russ1943
russ1943's JournalGot a new desktop. Getting Office.
What's the difference in buying "Key Card" for $51.99 or buying "Download" for $59.00? Both are available from Amazon for a limited time. To clarify I'm talking about Microsoft Office Personal One year PC or MAC.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IT6WQDQ?ref_=gb1h_rlm_m-3_6622_8cf1aba4
Check out GunFAIL @ DailyKos
Those of us interested in finding ways to at least diminish gun violence are well advised to be aware of the violence occurring on a daily basis. Statistics by necessity suffer a time lag by their very nature.
A few years back, on Jan 19, 2013 ………David Waldman wrote in a column titled “Today in GunFail News”; Before we even get started, what is this all about? Does it mean you can't or shouldn't have guns? No, not by itself. But what it does mean is that people who start out with the best of intentions sometimes get themselves mixed up in some serious trouble, and often people die because of it. These are the stories you should think about every time you handle a weapon, or are near someone else who's handling one………….Whether you're trained or not, experienced or not, or were raised around guns or not, where guns go, accidents follow. That's just statistics. You can do your best to prevent accidents, but everyone thinks they're a responsible gun owner, until something happens. Sometimes because you were kidding yourself. And sometimes although you think you did everything right. But the mistakes are very often of the kind that cannot be taken back.
On Sat Sep 26, 2015 he posted GunFAIL CXXXIX, (one hundred thirty nine?)! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/26/1421039/-Shoot-myself-once-shame-on-you-Shoot-myself-twice-shame-on-me-GunFAIL-CXXXIX From DailyKos.
I agree with the commentator who wrote; "these stories can really have an impact on people's understanding of an issue".
More guns in more places more often,
what can go wrong with that?
Permitless carry legislation has been introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives. Rep. Cindy Gamrat’s HB 4778 would keep the state’s registration system in place, but allow for broad exemptions. Law-abiding residents over the age of 21 would be able to carry concealed without the requirement of a permit. The current registration system would be maintained in order to allow for state-to-state reciprocity agreements. Rick Ector, owner of Rick’s Firearm Academy of Detroit, discusses Michigan’s bid to become the next state to support Constitutional Carry. Originally aired on Cam & Co 07/16/15. http://www.nranews.com/cam/video/cam-and-company-2015-rick-ector-permitless-carry-bill-introduced-in-michigan/list/recent-segments
The Gekas amendment.
This article (some below) in The TRACE helps explain a couple my personal problems with the gun enthusiasts positions. First I can’t count how many times I’ve cringed when reading gungeon dwellers claim that the NRA actually supported the “Brady Bill. The NRA fought tooth and nail against every facet of the intent of the bill and their support consisted of undermining it every step of the way. Second, although I didn’t know the Reps name the Gekas amendment is an appalling NRA piece of work effectively circumventing the goal of preventing prohibited persons from getting firearms, which is what the Brady bill intended!
While pushing back against the Brady bill with attack ads and campaign donations, the NRA was also fighting on a second front, promoting killer amendments through its allies in Congress. The political strategy behind the NRA’s killer amendments, Robert Spitzer writes in The Politics of Gun Control, “seemed to offer a meaningful reform yet posed no actual change in gun purchasing procedures for many years to come.” The bet was that the changes would never be achievable within the Congressionally prescribed timeline, and would take down the whole background check system when they proved infeasible. Gekas’s 1993 amendment proved to be the most important embodiment of this approach, because it shaped a bill that actually passed. It required that a computerized system — referred to then as InstaCheck — be installed within five years of Brady’s enactment. It also drastically reduced the five-day investigation period, calling for 24 hours instead. Since the NRA viewed the investigation period for Brady background checks as “arbitrarily selected,” they would expire — not when the technology was ready, but on a five-year timetable. Gekas’s NRA ties were not a secret. FactCheck.org would report in 2013 that an NRA spokesman was quoted in a press release saying that the group “worked closely with [Gekas] on the language and to round up support for it.” After further maneuvering in the Senate, the investigation period was raised to three days. In actuality, the NRA had triumphed. It managed to maintain political cover with supporters by fighting an unflinching war against the bill in the public arena while simultaneously watering it down from within. http://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/brady-bill-amendment-default-proceed-loophole-amendment-nra/
Last week, Jim Clyburn, a Democratic Congressman from South Carolina, filed legislation that would close the so-called “default proceed loophole,” which allows federally licensed firearms dealers to proceed with a sale if a background check — as in Roof’s case — takes more than three business days to complete. Connecticut Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal echoed the call, urging President Obama to take executive action to extend the window that federal examiners have for making a determination on a purchaser.
gun dealer exercised its lawful discretion and transferred the gun
A while ago January of 2013 I posted in another group, “How bout requiring purchasers pass background check. Not just require national background checks, but PASSING it!
