Find Your State - Which is the Winner This Week?

According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 8,145 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.

This is a copy of Joe Nocera's blog post in the NY Times.  I congratulate Joe and  Jennifer Mascia for their valuable work.

Weekend Gun Report: September 13-15, 2013

California State Senator Kevin de León900 Californians were reported killed by guns from December 2012 to August 2013.

This week, the California State Assembly is set to vote on a measure requiring anyone who wants to purchase ammunition to obtain a permit requiring that they pass a background check. Similar bills have been proposed—then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger even signed an ammunition control bill into law in 2007, only for it to be stymied on appeal—but have failed, thanks to the National Rifle Association’s financial backing. State Senator Kevin de León, who represents areas of Los Angeles, points out that a criminal can walk into a Big 5 or Wal-Mart and purchase ammunition, no questions asked. In fact, it’s easier to purchase a pallet of ammunition in California than a pack of cigarettes or allergy medicine.

Senate Bill 53, which passed the state senate in August, requires all ammunition vendors to obtain a license to sell ammunition from the Department of Justice, and ammunition purchasers to submit to a background check. The N.R.A. has publicly opposed it, alleging that it would “encompass all hunting rounds that have no association with crime whatsoever,” and went so far as to say the bill “unconstitutionally and discriminately impacts the underprivileged, who are most likely to need to exercise their rights to keep and bear arms for self defense.”

Here is today’s report.

—Jennifer Mascia

Friday:

2-year-old Kyle Moses was shot in the head and killed by his father, who was upset the child’s mother was with another man, in Tununak, Alaska, early Friday. A 9-year-old boy was shot in the chest and wounded while playing in his grandmother’s backyard in Pine Lawn, Mo., Friday night. A 9-year-old boy was shot in the arm as he and two other boys played with a gun in Tampa, Fla., Friday.

A 14-year-old girl was shot in the leg when two groups of men opened fire on each other on the South Side of Chicago, Ill., Friday afternoon. 17-year-old Shyheim Buford was shot in the chest and killed in Wilmington, Del., Friday night. Jason Guymon was shot and wounded by a neighbor during an altercation that erupted when the victim’s friend rode a horse down a shared lane in Missoula, Mont., Thursday evening.

Valerie Robinson, 42, was shot and killed at the Katy, Tex., high school where she worked by her estranged husband, 54-year-old Gregory Robinson, who then shot and killed himself after a standoff with police Friday morning. Two men were injured in a drive-by shooting in Salt Lake City, Utah, late Thursday. A man in his 20s was shot and killed on the southeast side ofKansas City, Mo., Thursday night.

A shooting on Roanoke Island, N.C., sent one person to the hospital Thursday night. One person was shot and wounded in Roanoke, Va., late Friday. A man was shot and critically wounded at a hotel in Phoenix, Ariz., Thursday night. A 19-year-old was shot in the chest during a fight at aGilbert, Ariz., apartment complex Friday night.

One person was wounded in a shooting outside the Oakland, Calif., hotel where the Ohio State University men’s football team were staying Friday evening. 30-year-old Holly Wilcox was shot in the arm at a hotel in Fallon, Nev., Friday afternoon. Two men were shot during an altercation in a car parked outside a home in La Quinta, Calif., early Friday.

Kerry Eck, 25, was shot and killed after an altercation over the sale and possession of narcotics in Wagener, Ga., Thursday night. Two people were wounded in a shooting in the Allison Hill neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pa., Friday night. Two men were killed in a shooting on the east side of Detroit, Mich., Friday morning. A man was shot in the head and another person was wounded outside Boulevard Townhomes in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., early Friday.

Kenneth Peppenelli was killed and Christine Peppenelli was wounded in a possible domestic shooting at a mobile home community in Orange City, Fla., Friday. A man on a bike was shot in the leg on the west side of Saginaw, Mich., Friday night. A man was shot and injured in North Plains, Ore., Thursday night. The bullet-riddled body of 24-year-old Vernon Davis was found in front of a garden apartment in Northeast Washington, D.C., early Friday; it was one of ten shootings there in a 48-hour period.

33-year-old Tyrone Terry was found shot dead in a grassy area near the parking lot of an apartment complex in Southern Pines, N.C., late Thursday. A 31-year-old man was shot to death in southeast Atlanta, Ga., early Friday, and a 30-year-old woman was charged with murder. A man wasshot and killed outside a home in Miami Gardens, Fla., Friday afternoon.

A shooting left a man and a woman dead in an apartment complex in southeastFresno, Calif., Friday evening. Aaron Addison, 22, was shot several times and killed in Fort Myers, Fla., Friday afternoon. An 18-year-old man wasshot and critically wounded in the Sherman Park neighborhood ofMilwaukee, Wis., Friday afternoon. An officer was wounded during an accidental shooting at an Oklahoma City, Okla., shooting range Friday afternoon.

Warren Duvant, 22, was shot in the groin during a dispute over a moped inClover, S.C., Friday afternoon. A man was wounded in a drive-by shooting inGulfport, Miss., Friday night. A woman checked into a Selma, Calif., hospital with gunshot wounds late Friday. 24-year-old Timothy Charles and 21-year-old Kirt Swan were shot and wounded in the courtyard of Pulse Nightclub in New Haven, Conn., late Friday. Ramon Prieto, 31, was shottwice and wounded during an altercation on the porch of a home on the west side of Fort Meade, Fla., late Friday.

