Increasing Gun Violence in the United States

A New York Times op-ed was published containing the most alarming and concise rundown of gun violence stats I've read lately. Bob Herbert wrote A Culture Soaked in Blood. He begins with this: "Roughly 16,000 to 17,000 Americans are murdered every year, and more than 12,000 of them, on average, are shot to death."

But it doesn't end there. More than 30,000 people are killed over the course of one typical year by guns. That includes 17,000 who commit suicide, nearly 800 who are killed in accidental shootings and more than 300 killed by the police. (In many of the law enforcement shootings, the police officers are reacting to people armed with guns).

And then there are the people who are shot but don’t die. Nearly 70,000 fall into that category in a typical year, including 48,000 who are criminally attacked, 4,200 who survive a suicide attempt, more than 15,000 who are shot accidentally, and more than 1,000 — many with a gun in possession — who are shot by the police.

The medical cost of treating gunshot wounds in the U.S. is estimated to be well more than $2 billion annually. And the Violence Policy Center, a gun control advocacy group, has noted that nonfatal gunshot wounds are the leading cause of uninsured hospital stays.

What's your opinion? Is this guy and his newspaper a shill for the anti-gun movement? Do you think these stats are cooked, as they say?

What I want to know is how can any responsible gun owner not feel personally touched by this. I don't seem to be hearing that from them. Mainly I get defensive posturing about how each person is responsible for his own actions and how all this violence has nothing to do with them. I keep hearing that the guns are not to blame, it's the violent people using them.

I remain unconvinced. Once I was asked what if anything would convince me to change my position. I said I don't think there is anything. Now, that's not the same as saying there's absolutely nothing you could show me that would change my mind. In fact, I read every pro-gun comment and most of the attachments. I read pro-gun blogs and comment on them. I have kept an open mind, but remain unconvinced.

I really believe if I were a gun owner who professed to be exercising his 2nd Amendment rights, I would feel partly responsible for this. Does that make sense to you? Can you understand what I'm saying?

As far as a solution goes, I am convinced that the proliferation of firearms plays a part in much of this bloodshed, and diminishing the number of available guns would address that.

What's your opinion?

The Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana

Check out these scenes of Sicily. I've been thinking of this music since Easter. In the opera Cavalleria Rusticana, the action takes place on Easter Sunday. Here's what Mimameior, who posted this video on Youtube, has to say about it.

The famous Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, the sensational verismo opera composed by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945). Written in great haste, for submission to a competition, it was his first operatic work. It won first prize, Mascagni received forty curtain calls, and next morning the Intermezzo was being whistled in the streets. Cavalleria Rusticana went on to take the world by storm, and by the time Mascagni died it had been performed over fourteen thousand times in Italy alone.

This orchestral interlude, the most popular excerpt from the opera, is intensely dramatic and comes at a crucial point in the story. Played over the setting of an empty square, the villagers having gathered for a church service, it is itself a moment of quiet, a brief respite from the naked emotions of the drama. At the same time, however, it looks back over the mounting passion and betrayal that preceded it, and foreshadows the bloodshed and tragedy to come.

Alabama Shooter Michael McLendon

CNN reports on the release of a note written by the Alabama Shooter Michael McLendon, whom we've discussed before.

An Alabama man who went on a shooting rampage in March, killing 10 people and himself, left a note saying he put his mother "out of her misery" and that "some of the people who made us suffer will pay," according to newly released police records.

Among the dead were family members and strangers gunned down at random, police said. McLendon's letter offered only this explanation: "For me I've been miserable for a long time and can't take it no more. "

McLendon tried to become a Marine and couldn't make it. He was discharged from basic training in October 1999 for "fraudulent entry," according to records found in the house. He apparently failed to disclose a chronic shoulder dislocation. In a warning letter, one superior officer wrote: "He needs to improve his physical strength and confidence. ... He does not appear mentally sharp."

He was hired as a police officer in 2003, but let go a month later for what police called "physical issues." These disappointments must have been awful to bear.

Investigators found 41 DVDs focused on shooting and weapons, with titles such as "Deadly Effects: What Bullets do to Bodies," "Handgun Workout" and "How to Handle and Fire Fully Automatic Weapons."

Police removed two loaded shotguns, two loaded pistols, 22 empty ammunition boxes, a knife, a bayonet, two bulletproof vests, a gas mask and survival gear from the house. They also found some pornography in a footlocker.

On his rampage, McLendon was armed with two assault rifles, and two pistols and a shotgun were found in his car. Police said he fired more than 200 rounds.

Do you think Michael McLendon might have been the type of gun enthusiast who was trying to compensate for his insecurities? Understandably, gun owners don't like this kind of talk, but this type of person does exist, does he not? For me the only question is how prevalent is he. If he represents a "significant" percentage, then I think we need to consider that lenient gun policies create problems by this very fact.

What's your opinion? Are the Michael McLendons of the world an anomaly? Are they rare? Or, do you think like I do, that this type is responsible for too much damage and a way needs to be found to prevent him from getting guns.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

The Rise and Fall of the Microsoft Empire

CNN reports on the recent difficulty faced by Microsoft, a difficulty they've not experienced in their entire 23-year history.

Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that declining PC sales hurt revenue, as the software giant reported quarterly sales that fell for the first time in its 23-year history as a public company.

The company has had a difficult time combating slumping demand for its Windows operating system, as the economic slowdown has dragged PC sales down 7% to 9%, according to Microsoft's estimates.

In January, Microsoft announced its first mass job cuts in its 34-year history in an effort to bolster its bottom line The company slashed 1,400 position during the quarter with another 3,600 expected to be cut by mid-2010. At that time, the company said it was also adding a few thousand positions, mainly in its online advertising division.

