Guns For Mexico

Gun ban won't stop Mexican drug wars

Sid Salter • ssalter@clarionledger.com • April 19
Congressional Democrats, Obama administration Cabinet members, the Mexican government and no small segment of the American media continue to argue in lamenting the ongoing Mexican drug cartel wars that 90 percent of the weapons used to commit crimes in Mexico come from the U.S.
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That out-of-context contention has been debunked. In context, the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told Congress that in 2007-2008, Mexico submitted 11,000 guns to the ATF for tracing. About 6,000 were successfully traced. Of the 6,000 guns traced, 5,114 or 90 percent were traced to the U.S.
Rest of the story

But the rest of the story is that the Mexican government has reported that a total of some 29,000 weapons have been actually been recovered at Mexican crime scenes over that same period. Including all those weapons - not just the ones traced by the ATF - 83 percent of the guns found at crime scenes in Mexico were not traced to the U.S.

That fact hasn't stopped the notion of an "iron river of guns" flowing from the U.S. south to Mexico becoming part of the national debate. Obama administration Attorney General Eric Holder and a number of other prominent Democratic surrogates have revived talk of renewing the Clinton administration assault weapons ban.

In 1994, Congress approved a decade-long ban on the sale and possession of automatic and semi-automatic weapons, or so-called assault weapons. It expired in September 2004.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell was the latest to join the chorus calling to reimplement the assault weapons ban 11 days after three Pittsburgh police officers were killed by a man with an AK-47.
River of guns?

The notion that taking gun rights away from Americans will somehow stop drug violence in Mexico is absurd. Absurd, too, is the notion that either Mexican drug lords or the aberrant lone gunman in America will be deterred from buying automatic or semi-automatic weapons by a renewal of the Clinton-era gun ban is also absurd.

Under such a renewed ban, Mexican drug lords will simply continue to buy assault weapons on the black market or import them from Russia, China, Spain, South Korea, Guatemala or other willing sellers and go right on killing each other and innocents as well. More U.S. gun control isn't the answer to Mexico's drug violence problems.

Thought this was an interesting comment on gun control in the United States. This
should be good fodder for 'the boys.'

Bishop to Tiffin Franciscan Nuns: End Ministry to Gays and Lesbians

The Bishop of the Toledo Diocese has told the sisters of St. Frnacis, Tiffin, to stop ministering to gays and lesbians.  The religious order was to hold a retreat at their Tiffin convent for these men and women but, when Bishop Leonard Blair got wind of it, he demanded that the event be cancelled.

You may recall from an earlier post that this same conservative bishop has been put in charge of the Nuns' Inquisition.  No doubt, this ministy to the gay and lesbian community will be well noted in his report to the Vatican.  Aparentlly the Catholic Church wants nothing to do with the homosexual community- unless of course they repent of their abomination.

The community of sisters at Tiffin are very socially aware and active.  According to their 'corporate document:'

• the Sisters of St. Francis of Tiffin, Ohio, declare ourselves to be a public sanctuary for Central

American refugees.

• All corporate holdings of the Sisters of St. Francis are established as nuclear free.

• “The Sisters of St. Francis of Tiffin, Ohio, declare solidarity with our immigrant sisters and brothers, convinced that we are all equal in God’s eyes, and therefore, deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. We oppose any legislation which denies benefits to documented immigrants or prevents undocumented immigrants from obtaining education, jobs, health care and access to social services.”

• “We, the Sisters of St. Francis of Tiffin, Ohio, will use both our energies and our resources to close the School of the Americas.

• “Because of our belief in the sanctity of life, and in support of life’s value from its beginning to its natural end, we, the Sisters and Associates of St. Francis of Tiffin, Ohio, join with the United Nations and international and national governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as churches of many faiths, to oppose the death penalty by supporting the Moratorium 2000.”

• We, the Sisters and Associates of St. Francis of Tiffin, Ohio in keeping with our position of

nonviolence and respecting the inherent dignity of each person, corporately stand in support of

human rights by explicitly opposing the trafficking of women and children for the purposes of

sexual exploitation and forced labor.

It is clear from these positions that the Sisters of St. Francis are a dangerous and divisive organization that must be closely monitored by the male clergy in the Vatican.

Dopey John Boehner- It's Not the Cow Farts!

The ever-dopey man-tanned House minority leader said Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos that cow farts do not add that much CO2 to the atmosphere to raise temperatures in the global warming scenario.  He was ardently defending the dairy farmers of Preble County, Ohio, part of his 8th Ohio district. They, too, feel that their 'girls' have been badly maligned in this CO2 stink.

