Gun control related articles

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/07/world/americas/mass-shootings-us-international.html

Also New Yorker article

https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/a-mass-shooting-in-texas-and-false-arguments-against-gun-control

Economist on American Aristocracy

Pertinent article, in similar vein to my Inheritance post.

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21640331-importance-intellectual-capital-grows-privilege-has-become-increasingly?vh=f3b07b854dbe74a911071dec57c7436fa273abb8&ts=1422487793

Work for your living/ What about Inheritance?

The neoliberal econical mindset is that you should work for your living, instead of passively relying on government handout and such.
The importance of self-reliance.  'Earn your keep'.


All very good.
But then, what about Inheritance? What about those descendants of the super rich? They didn't 'earn' it, their parents did. They were just luckily born into the Rich, by pure chance.


So, shouldn't there be a massive Inheritance tax upon it to give it back to society?
Lol.

Books on Israel

Finished Richard Cohen's rant, Israel: Is It Good for the Jews?

Passionate defence of Israel, mostly concentrates on Holocaust, and it's sorta polemic, not a scholarly book(He's not really an expert in this area, unlike Friedman et. al).

Unlike Thomas Friedman, puts the ball squarely on the Palestinians(Arabs) to solve the stalemate (Friedman's book From Beirut to Jerusalem is more in-depth and impartial, and puts the ball on the stronger Israel). Some interesting viewpoints though.

If you want an opposite viewpoint from Cohen, I recommend John Judis' Genesis: Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict

and Patrick Tyler's Fortress Israel: The Inside Story of the Military Elite Who Run the Country--and Why They Can't Make Peace

French Intifada

An exposé on current racism and anti semitism in France, an absorbing read.

http://www.amazon.com/French-Intifada-Between-France-Arabs-ebook/dp/B00F1R0RYQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406645142&sr=1-1&keywords=french+intifada

Was interested in French-Algerian relation after watching The Battle of Algiers(1966) ages ago, and glad that I grabbed it up at the library.

Two books I have trouble borrowing; Piketty & Wade!

One is all the rage, especially getting plenty of (negative) attention by WSJ and the Economist, naturally lol

Capital in the twenty-first century / Thomas Piketty ; translated by Arthur Goldhammer.
by Piketty, Thomas, 1971-
	Cambridge Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014.

The other book also deals with a controversial subject; race!

A troublesome inheritance : genes, race and human history / Nicholas Wade.
by Wade, Nicholas J. author.
	New York, New York : The Penguin Press, 2014.

TIME] Aug. 6, 2012 'HOW GUNS WON'

Main article is by Joe Klein, and he contrasts Clinton and Gore's courageous stance against Obama's cowardly one.

But first, editor Richard Stengel says that 'No reasonable person will dispute that Americans have some right to keep and bear arms'

ONLY IN AMERICA.  Only in America is bearing arms 'elevated' to a right; and you wonder there's so many gun accidents and mass killings.

In a side article by Nate Rawlings, FEDERAL GOVERNMENT sells spent shells at surplus prices. Not only local law enforcement agencies.

So it's as systemic problem, as well.  The origin of this mess IS that the government allowed arms to circulate in the private sector and allowing gun manufacturers such as Colt and etc. to mass produce and sell arms.

So the harm has been done, ABETTED by the federal government. What a tragedy.



P.S. Chuck Schumer is named as the prime sponsor of most gun control legislation. Daniel Patrick Moynihan proposed a tax on ammunition.

Korean superstition

I actually believed this lol.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/off-track-planet/10-craziest-superstitions_b_5055274.html

"
It's an extremely entrenched belief in South Korea that if you go to sleep with a fan on in your room, you will die. The belief is so strong that even medical professionals in the country warn against it. All electric fans sold in South Korea come with a timer setting, which automatically turns the fan off after a few minutes, protecting South Koreans from believed fan related deaths such as hypothermia and asphyxiation."

Why Laissez-Faire is not right

The word itself is significant; the French Right is as rabid as anybody. For example their business practice was quite harsh, as harsh as any, during the Modern Era.  As we all know, it led to Vichy France, spelling the end of the Third Republic.

Anyway, the myth that market can regulate itself is a fantasy. History proves it wrong. Modern Capitalist economy endured countless cycles of depressions, it's practically a routine. And we all know how those two economic disasters came about, the Great Depression and the more recent one in 2008(before that, 1997 in East Asia).

How about Gun regulation.  Gun lovers say that people is the problem, not the gun.
Of course, since people uses the gun.
But the problem of that position is, human nature DOESN'T CHANGE.
How virtuous do you think we are compared to the ancients?  We might be greedier actually, since the tempering factor, Religion, has been losing its grip on the human conscience for some time.

Hence, more regulation as the solution is only a logical one. More strict background check, AND strict regulation AFTER buying it, not unlike Driving License. Of course education and psychiatric attention is important as well.

Trigger happy Americans; a disease?

Americans are familiar with countless gun 'accidents' occurring in their country.

Cops' shoot first 'policy' is one of them.

Just finished Michael Dobb's
Six Months in 1945: FDR, Stalin, Churchill, and Truman--from World War to Cold War

And this 'disease' was apparent even in post War Berlin; American soldiers committed more gun related accidents that any other countries(that is, the other 3 nations that administered the city). A soldier even accidentally shot a conductor of Berlin Philharmonic to death.

An army officer is said to have explained that it is an historical outcome of the Wild West, saying that they had to shoot first to ensure survival at that time.

How reassuring.   And alas, it will continue..America really might be a country of Gun & God; is that ironic?..

The Economist is afraid of Thomas Piketty & his book

Unusually, they wrote TWO articles about his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century. One a Leader, then a more detailed look in a single print edition.

They even mention that the magazine didn't pay attention to Karl Marx' magnum opus when it was published, like it's anything to be proud of lol.

So this time, they're not taking any chances; they're aiming to 'nip in the bud'.

Should be interesting.

Liberal Media is a fiction

For example, why is Jonah Goldberg writing columns in LA Times? Because he wasn't accepted at WSJ? Lol.

Economist] What's gone wrong with Democracy

Interesting essay by the Economist.

National Review also addresses growing Inequality

The Economist and now NR

"Harris poll on last October found that 80% of the public believes that the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer."

NR is pretty complacent about it though, arging that the Americans doesn't take it that seriously.