So this thread is sort of meant to piggyback on eeyn's on the issue of Doing Something in the wake of the recent shooting. So, here's a general presentation of facts that we'll need to deal with in discussing firearm violence:

1) Homicides are at sixty-year lows. Seriously, our murder rate hasn't been this low since men wore dapper hats in public non ironically.

1a) America's homicide rates are generally way behind Western Europe and Canada, but ahead of the former USSR and developing world.

so here it is.  Have fun!

Across the sea, it appears that whatever else happens, Greece is probably not going to sink the Euro and Eurozone.  It appears that 95% of Greek bondholders have agreed to a substantial reduction in Greece's debt.  (Regrettably Greece itself is probably hosed, but it's looking increasingly less likely that it will serve as a millstone around the neck of Europe's collective economy).

In 1969, the Vatican struck St. Valentine from the Calendar of Saints.  But that doesn't mean we can't use the feast of a probably-legendary saint to celebrate Eros.

Consider this your open thread.

Holy crud, it's already Wednesday.

[Tries to think of something to say.]

...

Consider this your open thread.

So in the aftermath of 9/11, we were told by some well-meaning people that the U.S.

There's a phantom quotation that one often hears cited by those on America's political right, the gist of which is that democracy survives only until people realize that they can vote themselves an income:

Okay, one last substantive post till Monday when I move into my new digs and find out what classes I'll be teaching.

Every now and again, center-left blogger Matthew Yglesias posts a link showing the rise of American manufacturing output over the last 40 years.  This chart is usually met with howls of derision in the comments, with people noting that it is a lie by which we conceal how our evil corporate masters have sent all of the good jobs overseas. 

So it turns out to be a good thing that I hadn't yet signed that adjuncting contract, because I just got an offer on a history lecturership. It's non tenure-track (par for the course these days) and involves teaching at a university's expansion campus, primarily for non-traditional students, to include military personnel. I'll be teaching lots of Western Civ I and II and World History I and II along with the occasional upper-division course. The best part of it is that it bumps me up into another tax bracket. So I'm officially calling an end to the Andrew-cession.

Even in a best-case scenario, Iraq is going to have an endemic terrorism problem for long, long after the U.S. military has left. Iraq still gets the equivalent of an Oklahoma City every other month or so. But this terrorism receives little or no attention in the American news media. For a bombing to get mentioned on TV news, it has to be big. The war in Iraq has vanished from the attention of the American news viewing and news reading public.