December 2012

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from The Lively Morgue

December 29, 2012

Salon’s Alex Pareene has got to be the reigning master of the talking-head smack down.

The Hack List – Salon.com

December 20, 2012

December 20, 2012

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December 20, 2012

one tiny hand

December 20, 2012

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“McArdle’s plan to teach children to launch banzai charges against mass murderers is the single worst solution to any problem I have ever seen offered in a major publication. Newsweek, I award this essay no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”

New York Magazine columnist Jonathan Chait, earning a perfect score with his use of this line from “Billy Madison”

UPDATE: Megan McArdle has competition.

December 19, 2012

Did you know we’re naming winter storms now? The Weather Channel explains why:

  • Naming a storm raises awareness.
  • Attaching a name makes it much easier to follow a weather systems progress.
  • A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness.
  • In todays social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication.
  • A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future.

Why The Weather Channel is Naming Winter Storms

December 19, 2012

Washington Post columnist Matt Miller has a good idea (well, it’s an idea he borrowed from Australia, Oakland, New York, Detroit, Boston, Los Angeles and others): buy guns to get them out of circulation. The difference between past efforts and Miller’s proposal? This time we go BIG and make it a Cash for Clunkers style stimulus.

If Congress balks at banning certain weapons entirely, theres an all-American answer: Make gun owners an offer they can’t refuse. Instead of a measly $200 a gun, Uncle Sam might offer $500. After all, overpaying powerful constituencies to achieve public policy goals is a time-honored American tradition; we do it every day with Medicare drug benefits and defense contractors, to name just two.

So imagine a $100 billion, one-time program aimed at buying back 200 million firearms at $500 a pop. We issue the payments in prepaid credit cards that expire in three months (good thinking, Los Angeles!) to be sure the money is spent fast.

Presto! So long as the federal money is borrowed, we get an immediate boost to demand, jobs and growth. And with long-term interest rates at all-time lows, there’s never been a better time for the feds to overpay gun owners and get these weapons out of circulation. The president can even pitch selling a gun to Uncle Sam as a patriotic act part of a national rethinking of our gun culture in the wake of Newtown.

Matt Miller: Buy back guns, boost the economy – The Washington Post

December 19, 2012

Jason Kottke is doing a great job collecting some of the best journalism on gun violence in America. Here’s (almost) everything he’s posted since Friday, Dec. 14:

Mayor Bloomberg demands action from DC on guns
What of gun control when guns are 3-D printable?
Gun violence in the US since Friday
An armed society is the opposite of a civil society
The results of tougher gun laws in Australia
What is our national threshold for shame?
Ten pro-gun arguments and why they are wrong
We’re sacrificing America’s children to “our great god Gun”
How to make gun control happen
Living the gun life
Obama’s poor record on gun control
The best reporting on guns in America
Remnick to Obama: take action on gun control
Mayor Bloomberg: we need political leadership regarding gun violence
Roger Ebert on the media’s coverage of school shootings
Kids and guns in the USA
The NRA is winning the war on guns
The Onion, often the most emotionally honest media source
The blueprint for media coverage of mass killings
Facts about guns and mass shootings in the US
It’s a Smith and Wesson Christmas
How do we prevent school massacres?
The United States of Guns
The right day to talk about guns
Japan is a land without guns (and shooting deaths)
Six facts about guns and gun control
Studies: more guns, more homicide

Read them here: kottke.org/tag/guns

Also, this was a particularly good find: Mr. Rogers on helping kids deal with tragic news events

December 17, 2012

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via Rob Delaney

December 17, 2012