I noted “It seems to me that many, probably most Americans are unaware that there are thousands of people every year who are ineligible to purchase or possess firearms who, pick up their firearms from licensed FFL’s after paying their money and walk out into society, thumbing their nose at the intent of the law!”
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1172104606
Now I read that the gun purchase by the gunman charged in the Charleston, South Carolina, church killings of nine people actually fit into the category.
FBI chief says accused shooter shouldn't have been able to buy gun. Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY 2:31 p.m. EDT July 10, 2015 During the mandatory background check prior to the attempted April 11 gun purchase, Roof's March arrest on felony drug charges was mistakenly attributed to the Lexington County, S.C., Sheriff's Department, not Columbia police. The Lexington County Sheriff's Department operates the jail where Roof had been detained. The Columbia police report included information that Roof admitted to drug possession, which would have triggered an immediate denial by the FBI NICS review process, according to bureau guidelines. ………… That information was never seen by the reviewer because the FBI's database did not include Columbia police contacts in its list of agency contacts for Lexington County purchase reviews. Because the FBI reviewer, described as veteran analyst who works on up to 20 purchases per day, was immediately unable to resolve the matter, the purchase was delayed for the maximum three business days before the gun was allowed to be transferred April 16 to Roof by a West Columbia, S.C., gun store………. The purchase continued to classified as "delayed'' with a decision pending. But firearms dealers are permitted to transfer weapons to buyers after the three-day period, if there is no denial. " By Thursday, April 16,'' Comey said, "the case was still listed as delayed-pending, so the gun dealer exercised its lawful discretion and transferred the gun to Dylann Roof.''
http://www.freep.com/story/news/nation/2015/07/10/fbi-chief-roof-gun-shooting/29966337/
There were some other bureaucratic fuck ups and I don’t know whether or not the gun dealer ever received a denial, but the fact is we have a person who even the head of the FBI says shouldn’t have been able to buy a firearm.......... and yet the FFL legally took the money and the perp walked out the door with his assassination tool in his hand!
This Piece of Paper Fights Gun Crimes and Saves Lives
Permit-to-purchase systems are backed by strong data………….the PTP system the legislation seeks to create goes further than the standard background-check procedure in place in most parts of the country: Prospective gun purchasers have to apply for their permit in person at a local law enforcement office, have their fingerprints taken, and submit a photograph along with their paperwork…………..““The goal isn’t to slow down the process for law abiding citizens. It’s to make sure that only law abiding citizens can purchase a handgun.”…………….. One study found that states with PTP laws allowing police discretion tallied a 76 percent reduction in the likelihood of guns winding up in criminals’ hands relative to comparable states without such laws………….Even without a discretionary policy, the best available research shows that PTP requirements in general are associated with lower rates of firearm-related mortality and reduced suicide rates…………………The first study found that, after the repeal of a 2007 Missouri permit-to-purchase law, statewide murder rates spiked 14 percent — which amounts to “an additional 49 to 68 murders per year.” This effect was significant even after controlling for changes in policing, incarceration, burglaries, unemployment, poverty, and other state laws adopted during the study period that could affect violent crime. The study also found that the repeal of Missouri’s law significantly increased the diversion of crime guns that were purchased in Missouri and later recovered by police in neighboring states, suggesting that Missouri’s PTP system had been making surrounding states safer as well………..The second Johns Hopkins study, released in June of this year, examined a 1995 Connecticut permit-to-purchase law similar to the one outlined in Van Hollen’s legislation. The researchers compared homicide rates in Connecticut 10 years after the law’s passage of the law with the expected homicide rate in its absence. They discovered a 40 percent reduction in the state’s firearm-related homicide rate. Furthermore, the study found no substitution effect — that is, criminals in Connecticut did not switch to using other weapons to carry out homicide when they failed to obtain a firearm.
More at link;
http://www.thetrace.org/2015/07/gun-permit-to-purchase-permits-van-hollen-federal/
DDT Cleanup Continues for Mid-Michigan Town
St. Louis, Michigan - During recent summers birds were found littered around the town, poisoned with a long-banned pesticide.
This summer? The school athletic grounds, where kids practice football and softball, are being dug up after it was discovered they too are contaminated with DDT.
It is the latest chapter in a seemingly endless effort to rid this small, rural mid-Michigan town of toxic chemicals that have plagued it since the 1960s.
