Four little girls and a teacher are dead in Jonesville, Arkansas, apparently ambushed in a schoolyard after a fire alarm had been pulled, victims of heavily armed 11- and 13-year-old assailants.
Most people in America have tired of news stories surrounding President Clinton's alleged sex life, hoping it would eventually die away. Unfortunately, it hasn't, and it takes a story of this magnitude -- a story nobody wants to see -- to knock the scandal-du-jour off the front page.
Stories of kids, guns and schools are not new or particularly shocking if you live in a large city. In the last year, however, school shootings in rural areas have made national news, making this issue a harsh reality to suburbanites formerly insulated from uch horror stories.
On CNN, arrorgant Arkansas Governor Huckabee blames a "culture where kids are exposed to hundreds of thousands of murders on TV" and then blows off a legitimate, critical question about easy access among kids to guns, especially in southern states.
Huckabee's answer, a glib, simplistic and empty reply, was all denial and cowardice. It's so darned easy to use the tired, false canard of placing the blame on "Hollywood" and "the media" rather than on adults who own the guns and fail to properly secure both the weapons and the ammunition so kids can get their hands on them, or on parents who fail to instill a sense of right and wrong in their children.
If the media is to blame for anything, it's for not making a bigger issue out of the easy access of so many people to guns -- especially kids and teenagers. Handguns are still too damned easy to buy in the United States, and storage and security laws regulating legitimately owned hunting and personal weapons are a joke. Paranoid gun nuts scream about abridging their God-given right to own weapons, but when you try to turn the subject to those responsibilities which realistically should go hand-in-hand with those rights, they start fussing about "big government" interfering with their "liberties."
I'd love to see a few of these loons discuss the issue with Mr. and Mrs. James Brady. Or with the parents of one of the girls shot like game from a duck blind.
Meanwhile, parents, families and schoolmates grieve the loss of their family and friends. Our hearts go out to all of them.
As they do to all the victims of easy guns, in the hands of kids and adults alike, a problem that the public, media and politicians are scared to take on -- as thousands die each year in front of a gun barrel.
You have to laugh. Really, if we took everything seriously we'd be in tears all the time. Or an asylum. Possibly both. Take Australia, for instance. And as a Brit I mean that literally and rhetorically.
While Foreign Minister 'Foot-in-Mouth' Downer is in Washington calling on the IMF/WB and the US administration to cut Indonesia some slack, the Oz embassy in Jakarta leaks a 15-page report detailing what a bunch of creeps Suharto and his cohorts are! Poor Alex. The main thrust of Downer's argument is that unless aid dollars simply pour in to prop up the Suharto regime there could well be an escalation in civil unrest. Heaven forbid the poor oppressed people of Indonesia rise up and throw the bums out.
Downer says his mission is purely humanitarian - he is concerned about the welfare of the Indonesian people. Good man. It is a pity Downer and his government could not extend their concern to the people of East Timor. What a bloody hypocrite.
As I write, celebrations are underway in Cuba. There still hasn't been an official announcement, but details of what is likely to be announced have already made headlines on the international news networks. In another 'humanitarian' gesture, Bill is about to scale down some of the restrictions on travel and transfer of cash. Rules and regulations regarding the export of medical supplies are also to be relaxed.
Puh-leese! Humanitarian? First off, following the Pope's visit, if Washington didn't make some sort of token gesture then the administration would look awfully mean spirited, eh? Secondly, it is good for business. The US is becoming increasingly isolated in its opposition to Fidel Castro. There are opportunities there and the US is missing the boat. Expect more 'humanitarian' moves in the future.
Pakistan has reacted predictably to the new Indian government's assertion that it will keep its options open on developing nuclear weapons. Who are you guys kidding? Both countries are nuclear capable - even if their weapons might not be state of the art. According to my sources, in 1990 the Asia specialist on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Peter Galbraith took then Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on one side and told her that her country had "stepped over the line" in its nuclear weapons program. That's to say, according to Galbraith's CIA contacts, they had six of the suckers.
Apparently Bhutto was unaware of the development. Yeah, right. India, meanwhile, has not only developed the weapons but also the methods to deliver them. When national leaders lie straight faced about this subject, it makes one wonder what else they are lying about. Or capable of.
And then there is Robin 'I'm getting married in the morning' Cook's visit to the Middle East. Spunky move pissing off a country with more than 200 nuclear warheads. Obi-wan Netanyahu was not amused by Cook's grandstanding. I have to admit, though, a grudging admiration for the guy. At least he stuck it to Obi-wan in a way that Mad Not-so-bright should have done a long time ago. Hey, at least it got the guy's attention, right?
Only cynics would even consider the possibility that Cook was simply trying to win brownie points aimed at holding the Arab-coalition behind a Western power that just happens to be the closest ally with Washington in the 'war' against Iraq. Nah, that would be too obvious. Wouldn't it?
As the week winds down, international diplomatic efforts aimed at getting the Serbs to talk to the Kosovo-Albanians are escalating. The Serbs said yes, the Kosovo-Albanians said no. Bloody Serbs, eh? Some sanctions will change their attitude, you see if they don't. Change it to what exactly is something only known to the politicians and diplomats - sure beats the hell out of me.
Search American Politics Provided by Hot Bot |
