I can’t have one of these things without at least a couple of links on school shootings. I thought this article explained my discomfort at using high-profile shootings like Sandy Hook as a basis for gun control. [Pacific Standard]
Conor Friedersdort argues that we already had the conversation about guns and the pro-gun side won. I’ve found the notion that we haven’t had the discussion to be bizarre. It’s not a request for a first discussion, but rather a do-over. Recent events could lead to a different result, though. If they don’t here, I am pretty sure they never will. [The Atlantic]
The UN may be baffled, but good for President Obama and his European counterparts for walking out on efforts to turn the Internet over to the UN and ITU. [TechCrunch]
A look at modern language invention and evolution. [New Yorker]
Bobby Jindal’s support for making birth control OTC is actually pretty brilliant. A solid pro-freedom stance that doesn’t define freedom in terms of access rather than in terms of demanding that others provide for it. [Politico]
I have to agree with Matthew Yglesias that Obama’s assurances of sparing recreational users is pretty meaningless. First, we’ve heard this before. Second, it I always worry about selective prosecution in cases like this. [Slate]
And the marriage rate plummets. Almost forty percent of Americans view marriage as obsolete. I may disagree with conservatives on gay marriage, but it’s stuff like this that are why I am sympathetic to them on the subject of marriage more broadly. [Pew]
Anaheim coughs up $400,000 for arresting someone for opossum-cruelty before eventually discovering that residents are legally allowed to be as cruel to opossums as they choose. [Orange County Register]
Looking at Obama’s decision to kill Osama bin Laden. [The Atlantic]
Government spending tends to increase with term limits. This is considered odd, but it took less than a few years of term limits in local government in Colosse to figure out why: Term limits breed ambition for higher office. If it’s up-or-out, you have to make a name for yourself, which is expensive. [Marginal Revolution]
Might marijuana be a winning issue for the GOP? I dunno. It’s hard to get from here to there. Copyright law, on the other hand, is a shorter trek with little downside. Not that they care. [TNR] [EconomistsView]
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9 Responses to Linkluster Shakespeare’s Last Sonnet
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Regarding the shooting: where were all the men?
Anyway, I’m getting annoyed at all the flag-at-half-staff stuff. It’s as if the entire nation thinks that only newsworthy deaths are happening–or are worth mourning.
This made me wonder how many kids died in residential fires last year. It was over 850. You’d think everyone would be for mandating sprinklers in new homes, yet only PA and CA are doing so.
And PA is having problems implementing it. Note the “four minutes” comment.
http://tribune-democrat.com/editorials/x2064741696/Battle-between-state-PBA
“Fire sprinklers are a life-safety device that must be mandated by the government to keep up with 20-plus years of homebuilder-led code changes, which have allowed houses to be built out of “lightweight†building materials, which are so flammable that firefighters have only four minutes after a fire starts to enter a burning structure, make any rescues, and then retreat before risk of collapse.”
Regarding the shooting: where were all the men?
At a K-4 elementary school? Probably somewhere else. There aren’t going to be many men there, if any.
Anyway, I’m getting annoyed at all the flag-at-half-staff stuff.
I swear half the time I scratch my head and try to remember what the half-staff is for. Not this time, though.
You’d think everyone would be for mandating sprinklers in new homes, yet only PA and CA are doing so.
I didn’t even know two did. I appreciate you sharing that info. I think I might use that at some point.
The one thing that’s left out of the gun control debate is whether or not any new laws would stand up to Supreme Court scrutiny. Given the current makeup of the court, I doubt it.
Also, Jindal for president in 2016!
Abel,
I think a renewal of the assault weapons ban would do fine, or something along those lines. Beyond that, there are questions as to what a 5-4 liberal SCOTUS might say, which is what might end up ruling on the matter.
I’m pretty bullish on Jindal, though I think he might have some electability problems.
Apparently I’m not the only one who noted the lack of men at Newtown.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/336275/newtown-my-critics-charlotte-allen
To be honest, with feminism, I see no point in sacrificing myself for anyone else. Women have all the rights of men plus affirmative action and the right to take your savings in a divorce.
Of course, I’m a physical coward and would probably be searching for the exits anyway. 😉
I hear women need us about as much as fish need bicycles, so I’m not about to save them, either. Young children, however…
Regarding the shooting: where were all the men?
All of ’em? I dunno. There was one there: Adam Lanza.
I don’t get the ‘where are the men’ argument. It’s not like there used to be a lot of men in grade schools and then they were banished by feminism. Grade schools have always been dominated by women. The fact that there was apparently a male 4th grade teacher means this school had something that my school didn’t. (We had a male principal, but he was elderly, and a male coach, but he would not have been in the building.)