guns, and have fewer of them, particularly in the hands of criminals, dangerously mentally ill people, and drug users.

Philly Mass Shooting Update

May I point out that we have had multiple mass shootings and we're less than 30 days into the new year.  That is something that just doesn't happen nearly as often, per capita, in other countries, with fewer guns.

FAR fewer guns.

Update on the recent Philly mass shooting.

From MSNBC.com :

Philadephia mayor: Slain 14-year-olds' 'little butts' should have been in bed

By msnbc.com news services

PHILADELPHIA - An outraged Mayor Michael Nutter lashed out after three 14-year-olds in his city were killed, calling the shooter "a dog," "idiot" and "a**hole." He also fumed at the dead boys' parents for not adequately supervising their children, saying that "their little butts" should have been in bed.
The mayor's on-camera remarks came after a 30-year-old stepfather opened fire on a car full of kids who came over to fistfight with his three stepsons Tuesday night, according to police, reported NBCPhiladelphia.com.  A source told NBC Philadelphia that Axel Barreto confessed to firing shots at the car, killing three teenagers inside. He was arrested Wednesday night in a Bensalem, Pa., motel.
Police said that around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, seven teens drove over to a house in Philadelphia's Juniata section. Barreto was waiting with a semi-automatic in the driveway, NBC Philadelphia reported. He fired about a dozen shots into the car, hitting four of them, police said; the 16-year-old driver, whose neck was grazed by a bullet, is expected to make a full recovery.
While Mayor Nutter expressed satisfaction over Barreto's swift arrest, on Thursday night, he told reporters that the situation left him exasperated.
Read the full story on NBCPhiladelphia.com
“Seven young people, somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, on a Tuesday night -- a school night -- are out in a car going to somewhere to have a fight with some other teenager. That is completely insane, it is irresponsible," he said. "Parents have to know where their children are and what they are doing.
“The least you can do is know where the hell your kids are, in the daytime, in the nighttime, or at any time during the week or on the weekends. That’s the minimum we should ask and expect from our parents. You want to have kids? Take care of them.”
The victims were looking for trouble, he said.
“Their little butts should have either been in bed, getting ready for bed, or doing some homework,” Nutter said, reported CBS 3 in Philadelphia. “Not out in a car, not in some other neighborhood, and not up to this kind of nonsense. I’m not your mom and I’m not your dad. We cannot completely legislate, or by policy, make people responsible for their children.”
And to Barreto, he said this: "If you want to act like an idiot, you want to be an a**hole, you want to be a lowlife in this town, we will track you down like the dog that you are."
The other teenagers who were in the car on Tuesday night were cooperating with police to help investigators figure out the timeline of events that led up to the deadly shooting, according to NBCPhiladelphia.com. One of the people in the car that night allegedly received a call asking them to meet in the driveway that night, they told police.
The shooting resulted from an argument that originated on Facebook, reported NBCPhiladelphia.com. Nutter said he hoped this would serve as an example for other teens to avoid retaliatory acts. “It is not going to work out well for any of you," he said.
Barreto was formally charged with the murders of the three 14-year-olds on Thursday morning.

Update on the Recent North Carolina Mass Shooting

One more gun death in the 2012 gun violence tally.


From MSNBC.com:

Man dies a day after killing 3 co-workers at NC lumber company

By msnbc.com staff and news services

 

STAR, N.C. -- The man suspected of fatally shooting three co-workers and wounding a fourth at a North Carolina lumber company has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Ronald Dean Davis, 50, of Star, N.C., died Saturday morning at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, a day after he shot himself in the head, Montgomery County Sheriff Dempsey Owens said in a news release.
Authorities said Davis walked into McBride Lumber Company on Friday morning and opened fire, killing three and critically wounding one.
He then went home and shot himself. Officers found him slumped on his couch.
Co-workers at McBride Lumber described Davis as disgruntled and mentioned possible harassment by the victims, but the sheriff said the investigation into a motive continues, the Montgomery Herald reported.
He said Davis targeted his victims at the company, where 16 people were working when the shooting occurred.
The Associated Press, Reuters and msnbc.com staff contributed to this story.