Gun Laws

Senators Joe Manchin, D-WV and Pat Toomey, R-PA had been working on a compromise gun legislation in the US Senate.  It failed this week to get the 60 votes needed to overcome a suspected GOP filibuster.  Prior to the vote I saw this article in a Virginia newspaper that outlined some part of our gun laws to date.  I will quote.  "Federal background checks currently are required only for transactions handled by the roughly 55,000 federally licensed firearms dealers; private sales such as gun show or online purchases are exempt (my emphasis).  The system is designed to keep guns from criminals, people with serious mental problems and some others"  The last sentence must have been put into the article as a joke.

(Source:  "Senators work toward bipartisan deal on gun background checks" by Alan Fram of The AP.  In The Virginian Pilot on 4/8/13)

Drug Search

In Florida the police used a drug-sniffing dog-and I believe other methods-to detect the presence of marijuana on an individual's property.  A court in Florida ruled the search to be illegal as the police did not have a warrant, probable cause or the permission of the owner to conduct the search.  Recently the US Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 in favor of upholding the Florida court ruling.  They ruled that the 4th Amendment was violated because police lacked "probable cause" to search.  It seems the police brought the dog onto the property in question and the dog detected the drug (nothing wrong with the ability of the dog in this case).  The case is known as Florida v Jardines 2013.  Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion.

(Source:  "the two-way breaking news from NPR" on line dated 3/26/13.

Cause of Crime

I read recently of an interesting explanation for crime in the US.  An article in Mother Jones by a Kevin Drum suggests that the decrease in crime that has occurred of late has something to do with less lead in the air.  "Research has provided strong evidence that lead exposure damages the brain, lowering IQ and impulse control and leading to violent behavior".  He notes that crime increased in this country after the 1950's because of "fumes from leaded gasoline" with "millions of children in car-choked urban centers breathing in fumes".  This resulted in the increase in crime in the 1960's and 1970's but when non-leaded gasoline was phased in the 1980's that increase in crime began to decrease.  "Cutting lead pollution ...is the most effective crime prevention tool we have".  The same source indicated there are those who disagree with this theory.

(Source: "Lead: The connection with crime" in The Week for 1/25/13)

Racial Equality

Not all people in the old south in the 1960's were  bigots.  I am sure that goes without saying but it is good to know and read about someone who did speak out against the racial hate that occurred during those days.  One such person was Eugene Patterson who from 1960 to 1968 was the editor of the Atlanta Constitution.  "He wrote thousands of columns-many addressed directly to fellow white Southerners-setting out the campaign for desegregation in clear moral terms..."  He saw first hand what racial hatred led to in Nazi Germany when he served in WWII and when he returned to his native south he spoke out about it in this country.  His most famous column was written in response to the bombing of the African American church in Birmingham, Alabama in which four young black girls were killed.  It was titled "A Flower for the Graves" and was printed in his paper on Sept 16, 1963.  The column began with this line:  "In her hand she held a shoe, one shoe, from the foot of her dead child.  We hold that shoe with her.  Every one of us in the white South holds that small shoe in his hand".  He later worked for the Washington Post and the St. Petersburg Times.  He died recently at the age of 80.  ( I remember, when I was young, thinking for a long time-without knowing really why-that the Atlanta Constitution was one of the major US newspapers; this could be why)

(Source:  "The Southern editor who fostered racial equality" in The Week on 1/25/13)

JFK Assassination

The son of Robert F. Kennedy has offered his opinion as to the death of his uncle-President John F, Kennedy.  Robert F. Kennedy Jr said recently that he believes the Warren Commission was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship" and that his uncle was not killed by a lone gunman.  He suspects that Mafia leadership was behind the killing.  The younger Kennedy said that he suspects that his father's campaign against organized crime may have had something to do with the assassination.  Kennedy Jr said he had "investigators examine the phone records of Jack Ruby, the man who shot Oswald two days later, and found that they 'were like an inventory of top Mafia leaders'".  What I find personally upsetting about the death of JFK-other than his death itself-is that elements of the government or major leaders in our government may have acted to keep the truth from coming out.  As was said re Watergate, its the cover up that was the most appalling.  Its just like the sexual abuse scandal within the Catholic Church; its the cover up that is the hardest thing to accept.

(Source:  "JFK conspiracy reignited".  A short report under "The US at a glance..." in The Week for 1/25/13)

Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson was the world's first black heavyweight boxing champ at the time of the turn of the last century.  He was imprisoned for the "crime" of a romantic relationship with a white woman.  Let me repeat, he was jailed for dating a white woman.  Today there are some who are seeking a presidential pardon for Johnson.  Among those are Senators Harry Reid, John McCain and William Cowan and representative Peter King who are requesting a presidential pardon from President Obama.  A resolution calling for a pardon was passed in 2009 "but Obama did not act on it".  (I wonder why Obama did not sign the pardon in 2009).

(Source:  The Virginian Pilot on 3/6/13)

Calvin Coolidge

"Silent Cal" was the President most admired by Ronald Reagan for his attitude of as little government as possible.  A new bio by Amity Shlaes calls Coolidge "our great refrainer" for his "aptitude of brevity".  He allegedly gave all his bureaucrats one pencil each (to write policy) and expected the stub to be returned.  With Andrew Mellon (Treasury Sec) he advocated "scientific taxation" which was an early effort at supply side economics; tax less and gov't revenue would increase.  Which it seems it did during the years of his admin.  The source for this article states the following:  "During the 67 months of his presidency, the national debt, the national government, the federal budget, unemployment (3.6%)and even consumer prices shrank.  The GDP expanded 13.4 %"

This source also offers the following anecdote:  "When Pres and Mrs Coolidge were being given simultaneous but separate tours of a chicken farm, Grace (his wife) asked her guide whether the rooster copulated more than once a day.  'Dozens of times' she was told.  'Tell that to the president' she said.  When told, Coolidge asked, 'same hen every time?'  When the guide said, 'A different one each time', the president said: 'Tell that to Mrs Coolidge"

(Source:  "Remembering the wisdom of 'Silent Cal' Coolidge" by George Will of the Washington Post.  In The Record on 2/19/13).