Category Archives: Culture

12,209 Americans Killed by Americans with Guns in 2015

 

san-bernadino-california.1

December 2, 2015, 19 Americans were killed and 21 wounded in four incidents, one dead, three wounded in Georgia (Atlanta Journal Constitution), two dead in Texas in two incidents (ABC News) and 14 killed and 17 wounded in San Bernardino, California (NPR). In addition, two of the alleged shooters in California were killed and a police officer was wounded in a subsequent shoot-out with police.

As President Obama said, “We have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”  (NY Daily News, ABC News, CBS News.)

A total of 12,209 Americans were shot to death in 350 incidents in the USA thus far in 2015, according to Gun Violence Archive. In 2014 the US population was 318.9 million. So the odds are 0.0038285% – 38.285 in a Million or 1 in 26 thousand (26,119.9) that YOU – or I – will be shot to death in America. That’s better that the one in 175 million chance of winning the Powerball Lottery (Ronald Wasserstein, Huffington Post, here).

Americans are 6,700 times more likely of being shot dead than winning Powerball.

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Leave Improvisation to Actors, Comedians, and Musicians – and Develop Coherent Disaster & Risk Policies

Craig Fugate

Craig Fugate

After bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, April 15, 2013, the FBI and the Boston Police tracked down the alleged terrorists, who in the course of their flight killed a cop at MIT, hijacked a Mercedes, fired and threw bombs at police, and tried to ram the police with the stolen car. Continue reading →

Landmark Mistakes of the Supreme Court, Part 2

Fred Korematsu as a young man

If Dred Scott, Citizen’s United, and Florence v Burlington are the three worst decisions by the United States Supreme Court, (post here) then Korematsu v United States, Dec. 18, 1944, Plessy v Ferguson, May 18, 1896 are next in line.

In Korematsu v United States, decided Dec. 18, 1944, the Supreme Court upheld Executive Order 9066, authorizing the internment of all Americans of Japanese ancestry. Mr. Korematsu is biographed here.

Plessy v Ferguson, decided on May 18, 1896, enabled segregation. This was overruled by Brown v Bd. of Education, May 17, 1954, with the now famous observation that “separate but equal is inherently unequal.”

Landmark Mistakes by the US Supreme Court

Dred Scott

Dred Scott

Worst Three Decisions by the US Supreme Court: Dred Scott, Citizen’s United, and Florence v Burlington.  Dred Scott reinforced slavery – and led to the Civil War. Citizen’s United puts really, really big money in politics – think Mr. Gingrich’s sugar daddy with his $10 million in PAC-Gingrich, and leads to what we have today. Florence allows the police to strip search anyone they arrest.

The good news and is that these decisions force us to recognize that the Justices of the Supreme Court are fallible men and women who sometimes make decisions emotionally and or based on their perceived financial interest, as the five members of the Taney court whos families owned slaves and who voted for slavery.  This is also the bad news. The really bad news is that two out of three of these landmark mistakes occurred since January, 2010.

Looking with a long term perspective, the Dred Scott decision was overturned by the 14th Amendment.  Roger B. Taney and the other six justices who voted for slavery and against freedom are history. Their names are generally not remembered.  Similarly, Citizen’s United and Florence can, should, and someday will be overturned. Roberts, Alito, Kennedy, Scalia, and Thomas will someday join Roger B. Taney in the history books.

I am not a lawyer. But the Constitution is written for the citizens, not the citizens who are also lawyers.

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35 MM TO JPG

Remember slides? The 35 mm slide was a key presentation technology of the 50’s to the 90’s.  Some scanners, including the Epson 3590, can scan slides, and do it well.  It’s a time consuming and a labor intensive operation.  But it can be fun.

Does Clint Eastwood Do Rock Videos?

“Boys and girls wear their black to stand out in the night-time. . . .†Anyone who sounds like this has something to say. John Sonntag

sounds like this in “I’m on the East Side,” track 12 on his new album, Chasing Stars, available from iTunes

, Rhapsody , and my favorite, CD Baby, and recorded and produced by Sonntag at Thunder Pumpkin studios. Sonntag is not just fresh but startling.

“Chasing Stars,” the title track, upbeat, “standing still, chasing stars.” Rock? Folk-Rock? Blues? I don’t know how to categorize it – other than great!

It gets dark with “One Whole Day.” dark on dark, written by Rich Grula. “I can’t see you I know it’s wrong but you know why I can’t call you, we’d start to talk and I’d start to lie, I’ve got someone, yeah she hates me now, she pulls away, but she’s someone, when I need her most she’s always stayed. . . Driving out of town in that August rain we parked in that field and we stayed one whole day. . . There’s a hole in my heart – it wont close.” This song is beautiful.

But “Count to Ten” “Close your eyes and count to ten slow enough to kiss again. I’m gonna chase your blues far from you, far from this new made bed.” This can bring a tear to a cynical cop’s eye.

“Hey Lou.” “Do guardian angels ever drop their guard? . . . How come innocence is always lost? Hey Lou, How do I get through these days of doubt?”

“North,” written by Sonntag and Grula, “Flat black midnight. Pulled into a Quick Stop. … My boots scrape the blacktop. There’s a bulge in my jacket nothin in my eyes. The night clerk with her hair cut short pulls up with surprise. . . she got me turned around and I stopped. Turned around. She got me turned around just when I thought I turned myself around.”

Does Clint Eastwood do rock videos?