Greg Hampikian:
In light of the [Idaho] bill permitting guns on our state’s college and university campuses, which is likely to be approved by the state House of Representatives in the coming days, I have a matter of practical concern that I hope you can help with: When may I shoot a student?
I am a biology professor, not a lawyer, and I had never considered bringing a gun to work until now. But since many of my students are likely to be armed, I thought it would be a good idea to even the playing field.
More conversation in
triplepoint's diary.
David Firestone:
The steep decline of the deficit is not something Republicans really want to talk about, even though their austerity policies were largely responsible for it. If the public really understood how much the deficit has fallen, it would undermine the party’s excuse for opposing every single spending program, exposing the “cost to future generations” as a hyped-up hoax. In fact, it would lead to exactly the conclusion that Ms. Murray reached in her memo to Senate Democrats: that the country can now afford to spend money to boost employment, stay competitive with the rest of the globe in education and research, and finally deal with the long-deferred repairs to public works.
More politics and policy below the fold.
Ed Kilgore:
What inspired the Arizona bill to begin with, and what is now inspiring the over-the-top reaction to it in some circles, is an effort to convince people not previously invested in culture war that they had to pick sides—that all those nice people in the pews at Catholic and conservative evangelical pews were threatened by marriage equality as the latest outrage imposed by modernity, against which they needed to fight back.
The reality is that hardly anyone in Arizona is going to be bothered by the veto of SB 1062 or will even remember for long the media coverage that Hemingway views as the death knell of all freedom. And that’s intolerable!
What should Obama do about Ukraine? For those who do not remember, from
CBS and
CNN:
August 11, 2008, 7:27 PM
Bush Slams Russia's Invasion Of Georgia
WaPo:
So far, Putin has said very little about Ukraine, an indication of continuing uncertainty in Moscow about how to handle the Ukrainian crisis.
Russia has launched snap military maneuvers near Ukraine’s border and is playing an undefined role in the unrest in Crimea. Moscow has provided a stage for members of its parliament who wish to castigate Ukraine, and shares Yanukovych’s opinion of the new authorities in Kiev.
But Yanukovych’s Russian hosts didn’t offer him the trappings that are customary at a news conference by a visiting head of state. There was no display of protocol, no meetings, no honor guard. The event took place in a trade hall in Rostov-on-Don, a city that is close to Ukraine but a long way from the Kremlin.
NY Times:
The Obama administration said Friday that it would allow some people to receive federal subsidies for health insurance purchased in the private market outside of health insurance exchanges. The sudden shift was the latest in a series of policy changes, extensions and clarifications by federal officials trying to help beneficiaries and minimize political damage to Democrats in this election year.
Federal officials said they had agreed to provide such assistance retroactively because technical problems had prevented consumers from using online exchanges to obtain insurance and financial aid in some states.