Uncategorized

A Guide to Listings of Mass Shootings in the United States

by

Rather than writing about the 28 mass shootings which have occurred in the U.S. since we last published, on May 20th, we thought it might be useful to create a guide to online resources keeping track of these events. We’ll begin with Wikipedia’s “Mass Shootings in the United States” page, which will be six years old on June 16th. It has been revised approximately 2,000 times since then, for reasons which should be obvious. This page provides a helpful overview of the topic, including discussions of definition and data sources—both matters of surprising complexity. Its section on demographics is deftly written; a sentence on gender …

Read moreA Guide to Listings of Mass Shootings in the United States

Fri, Oct 8

by

2004—American warplanes miss Abu Musab al Zarqawi but kill 13 people at a wedding instead. 1991—Speaker of the House Tom Foley [D-Wash.] announces that the House’s sergeant-at-arms will no longer fix traffic tickets for Members. 1985—Dining at the White House, President Reagan “praises incessantly” his guest’s most recent work of art: Rambo: First Blood, Part II. 1974—The Franklin National Bank collapses, undermined by Mafioso Michele Sindona, a close buddy of President Nixon’s Treasury Secretary David Kennedy. 1969—A three-day riot branded “Days of Rage” begins in Chicago. 1968—Washington, D.C. riots after police shoot a Black man. 1967—Ernesto “Che” Guevara is captured by Bolivian troops led by …

Read moreFri, Oct 8

It’s Time to Dump the Filibuster

by

by W.D. Ehrhart Let’s take a look at the Republican Party this spring of 2021. We have Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri, who pumps a raised fist on January 6th in support of the MAGA insurrectionists. We have Representative Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who likens smashing windows and beating police with American flags and hockey sticks to a “normal tourist visit,” and insists that the supporters of former President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol behaved “in an orderly fashion.” We have Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona, who says the Justice Department is “harassing peaceful patriots” who came to DC on January 6th to exercise …

Read moreIt’s Time to Dump the Filibuster

Sun. May 10

by

2017—President Trump meets with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. He divulges classified info, exposes a foreign agent, and says firing the FBI Director relieved “great pressure” from him. 1968—Students in Paris barricade the streets. “Be realistic,” their graffiti read, “demand the impossible.” 1960—The FDA approves “The Pill.” 1945—New Hamshire adopts the motto, “Live Free or Die.” 1933—Goebbels tells students, make Germany great—burn books. 1919—In Charleston, S.C., white sailors foment the first of 33 U.S. race riots over a five-month period. 1908—The first Mother’s Day Service is held in W.Va. at the instigation of Anna Jarvis who …

Read moreSun. May 10

R.I.P. John McCain

by

Sunday, August 26, 2018—During the 2004 Presidential campaign, Vermin Love Supreme suspended his own Presidential campaign long enough to pose as a fake reporter in order to grill the late Senator John McCain about the recently fallen Old Man of the Mountain. McCain’s answer was shocking, but not surprising. Supreme, having secured this explosive footage, took it to the only news medium he knew could trust: The New Hampshire Gazette. Inexplicably, there have still been no arrests.