Saturday:

A 11-year-old boy was shot in the arm by his 13-year-old sister in a home inIndianapolis, Ind., Saturday night. Gerard Gomez, 16, was shot and killed at the Residence Inn in the Tysons Corner area of Vienna, Va., early Sunday. 25-year-old Nelson B. Castillo was shot and killed in the Roslindale section ofBoston, Mass., just before midnight Saturday.

Three separate shootings in Boston sent seven people to the hospital in a 14-hour span on Saturday. Four people were shot with a 40-caliber semi-automatic and wounded after an argument broke out at the Vortex nightclub in Marion, N.C., early Saturday. Two women, ages 19 and 39, and an 18-year-old man were killed in a drive-by shooting in the Baden neighborhood ofSt. Louis, Mo., Saturday evening.

21-year-old Michelle Parker and 22-year-old Michael Parker Jr. were killed in a murder-suicide by gun at a Mesa, Ariz., apartment complex Saturday morning. 25-year-old Devery Bell was killed and another man was wounded in a shooting at an apartment complex in south Birmingham, Ala., early Saturday. A woman was shot and wounded in the Morton Simpson public housing community in Birmingham Saturday night.

A 32-year-old man was shot multiple times and killed while sitting in a truck inCamden, N.J., Saturday afternoon. One person was killed and another person was injured in a shooting in a house in Jacksonville, Fla., Friday night. Two men walked into an Albany, N.Y., hospital with gunshot wounds before dawn Saturday. A man and a woman were shot and killed in a parked car in the West Ward of Newark, N.J., Saturday afternoon.

A man was shot and wounded in Charlotte, N.C., early Saturday, and his brother was arrested. A 55-year-old man was found shot in the head on the floor of an apartment in south Knoxville, Tenn., early Saturday. Two men were killed and a woman was injured in a domestic shooting in a Kansas City, Mo., apartment Saturday afternoon. A man was wounded in a drive-byshooting in Hamilton, N.J., Saturday afternoon.

51-year-old Zelda D. Kollock was killed in a domestic shooting in Richland County, S.C., Saturday night. Jeremy Draper, 25, was shot in the arm in southeast Portland, Ore., early Saturday. Harry Short Jr. was shot and killed at Club Ciroc in Columbus, Ga., early Saturday, and one of the club’s armed security guards was charged with murder.

A man was injured in a shooting near Hilltop Mall in Richmond, Calif., early Saturday. 45-year-old Jerome Goosby was killed and Walter Pickens was injured in a shooting outside the Elks Club in Beaver County, Pa., early Saturday. Richard Alequin-Hernandez, 25, and Jose Santiago, 20, were shotand killed less than 100 feet from a children’s playground in Holyoke, Mass., early Saturday.

Miguel Delgado, 19, was shot in the head and killed during an argument in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, Ill., early Saturday. Elsewhere inChicago, nine people were wounded in shootings on Saturday, including a 14-year-old girl caught in the crossfire. A man and a woman were shot and injured in Norfolk, Va., Saturday night.

Steven Edward Briscoe, 54, was found shot to death at his home southwest ofLawrenceburg, Ky., Saturday night. One person was shot and injured inSpencer, Okla., early Saturday. A man was shot and killed at a motel on the southwest side of Oklahoma City, Okla., early Saturday. At around the same time in Oklahoma, one person was killed in a shooting at a home inMidwest City, and another person was shot and killed at an apartment complex in Norman.

A shooting victim stumbled through the door of a drug store in Mobile, Ala., early Saturday. A man was shot during a drug-related dispute in Wichita, Kan., early Saturday. Jonathan Duque, 26, was shot three times and wounded during a fight at a gas station on the northeast side of San Antonio, Tex., Saturday. Demetrius Morales was shot in the neck during an argument with his wife at their home in Tulsa, Okla., early Saturday.

Two men, 30 and 48, were shot and wounded during a home invasion inKilleen, Tex., early Saturday. One person was shot after two rival motorcycle gangs got into a fight at a Phoenix, Ariz., bar early Saturday. One person was shot and wounded at an apartment in Salem, Mass., early Saturday. A man in his 30s was found shot in the neck and critically wounded in Fort Worth, Tex., early Saturday.

55-year-old Charles Turner was shot to death in a parking lot in south Dallas, Tex., Saturday afternoon. Richard Register, 41, shot and killed his estranged wife, Ebony Parson, then shot and killed himself at a bingo hall in Conway, S.C., late Saturday. 20-year-old Samson Oyelaja was shot and wounded during a marijuana robbery in Hope Mills, N.C., Saturday.

A drive-by shooting in Fayetteville, N.C., seriously injured a man Saturday. A 53-year-old man was shot and wounded after an argument in a massage parlor in the Chinatown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pa., late Saturday. A man died in a shooting in the McElderry Park area of east Baltimore, Md., late Saturday. A 40-year-old man was shot and wounded in Hazelton, Pa., Saturday afternoon.

Phuoc Huu Nguyen, 35, was found dead of gunshot wounds after a fight broke out in a parking lot in Falls Church, Va., Saturday evening. A man was shotin the leg during a party at an apartment complex in Vallejo, Calif., early Saturday.

