Cars, Guns and Congress

Deaths involving motor vehicles of any sort in 2006: 42,708
(includes pedestrians, cyclists hit by vehicles and all sorts of vehicles)
Civilian deaths involving guns in 2006: 30,896
(includes murders, suicides, accidents, etc.)
Gun owners love to point to statistics like these and say, “See, cars kill more people than guns, yet you don’t talk about taking away people’s cars.” Groups like the NRA would have us believe that everyone who ever suggests any kind of handgun regulation, even the most minor and sensible, has the ultimate goal of taking away all guns so that the citizenry is weak and unarmed and the government can impose a militaristic police state. Every gun law is a step down a slippery slope.
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Is What's Left of Health Care Reform Really Reform At All?

Is what’s left of the health care reform bill really reform at all? Howard Dean is not so sure.

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Pass this on! "Single-Payer Healthcare History in a Number: S. 2837"

This is a wonderful and urgent article. Pass it on. There isn’t much time left.
Single-Payer Healthcare History in a Number: S. 2837

The time draws short to weigh in clearly with your Senators. We know they will not get to the point of passing a single-payer system this time around. But we also know they can begin setting the benchmarks for what we should do going forward. And with a yes vote on this amendment, Senators send us the message that they heard us, that they will keep fighting with us until the day when this nation no longer leaves the weak, the sick and the poor behind in the delivery of its most basic human rights.
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What’s in a number? Everything. Senate Amendment No. 2837. Everyone in, nobody out.

Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

November 20 – December 3, 2009
Compiled by Scholars at Risk

Writers at Risk
Corydon Ireland, Harvard Gazette, 12/3

Iranian Given 9-Year Sentence for Protesting
Nazila Fathi, The New York Times, 12/2

Iranian American Faces New Spying Charge
Nazila Fathi, The New York Times, 11/25

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Post-Racial and Post-Partisan?

President Obama in the Oval Office

President Obama in the Oval Office


Joe Conason writes in Salon that former CNN anchor Lou Dobbbs sound like he is running for office and that if he does it will be the GOP’s nightmare.  “Lou Dobbs for president!” is the headline on the op-ed.
It send a chill up my spine, but I’ll leave Lou and his whole schtick alone for now.  Rather I want to focus on one thing Canuson reports that Dobbs said in his first radio broadcast after leaving CNN that just completely baffles me.  Nor is Dobbs is not the only one who has made the allegation, many on the right have.
He said that President Obama “focuses on the partisan and racial” in a “21st century post-partisan, post-racial society.”  I don’t know what planet Dobbs is living on, but we do not live in a post racial society.  I do think that since the Civil Rights Movement, we have slow progress toward this becoming a nation in which race doesn’t matter, but we’ve still got a long way to go.
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OK, I changed my mind!

Before I get back to work, I feel I need to take a moment and state openly that I was wrong about the health care reform bill. It is bad, evil and scary. Had I been watching wall to wall coverage of Congress like all good Americans should, I would have know that. Fortunately, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report caught me up to speed last night.
First there was this clip:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Back in Black – Stickle Me Elmo
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political Humor Health Care Crisis

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Yeah! We Don't Have to Buy Wedding Gifts!

Do you know what is disturbing about the picture below?  This woman in Maine is celebrating what is, at least at the time of this writing, the very real possibility that voters in that state will overturn the law, just ratified in May, granting same-sex couples marriage equality.  If one truly believes that extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians is wrong, The effects of testosterone injections are not rapid. viagra online generic Earlier, viagra 100mg no prescription sages used to impart worldly knowledge and wisdom among students. More and more people are now going online to get their Kamagra order and this is the common desire order cheap viagra but when one wants full erection. Conventional treatments First, the antibiotic treatment, which is the commonly used food items viagra online store enriched in vitamin C concentration include lemon, guava, broccoli, papaya and pineapple. then it is easy to see how one would be relieved that efforts to do so are defeated.  But to rejoice in it seems downright mean.
And that is because it is!

A woman celebrates favorible returns on Question 1

A woman rejoices in favorable returns on Question 1 in Maine

Reporters without Borders on Press Freedom in Morocco

Stamp Commemorates Moroccan American Treaty of Friendship

Stamp Commemorates Moroccan American Treaty of Friendship


A few days ago I posted an entry about recent setbacks in freedom of the press in Morocco.  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting Morocco November 2-3.  In advance of that visit Reporters Without Borders, an organization that fights for freedom of the press has sent an open letter to the Secretary of State  outlining violations of press freedom since July 2009 and concluding:

Reporters Without Borders urges you to use the opportunity offered by your visit to Morocco to talk about the difficulties that the independent media are facing and to raise this crucial issue with the Moroccan authorities. The aim of the Forum of the Future which the US government set up in 2004 is to promote democratisation in the Broader Middle East and North Africa region. Press freedom is an essential component of this democratisation.

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Scholars at Risk Academic Freedom Media Review

Here, once again, is the weekly Academic Freedom Media Review from one of those organizations I wish would just go away.  Go away because there would simply be no more need for it.  Unfortunately, all over the world scholars come under attack for their scholarship or teaching.  It’s said that knowledge is power and history is full of examples of the power of ideas to rock the foundations of societies of political structures.
And so scholars, researchers, students, and even administrators find sometimes find themselves subject to restrictions on their academic freedom  that include obstruction of their research, prohibition of its publication, bans against being able to teach, requirements for ideological review of publications and course materials, unofficial intimidation from any number of sources, blacklisting, media smear campaigns and the like.  All to often scholars might even be subject to arrest, extended imprisonment, torture or even assassination.
The Scholars at Risk Network (SAR) is an international network of universities and colleges that responds to this by raising awareness of the issue, getting scholars in particular danger out of danger, and through other programs described on their site.
Academic Freedom Media Review
October 9 – 23, 2009

Compiled by Scholars at Risk
Hundreds of Palestinian Students Are Blocked From Travel to Foreign Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/22
Colleges and Universities Across Pakistan Are Closed Following Deadly Attacks
Shailaja Neelakantan,The Chronicle of Higher Education, 10/21 Continue reading

CSM Columnist Argues Our Flag is Not a Prop

The Flag of the United States of America

The Flag of the United States of America


This is such a good piece about the symbolism of our national flag. Like the columnist, it has pretty much gotten to the point that if I see a flag displayed too prominently on an email or on a web page, I assume that the accompanying message is likely to be insulting and full of unsupported, reckless claims and attacks on the duly elected President of the United States.
How did the flag become this? It should be a symbol of our national unity, not a cudgel we use to beat those who don’t agree with us.
But Amy Hardin Turosak says it so much better than I in her piece “Our Flag is Not a Prop” for the Christian Science Monitor. It’s pithy, concise and to the point. She argues:
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The flag must not be used as a point of argument but as a symbol of the solidarity that binds the diversity of our nation.
But, if you protest, you have a responsibility to protest based on fact. This is not a university football game. This is the future of our country.

This Land Is Your Land – Ryan Bingham from Ryan Hargrave on Vimeo.