Mental health is in the news again, but only because of another mass shooting. Mental health is a problem even without the ease of access to guns. All the politicians agree that the mental health care system in this country is abysmal, but they rarely do anything about it. Obamacare, to its credit, was a good first (albeit small) step … Read More
Aid For Me And Not For Thee
What a jerk Washington (CNN)Sen. Lindsey Graham is asking for federal aid for his home state of South Carolina as it battles raging floods, but he voted to oppose similar help for New Jersey in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy in 2013. “Let’s just get through this thing, and whatever it costs, it costs,” Graham told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on … Read More
The Ones You Don’t Hear About
It’s only dumb luck, rather than laws, that prevents more mass shootings: A day before a gunman in Oregon killed eight classmates and his college writing teacher, Tuolumne County sheriff’s detectives foiled a plot by students to go on a shooting rampage at their high school near Yosemite National Park, authorities said. The Summerville Union High School students, all male, … Read More
Hurricane Joaquin Deadly But Could Have Been Worse
It seems the biggest damage was caused by rain and subsequent flooding in South Carolina, although Joaquin only played a part. Technically, here’s what happened: As Hurricane Joaquin tracked north, well east of the coast, a separate, non-tropical low pressure system was setting up shop over the Southeast late last week. This system drew in a deep, tropical plume of water vapor off the … Read More
The Clinton Gun Plan And The Mental Health Factor Of Gun Control
I was going to write a post about mental health and gun control, but I see that Hillary Clinton just came out with a plan, so I’m going to talk about that as well. First, the Clinton plan: Fight for comprehensive background checks. Advocate for comprehensive federal background check legislation. Close the “Charleston Loophole.” Tighten the gun show and Internet … Read More
Eh, What Are You Gonna Do?
The callousness of Jeb Bush is appalling. Here’s that American can-do spirit: It’s interesting. Maybe we should have students attend school in wombs — then the GOP might care if they die. Because only deaths inside women matter to these people.
Shorter Ramesh Ponnuru
Shorter Ramesh Ponnuru (ex-convict at National Review Online): “Okay, I admit that the alarming amount of guns is responsible for all these mass shootings. Why can’t the left admit that dead American kids are a small price to pay for the civil liberties of gun owners?”
Hurricane Joaquin Probably Not Going To Be A Big Deal
In spite of some very premature comparisons to Sandy, new projections show Hurricane Joaquin appears to be heading east and may not make landfall in the United States. Different models gaming out the path of the Category-4 storm were initially split on their forecasts, but as the storm has stalled over the Bahamas, the likelihood of it reaching the U.S. … Read More
What Democrats Have Said All Along
“Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi Special Committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are dropping.” — Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the candidate to replace House Speaker John Boehner, to Sean Hannity on Tuesday Don’t think the Hillary Clinton campaign hasn’t jumped on this. The House Majority Leader just … Read More
Mass Shooting Obama Response Montage
AFTERTHOUGHT: What I liked about Obama’s response speech this time was this: And I would particularly ask America’s gun owners — who are using those guns properly, safely, to hunt, for sport, for protecting their families — to think about whether your views are properly being represented by the organization that suggests it’s speaking for you. What Obama seems to want … Read More
Update To Pope Meeting Kim Davis
In a follow-up to an earlier post, I should mention that the Pope, while admitting to meeting Kim Davis the other day, is doing some serious backpeddling today: In a formal statement, the Vatican said Friday that Pope Francis’s meeting with Kentucky clerk Kim Davis “should not be considered a form of support of her position in all of its … Read More
Four Bullshit Pro-Gun Arguments
1. “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.” Catchy. But bullshit. A murderer without a gun has a pretty hard time committing mass murder, unless he uses a grenade or bomb or something. And most people don’t have access and/or the technical know-how to use those. To really rack up those mind-blowing death counts – to make sure that many … Read More
Oregon Mass Shooting
As my tweets suggested yesterday, there was yet another mass shooting yesterday — this one at Umpqua Community College (“UCC”) in Oregon. Nine killed, not including the shooter, and seven injured. I will not name the killer. In these circumstances, I often do name the killer, but one of the things that has come out is he wrote on his blog, … Read More