[Michael Cantor]

They don't make those wonderful British film comedies any more, where some Tory windbag sits in his leather chair in his leather club, and waves a cricket bat while he pontificates with utter Blimp-like conviction about matters he doesn't really understand. Fortunately, the Sphere sometimes presents a reasonable facsimile.

[R. S. Gwynn]

http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/publ...2-ac8ca4359119

Seems pretty reasonable to me.

[Rory Waterman]

But it 'exempts over 900 ... weapons'? Isn't that like outlawing driving unless one drives one of 900 models of car? Sam, am I missing something here? (It has been known...) Surely you at least need to ban the people who do not have 'legitimate' reasons for buying these things from buying them; you can't just reduce the pool of guns anyone can buy by a fraction and expect it to really change anything. The need for background checks is at least a cursory nod at sanity. I suppose it's the ghost of a baby-step of a start on the long road.

[John Riley]

It'd a start Sam but the only thing that's going to change the balance is a constitutional amendment. It won't happen in our lifetime but the effort needs to get a serious start soon.

[John Whitworth]

Michael,with all due respect, as my father said when he was about to be very rude, what do you know about matters in England? I suppose you may have read books about it.

And what is wrong with a Tory, pray? Perhaps it was the wrong books.

[Rory Waterman]

I don't know, John: I'd say he has a pretty good idea. I for one know exactly the kind of people he is talking about. Luckily they're rather a tiny minority, bless 'em - but they're at large.

[John Whitworth]

Ah Rory, one is always inclined to think the people one disagrees with are in a tiny minority. I know people who imagine that those in favour of homosexual marriage are in a tiny metropolitan minority. And Tony Blair thought the majority of the British people were in favour of the Iraq War, though as I am sure you know, the opposite was the case. And of course he also thought that it was only a tiny minority who objected to his immigration policy or were what is termed Europhobes, whereas... And of course the rich, deluded fool still thinks there are people here who don't hate his guts.

[Rory Waterman]

John, regarding what you said about wind turbines, it isn't just a case of disagreement: your anti-wind-farm argument is factually wrong in an impressive number of ways, regardless of how much you believe it or how little you listen to anyone with actual information.

[Tim Murphy]

At Shanley High, where I volunteer, we participate in President Clinton's Cops in the Schools program. We always have an armed, uniformed officer (and don't tell anyone, but I have a gun 90 feet from the front door, and I'm probably a better shot than the young cop.)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...pinion_LEADTop

I was amused to learn that Sidwell Friends School, where President Obama and the anti-gun TV figure David Gregory, send their kids, has eleven armed security officers. That doesn't count the Secret Service agents who are there for the President's daughters.

I am reluctantly agreeing with the writer of this article. There should be a squad car and a uniformed policeman at every school. 100,000 jobs. Better than even odds in a shoot-out. What's not to like?

[Rory Waterman]

Yes, we'll, that's exceptional: they are the children of your President, in a country with more than its share of paranoid racists and anti-Muslims who think the President is a black Muslim communist (and/or fascist), and some of them no doubt would bump off his kids.

The fact that you have a gun ninety feet from the door where these wee kids play and learn is perhaps one thing, Tim, but it means that ANY nutter could have a gun ninety feet from where these wee kids play and learn. Hey, perhaps such a person is going to be right there the day you go back, and will be an even sharper shot than you are. Perhaps they're also a complete lunatic with a record to prove it, and bought a few machine guns at a gun show.