"George, the idea that carbon dioxide," said the well-tanned waxed figure, "is a carcinogen that is harmful to our environment- it's almost comical. Every time we exhale we've got carbon dioxide. Every cow in the world, you know, that does what it does you got more carbon dioxide."

Boehner's logic is stunning and his scientific acumen is beyond reproach! Cows and humans have existed for thousands of years, they farting, we exhaling [yet not farting], but only recently have global temperatures risen. Therefore, cows and humans are not contributing to global warming.


...does it all have to do with his last name?

Rove: Constitution, Christianity “one generation from going away”

It was a scene reminiscent of a Marx Brothers film; only the faces were changed to protect the Marx family. There sat the ever-righteous Karl Rove next to the stoic, mustached neocon John Bolton as guests on Fox's Glenn Beck Show. The subject matter, of course, 'We're going to hell in a hand basket with Obama in the WH!'

[by the way, if you know of an ABD psychology student, suggest that he/she do a study of the 'typical' Fox viewer- great study in group lunacy, for sure.]

The very depressed and angry right-wing, much like alligators, need red meat from time to time in order to survive, and who better to feed the beasts than Karl himself? And so, there he was the other evening, helping with the feeding-frenzy. "All the important things are one generation  from going away. The Constitution is one generation away, Christianity is one generation away, the Constitution is one generation from going away." [note that the Constitution is twice as threatened as Christianity, according to Rove.]

So, there you have it- straight talk from the straight-talker himself. Within one generation, 25 years, America will be a pagan monarchy or dictatorship. I shutter at the thought. My youngest grandson will be only 30 when this cataclysmic event will occur! I't hard to imagine him living as a serf in a godless fiefdom.

Pray! We must pray to the Almighty that this Nostradamus-like foretelling by the soothsayer-in-chief will not occur. Click your ruby slippers! Burn incense! Sacrifice a fatted lamb! Vote Republican!

Former astronaut: "We're not alone in the universe!"

(CNN) -- Earth Day may fall later this week, but as far as former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell and other UFO enthusiasts are concerned, the real story is happening elsewhere.

Former NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell, shown in 1998, says "there really is no doubt we are being visited."

Mitchell, who was part of the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, asserted Monday that extraterrestrial life exists, and that the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and other governments.

Mankind has long wondered if we're "alone in the universe. [But] only in our period do we really have evidence. No, we're not alone," Mitchell said.

"Our destiny, in my opinion, and we might as well get started with it, is [to] become a part of the planetary community. ... We should be ready to reach out beyond our planet and beyond our solar system to find out what is really going on out there."

Exactly!  But of course, Christians already believe that we have been visited by extra-terrestrials- angels, spirits and of course, Jesus. All very interesting and, well, spiritual.

Some Christians believe that the Great Big Space Ship will return 'any day now' and load up the 'good' people and whisk them off to never-never land.

How do I get a 'ticket' to that GBSS?  And, by the way, isn't it a bit late?  You know, if the GBSS were a commercial airlines, it would be out of business by now with that eternally late problem that it demonstrates.

Seems to me that the disciples of Jesus had their bags all packed and were waiting on the tarmak shortly after Jesus died.  I think that their suitcases are still there- albeit a bit dusty.

Beam me up, Scotty!

Yet Another Mass Shooting

Josh Sugarmann: Washington Post

Toledo Bishop to Head Nun Inquisition

Just when women might have begun to think that the Catholic Church may be on the right track regarding its historical misogynistic policies, that door of optimism slammed shut last week. The Blade reports: "The Vatican has picked Bishop Leonard Blair of Toledo to lead a doctrinal investigation into the nation's largest organization of nuns."

Yes, another Inquisition here in the year 2009. When will the church ever learn? Apparently never. The long-standing tradition of a hierarchy of men is apparently too difficult to alter. The good-old boys' club reigns supreme in the halls of the Vatican.

Bishop Leonard Blair is a very conservative bishop who, in his first act as bishop,  removed every woman serving in high office in his diocese and replaced them with men. No doubt that is precisely why The Blade article states: "Some Vatican observers said the selection of the bishop, 60, shows he is highly regarded in Rome."  Additionally, the bishop has mandated uniform rituals throughout the diocese including the order that priests must wear their Roman collars when in public.