Sunday:

Six people were injured, one critically, in a suspected gang-related shooting in the parking lot outside Aladdin’s Hookah Lounge in Yakima, Wash., early Sunday. Five people were wounded in a firefight in a parking lot in Colorado Springs, Colo., early Sunday. Four or five people were struck by bulletsafter an altercation between two groups in the parking lot of a convenience store in St. Joseph, Mo., early Sunday.

Two people were shot and wounded at a fraternity party in Charleston, Ill., early Sunday. A 77-year-old Missoula, Mont., homeowner shot an intruder in the torso early Sunday. A 37-year-old man was shot in the head and killed inBaltimore, Md., early Sunday. Kathleen N. Battle, 21, suffered a gunshot wound to the leg when her friend, Jacob E. Richardson, 22, showed her hisgun and it discharged near Longwood University in Farmville, Va., Sunday evening.

A shooting in Richmond, Va., sent a man to the hospital Sunday evening. Nikia Mills, 27, and Shenise Miller, 23, were injured by debris from a drive-byshooting in Palmetto, Fla., Sunday morning. An 18-year-old man was shotand wounded in the Foxhurst section of the Bronx, N.Y., Sunday afternoon. A man was shot in the shoulder during an argument between two groups of men in a deli at a mall in Virginia Beach, Va., Sunday afternoon.

A 27-year-old man was shot in the chest multiple times and killed on the west side of Cleveland, Ohio, early Sunday. 25-year-old Kendall Green was found shot to death on the front porch of a home in Glen Burnie, Md., early Sunday. One person was killed and at least one other person was injured after a dispute escalated to gunfire at a Snellville, Ga., home Sunday night.

Police in Portsmouth, Va., found a man shot to death in a 7-Eleven parking lot early Sunday. A man was killed after being shot in the head in North Hollywood, Calif., Sunday afternoon. One person was shot in the face and wounded at a Circle K convenience store in Tangipahoa Parish, La., early Sunday. A man is in critical condition after being shot in the head while driving in Lexington, Ky., Sunday night.

A man was shot in the back on the east side of Saginaw, Mich., Sunday evening. A man and a woman were shot and wounded after an argument near the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Ga., Sunday afternoon, just before the Falcons’ first regular season home game. A 35-year-old man walked into aBaltimore, Md., hospital with a gunshot wound to the foot early Sunday.

A 24-year-old man was shot multiple times and seriously wounded in southwest Baltimore Sunday evening. A man in his 30s was shot and killed by the boyfriend of the woman he was with in Independence, Mo., early Sunday. 22-year-old Vidal Rodriguez was shot and critically wounded at a party in Austin, Tex., early Sunday. A 46-year-old man suffered a gunshotwound to the leg in Evanston, Ill., early Sunday.

A man showed up at a Hartford, Conn., hospital with a gunshot wound to the calf he sustained at a party early Sunday. A man was found shot to death in a home in Marshalltown, Iowa, early Sunday. A man was arrested forshooting and critically wounding a 16-year-old boy who broke into his car inAlbuquerque, N.M., early Sunday.

Two men, 18 and 34, were injured in a gang-related shooting in South Los Angeles, Calif., early Sunday. A shooting over a girl at a mobile home park sent one man to the hospital in Greenville, N.C., Sunday night. Two people were shot and wounded in a drive-by shooting in southeast Washington, D.C., early Sunday. A man was shot in the foot in a parking lot nearTillman’s Corner, Ala., Sunday evening.

Sidney Thomas, 32, who suffered from mental and physical disabilities, was found lying on a sidewalk dying of a gunshot wound in Shreveport, La., early Sunday. A man and a woman were shot and wounded after they got into an argument with a man about cutting in line at a Subway restaurant inAtlanta, Ga., Sunday afternoon. Two men, 38 and 61, died of gunshotwounds in an apparent murder-suicide near Carencro, La., early Sunday.

A woman was shot in the chest and wounded by her husband during an argument at their residence in Mountain Home, Idaho, early Sunday. Justin Galloway, 31, was shot in the leg outside JoJo’s Famous Chili Dogs inToledo, Ohio, early Sunday. At around the same time in Toledo, an 18-year-old man walked into a store and told a clerk he’d been shot. A man was hospitalized after being shot in the arm in Peoria, Ill., early Sunday.

According to Slate’s gun-death tracker, an estimated 8,145 people have died as a result of gun violence in America since the Newtown massacre on December 14, 2012.

Gone in Sixty Seconds (Almost)

I posted the Bright Orange chiffon piece yesterday and it sold the same day!  So happy someone will enjoy this pretty fabric.  Now I'll have to make another one today!

Who Thinks Unschooling Can Really Work?

Living in Arizona, we are very familiar with the practice of homeschooling.  The state approves, the colleges welcome homeschooled kids and there hasn't been a problem with too many kids not knowing how to socialize with their mainstream peers.  But "Unschooling" is a different animal.  I have read articles and blogs touting the benefits of unschool, and it all sounds pretty darn good.

However, having had children and grandchildren of my own, plus the input from teachers, other parents, the media, and kids themselves, I am just not convinced that unschool can work on a large scale.  There are too many parents out there who can't even figure out how to feed their children a healthy diet, let alone be guides and mentors in a lifelong learning adventure.  

