News Nuggets 1130

DAYLEE PICTURE: Fir trees in the Black Forest in Germany.  From National Geographic.

UP-FRONT DOWN-IS-UP GUN CONTROL NUGGET!!
Day Before Connecticut Shooting Massacre, Michigan Legislature Passed Bill Allowing Guns In Classrooms (Scott Keyes) from Think Progress
"On Thursday, one day before the tragedy in Connecticut where at least 29 people were killed at an elementary school, the Republican-controlled Michigan legislature passed a bill that would allow people to bring guns into schools."

Every Day is the Day to Talk About Gun Control (David Frum) from the Daily Beast
"It's bad enough to have a gun lobby. It's the last straw when that lobby also sets up itself as the civility police. It may not be politically possible to do anything about the prevalence of weapons of mass murder. But it damn well ought to be possible to complain about them - and about the people who condone them. "

Twelve Facts About Guns and Mass Shootings in the United States (Ezra Klein) from the Washington Post
"What follows here isn’t a policy agenda. It’s simply a set of facts — many of which complicate a search for easy answers — that should inform the discussion that we desperately need to have."

The Geography of U.S. Gun Violence from the Atlantic (Richard Florida) from the Atlantic
"These events prompted me to examine the geography of gun violence here on Cities this past July, based upon a prior analysis for The Atlantic. Both posts relied upon state-level data for 2008 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention"

Killer’s Mother, His First Victim, Was a Gun Enthusiast, Friends Say from the New York Times
"Friends and neighbors said Nancy Lanza, her son Adam’s first victim Friday, was generous but also high-strung."

Do We Have the Courage to Stop This? (Nicholas Kristof) from the New York Times
"There’s an epic contrast between the heroism of teachers facing a gunman and the fecklessness of politicians who won’t stand up to N.R.A."

Connecticut School Shooting Tragedy Ups Gun-Control Pressure on Obama from Politico
"...this time, the immediate, impassioned calls for new gun-control measures far outstripped the reaction to a series of other recent shooting sprees across the country, including at a Colorado movie theater, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and a shopping mall in Oregon."

The Working Class Epidemic of Demoralization (Matt Lewis) from The Week 
"While coastal elites overindulge, struggling Americans in flyover country feel they have little to live for or believe in By Matt K. Lewis."

Is the Conservative Dream in its Death Throes? (Ryu Spaeth) from The Week 
"[From Peggy Noonan] Republicans are now in the habit of editing their views, and they've been in it for 10 years. The Bush White House suppressed dissent; talk radio stars functioned as enforcers; the angrier parts of the base, on the internet, attempted to silence critical thinkers. Orthodoxy was everything, or orthodoxy as some defined it."

Republicans Need to Talk (Peggy Noonan) from the Wall Street Journal 
"There are many disagreements in the GOP, but they've not always been aired. For the past 10 years the party has operated under an ethic of Questioning the Team Is Disloyal, Dissent Is Disloyal, as Is Criticism.  This has been a recipe not for peace but for disaster. Which is what we saw on Nov. 6."

At the Mercy of Backbenchers (Dana Milbank) from the Washington Post 
"Boehner is right — seriously. The administration hasn’t been treating the “fiscal cliff” talks as a substantial negotiation, and for one very good reason: It’s not clear it has anybody to negotiate with."

GOP Fears Voters' Long Memory on Taxes (David M. Drucker) from Roll Call 
"As Republicans traverse the fiscal cliff, a contentious vote they took four years ago and a midterm election still two years away are casting long shadows."

Source: Obama has chosen John Kerry as Secretary of State from the Chicago Sun-Times
"President Barack Obama has chosen Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts to be the next secretary of state, a source has told Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed. His replacement as head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the Sneed source said."

If Kerry Goes to State, Who Will Succeed Him? The Guessing Begins (David Freedlander) from the Daily Beast
"If Obama picks John Kerry as his next secretary of State, Massachusetts’ political strangeness and a wide open field make picking his replacement a juicy guessing game for political junkies. Meanwhile, Scott Brown lurks. By David Freedlander."

HIDDEN TREASURES NUGGET!!
Unearthed 2012: Best Finds Of The Year (PHOTOS) from the Huffington Post 
"The find was hailed as the second-biggest mammoth discovery in the entire history of paleontology. But this is just one of the most amazing archeological breakthroughs this year that deserve kudos."