LESS IS MORE?

QUICK TUESDAY UPDATE: Both South Florida and DOM cover the Gene Stearns win in the 11th circuit for Bank Atlantic. DOM argues before the 11th Circuit in Miami this week. Perhaps today? 

The NCAA slapped Penn State hard yesterday. It will be 2022 before the football program full recovers from the penalties. But to take away all the football victories since 1998 seems ridiculous, since it punishes players who had nothing to do with Paterno's malfeasance.  As we all know in Florida, "willful blindness" is not a defense. 

LESS IS MORE? Only if you're from another planet or are a Republican. 

Scenario: Its August 28th, 2012. A strange looking man is lurking outside the convention center in Tampa. It's 96 degrees and yet the man is wearing a long rain coat. His eyes appear glazed, he hasn't shaved or bathed in several days,  and he is muttering to himself while pacing back and forth. A police officer approaches him and pats him down. He finds a .45 caliber Sig Sauer in a holster tucked into the back of the man. In his wallet is a valid CCW permit.  As the officer continues his investigation a  young man chases his girlfriend with a water pistol, squirting her as they both scream in delight. Which one can be arrested? *

Outside of drugs, Republicans seem firmly committed to the type of math that bankrupts companies and governments. Less is more. Less taxes equals more tax revenue. Less guns equals more gun violence. Less government equals more government success. Only with the war on drugs do they seem to believe that less drugs equals less drug addiction. 

Regarding guns, the Republicans seem very committed to the idea that society can only be better, more peaceful, and less violent if everyone was armed. The more guns the better. There are hundreds of millions in guns in the United States and the death rate from homicide by firearm is roughly almost 4 per 100,000 people while in Canada, The United Kingdom, Switzerland,  France, Norwa, Greece, Poland, Hong Kong, Chile, South Korea, and Japan the death rate is always less than 1 per 100,000.  Source.

The Brady Center writes: U.S. homicide rates were 6.9 times higher than rates in the other high-income countries, despite similar non-lethal crime and violence rates (as reported in other studies).  The firearm homicide rate in the U.S. was 19.5 times higher.  

The researchers conclude that “Whatever our basic level of violence, the empirical evidence from ecological, case-control, and other studies indicate that readily accessible firearms - by making killing easy, efficient, and somewhat impersonal - increase the lethality of violence”


How many more innocent people-children and adults- need to die before we do something to stop the madness?

* As we reported yesterday, Tampa has passed an ordinance outlawing the possession of squirt guns but cannot pass an ordinance outlawing or restricting the possession of firearms as such a local ordinance about firearms (as opposed to anything else, like squirt guns, donuts, frisbees, etc) is prohibited by Florida Law.