Wednesday Reads 5/1/13 - Guns, Kids and Revolution, Let's Get Off The Road to Bangladesh!

5-Year-Old Fatally Shot 2-Year-Old Sister With Gun He Received as Gift

For at least the third time this month, a young child has shot and killed someone. On Tuesday afternoon, a five-year-old boy fatally shot his two-year-old sister in Cumberland County, Kentucky with .22 rifle the five-year-old was given as a gift. "It's a Crickett," Cumberland County Coroner Gary White told the Lexington Herald-Leader. "It's a little rifle for a kid.” The rifle, which was usually stored in one of the home's corners, was inadvertently left loaded, according to White. The boy's mother was home at the time of the shooting. “The little boy's used to shooting the little gun," White said, before saying the shooting will be ruled accidental. “Just one of those crazy accidents.” Continue Reading

Yeah, just one of the crazy incidents that wouldn't happen if guns weren't in the house, or if a gun wasn't given to a five-year old!

From AlterNet this is scary!

44 Percent of Republicans Think Armed Revolution May be Necessary, Study Finds
Study also affirms party-line polarization on gun control. 

Forty-four percent of Republicans agree that armed revolution may be necessary to protect American liberties, according to a gun control poll conducted by Farleigh Dickinson University (pdf).

Eighteen percent of Democrats and 27 percent of independents agree that Americans may need to take up arms against their government, the study’s authors found.

The study also found a stark contrast between Democrats and Republicans’ views on gun control legislation. While 73 percent of Democrats said Congress should pass gun laws to protect the public, 65 percent of Republicans disagreed. Overall, 50 percent agreed that we need stricter gun laws, as opposed to 39 percent who disagree. Full Story

Aside from the question of why?? You have to ask where and how...will a small band of "freedom fighters" attack a military base? or Democrats in Congress? The President? and how would a small group of Patriots survive against the US military? The whole idea is in my opinion silly!

William Black's post at AlterNet is an interesting read regarding austerity and the lowering of wages on the European periphery .... notice that the northern countries of Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland  are not included in the discussion - big surprise.....

Why Economic Criminals View Bangladesh as a Model for Workers Everywhere

As I write, there are terrible reports indicating that the death toll in Bangladesh, where the building housing garment factories collapsed, is far greater than currently reported. The initial reports from a disaster often prove inaccurate in important ways so I urge caution and the need to confirm whether the newer reports are accurate.

The higher death toll is not what prompts this article. I write to discuss the intersection of control fraud, austerity, globalization, labor “reform,” and economic development. Control frauds, for those new to the term, is a type of fraud in which the person controlling a seemingly legitimate entity uses it as a “weapon” to defraud the unsuspecting public. The targets of fraud are often employees.

Black goes on to describe what he means by "the road Bangladesh" and I think that it is a road that Europe and the world need to get off!!

...the way for a nation to gain a competitive advantage in exports and increase its chances of becoming a net exporter is either to have a far more skilled workforce producing high value exports or to slash working class wages. Northern Italy can export luxury goods created by skilled craftsmen and designers. Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Southern Italy, and Greece have to out-compete poorer nations with far lower working class wages. The troika is actively encouraging each of these nations to lower working class wages. The problem I pointed out when I was in Kilkenny is that Ireland is trying to cut working class wages enough to out-compete Italy, but Italy is trying to cut working class wages to out-compete Spain, which is trying to out-compete Portugal, which is trying to out-compete Greece, which is trying to cut wages to out-compete Turkey. I argued that slashing working class incomes makes recessions worse, that it was impossible for everyone to be a net-exporter, and that this “race to the bottom” of working class wages would produce grotesque inequality and poverty in what used to be the developed world. I called the race to the bottom strategy the “Road to Bangladesh.” Full Story