I'm not a very good writer, maybe someone else would like to respond to this:
http://www.thenewsleaders.com/articles/ ... /view1.txt

Editorial: Extraordinary leader needed for extraordinary times

Thursday, February 28, 2008 4:08 PM EST

No matter who we elect as president in November, there's no doubt we'll need him or her to provide extraordinary leadership over the next four years.

The problems facing our new leader will be some of the toughest any president has faced in decades. Many of the problems are below the surface, but they're very complex and global in nature.

We're going to need a very special person at the helm to succeed.

We're going to need someone who has good judgment and integrity. And we're going to need someone with political courage as well.

But more importantly we're going to need a consensus builder, someone who is able to not only work with parties across the aisle in Washington, but also be able to work with other nations and bring them along.

We're going to need someone who can build bridges and coalitions, not just at home but throughout the world. Because many of the global issues we face are going to require a lot of political courage from other leaders as well.

We're also going to need a citizenry that's not only generous, but one that's willing to make some sacrifices and face up to the harsh realities of life.

We can begin by facing the fact we need to get out of eighth-century Baghdad, adjudicating worn-out claims between the Shia and Sunni Muslims, and move to the 21st century - to China and India and Brazil - where the future is being made.

We can't keep getting dragged back into every small crisis and hell hole because a bomb goes off somewhere. We've got to look ahead and figure out how we can reshape this world, and how we as Americans can thrive and succeed in it.

The division between Shia and Sunni dates back to the death of the Prophet Mohammad who died nearly 1400 years ago. Yet here we are, putting 132,000-plus troops in harms way to referee egotistical Hatfield and McCoy-like disagreements originating in 632 A.D.

Conversely, experts say if we don't start turning the Earth's alarming deforestation rate around in the next 10 years, the extinction and climate crisis will begin to spiral out of control. And if that happens, even a World War III would shrink by comparison.

We need a leader who is ready, willing and able to Pied Piper compromises and solutions, before the opportunity to right our ship passes through our hands like a slippery bar of soap.

Is that asking for too much?

Let's hope not.

http://www.thenewsleaders.com/articles/ ... /view1.txt

Editorial: Minnesota must act now on issues of gun violence

Thursday, February 21, 2008 11:53 AM EST

We should be ashamed Minnesota has scored abysmally low on a scorecard known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Out of a possible 100 points, Minnesota scored a miserable 11. Our state is not alone. Two-thirds of all states scored less than 20 points. Almost half scored 10 points or less.

The gist of the scorecard is that the state's officials have done next to nothing to keep criminals and other dangerous people from obtaining guns.

Minnesota has yet to pass some common-sense gun laws, such as mandatory background checks on all gun purchases or laws to stop trafficking of illegally sold or purchased guns.

There are five categories on the Brady scorecard: curbing firearm trafficking, strengthening background checks, child safety, banning military-style assault weapons and making it hard to carry guns in public places.

There is a new “Protect Minnesota” campaign to address this problem. Its members include the Million Mom chapters and Citizens for a Safer Minnesota. They are pushing for legislation that would require Brady background checks on all gun sales in Minnesota and closing loopholes in the background-check system to include more disqualifying mental-health records into the National Instant Check System.

In each of the five categories of the Brady scorecard, Minnesota scored just a few points. In one category, our state rated a zero -- the one about banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.

The state scored only three points (out of a possible 35) in another category that covers the checks whether states fully regulate gun dealers, limit bulk purchasing of handguns, providing police certain technologies to identify crime guns and mandating lost or stolen guns to be reported to the police.

In the category of child safety, Minnesota also flunked, scoring only 2 points out of 20.

We like to think of our state as being so progressive, such as in the areas of education, job technology and health care.

It is obvious from this scorecard we have a long way to go in keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous or mentally unstable people.

Politicians are often reluctant to tackle gun-safety issues because they are afraid of repercussions from gun lobbyists and other gun enthuiasts who will accuse them of trying to squelch the U.S. Constitution's provision on the right to carry guns. The arguments of gun lobbysists are almost always based on ridiculous fears and inaccurate information. They are, in short, scare tactics.

It is time for politicans and we the people to stand up to those lobbyists and help pass laws to make our state safer. It is also true we should insist the gun laws currently on the books be strictly enforced.

It is mind-boggling and simply inexcusable there are so many gun-safety loopholes. The daily horrors in the news of deadly shootings by unstable people should wake us up to pandemic gun violence, but somehow we are not connecting the dots.

To find out more about the Protect Minnesota campaign, go to:

www.protectmn.org. Do some research and then write or call legislators to insist on a renewed effort to crack down on this rampantly out-of-control gun-danger issue.

For about the first 2/3, until he starts talking specifics about Iraq, He could also be talking about John McCain.

I found this line interesting:



Pied Piper? Isn't that the guy who mesmerized masses, and led them to their destruction?

This on is straight out of the Citizens for a Supine Minnesota's handbook. Virtually everything you read on the issue from this site is a successful rebuttal to that. Doesn't discourage them, though.

No, we'd really like to think our state is growing out of its "progressive" delusions, but we're constantly reminded that it has far to go.

Does anybody have the statistics on Brady Score vs. Gun Violence? It would be really interesting to show that states with high Brady Scores have more murders.

I ran their scores against the murder rates per capita a few weeks ago. 2% correlation between the murder rates and the Brady score. I looked at the scatter plot as well and found that it was very, well, scattered. Not really any significant correlation in any way.

You might be better off comparing cities with restrictive gun laws vs murder rates. Does Brady rate cities?