Do you raise a silent cheer at reading a story like this? Are you one of those iconoclastic types who roots for the downfall of the leader, especially one which has monopolized the market like Microsoft? Do you like companies like Google, Amazon and Yahoo, who although they aren't in direct competition with a software giant like Microsoft, represent the underdog, the come-from-behind, more tenacious competitor?

One area in which they do all compete is advertising. Even there, poor old Microsoft is taking a beating.

Microsoft has also continued to struggle to compete with rivals Google and Yahoo in the online advertising business. Microsoft's Online Services division, which includes the online portal MSN and its Internet advertising sales, lost $575 million in the quarter, and sales in the division were down 14% from the same quarter a year earlier. Microsoft said the loss in its ad sales division was due to the significant decline of average rates in display advertising.

What's your opinion? What operating systems and IT products have you used? I myself have used almost exclusively Microsoft products. It just went that way, not so much by design, but more by default. I guess that's what a monopoly is all about.

Please leave a comment.

Raymond "Chuck" Foster, KKK Imperial Wizard

Raymond "Chuck" Foster is being charged with 2nd Degree Murder in St. Tammany Parish Louisiana. He pleaded non guilty in March.

At 5 foot 4 inches tall with a long beard and wide frame, weighing about 300 pounds, the accused leader of the Bogalusa Sons of Dixie Knights must make an impressive appearance.

He is accused of killing a 43-year-old Oklahoma woman, who was recruited on the internet but later tried to back out of an initiation rite to join his organization. I wasn't able to find out exactly what that initiation might have been. Perhaps someone can inform us.

According to the CNN report, there was a shaving of her head involved in the ritual, but I'll bet there's more to it. One thing for sure, Mr. Foster who has a history of criminal activity, including a manslaughter charge under his belt, is no stranger to violence.

After the shooting, Foster removed a knife from his pocket and rolled over the victim and began a process of trying to remove the bullet from her body ... because he was trying to destroy evidence where law enforcement would not be able to piece these things together.

This week, the Imperial Wizard's son, Shane Foster was declared incompetent to stand trial. He's being charged with obstruction of justice. From NOLA.com:

Dr. Michelle Garriga, who was appointed by the court to examine Foster and did so on March 16, testified Tuesday that Foster does "not have a factual understanding" of the law or its procedures.

She said he has "cognitive deficits," "an ignorance of legal understanding" and that he is "mildly mentally retarded or a little above that."

Garriga, who works in the Eastern Louisiana Mental Health System's forensic division, said Foster does not understand the role of judges, attorneys, jurors or defendants; does not comprehend the difference between guilt and innocence; and is not aware of his legal rights.

In Louisiana the severity of sentencing is legendary. For example, "obstruction of justice charges carry a maximum of 40 years in prison." I realize that's the max, but it strikes me as somewhat severe. How about you?

If the obstruction penalty is heavy, you can imagine what dear old dad is facing.

A second-degree murder conviction carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without the benefit of parole, probation or suspension of sentence.

No wonder they're still executing people in Louisiana. What's your opinion? Do those sentence guidelines sound severe to you? What about the son's supposed incompetence and "borderline" mental retardation? Do you think all that is just a ploy to avoid accountability?

One idea occurred to me, I don't know if you'll like it, but the son is just 21 years old and is totally immersed in the hate culture. Is that his fault? Doesn't his father bear some of the responsibility for that? I say yes. I wouldn't mind if the senior Mr. Foster were charged with child abuse as well as murder.

What's your opinion?

The E-Book

The Wall Street Journal published an article by Steven Johnson which outlines the transition we are undergoing right now with digital books.

Every genuinely revolutionary technology implants some kind of "aha" moment in your memory -- the moment where you flip a switch and something magical happens, something that tells you in an instant that the rules have changed forever.

The latest such moment came courtesy of the Kindle, Amazon.com Inc.'s e-book reader. A few weeks after I bought the device, I was sitting alone in a restaurant in Austin, Texas, dutifully working my way through an e-book about business and technology, when I was hit with a sudden desire to read a novel. After a few taps on the Kindle, I was browsing the Amazon store, and within a minute or two I'd bought and downloaded Zadie Smith's novel "On Beauty." By the time the check arrived, I'd finished the first chapter.

Johnson says this type of technology will change the way we read, write and sell books in profound ways. It will radically change the way we relate to books, the way we've related to them for 500 years.

He says very soon you'll be able to archive "every book you've ever read -- as a child, as a teenager, as a college student, as an adult. Every word in that library will be searchable. It is hard to overstate the impact that this kind of shift will have on scholarship."

Now that books are finally entering the world of networked, digital text, they will undergo the same transformation that Web pages have experienced over the past 15 years.

With books becoming part of this universe, "booklogs" will prosper, with readers taking inspiring or infuriating passages out of books and commenting on them in public. Google will begin indexing and ranking individual pages and paragraphs from books based on the online chatter about them. You'll read a puzzling passage from a novel and then instantly browse through dozens of comments from readers around the world, annotating, explaining or debating the passage's true meaning.

To me this sounds so exciting I can't wait to get involved. My only problem is I don't have enough time to read everything I'd like to now, but I guess that's what they call a positive problem.

What's your opinion? Do you think this is valuable technology? Do you think we're in a transition period right now with the same kind of impact as the Gutenberg period 500 years ago? Do you sometimes think the technology is advancing too fast?

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Viva Zappa

Check out the crowd participation - it's truly phenomenal. (h/t Tripelkrauz)