David Frum's Blog, page 125

What if Bork Hadn't Been Borked?

The blogger Potpourri for 500 considers the question:

Your Daily Awesome: Fish Tornadoes

Grist has the video.

We Need a Better Society, Not More Guns

Alan Jacobs in The American Conservative:

When Hate Collides: The KKK Meets the Westboro Baptist Church

The Klan is standing up to the 'God Hates Fags' protestors in light of the WBC's picketing of military funerals. Now if only they both could lose:

Time's Man of the Year, Shockingly, is President Obama

Then again, with this amazing photo, the award seems fitting.

Living With Mental Illness

A friend writes:

What's the Best Way to Prevent Mass Shootings?

In the Wall Street Journal, David Kopel is probably right that the "copycat effect" of cable news and social media explain the surge in mass shooting incidents over the past decade.

Robert Bork, R.I.P.

The great American jurist Robert Bork has died. An appreciation of his career and contributions will appear in this space shortly. Condolences and consolation to his loving and accomplished family.

Malthusian Predictions Fail Once Again

Good news in a sad week. The American Interest reports that vast aquifers of water have been found beneath the Sahara desert. Rising farm productivity has enabled farmers worldwide to retire 10% of the world's farmland from cultivation, an area equivalent to 10 Iowas. The magazine concludes:

The Reason for Our Woeful Lack of Gun Statistics

How often are guns used for self-defense? Advocates claim as often as 2.5 million times a year. That's an incredible figure, for reasons explained here and here. On the other hand, the number of defensive gun uses must surely be much higher than zero. It would be good to know how much higher. Perhaps some competent agency might do some better-quality research? The Centers for Disease Control would seem one logical candidate, they do many of the nation's best public-health studies.