Gun control is civil liberties issue, just like the Patriot Act. And it isn't going to foster a civil debate that those who've been wailing for 5 years about, say, the NSA monitoring a few Islamic extremist phone calls to Waziristan to prevent, say, a hijacked jumbo jet bringing down the Empire State building with 30,000 Americans inside are the ones leading the charge to revoke the 2nd Amendment over a comparatively trivial risk.

One antigun cliche I've often been confronted with is that attempting to use a gun in self defense will likely result in it's being taken away and turned against one. One survivor did state the gunman even stopped and reloaded while in a classroom filled with intended victims. I think it's fair to ask why didn't his guns get taken away?

Apparently Joan can't come up with a factual, logical rebuttal to the pro-self-defense crowd so she just falls back on name-calling.

There is one thing to look forward to in the globalized race to the bottom.

If such knowledge work as typesetting, computer programming, etc. can be offshored so can the kind of pro-free-trade economic policy analysis and editorial writing practiced by the likes of Thomas Freedman, Wall Street Journal editors, Cato Institute staffers, etc.

I wonder if any of them have plans for retraining for a 2nd career.

John Reece

True, the unavailability of flying cars is a disappointment to this 52-year-old, onetime Jetsons/Star Trek fan.

On the other hand, take a Blackberry or other smartphone, plug a motion detector into the USB port, and you have the equivalent of Kirk's communicator and Spock's tricorder rolled into one. And it's more compact.

Jumping to hawkish conclusions about weapons development involving sworn national enemies is not 'lying' as Salonistas claim, it's prudence. And when intelligence sources contradict one other, believing the one supporting the hawkish, prudent conclusions is not 'squelching' intelligence it's more prudence.

After all, FDR acted on faulty intelligence regarding German WMD (from a certain refugee Jewish physicist with an obvious agenda) when he diverted massive resources into the Manhattan project and subsequently ignored intelligence the German WMD program barely existed. On the other hand, the Valerie Plame's 1945 counterparts weren't so prudent when they confidently predicted the Soviets wouldn't get the bomb until the 60's.

I guess according to Salon's moral compass FDR was a reckless, irresponsible liar wasting national treasure if not blood.

J. Reece

Having surv..uh, experienced a small plane takeoff cra..., uh, incident, you'd be surprised how you don't behave as you think you would in these survivable, uh, incidents.

I was in the right rear passenger seat in a Bonanza, a low-wing plane with only one regular door on the right front, leaving Loreto in Baja California while on a deep-sea fishing trip. The very experienced (4000 hrs) pilot, perhaps a bit distracted and fuming from a hassle with the fuel attendant, horsed the plane into the air and stalled. We narrowly avoided cartwheeling and made a very, very rough, uh, landing in the desert scrub near the airport.

Now you'd think you're first instinct after such a 'landing' would be to get the f*** out as soon as possible. But not the guy sitting in front of me, blocking the door. He decided to play NTSB investigator and entered into a prolonged discussion with with the pilot. I.e. "did a control cable snap...can you move the controls...throttle...pitch, etc." After a while of this I finally had to mention that we were sitting on top of a lot of gasoline, rapping the back of his head for emphasis, and we ought to get the f*** out before it caught on fire. That finally got him moving.

Incidentally, the loudest sound you'll ever hear is the sound the plane you're in makes touching ground someplace other than the runway.

John Reece

Truckee, California

I'm afraid the assertion LW dare not throw her roomies out because it would violate fair housing laws regarding discrimination based on family status is wrong. Federal and most state fair housing laws explicitly do not apply to roommates sharing a single living space. For example, homophobes can explicitly refuse to rent to gay roomies because of orientation, AND vice versa.

As to whose apartment it is I'm surprised at all the anti-LW attitudes, not to mention those of LW and LW's roomies. I get the impression were talking about a bunch of Berkeley/Hashbury/Marin/Burning Man hippie free spirits (including the anti-LW commentators) decidedly unclear about property rights concepts. If LW is the only name on the lease then it's legally LW's apartment, period. If LW is on a month-to-month handshake basis with the landlord, LW is the only one to have shaken hands with the landlord and they write rent checks to LW and LW's is the only rent check going to the landlord then it's 98% certain the law regards the apartment as LW's.

Finally, LW ought to consider looking up Werner Erhard for a little EST training.

Mr. Cole's article totally misses the point. Iran and especially its domestic energy sector is extremely vulnerable to sanctions and an attack would not be necessary to derail its atomic bomb program if they were imposed. However, such sanctions are opposed by Russia, China, and our supposed European allies for the exact same reason they opposed ousting the Saddam Hussein regime: they're making piles of filthy euros, rubles, and yuan off of the situation and don't want the gravy train disrupted. Apparently sanctions only interest US progressives when they're against US allies or non-enemies.

Yes, it is inappropriate to have Native Americans as a sports team mascot. After all, sports is about winning and Native Americans are among history's ultimate losers.