Guns Galore

A writer suggests children be taught to “gang rush” shooters; studies show a slight shift in Americans’ attitudes toward gun toting; and it seems the lesson Israel has to offer on gun policy is education, not control. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Soledad O’Brien Takes Down Himbo Gov. Rick Scott (R-FL) Over Guns Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott went on CNN’s Soledad O’Brien’s show to talk gun control.

Workplace Distractions: Here’s Why You Won’t Finish This Article In the few minutes it takes to read this article, chances are you’ll pause to check your phone, answer a text, switch to your desktop to read an email from the boss’s assistant, or glance at the Facebook or Twitter messages popping up in the corner of your screen.

The Role of Youth Organizations and Youth Movements for Social Change As a part of its collaboration with the Born This Way Foundation, the Berkman Center is publishing on this website a series of papers that synthesize existing peer-reviewed research or equivalent scholarship and provide research-grounded insight to the variety of stakeholders working on issues related to youth empowerment and action towards creating a kinder, braver world.

Congress Is Quietly Abandoning the 5th Amendment What everyone must understand is that American politics doesn’t work the way you’d think it would.

First Loyalties When Mike Lux was a young organizer for Iowa Citizen Action Network, he was doing a lot of work on utility rate hikes.

Worst Suggestion Post-Newtown Shootings? In an attempt to distract from an emerging debate over how much to strengthen gun laws, Newsweek and Daily Beast special correspondent Megan McArdle called for people, even children, to be trained to “gang rush” active shooters.

After Newtown, Modest Change in Opinion about Gun Control The public’s attitudes toward gun control have shown only modest change in the wake of last week’s deadly shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Currently, 49% say it is more important to control gun ownership, while 42% say it is more important to protect the right of Americans to own guns.

Archie Bunker’s America: The GOP Takeover of Family Values In January 1971, a new sitcom called All in the Family appeared on CBS television.

Explaining the Pure Cruelty of Obama’s Gimmick, ‘Chained CPI’ in Simple Language So, the White House says they want to cut Social Security Insurance payments over time, using a tricky little technique called the “chained CPI.”

What’s Behind San Francisco’s Sudden Building Boom? San Francisco has long had a reputation as an anti-growth town, as a place not much interested in big new developments or massive change, where people who can afford to have learned to live with the consequences (notably in the form of exorbitant rent).

United States of Worsening Income Inequality and Rising Poverty Reuters is in the midst of an important series on worsening income inequality and rising poverty in the United States.

Are Democrats Reverting to Wimps? What part of “You’re holding all the cards” don’t the Democrats understand?

Scientists Debunk the IQ Myth After conducting the largest online intelligence study on record, a Western University-led research team has concluded that the notion of measuring one’s intelligence quotient or IQ by a singular, standardized test is highly misleading.

The Broadcast-ification of Social Media There is an inherent tension in social software between content discovery and the quality of conversation around that content.

Why Israel Has No Newtowns It’s the Jewish state’s gun culture, not its laws, that prevents mass shootings like the one in Connecticut.

Fiscal Cliff—The Well Orchestrated Dance As the Democrats and Republicans continued their political theater this past week, coming closer step by step to an agreement on the so-called Fiscal Cliff (aka ‘Austerity American Style’), it has become increasingly clear that the key to a final agreement is how much and how to raise taxes.