The purpose of school in the first place is to prepare children for life in the future.  We start them out, generally, at age three, and they continue on for 15 years, learning what people have been learning for the past 100 years.  How much has your world changed in the past 15 years?  Are you doing your job the same way it would have been done 50 years ago?  If we cannot predict what the world will look like when our children are adults, how can we possibly know what to teach them now?  In my opinion, the most valuable skill I learned in school is how to learn.  I have always been curious and interested in a multitude of subjects, and now, with the miracle of the internet, I can find out anything I need to know.  Learning how to learn is one of the primary goals of unschool.  Parents should make it a priority to teach their children whenever there is a "teaching" moment how to find out the answer to a question.  Here's an example:  my 4 year old granddaughter is like many other little girls and into "princesses."  One day I asked her if she wanted to see a picture of a real princess.  Her eyes lit up and she was in my lap.  We Googled Princess Kate and Prince William, and then went on to Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip.  She is learning how to learn.  

Kids learn how to find out what they need to know.  They are prepared for any future.  If in the future the things we know now are obsolete, then the person who knows how to learn will be ready to learn what is useful in his world.  Our school model was created to turn out good employees, particularly on assembly lines in an industrialized world.  School teaches kids how to follow instructions, stand in line, eat when you are allowed, play only when the clock says it's time, and most of all, school teaches that the kids don't know anything - the teacher has all the knowledge.

Did you ever wonder how Socrates learned?  How about Michaelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci?  Did Jane Austen get a Masters in Literature?  For most of human history learning has not taken place in a classroom.  And think of the progress humankind has made up til now.  Our system of education needs to adapt to the information age, and parents need to be the leaders in preparing our kids for their future, not our present.

Colorado Recall Doesn't Change the Law

EDITORIAL

Hard Lessons of the Colorado Recall

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Published: September 11, 2013

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The Colorado Legislature showed good sense when it voted in March to require universal background checks in the sale of firearms and limits on magazine clips to 15 rounds.

Related

• Colorado Lawmakers Ousted in Recall Vote Over Gun Law(September 11, 2013)

Today's Editorials

• Editorial: Diplomacy as Deterrent(September 12, 2013)

• Editorial: More Mistakes at the N.S.A. (September 12, 2013)

Connect With Us on Twitter

For Op-Ed, follow@nytopinion and to hear from the editorial page editor, Andrew Rosenthal, follow@andyrNYT.

On Tuesday, two state senators who supported the gun control laws lost recall votes in two small districts in Colorado. Their ousters were a disgraceful low point in punitive single-issue politicking by the gun lobby.

The two lawmakers — the Senate president, John Morse, and Senator Angela Giron — are exemplary models of responsible public service. As members of a resolute Democratic statehouse majority, the two showed more political courage in facing up to the gun mayhem afflicting the nation than the Congress did in April in its shameful retreat from tightening gun laws that allow tens of thousands of deaths each year.

The recalled lawmakers knew the gun lobby would pounce on their votes, but they stood up for the badly needed laws that Congress ducked. Mr. Morse, a former police chief, helped lead the charge against the battlefield-styled weapons used in the school massacre in Newtown, Conn., and in Colorado’s own carnage last year at the Aurora movie theater.

The act of the Legislature and Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, represents an important transition in Colorado, long considered a bastion of rural gun rights. Urban interests and their politicians are more willing to push for sane gun controls; the background check law was supported by 80 percent of state residents polled. The task of the recall proponents, however, was made easier by a controversial ruling against mail balloting, normally heavily relied on by state voters.

The gun lobby is congratulating itself on this vote, aiming to use the recall as the ultimate warning against politicians who might abandon timorousness in the gun control debate. In truth, the recall fight showed that something sensible and stirring could emerge among politicians, at least in Colorado, even if two worthy incumbents were sacrificed. The state’s new laws survive, and Colorado residents are safer for them.

Meet The New York Times’s Editorial Board »

How Was School Today, Dear?

Ken Robinson, an "educationalist," gave a TED talk in May, 2013, called "How to Escape Education's Death Valley."  TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences bring together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes or less).  If you haven't watched them, you are in for such a treat!

In this talk, KR says there are three conditions under which human life flourishes and they are contradicted every day in every classroom.  The first is: human beings are naturally different and diverse.  Rather than teach to have each student passionately explore his or her special talents and interests, we teach for conformity.  All across the nation, if it's January we are learning facts about the American Revolution.  Never mind that your son has just discovered the wonders of astronomy and doesn't want to read, talk, or take a test about anything else.  He will have to wait . . .

Second, all humans are naturally curious and that makes us natural learners.  Have you ever spent a day with a 3-year old?  How many questions did you answer?  My granddaughter is four, and the phrase she uses most often is "How Come?" But our schools want to achieve compliance.  The present system was originally proposed by Horace Mann to educate workers for the industrial age.  It was beneficial to have hordes of compliant workers standing at assembly lines.  In the information age, we need innovators, creative thinkers.

The third principle is that human beings are inherently creative; we create our lives, and in spite of the culture of education that strives to turn out finished students who all know the same body of knowledge and have the same values, we are still all individuals.  The culture of standardization is opposed to basic human nature, which may be one reason it isn't working very well.

Tomorrow we will talk about "Unschooling."

How Many Died Today?

Twenty years ago, the Congress of the United States sentenced thousands of its citizens to death. They attacked research on firearm deaths and injuries.  They attacked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for funding firearm research.  And to drive the nail home, the CDC saw $2.6 million stripped from its budget. Coincidentally, that is the same amount they had spent on firearms research the previous year.  Because there has been so little scientific research on firearms done, it has been impossible to enact measures to reduce the incidence of death and injury.  How many lives might have been saved had this action not been taken?  We will never know.