..........the Velsicol Chemical Corp., formerly Michigan Chemical, which manufactured pesticides until 1963 and abandoned loads of DDT, which was banned 40 years ago........While four of those yards have DDT in excess of human health limits, one has excess polybrominated biphenyls, or PBBs, a flame retardant chemical Velisocol also manufactured and, in 1973, infamously mixed up with a cattle feed supplement, which led to widespread contamination in Michigan.
Thousands of cattle and other livestock were poisoned, about 500 farms were quarantined and people across Michigan were exposed to the chemical linked to cancer, reproduction problems and endocrine disruption.........But even though things seem to be moving in the right direction, residents remain skeptical current cleanup efforts will be enough to allow St. Louis to turn the page on this toxic chapter any time soon, Smith said.
“The community learned when this happened a long time ago, when the EPA says things like, ‘trust us we have our experts, and this is what’s going on, and this will work’, we have no choice but to be skeptical,” Smith said.
“We’ve heard all that before, and 30 some years later, we still have all of these problems.”
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31568-the-more-they-dig-the-more-they-find-ddt-cleanup-continues-for-mid-michigan-town
Snyder and his policies occasionally get National (negative) attention.
US Austerity Politics: One State's Attempt to Destroy Democracy and the Environment.
Something is rotten in the state of Michigan.
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/31285-us-austerity-politics-one-state-s-attempt-to-destroy-democracy-and-the-environment
Minnesota seems to be taking a different and more successful direction.
(Fabrication, Fiction)
The never-ending discussion regarding DGU’s is again the subject of a recent article in POLITICAL MAGAZINE. Over time most has been said before but I thought this a good read and summary of the subject.
The Myth Behind Defensive Gun Ownership. Guns are more likely to do harm than good. By EVAN DEFILIPPIS and DEVIN HUGHES January 14, 2015
“Despite having nearly no academic support in public health literature, this myth is the single largest motivation behind gun ownership. It traces its origin to a two-decade-old series of surveys that, despite being thoroughly repudiated at the time, persists in influencing personal safety decisions and public policy throughout the United States….. The spurious conclusions in these surveys don’t just distort the pro-gun community’s perception of defensive gun use. For example, the claim that millions every year shoot their guns in self-defense has led some to posit that there are more defensive gun uses than criminal uses. This assertion is inexplicable—not backed by any substantive evidence…… You might hear gun advocates substantiate this claim by comparing inflated survey numbers like Kleck’s with NCVS crime numbers. But defensive gun use surveys and the NCVS use different methodologies. To compare those two data sets is to break one of the most important laws of statistical analysis: You must always compare likes to likes. And indeed, comparing NCVS results to NCVS results yields a very different picture—that more than 9 times as many people are victimized by guns than protected by them. Respondents in two Harvard surveys had more than 3 times as many offensive gun uses against them as defensive gun uses.”
More at site.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/defensive-gun-ownership-myth-114262_Page2.html#ixzz3UIJNLyYT
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/defensive-gun-ownership-myth-114262.html?ml=m_b7_1#.VQMzA2d0zsZ
Gun violence is more than just deaths.
Gun violence is more than just deaths. To only consider deaths in a discussion about gun violence is to ignore the majority of the gun violence. WISQARS provides information of value in grasping a perspective on the epidemic that is gun violence. For example if you were to seek to determine how many victims who were assaulted with firearms and injured seriously enough to be transferred to another facility (e.g., trauma center, rehabilitation unit); and hospitalized. You would be excluding those with minor injury who were treated and released from hospital emergency departments. Your data would also exclude suicides, accidents, legal intervention, and even the undetermined even though those ARE gun violence. What kind of numbers would you generate? The rates? Decreasing, Increasing or no change? The data is available from 2001 through 2013.
Firearm Gunshot Nonfatal Injuries and Rates http://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/nonfatal.html .
Assault Firearm Gunshot Nonfatal Injuries and Rates per 100,000
2001 - 2013, United States All Races, Both Sexes, All Ages Disposition: Transferred/Hospitalized
YEAR VICTIMS RATE
2001 20,844 7.31
2013 37,311 11.80
Change number + 79% rate +61%
In this century from 2001 to 2013 (the most recent statistics available) nonfatal assaults with firearms have increased SEVENTY NINE percent!
A definition from my Microsoft Word research; ep·i·dem·ic, adjective, happening a lot and affecting many people. eg In some cities, drug use has reached epidemic proportions.
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Member since: Thu Oct 26, 2006, 03:53 PMNumber of posts: 618
