Eugene Robinson's Blog, page 127

Obama’s gun proposals are a matter of life and death

Don’t listen to those who say that President Obama’s bold plan to reduce gun violence — including an assault-weapons ban — has no chance in Congress. I seem to recall that health-care reform was deemed impossible, too. Until it happened.

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Republicans’ destructive game of chicken

President Obama is set to begin his second term at a moment when the question is not what great things our nation can achieve but whether our government, in Obama’s words, can “stop lurching from crisis to crisis to crisis.”

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Hot enough for you?

All right, now can we talk about climate change? After a year when the lower 48 states suffered the warmest temperatures, and the second-craziest weather, since record-keeping began?

Apparently not. The climate-change denialists — especially those who manipulate the data in transparently bogus ways to claim that warming has halted or even reversed course — have been silent, as one might expect. Sensible people accept the fact of warming, but many doubt that our dysfunctional political system can respond in any meaningful way.

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Don’t blame Shanahan for leaving RGIII in the game

The question consuming Washington right now has nothing to do with the debt ceiling, immigration reform or the composition of President Obama’s second-term Cabinet. It’s whether Washington Redskins Coach Mike Shanahan should have pulled his limping superstar, Robert Griffin III, from Sunday’s game before the young quarterback further injured his tender knee.

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Our clown-around Congress

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To say that Congress looked like a clown show this week is an insult to self-respecting clowns.

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Stop the gun madness

Guns do kill people. Our national New Year’s resolution must be to stop the madness.

It is shameful that gun control only becomes worthy of public debate following an unspeakable massacre such as Newtown — and even more shameful that these mass killings occur so often. What usually happens is that we spend a few weeks pretending to have a “conversation” about guns, then the horror begins to fade and we turn to other issues. Everything goes back to normal.

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Still here? Happy New Bak’tun

If you’re reading this, the Maya were wrong. Rather, they would have been wrong if they’d actually predicted the end of the world, which scholars are pretty sure they didn’t.

On the other hand, if there’s nobody around to thumb through the morning newspaper — if, indeed, there are no more scholars, newspapers, mornings or thumbs — then I guess it was a poor decision to spend Earth’s final day in my office. I’d have regrets, except I’m pretty sure that no more world means no more second-guessing.

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On guns, take action now

We are not helpless to stop the massacre of innocent children. We must begin — today, right now, this minute — taking guns out of the hands of madmen, and the first step should be a ban on military-style assault weapons such as the rifle used to turn a Connecticut school into a slaughterhouse.

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Ready to jump from the ‘fiscal cliff’

Are you as sick of the “fiscal cliff” as I am? Actually, that’s a trick question. You couldn’t possibly be.

Having to read and hear the constant blather about this self-inflicted “crisis” is an onerous burden, I’ll admit. But just imagine having to produce that blather. Imagine trying to come up with something original and interesting to say about a “showdown” that has all the drama and excitement of, well, a budget dispute.

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Republicans must wise up

The biggest problem the Republican Party faces is not uninspiring candidates or unsound tactics. It is unpopular ideas.

This reality was brought home in last month’s election. It’s playing out in the struggle over how to avoid the “fiscal cliff.” And we’ll see it again in coming fights over immigration, entitlements, inequality and a host of other issues. Here’s the sad thing: Republicans get this stuff so wrong that Democrats aren’t even forced to go to the trouble of getting it right.

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