House of Reps. member Giffords shot in Arizona today

Well, less than a month after a semiautomatic gun was used in Tucson, one shouldn't think about the appropriateness lionizing a deadly weapon anymore.
(The Dutch oven is another Utah state symbol, btw.)

The Utah House voted today to designate
the Browning M1911 semi-automatic hand gun the official state gun.

A spokesman for a group opposing the move is named Steve Gunn.
I am not making this up.

(The Dutch oven is another Utah state symbol, btw.)

My post about Utah and the state gun designation, David,
was intended as a throw-away story.

The Browning company is, I think, based in Utah and the M1911
has a long history of military use.

The timing of this was unfortunate and the state bird/state flower/state gun image
strikes me as weird. I am a liberal but I also am a redneck.

Here in the mountains of Virginia, hunting is big and many kids (boys and girls) get introduced to guns when they become teenagers. The 1st day of deer hunting season still is a "teachers' work day" meaning kids get the day off in the rural schools.
I have no problem with the 2nd amendment. I wish, though, that the NRA
would support things like requiring more background checks involving gun show purchases.

I would like to see some requirement that gun buyers take a course in gun safety/security.

The sale of extended clips and ammunition by internet purchases should be looked at.
I realize, David, that you might see these measures as chipping away at the 2nd amendment,
but are these types of action totally unacceptable to you?

I write a lot of "throwaway stories." I traipse around the internet a lot. I see stuff that piques my interest and I jot down a few notes which I might or might not write about. And then I feed the notes into the shredder as insignificant bullshit. Perhaps "throwaway" is a regional phrase.
Liberal/redneck oxymoron. I think you are wrong about that.
I have no desire to get into the whole gun debate again. I think we have pretty much covered that in the last couple of weeks. In my last post I pretty much shot my wad about that.
"Shot my wad," incidentally and as a throwaway is an interesting phrase. It has become a vulgarism but derives from musket loaded weapons from the Civil and Revolutionary wars. Perhaps earlier.
As a lad I got to handle and shoot a replica of one of them. A very time consuming process to reload.

In the moments before he was murdered, U.S. District Judge John Roll was waiting to talk to U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords about an overload of cases in Arizona's federal courts.

The issue has become a full-blown crisis in the wake of his death. Judge Roslyn O. Silver, who took Roll's place as chief judge for Arizona, on Friday declared a judicial emergency to allow statutory time limits for trying accused criminals to be temporarily suspended in the district because of an acute shortage of judges. On Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals extended Silver's temporary order for a year.

The Speedy Trial Act of 1974 requires every federal criminal trial to commence within 70 days of a complaint or indictment being brought.

But the law also allows for emergency declarations to extend that time limit to a maximum of 180 days. Such emergencies are rare: The last in the 9th Circuit was declared in 2000.

Several factors have contributed to the emergency. Federal felony caseloads are at an all-time high in Arizona amid the political clamor over tougher enforcement of border immigration and drug laws. Yet partisan wrangling in the nation's capital has slowed the flow of judicial appointments to many states, not just Arizona, leaving the federal bench overwhelmed by caseloads.

Roll's death only worsened Arizona's problem, cutting the number of federal judges in the busy Tucson division from four to three and forcing redistribution of Roll's caseload of more than 900 criminal cases and various civil matters.

Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Alex Kozinski said in a statement Tuesday that he was hopeful the emergency declaration would prompt congressional action. If Congress adds more judgeships, it will fall to Arizona's delegation to make recommendations, and be up to President Barack Obama to see those seats filled.

Well Fido--Oswald Spengler predicted that the final battle will be between Money and the blood. Capital/Megalopolis versus the fellahdom.

Are you saying he was correct?

. We have to trash a lot to have a future, and whether we have that sort of courage is an open question, but we do not have to see our lives decline into meaninglessness and defeat.

I doubt it was the only means of communication, but I get your point. It was kind of odd his waiting in line to talk to her.

While that is very valid point, it wasn't my reason to bringing the article here. Since there is a shortage of judges and an overload of cases in Arizona, even one being killed made a difference. It was bitter irony that the very reason the Judge was waiting in line to speak was to talk about the overload of cases and shortage of judges and he gets shot.

I doubt it was the only means of communication, but I get your point. It was kind of odd his waiting in line to talk to her.

While that is very valid point, it wasn't my reason to bringing the article here. Since there is a shortage of judges and an overload of cases in Arizona, even one being killed made a difference. It was bitter irony that the very reason the Judge was waiting in line to speak was to talk about the overload of cases and shortage of judges and he gets shot.

Quote:

. We have to trash a lot to have a future, and whether we have that sort of courage is an open question, but we do not have to see our lives decline into meaninglessness and defeat.

And if we can't "trash a lot"? What then? What have you in mind for being trashed. Private property?

Spengler predicts a rebirth in a "second religiousness". I'm not entirely convinced about that. Spengler, like many an other in the field, flattered himself that he knew what was going on. But his book is a real education just the same and his self-flattery might not be entirely unjustified.

I think we might be too impatient for any rejuvenations. We are very conservative creatures despite the varnish of radical ideas one often sees.

Spengler saw science reaching its limits and having to resort to gimmicks puffed up by city journalism to keep its position. He backed the blood against the money before Keynes said "In the long run we are all dead".

Any man who has a lot to learn should take Spengler on.