Joe Nocera, writing in an Op Ed piece for The New York Times, states that Slate's gun-death tally, which is included at the end of each of his blog posts, has recorded 7,897 deaths since the Newtown massacre last December-almost three times the total killed on Sept. 11, and nearly double the number of U.S. soldiers killed over the course of the nine-year-long Iraq War.

As astonishing as that number is, there is a glaring disparity between the C.D.C figures (they are still allowed to report death records) and Slate's running total.  The reason, Slate has explained, is that its tally is culled from news reports, and the C.D.C figures are taken from death records. "Using the most recent CDC estimates. . .it is likely that as of today, 9/5/2013, roughly 23,381 people have died from guns in the United States since the Newtown shootings.  Compare that number of deaths reported in the news and you can see how under-told the story of gun violence in America really is. "

Here is the gun report for September 6, 2013:

A 2 month old in Minneapolis, a 6 month old shot by her 3 year old brother in Charlston, S.C., a 12 year old boy shot by his 15 year old cousin in New Mexico, a 14 year old boy in Newark, N.J., a 16 year old and another man in one shooting in Philadelphia, 4 people in Charlotte, N.C., a 72 year old woman in Longmont, Colorado, a 26 year old woman in Tennessee, a passenger on a bus shot by another passenger in Houston, Texas, a 29 year old man in Austin, Texas, a man in his 20s in Chicago, a 33 year old and a 44 year old in a murder-suicide in Minnesota, a 38 year old man in Yakima, Washington, a man in Boston, Massachusetts, a 36 year old man in Rochester, NY, a man in Tallahassee, Fl, a 19 year old in Toledo, Ohio, a man in North Kansas City, MO, a man in Houston, Texas, a 55 year old man and a 20 year old man in Elkhart, Indiana, a 21 year old in Portage, Wisconsin.

These were real people, folks.

Don't Yell At Me, Mom!

    Why do we need to see the results of another "study" to tell us what we intuitively know?  Do you respond well to your boss who yells at you?  Or do you respect the one who praises you when you do a good job?

   Well, guess what?  Your teenager is just like you.  Shouting and yelling are not effective for them, either.

    A study by Ming-Te Wang of the University of Pittsburgh showed that " 13 year olds who received a lot of harsh verbal discipline from their parents were more likely to have symptoms of depression at age 14."  Not surprisingly they also exhibited anger, aggression and general bad behavior.

    Remember "do unto others?"  If you want respect, give respect. If you are losing it and cursing or name-calling, don't be shocked if you hear the same kind of talk coming out of your teen's mouth. And, of course, that just escalates the situation.

   "When it comes to rearing teens, "the big three are good communications, love, and limits," according to adolescent psychologist Neil Bernstein, author of "How To Keep Your Teenager Out of Trouble and What To Do If You Can't."

   So just remember "Calm The F*** Down."

Want to lose weight? Go to Dubai!

The powers that be in the United Arab Emirates are concerned about rising obesity rates and came up with an incentive program that could only happen in Dubai.  Anyone who loses more than 22 pounds earns 3 grams of gold for each 2.2 pounds shed.  

Hundreds of people signed up for the challenge (surprise!) and the biggest loser was a man who lost 48 pounds.

This challenge was for five weeks, but I wonder how many people went home with gold in their hands intending to gain back all the weight they lost so they could enter the next one!

Kudos to Obama

I am not a big fan of Presidents in general, believing that the Giant Amoeba we call the "U.S. Government" is where the power really is, but I have to give Obama credit for doing what he individually can to move our country from one with about the same number of homicides per year as Colombia and Russia, to one with laws more like other industrialized nations.  Without a big Special Report, the Obama administration quietly announced two new executive actions on gun control Thursday morning.

The first prevents those who are not eligible to purchase a gun (felons, for example) from registering firearms in a corporation's name.  Now, anyone associated with the corporation must undergo a background check.  Small progress, but I'll take it.

The second is a no-brainer.  It prevents anyone from bringing back into the U.S. military-grade weapons that have been given to U.S. allies (like the rebels in Syria).  We may not be able to protect Syrian citizens, but these guns won't be used to kill American kids.  

A majority of Americans are in favor of expanded background checks, and it will be interesting to see whether those in Congress who voted against any kind of sensible gun policy will be re-elected.

"The president's actions are definitely a good step toward keeping public attention that Congress hasn't acted yet," Hatalsky said. "They've done everything they can do without Congress, and the things that they can still do are pretty small."

She added that continuing incidents of gun violence also promise to keep the issue alive in the months to come, as Congress reconvenes.  The most recent, of course, being the teens who shot and killed the Australian baseball player. "With a motive that's both chilling and simple – to break up the boredom of an Oklahoma summer – three teenagers randomly targeted an Australian collegiate baseball player who was attending school in the U.S. and killed him for fun, prosecutors said Tuesday as they charged two of the boys with murder."   

A Little Perspective, Please

I have a friend who is convinced that this country is going down the toilet.  She believes that all parents are incompetent and are raising children who won't be able to live in society.  She thinks the economy will never improve, that college graduates can't get jobs, that divorce is out of control, and on and on and on.  It's depressing to try to have a conversation with her because she is so negative.  So when I saw this article, the words leaped off the page at me.  This is from an article published on Cracked.com.

