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Following a horrendous insurgent attack last week, Afghani civilians offer their condolences to grieving Bostonians and Americans alike. All life is meaningful, and its premature loss is a tragedy understood by everyone regardless of race, ethnicity or religion. For more about the series, head
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The Article: A Senate In The Gun Lobby’s Grip by Gabrielle Giffords in The New York Times.
The Text: SENATORS say they fear the N.R.A. and the gun lobby. But I think that fear must be nothing compared to the fear the first graders in Sandy Hook Elementary School felt as their lives ended in a hail of bullets. The fear that those children who survived the massacre must feel every time they remember their teachers stacking them into closets and bathrooms, whispering that they loved them, so that love would be the last thing the students heard if the gunman found them.
On Wednesday, a minority of senators gave into fear and blocked common-sense legislation that would have made it harder for criminals and people with dangerous mental illnesses to get hold of deadly firearms — a bill that could prevent future tragedies like those in Newtown, Conn., Aurora, Colo., Blacksburg, Va., and too many communities to count.
Some of the senators who voted against the background-check amendments have met with grieving parents whose children were murdered at Sandy Hook, in Newtown. Some of the senators who voted no have also looked into my eyes as I talked about my experience being shot in the head at point-blank range in suburban Tucson two years ago, and expressed sympathy for the 18 other people shot besides me, 6 of whom died. These senators have heard from their constituents — who polls show overwhelmingly favored expanding background checks. And still these senators decided to do nothing. Shame on them.
A couple weeks outside of Exxon’s latest private disaster being felt most by the public, Exxon is still fighting documentation of its oil spill and the journalists who are, well, doing their jobs by trying to cover it.
Despite the company’s concerted efforts, though, more and more images have emerged. The same cannot be said about the oil-free states of many natural habitats and homes. If Exxon tried to solve the problem as adamantly as they tried to conceal it, all of the oil would be clear by now. Three cheers for private efficiency.
I can see the conservative spin now: “FOX News: Rubio Won’t Accept Hand Outs, Quenches Thirst Himself.”
Good God, some of these clips are SO painful. But when Nickelback has a higher approval rating than today’s Congress, what will our favorite prickly-witted libertarians have to say about the 2010s?
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