How does your state define “rape?”

You can find out here. We could use a uniform definition of the crime — one that includes incest and statutory rape this time. The FBI changed its definition in 2012 (after using a definition from 1929 that excluded incidences that involved men, or  rape following drug use) but elected not to include incest and statutory rape. Is that …

Have we bought all the guns we could possibly need?

Alex Yablon of The Trace has this, a story about sinking gun sales that includes this: Smith & Wesson stock tumbled this week after three different investment analysts downgraded the gun manufacturer in response to new FBI figures detailing the number of gun background checks conducted in March. This despite the fact that last month …

Should Apple do as the government has asked?

If you haven’t been keeping up, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently sent this letter to customers after being asked by the FBI to create a device that would allow them to break into the iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino terrorists. It is the FBI’s contention (and the Department of Justice’s, as well) that …

In light of the Charleston church shooting:

  As we grieve the loss at Charleston, South Carolina’s Emanuel AME Church,  a new report out from Violence Policy Center retires the Blood-Gargling NRA’s® canard that the only thing to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Instead, the report says guns are rarely used for self …

It’s terrorism

Call it what you will, but the shooting at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, was an act of terrorism. A shooter — Dylann Roof, 21, of South Carolina — has been taken into custody. The shooter shot the pastor and eight members of the Mother Emanuel AME Church during Wednesday night’s …

A prayer that Pam Geller shuts her pie hole

Two men with guns were shot dead after they opened fire in Garland, Texas, this weekend, at an event sponsored by Pamela Geller [pictured], notorious anti-Muslim whackadoodle who was hosting a contest with a $10,000 prize for  drawing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. A security guard was also wounded in the attack. Geller has been …

Day Two of Hillbilly Watch

Yesterday, it appears that some yahoo burned down the Islamic Society of Joplin’s mosque. I wrote this for Salon (yes, I’m linking to it again, but I have a point, I promise), and I couldn’t be more certain that if this was arson, someone out in HillbillyLand knows something about this, and that someone needs …

We are Joplin, and we’re better than this.

Any one know this guy? The Islamic Society of Joplin was damaged by a suspicious fire earlier this month. It appears, from early investigations, that someone lit something and threw it on the roof. And that someone appears to have been captured here, on a security video. For all the good will built up around …