"In the eyes of many Vatican officials, he is a promising church leader who has demonstrated competence in other affairs," said Rick Gaillardetz, professor of Catholic studies at the University of Toledo.

Competence apparently equals tough rules and regulations and a hearkening back to the old ways, the pre-Vatican II era. One wonders if quite soon the Catholic nuns will be forced to get back into their medieval clothing.

Bishop Blair will lead a doctrinal investigation of the nuns: the inquiry will look at adherence to Catholic doctrine by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization of 1500 nuns across America. Doctrinal investigation. That is a code for witch hunt. The male hierarchy of the church want the nuns to be silent on the most troublesome areas of concern: promoting the ordination of women and "the problem of homosexuality."

That 'problem' of homosexuality' of course does not refer to the nuns but rather to the priests. It is curious that the bishop of the Toledo Diocese was selected as Toledo is/was a major epicenter for child abuse by priests. The film, Twist of Faith, detailed the sex abuse scandal of several Toledo priests in a Catholic high school in Toledo in the 1980's.

Most interesting is the fact that this new Inquisition of the nuns is actually an attempt to shut them up, to silence them from speaking out on the priest abuse scandals. What has irritated the Vatican and prompted this Inquisition is the fact that nuns have 'spoken out' about these problems during nun conferences. The Blade reports, "Some of the speakers may say things that the Vatican doesn't like. Now, every speaker is not going to have the endorsement or imprimatur of the LCWR. They are simply putting on a conference that has a lot of different people with a lot of different views making presentations. What it sounds like is that the Vatican wants these folks censored," Father Reese said.

Thomas Reese of the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University said the appointment "shows obviously that the Vatican has great confidence in him by putting him in charge of this very delicate investigation."

In other words, Fr. Reese knows that Bishop Blair will 'take care' of these nuns and the 'problem' that they have created for the all-male Catholic hierarchy. No doubt, Fr. Reese should be watching his back.

Are Most Right-wingers in the Asperger's Spectrum?

A pervasive developmental disorder, Asperger syndrome is distinguished by a pattern of symptoms rather than a single symptom. It is characterized by qualitative impairment in social interaction, by stereotyped and restricted patterns of behavior, activities and interests, and by no clinically significant delay in cognitive development or general delay in language. Intense preoccupation with a narrow subject, one-sided verbosity, restricted prosody, and physical clumsiness are typical of the condition, but are not required for diagnosis.

I am keenly interested in Asperger Syndrome [AS] and it dawned on me the other day that quite a few characteristics of the disorder seem to mimic the behavior of many on the right side of the political spectrum.

If you personally know a person who is a right-winger, think about the description of the disorder and that person. People with AS report a feeling of being unwillingly detached from the world around them and problems in social interaction with peers. This developmental problem in their abilities to successfully engage in interpersonal relationships has caught my attention. Is this why the right-winger displays signs of narcissism? Is this why they are more interested in their personal gain rather than society in general?

That narcissistic 'me, my mine' trait seems pervasive in those on the far right side of the political spectrum- as if the rest of society does not exist or is not worth caring about.

It's just a hypothesis on my part, but one that may have merit. Please note that I am not dissing those with Asperger's by comparing them to the adult right-wingers.

A Look at God and the Round Table

Here is a most clever round table 'discussion' between God and the angels regarding His 'visit' to earth and what He should do while there.



[thanks to PZ Meyers

Naltrexone for Addiction

Naltrexone (brand names: ReVia, Depade) is a medicine that reduces the desire for alcohol after a person stop drinking. Naltrexone may help a person stay sober for a long time. Although naltrexone may help stop drinking, this medicine is not a complete cure for alcoholism.

CNN has an article on naltrexone. "the credit goes to a prescription medication -- a pill called naltrexone. It's part of a new generation of anti-addiction drugs that may turn the world of rehab on its head.

Dr. Mark Willenbring, who oversees scientific research at the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, says alcoholism has reached a point similar to one depression reached 30 years ago -- when the development of Prozac and other antidepressants took mental health care out of the asylum and put it in homes and doctors' offices.

"There will be a 'Prozac moment,' " Willenbring says, "when primary care doctors start handling functional alcoholics."

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It is fairly odd that America spends billions on its sham 'War on Drugs' but tolerates, even encourages alcohol consumption as a way of life. The holidays together with the customary sports rituals are little more than excuses for alcohol abuse.

That proverbial elephant in the living room waves an American flag in its trunk.