Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
NICK ALLEN, - The Telegraph (U.K.)
Stephan: The obsession over owning guns, not so much for occasional hunting or target practice but as a thing itself, has a significant sexual component -- largely men who are uncomfortable sexually or who feel inadequate sexually -- which is rarely discussed. We also don't discuss the role of fear and anger that leads people to purchase guns, one after another; as if they were antibiotics that would ease their fear. The argument about buying guns because of crime is nonsense. Crime has been on a steady downslope for several years now. If you have guns in your house you are statistically much more likely to be killed by one of your own guns than you are to be killed by a stranger. What I find particularly significant is that fewer people own guns, but they own many more of them.
LOS ANGELES — According to the FBI, over 1.5 million background checks on customers were requested by gun dealers to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System in December. Nearly 500,000 of those were in the six days before Christmas.
It was the highest number ever in a single month, surpassing the previous record set in November.
On Dec 23 alone there were 102,222 background checks, making it the second busiest single day for buying guns in history.
The actual number of guns bought may have been even higher if individual customers took home more than one each.
Explanations for America’s surge in gun buying include that it is a response to the stalled economy with people fearing crime waves. Another theory is that buyers are rushing to gun shops because they believe tighter firearms laws will be introduced in the future.
The National Rifle Association said people were concerned about self defence because police officer numbers were declining.
A spokesman said: ‘I think there’s an increased realisation that when something bad occurs it’s going to be between them and the criminal.’
But anti-gun campaigners said those who already owned weapons were simply hoarding more of them due to ‘fear-mongering’ by the NRA.
A spokeswoman for the Brady […]
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Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012
PAUL KRUGMAN, Nobel Laureate - Op-Ed Columnist - The New York Times
Stephan: Here is some serious commentary on the economy -- something that is increasingly hard to actually find in the corporate media. When people blather on about debt, tell them we are not going to get out of the mess we are in until we start rebuilding our infrastructure, something which will require massive stimulus. It will, in turn, create millions of jobs, which will regenerate the economy. Conservative financial theories, and the policies they engender, have been proven failures again and again.
In 2011, as in 2010, America was in a technical recovery but continued to suffer from disastrously high unemployment. And through most of 2011, as in 2010, almost all the conversation in Washington was about something else: the allegedly urgent issue of reducing the budget deficit.
This misplaced focus said a lot about our political culture, in particular about how disconnected Congress is from the suffering of ordinary Americans. But it also revealed something else: when people in D.C. talk about deficits and debt, by and large they have no idea what they’re talking about - and the people who talk the most understand the least.
Perhaps most obviously, the economic ‘experts
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Monday, January 2nd, 2012
N. GREGORY MANKIW, - The Economic Times
Stephan: This is an assessment of the current financial situation, by a conservative. I consider it significant and outside the usual run because of this: 'Despite heated rhetoric to the contrary, the evidence that fiscal stimulus raises employment and lowers joblessness is stronger than ever.'
Even rational conservatives understand the need for stimulus.
N. Gregory Mankiw, is a professor of economics at Harvard, who advises Mitt Romney in the campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
Forging a consensus among members of Federal Open Market Committee, which sets monetary policy, won’t be easy. In fact, it may well be impossible. But the more clarity the Fed offers about its contingency plans, the better off we’ll all be in the years ahead.
Two big problems, two ready solutions
The United States faces two daunting economic problems: an unsustainable long-run budget deficit and persistent high unemployment. Both demand aggressive action in the form of fiscal policy.
Waiting until after the November elections, as seems likely, would be irresponsible. It is also unnecessary, since there are plans to address both problems that should command bipartisan support.
On the deficit, the big worry isn’t the current shortfall, which is projected to decline sharply as the economy recovers. Rather, it’s the long-run outlook. Over the next 20 to 30 years, rising health care costs and the retirement of the baby boomers are projected to cause deficits that make the current one look puny. At the rate we’re going, the United States would almost surely default on its debt one day. And like the costs of maintaining a home, the costs of dealing with our budget problems will only grow if we wait.
We have a blueprint […]
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Monday, January 2nd, 2012
LILIANA SEGURA, - ColorLines.com
Stephan: This is what is festering in the American gulag. Bad policies create further social monstrosities, as this story makes clear. This is what the new American slavery looks like.
Liliana Segura is a journalist and an editor at The Nation Magazine. She is a board member of the Applied Research Center, which publishes Colorlines.com. This story was made possible through support from the Wallace Global Fund.
Welcome to the 46th annual Angola Prison Rodeo, the Wildest Show in the South!
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Monday, January 2nd, 2012
ALLISON YAR, - The Daily Beast
Stephan: Given the theocratic rigidity about sex, I found this emerging trend very revealing.
Christian, Jewish, and Muslim entrepreneurs have launched ‘religious’ sex-toy shops online in an effort to improve pious couples’ sex lives-and strengthen the marital bond. Allison Yarrow investigates: what makes a vibrator holy?
Joyce’s sex life can be divided into two acts: before and after the Turbo 8 Accelerator.
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