1 May 2013

The failure of security

Links from last week:

  • Why does America lose its head over 'terror' but ignore its daily gun deaths? - from Michael Cohen at The Guardian:

    But Londoners, who endured IRA terror for years, might be forgiven for thinking that America over-reacted just a tad to the goings-on in Boston. ... It was yet another depressing reminder that more than 11 years after 9/11 Americans still allow themselves to be easily and willingly cowed by the "threat" of terrorism.
  • How Boston exposes America's dark post-9/11 bargain from Andrew O'Hehir at Salon:

    I think the real reason why this gruesome but small-scale attack sent the whole country into such an incoherent panic lies a little deeper . ... We agreed to give up most of our civil liberties (except for the sacrosanct Second Amendment, of course) in exchange for a lot of hyper-patriotic tough talk...
  • Weekly Review from Harper's:

    Legislation designed to strengthen gun control by expanding background checks was defeated in the Senate after failing by six votes to reach a filibuster-proof 60-vote threshold. "It's almost like you can see the finish line," said the father of a man who was injured in the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech, "but you just can't get there."
[ posted by sstrader on 1 May 2013 at 11:44:34 PM in Politics ]