Two thousand dead in Iraq. Two thousand. Eight hundred from a hurricane named Katrina. One former head of Federal Emergency Management Agency. One lightweight Supreme Court nominee. Tom DeLay. Social Security reform. The "ownership society." The Geneva Convention. The First Amendment. Changing the face of the world. "Mission Accomplished." Colin Powell. George Tenet. An assault weapons ban. Voter's rights. The budget surplus. Old ally Germany. Oldest ally France. America's global stature. Gone, gone - all gone. [Read article]

On Tuesday the U.S., Britain and (believe it or not) France introduced a resolution to the U.N. Security Council that, if approved, will lay the groundwork for future sanctions against Syria. The idea behind the sanctions is to coerce the Syrian government into fully cooperating with U.N. officials investigating the murder of Lebanon's prime minister earlier this year.

Sanctions, however, will not solve this problem, but more importantly, the blurred way in which the resolution was written implies that, if passed, abuse is inevitable. [Read article]

Courts have ruled that businesses aren't responsible for products

This is in reference to Katie Paulson's column "Firearm 'protection bill' protects wrong people." Would she agree that suits that are lost, or perhaps suits that are labeled "frivolous" by a jury, should be paid for (both sides) by the person or group that brings the suit?

One of the points that she does not raise is that the documented solicitations by groups like the Brady Center and the Violence Policy Center/Institute asked for contributions for the purposes of suing gun owners. They said things like, "If we can sue enough times in enough different courts, the gun companies cannot afford the legal expenses." [Read article]