After Aurora, Pt. 1: Right-Wing Straw Men; the Uselessness of Baseball Cards; and Constitutional Theory, with George Costanza

I wasn't anywhere near Aurora on Friday morning, but some people I know and love were (thankfully, they are all okay). It's taken me a few days to adequately process the horror of what happened, and, as part of the nationwide conversation about gun control that always seems to arise in the wake of a mass shooting, I've done a lot of thinking about my stance on that issue. The Aurora massacre caused me to wrestle with myself more than I have in a long time--more than Platte Canyon or Northern Illinois (both of which also took place within 150 kilometers of where I was living at the time), more even than Virginia Tech.

Before I continue, I should mention that a) I utterly and completely deplore what happened in Aurora on Friday and my heart breaks for the victims and those close to them, and b) I have no doubt that gun control advocates argue from a place of compassion and are making a genuine good-faith effort to solve what is undoubtedly a serious problem. The former statement should go without saying, but if I didn't, somebody would surely accuse me of sympathizing with the shooter (who I shall not do the honor of mentioning by name), and nothing could be further from the truth. The latter statement is intended to emphasize that I do not generally impute any sinister motives to those who argue for stronger gun control, and that, although I disagree with them on this issue (as we shall see shortly), there is a perfectly valid logical basis for their position.

Would that they would extend the same courtesy to those who hold my point of view.

A Chance Encounter with My Six-Years-Younger Self

This blog is not meant to be, as so many blogs are, an all-purpose dumping ground for the banal occurrences of its author's personal life, and I do promise to keep the "hey, dear readers, here are four thousand words about the thing that happened to me at the DMV, I hope you like them"-type posts to a minimum. This blog is also not meant to be the place where I bare my soul and let my emotions run rampant over your computer screen. First and foremost, this is a forum for discourse on cultural, political, and social issues of current import, and I hope to maintain a high intellectual level on this site.

From time to time, though, you'll just have to deal with my prattling on about the thing that happened to me at the DMV (or, in this case, at the Sonic in Broomfield) if that thing seems sufficiently remarkable. You'll also occasionally have to deal with a post in which I turn the Emo Factor up to eleven. In the paragraphs that follow, you'll have to deal with both of those things. It's my blog, and I'll do what I wanna.

--Ed.

It's 2230h, and I'm westbound on the Turnpike, heading back to Boulder after yet another painful Rockies defeat, when my stomach makes a noise that is usually made only by humpback whales, pointedly reminding me that I haven't put anything in it for nine hours. I'm tired and sweaty and frustrated by the visions of Vance Fucking Worley's two-run double that I can't get out of my head, so I pull off the freeway and make for the nearest establishment that can provide me a large cheeseburger in less than three minutes.

Let's Not Draft Anybody, Pt. 1: The Problems with Tom Ricks' National Service Proposal

Hey, guys. Did I miss anything while I was gone? --Ed.

At the risk of pointing out the painfully obvious, one does not become one of the crown jewels of the Center for a New American Security, one of the very few top-drawer national security think tanks in this country, by being a gibbering idiot. Thus, we can conclude with some certainty that Tom Ricks is not a gibbering idiot, and it turns out he isn't. Indeed, he is one of the most lucid and intelligent commentators on American security issues alive today; he has won a Pulitzer Prize; he has written two of the best books about the Iraq War you are liable to come across anywhere. He is, in short, a man of substantial academic credentials and intellect, and his work has rightly been lauded by a wide range of commentators.