"In general, it's easier to be negative.  It's easier for us as a generation, because to admit that the world isn't that bad right now would be to admit that we have it easier than our grandparents did and that the world thus has the right to expect more from us.  But as much as we like to joke about the sorry state of the world, the facts really don't back us up.  Here are four myths that the facts just don't back up." 

"Everything Is So Expensive."

The Complaint:

"The corporations and the government have us all living like slaves. I can back it up with numbers, too -- in 1950 you could buy a brand new nine-room brick home in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, for the whopping sum of $11,500. A decent family car was about $500, and the gas for it was about 25 cents a gallon. A large loaf of bread cost under 15 cents. A large coffee was a nickel, with a free refill. I could go on and on. But now between greedy corporations and the government confiscating our income with sky-high taxes, you have to work two jobs just to survive."

The Reality:

Let's start with the obvious: A low-end job in the service industry paid a dollar an hour in 1950. A fancy job in insurance or real estate? A buck-fifty an hour. You'd take home $50 a week after taxes. So please don't talk about the good old days of 50-cent steaks when people were getting paid what would now be Tooth Fairy money.

So how does this all average out, once you account for income? We don't have to guess. Punch anything into the cost of living calculator -- the one that uses the exact same formula that the government uses to decide things like tax rates -- and you'll see that the prices of most things have stayed pretty constant over the years. High-end manufactured goods have gotten cheaper. Much cheaper, as manufacturing costs drop.

In 1954, the cost of a high-end Westinghouse color TV, with a massive 15-inch screen, was $1,295. No, not adjusted for inflation. That was the actual price at the time -- half of the yearly income for some families. Everybody writes this off as if it's a constant of the universe ("of course new technology gets exponentially better and cheaper with time!") instead counting it among the benefits of the modern system. Why? This economic system has resulted in handheld devices that can access all the information in the town library, at a price affordable to the working man, and all we can do is complain about the cost of unlimited data plans?

And the golden age of the $500 car... how many of you come from families with two cars? Statistically it's most of you, and far more than what it would have been in 1960, when there were half as many cars on a per-capita basis in the U.S. (it averaged about one car per household -- so if you had two, someone else had none).

And taxes? Again, the numbers don't lie -- in the U.S. taxes are the lowest they've been since 1950. The government even threw you an extra two percent reduction in payroll tax as a cherry on top. The U.S. has the second-lowest taxes among developed countries.

Yes, we're going through a worldwide downturn and yes, a bunch of you are unemployed. Those of you who are reading this at a homeless shelter, we're not saying it's all in your head. But on the whole we could use a little perspective.

"People Are Getting Stupider."

The Complaint:

"Two words: 'Jersey Shore.' People are getting stupider by the minute, and the stupid people are breeding faster than the smart people. They watch mindless reality shows, and all anybody cares about is celebrity gossip and bullshit. Teenagers are obsessed with Twitter and video games and have probably never read a book."

The Reality:

IQ scores have risen 24 points since 1914. And on top of that, you have to account for the Flynn effect, discovered by James R. Flynn, which is a way of compensating for increased education (but more on that in a moment). The intelligence quotient is set up in such a way that an average score is 100. So, what do you do if people keep getting higher and higher scores, to the point where 100 is no longer the average? You rejigger the way scores are calculated so that it goes back down to 100.

So, while IQ scores may appear to be similar from one generation to the next, the scores have to be constantly adjusted back down to 100 because children are doing better and better on the test. If you scored 100 on a test back in the day, you might actually be considered slightly mentally challenged now.

Meanwhile, the quality of education has been going up for the past 40 years, with children scoring higher in reading and mathematics. That's not just in the U.S. -- it's worldwide. Graduation rates, too, are on an upward trend. So by the sheer numbers, we are actively creating useful members of society at an increasing rate. The world collectively is getting smarter. If you treat the combined mass of human knowledge as a resource for the future (and you should), then we're drowning in riches like Scrooge McDuck.

It seems like part of the negative perception is from trying to judge the intelligence of a people by their pop culture. But remember that most people spend their whole day at work or school thinking and making decisions and doing complex troubleshooting -- they treat entertainment as the break from all that.

And if you think that it's a sad sign of the times that Jackass 3D made a ton of money at the box office, hop in your time machine and go back 80 years. You'll find audiences howling with laughter at the Three Stooges.

"All This Processed Food Is Killing Us."

The Complaint:

"Just look at a label. High-fructose corn syrup? 'Phenylketonurics'? Hell, a simple chicken dinner may have 36 ingredients. Who knows what chemical preservative bullshit we eat in an average day? What happened to old-time family meals, when a roast was just a roast, and a loaf of bread just had flour and yeast and other natural ingredients?"

The Reality:

Think those ingredients in your TV dinner are scary? Prior to 1966, there was no ingredient labeling of prepared foods. You bought a tin of meat-and-potato stew, and what was in it was left to the goodwill of the manufacturer, who may have had to fatten profits by feeding people elk hooves and sawdust. You simply didn't know what you were eating.

The ingredient and nutrition labeling acts changed all that. Sure, food manufacturers can still try to lie and put bug shit and viruses in your food, but if caught, they get to pull all of their product off the shelf and dump it, at their own expense. And all those scary chemicals on the ingredients list? Many of those are preservatives. Meant to preserve the food. So it isn't rotten when you eat it.

