Mental Illness Is A Problem, But It Isn’t The Same As Our Gun Problem

I've been reading a great deal about the Sandy Hook shooting and shooter and have been intrigued by the effort by so very many to try to make this incident be about the astonishing inadequacy of our mental health system. If you read carefully, there aren't any credible diagnoses of Adam Lanza's mental condition (certainly by no one who could make that diagnosis). All there is are reports that he may have been on the ASD spectrum, reports that seem rooted in a comment by the shooter's brother and some comments from classmates of Lanza's. The other thing that is out there is the rationalization -- that somehow it is a given that this person was mentally ill because sane people don't perpetrate this kind of violence. Both of these narratives -- without good support -- help to shift the conversation away from the the plain fact that it is amazingly easy to acquire the means to quickly disrupt a community with massive acts of violence.

Sunday Open Thread [12.16.12]

It's Sunday, the Eagles are not playing (Go Ravens!) and many of us are still outraged, grieving and otherwise engaged with making sense of a country where freedom seems to mean being free to endure the mayhem of others.

Who is more likley to get primaried by a legitimate contender?

The poll to the right of this post is dead even. 15 to 14. I guess a more interesting question would be; who is more likely to announce a primary challenge to Coons or Carney in a mere 16 or so months? We know the strength of the Dem bench,... Markell, Denn, Flowers, Biden, Biden (Joe). Who am I forgetting? Who is legitimate, but a dark horse? The Democratic primary IS the election nowadays.

Saturday Open Thread [12.15.12]

So how about some content for this thread? Once again, thanks so much to everyone who came out to celebrate the holidays with us last night. It really is fun to see all of you, and so great to know that we have such generous readers. Everyone will have the shootings in CT on their minds for awhile now. I see lots of energy about pushing for a conversation about guns in our so-called civilized society. What I do know is that we won't be able to claim the mantle of being "civilized" until the lives of our children are more valuable than our guns. It is odd that we are more ready to defend the right to "bear arms" at the expense of any right to the safety of your kids. That said, this is an interesting Twitter exchange with Rupert Murdoch:

Friday Open Thread [12.14.12]

It's just hilarious. And entertaining. That is all. President Obama told ABC News that the federal government has better things to do than prosecute marijuana users in Colorado and Washington where voters chose to legalized in the last election.
"We've got bigger fish to fry. It would not make sense for us to see a top priority as going after recreational users in states that have determined that it's legal."
Good. Make sure your Attorney General knows that. And perhaps Governor Markell can now implement the Medical Marijuana law.

Todd Akin Isn’t Alone In His Rape Beliefs

Superior Court Judge Derek G. Johnson: “I’m not a gynecologist, but I can tell you something, If someone doesn’t want to have sexual intercourse, the body shuts down. The body will not permit that to happen unless a lot of damage in inflicted, and we heard nothing about that in this case. "That tells me that the victim in this case, although she wasn’t necessarily willing, she didn’t put up a fight.”