Wow, Charlotte Allen: There was not a single adult male on the school premises when the shooting occurred. In this school of 450 students, a sizeable number of whom were undoubtedly 11- and 12-year-old boys (it was a K–6 school), all the personnel — the teachers, the principal, the assistant principal, the school psychologist, the […]
Eli Sanders
Eli Sanders is The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won this, but he also once crashed his bike into a parked car while on his way to a staff meeting, never mind this, so… His website, which probably hasn't been updated in a while, is www.elisanders.net.
Posted inJerk
“You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?”
Piers Morgan vs. Larry Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America.
Posted inPolitics
It Is Our Living Constitution That Gave Us Our Right to a Bushmaster Rifle
Jeffrey Toobin makes a great point: Conservatives often embrace “originalism,” the idea that the meaning of the Constitution was fixed when it was ratified, in 1787. They mock the so-called liberal idea of a “living” constitution, whose meaning changes with the values of the country at large. But there is no better example of the […]
Posted inCrime
Bushmaster’s Wall Street Owners Now Want to Get Rid of the Company
If you are looking for signs that things have changed since Newtown, here is a big sign: The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management said on Tuesday that it would sell its investment in the gunmaker Freedom Group in response to the school shootings last week in Connecticut.Cerberus acquired Bushmaster — the manufacturer of the […]
Posted inThe Apocalypse
Google’s Year in Review
It’s an ad, I know, but it’s also a pretty good look at what the hell just happened:
Posted in$$$
Who Were the Biggest Losers?
The rich guys who, emboldened by Citizens United, tried to buy the election for Romney and other conservatives: At the private air terminal at Logan Airport in Boston early Wednesday, men in unwrinkled suits sank into plush leather chairs as they waited to board Gulfstream jets, trading consolations over Mitt Romney’s loss the day before. […]
Posted inElection 2012
Obama’s Pension
CNBC says that while Mitt Romney is definitely going to have the cushier retirement, President Obama’s pension—subject of that memorable exchange at the debate—is pretty sweet: From the standpoint of a public pension, Obama is well-heeled. As president, he will receive $191,300 annually for life — win or lose in next month’s election — and […]
Posted inElection 2012
“Joe Biden Was Right to Laugh”
Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone: Biden did absolutely roll his eyes, snort, laugh derisively and throw his hands up in the air whenever Ryan trotted out his little beady-eyed BS-isms. But he should have! He was absolutely right to be doing it. We all should be doing it. That includes all of us in the […]
Posted inTech
Google Blocks Anti-Islam Video in Libya and Egypt
Not because the video meets the company’s definition of hate speech, reports the New York Times, but because the company wants to help quell the violence in those two countries. Google’s action raises fundamental questions about the control that Internet companies have over online expression. Should the companies themselves decide what standards govern what is […]
Posted inElection 2012
Some Perspective on Those Jobs Numbers
They’re not good, but the White House this morning e-mailed out this familiar graph—updated with the latest numbers—along with this statement from Alan B. Krueger, chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers: While there is more work that remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing […]
Posted inElection 2012
The Policy Gap
Only Bill Clinton can do a speech like the one that closed day two of the Democratic National Convention last night. It was 50 minutes of detailed policy talk, compare-and-contrast mathematics, fact checking, and revisiting of ancient history—and it was a total, riveting pleasure to hear. It also reminded that the major speakers at the […]