Awwwwww: Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and former hedge fund manager who has been widely criticized for drug price gouging, was arrested Thursday morning by the federal authorities. The investigation, in which Mr. Shkreli has been charged with securities fraud, is related to his time as a hedge fund manager and running the biopharmaceutical company Retrophin — not the price-gouging … Read More
All We Are Saaaaaaying… Is Give Mass Shootings A Chance.
LOLwut? Open-carry activists plan to stage a mock mass shooting Saturday at the University of Texas at Austin to protest gun-free zones on campus. The Open Carry Walk and Crisis Performance Event will have actors “shot” by fake shooters with cardboard weapons and the sounds of gunshots via a bullhorn, according to the Austin American-Statesman. A walk down a street … Read More
How Conservatives Plan To Redistrict In Their Favor
There is a case before the Supreme Court right now called Evenwel v. Abbott, and it is the most important voting rights case since the Court’s conservative majority gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 2013. The case deals with redistricting — how you draw the lines to determine who votes in what congressional district. What the conservatives want to do … Read More
Trump May Have Hit The Ceiling
Donald Trump has defied political pundits for months now. When he first attacked John McCain, the thought was that it would kill him in the polls, but then he went up. And that’s been the story for over four months now. He keeps on appealing to the worst-of-the-worst conservative base and his numbers go up. But many are now saying … Read More
Thoughts and Prayers
There seems to be a backlash to this almost reflexive (and increasingly meaningless) response to mass shootings, best exemplified by the cover of today’s New York Daily News: There has also been a backlash to the backlash. Christians got offended at what is being called “thoughts and prayers shaming”. The Weekly Standard offered a headline that blared,“Liberal Outrage Over Prayers … Read More
The San Bernadino Shootings: Terrorism Or Not?
Here’s what we know about the shooters: They have been identified as Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27. Farook was an environmental specialist who had worked for the county health department for five years. Farook attended a holiday party for county employees earlier that day. Farook left the party under circumstances that were decribed by witnesses as “angry” … Read More
Today’s Mass Shooting: San Bernadino, California
Breaking news 2:46 pm EST: 12 reported dead, many injured. Some reports include a second and even third shooter. Related: 2:55 pm: The building where the shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., was reported provides services for developmentally disabled people, according to its website Dozens of civilians being evacuated right now. Hands up… #PD being very cautious and still searching for suspects. … Read More
Breaking: Armed Gunman AT UNC – Chapel Hill [UPDATE: All Clear]
Multiple reports but still unconfirmed: ALERT CAROLINA TIMELY WARNING: Unconfirmed report of armed person near ROTC Building / Venable Hall 12/02/2015, 8:57 a.m. Unconfirmed report of armed person near ROTC Building / Venable Hall ALERT CAROLINA TIMELY WARNING: Unconfirmed report of armed person near ROTC Building / Venable Hall UNC Chapel Hill Police are investigating the report of an armed … Read More
Planned Parenthood Shooting Is Domestic Terrorism
I’ve been vacationing and the holidays and yada yada, so there’s been light blogging lately. The big news that I missed was a terrorist attack here on the United States, although whether to call it a “terrorist attack” seems to be arguable. I’m talking of course about the shooter at Planned Parenthood. On Saturday, November 27, a shooting and five-hour … Read More
Thank You, Gun Nuts
Did you hear the one about the guy in Colorado walking around a quiet neighborhood with a rifle in plain sight, and an observant woman called 911 and was told by the 911 dispatcher that Colorado had an open carry law so they couldn’t stop him? And then he shot and killed three people, all of which might have been prevented if … Read More
Kids And Guns
This is Sean Smith when he was 10. Hes with his little sister Erin, age eight. This photo was taken the day before he unintentionally shot and killed her. There are around 110 fatal shootings involving children under 14 each year, according to a new study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that at least another 1,000 are shot … Read More
Florida Can No Longer Lock Mentally Disabled People And Forget About Them
Fifteen years ago, J.R. — an intellectually disabled man who “functions as a seven-year old.” — was charged with sexual battery, but he was never tried because a court found him incompetent to stand trial. Instead, J.R. was involuntarily committed to a residential mental facility by a court order that contains no end date. End of story. You see, under … Read More
A Tweet From 2009 Could Haunt Rubio
I’ve always seen Marco Rubio as one of the few “serious” GOP candidates and one who could pose an actual challenge to HRC. But this tweet of his from 2009 is very… uh… Carsonesque. What a dumb thing to tweet. It originally was published in the midst of the June 2009 protests stemming from allegations of elections fraud and the violent … Read More
Fox News Moron Doubles Down With Dr. Carson: Stupid Jews Could Have Taken The Nazis
Yes, the European Jews were just a bunch of pants-wetting pansies back in the thirties: Dr. Ben Carson recently asserted that if guns had not been confiscated from Jews then Hitler would have had more trouble orchestrating the Holocaust. Jonathan Greenblatt, National Director of the Anti-Defamation Leauge, quickly objected, stating that there were few firearms available to Jews in Germany … Read More
Today In Campus Mass Shootings
(1) One dead, three wounded at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ. (2) Two people shot (UPDATE: one killed, one wounded) at Texas Southern University – happening now — school on lockdown; shooter on the loose. (UPDATE: 2 now in custody; 1 still being sought) Arizona and Texas have very lax gun laws. Just sayin’ Two campus shootings today, and we’re at the … Read More