Also, let's not forget that the refrigerator and freezer are both recent inventions -- go back to the Great Depression or earlier and you find that refrigerators cost more than a car. So keeping food cold or preserved was a crapshoot, with listeria, botulism and the shits acting as the dessert to granny's wholesome down-home country meal.

Oh, and feel free to browse through some recipes from the 1950s -- savor the Baked Corn Chex 'N' Cheese Custard and Spam fritters.

Again, we're not saying there isn't some gross stuff in your food -- there totally is and we have examined it in some detail -- just as we weren't saying that there are no stupid people in the world in our first entry up there.

All we're saying is that we're not at the disastrous nadir of some long downward trend.

"Crime Is Out of Control.”

The Complaint:

"A member of Congress gets gunned down in yet another mass shooting. You can't turn on the news for five seconds without hearing of a child being abducted and mutilated, or a massive gang war along the Mexican border. Every city in America has one section that you wouldn't dare drive through at night. Now compare that to the 1950s, when nobody even locked their doors at night. What changed?"

The Reality:

There absolutely was a huge crime wave in the 1980s, thanks to the crack epidemic (this graph shows the spike in murders in L.A., for instance). But the numbers do not lie: Crime, property crime, theft and burglary have actually been dropping since about 1993. Dropping and dropping, below even where we were before drug violence skewed the stats upward.

If you look at the homicide rate per 100,000 people, which is one of the only crime stats reliably tracked through the 1900s and into today, you can see that not only is it the lowest since the 1950s, but that it's quite a lot lower than it was in the 1970s and even the 1930s. (And it's a scaling formula, meaning it isn't skewed by population.) Now why would the crime rate be so high in the 1930s?

When the economy is bad, people get desperate, and desperate people will do whatever they can to survive, right? And here we sit, 80 years later, with the worst economy since the Great Depression. How's the crime rate faring now? It's lower than it was before the recession. A few days ago, the FBI published its statistics for the first half of 2010, which show that crime has dropped further still.

What has not dropped is the number of TV shows and news features about crime, and newspapers' need to report on violence whenever it occurs. Therefore, the only thing about crime that seems to be going up is the perception of how bad it really is.

So, by the sheer numbers, you would be just as safe keeping your doors unlocked at night as your grandparents were back in "the good old days."

Read more: http://www.cracked.com/article_18983_5-complaints-about-modern-life-that-are-statistically-b.s._p2.html#ixzz2dCDRKTsF

New Parenting Method

I know many people want to stay current with the latest parenting trends -- attachment parenting, minimalist parenting, Tiger Mother parenting, et al. Well, I've stumbled upon a new technique that will guarantee your child grows up to be an exemplary student and citizen. It's called CTFD, which stands for "Calm The F*ck Down." And that's not a message to give your kids. It's for you.

Using CTFD assures you that -- whichever way you choose to parent -- your child will be fine (as long as you don't abuse them, of course). To see it in action, here are some sample parenting scenarios and how CTFD can be employed: 

Worried your friend's child has mastered the alphabet quicker than your child? Calm the f*ck down.

Scared you're not imparting the wisdom your child will need to survive in school and beyond? Calm the f*ck down.

Concerned that you're not the type of parent you thought you'd be? Calm the f*ck down.

Upset that your child doesn't show interest in certain areas of learning? Calm the f*ck down.

Stressed that your child exhibits behavior in public you find embarrassing? Calm the f*ck down.

Yes, using the CTFD method, you'll find the pressure lifted and realize your child loves you no matter what, even if they've yet to master the alphabet. You'll also learn that whether or not you're the best parent in the world, as long as you love your child, they'll think you are and that's what matters. Plus, CTFD makes you immune to those that prey upon the fears of new parents, like pseudoscientists and parenting authors.

To use CTFD, just follow these simple steps:

Calm the f*ck down.

There is no second step.

So, ignore all those other parenting trends and stick to CTFD. You'll be glad you did and so will your kid.

This post originally appeared -- without the asterisks -- on TheDaddyComplex.com.

Success is so sweet!

Success is sweet!  A friend of my grandson's is staying with us until he finds a job and can get his own place to live.  When we typed up his resume, I found out that while he was living in New Mexico he didn't graduate from high school.  Well! Anyone in my family can tell you that news like that just kicks me into high gear.  

I found that the library in Chandler offered GED tutoring and that the test was going to be given on August 24th.  He went to the library and got all the info, he registered online, and I loaned him the money to pay the fee.  He took the test last Saturday and tonight he got his results.  He passed with flying colors! 

What a satisfying feeling, knowing that I helped give him something that will help him from now on.

Aljazeera Whaaat?

I can't wait to see what the " new voice" of news in America has to say. We watched our first segment of Aljazeera America last night and I must say I was impressed.  Ever since the school massacre in Newtown, there have been very few investigative stories that focus on the proliferation of gun violence in our country.  Aljazeera apparently owes no debt to the NRA and is not afraid to shine a light on the number of shootings taking place in Chicago.  The first segment was last night, and the second is tonight.  The veteran newswoman, Joie Chan, is excellent, as is every other journalist I have seen on this network.  One of my favorites is Ali Velchi who I have previously watched on anorher network.

Here are the names of the editorial team for Aljazeera.  Relax, none of them are named Mohammed!

The editorial team will be led by Kate O'Brian, a 30-year ABC News veteran who will take over as president of the network.

She will be joined by David Doss and Shannon High-Bassalik, who will join from CNN as senior vice-presidents, and Marcy McGinnis, a former journalism associate dean who worked at CBS News.

