Thursday Miscellany!

[maxomai]

• Syria's secular rebels are considering joining with Assad's forces in order to kick Al Qaeda out. That's how weird the Syrian civil war has gotten.


• The NSA is tracking pretty much everyone's location, all the time, thanks to our smartphones.


• Ivan Eland clarifies the neocons' priorities for us with respect to Iran.


• In the wake of Detroit's bankruptcy, New Deal Democrat writes about the hard, terrible lessons that decades of raided pension plans should have taught us, and what we could do about it if Democrats were the economic populists they think they are.


• When you tell me that "nobody is talking about taking guns away," this is why I don't believe you.


• In July 2012, General Motors signed a seven-year, $600M deal with Manchester United to promote the Chevrolet brand. Today, GM announced plans to withdraw most Chevrolet models from the European market (including the UK). That's GM "management" for you.

Comments

[xephyr.livejournal.com]

Regarding the Bateman column: Are you pointing out that because someone has written this that "nobody" is false? Or are you being sarcastic because there's no chance that Bateman would come to power? I certainly don't hear anyone in a position of power doing anything about guns beyond making them easier to get. So what's your point?

[maxomai.livejournal.com]

My point is that when someone claims that "nobody [in power] is talking about taking your guns away," the opinions of Bateman, Feinstein, Carolyn McCarthy, and others, serve as a persistent reminder that we should append after that claim, a silent, implied, "yet."

(In fact, one could argue that New York's SAFE act, which requires gun owners to sell, surrender or destroy high-capacity magazines by April 15th, is itself a form of gun confiscation.)