Ehab al-Shihabi will serve as interim chief executive officer of the network, according to an announcement made by Al Jazeera's acting director-general, Mostefa Souag.

Q&A

Five Questions with Kate O'Brian, Al Jazeera America's newly

appointed president:

 Why Al Jazeera? 

This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to create a news product that I think is sorely missing in the American media landscape right now. There is a great history of quality journalism at Al Jazeera, and I am looking forward to bringing all that to Al Jazeera America. 

O'Brian, a former senior vice-president at ABC News who began her career there as an intern, will be based at the network's headquarters in New York City, and "will have full responsibility for defining and implementing the editorial strategy and operations across the network, including news, documentary and all other programming", according to the statement.

In an interview, O'Brian told Al Jazeera English, AJAM's sister network, that there was "a gap" in the US news media landscape that her channel would be seeking to fill.

"Coming into the American news landscape, the opportunity to innovate is something Al Jazeera can bring into the equation. We can start from scratch, producing in-depth, quality content for the viewers who are looking for something different. It will be a new product, not incremental tweaks in existing news formats," she said.

Al-Shihabi said at the end of June that Al Jazeera had hired 650 employees and planned to air 8 minutes of commercials per hour, which is below the industry standard of about 15 minutes.

Interestingly, the channel that the network purchased, Current TV, was sold to Aljazeera by none other than that great American, Al Gore.

Nothing Lasts Forever

As the grandmother of five (seven if you count the two we have taken care of since they were infants) I get lots of phone calls from parents who need to vent.  With one grandson now out of his teenage years, and two who are in the throes of that challenging time, I can recognize good advice when I see it.  Michael L. Stoller, LCSW, lists the common sense suggestions that will help any parent survive and even keep enjoying their teenagers.  Wherever Stoller says "your son," you can substitute "your daughter."

Respect your son’s integrity and his authority over his own life.

Have faith that whatever you want to tell your son, you have told him already and he will remember it when the time comes.

Offer help with an open hand.

Try offering help in the form of a question.  “Would you like…?” or “How can I help?”

Be responsible and manage your own helplessness and fear without imposing it on him.

Never offer advice without asking permission first.

Tell your son “I love you. I am proud of you. I know you have what it takes. You are a wild man.”  Do this thousands different ways.

Be around not only physically, but also emotionally.

Walk your talk (i.e. if you want your son to be healthier, look at how you are taking care of your own health).

Be vulnerable.  Share some of your fears, worries, and uncertainties with him.

Admit when you are wrong and apologize frequently.

Be selfish.  Fill yourself up first prior to giving yourself away.

Always be cool and calm in the face of his distress, anger, or sadness.

Listen to your son even if he is yelling at you.

Say as little as possible in order to get your son to say as much as possible.

Use “I” statements.  Talk more about your feelings than his behavior.

Gauge your son’s mood prior to having tough conversations.

Drop everything you are doing if your son wants to talk to you.  This opportunity does not come frequently.

Let go of your pride (i.e. you don’t need to have the last word).

Focus on the 90% he is doing well instead of the 10% he is not.

THIS TIME WILL PASS! He won’t be a teenager forever.

Ammonia hydroxide for lunch, anyone?

On Facebook today a friend posted a story that would make you puke up your lunch - especially if that lunch was a Big Mac.  The story told of the chef, Jamie Oliver's ongoing battle with Macdonald's and their practice of using "pink slime" in their burgers.

According to the FB account, the fatty parts of beef are “washed” in ammonium hydroxide and used in the filling of the burger. Before this process, according to Oliver, the food is deemed unfit for human consumption.

 “Basically, we’re taking a product that would be sold in the cheapest way for dogs, and after this process, is being given to human beings.”

Besides the low quality of the meat, the ammonium hydroxide is harmful to health. Oliver calls it “the pink slime process.”

“Why would any sensible human being put meat filled with ammonia in the mouths of their children?” asked the chef, who wages a war against the fast food industry.

To be fair, a response was published in Beef Daily on August 13, 2013.  

Here is part of the article by Amanda Radke:

"It’s been more than a year since the industry was “pink-slimed,” a term coined by ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer and British food blogger Jamie Oliver. The term, of course, was the sensational characterization of lean finely textured beef (LFTB). LFTB is a 100% beef product produced by a process developed by Beef Products Inc. (BPI) of Dakota Dunes, SD, which separates fat from lean in beef trim. Until the sensational ABC News expose, LFTB was commonly used as an ingredient in school lunch programs and fast-food burgers. The fact is that billions of pounds of the product have been produced and consumed over the years without any reported problems.

The news report, and the resulting social media campaign, created such a hysteria that demand for LFTB dried up, and BPI was forced to close three of its four LFTB plants and lay off 650 employees. BPI then sued ABC News and others for defamation, and that case continues. But the nasty connotation in consumers' minds that beef is tainted with chemicals persists.

In fact, that notion is being perpetuated by Oliver’s most recent musings. His war against the fast-food industry has been largely aimed at McDonald’s, which announced earlier this year that the chain will revise its burger recipe to exclude LFTB."

So, shining a light on the fast food industry did have an effect.  Maybe more parents will weigh the convenience of the Macdonald's drive-through against the idea that they really don't know what's in that food they are buying for their little soccer players.

The food scientists are busy in their labs right now trying to come up with some other process, just as gross, to increase their profits.