{"id":17935,"date":"2015-12-06T02:14:36","date_gmt":"2015-12-06T10:14:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=17935"},"modified":"2015-12-06T02:23:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-06T10:23:34","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-06122015-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/06\/squatchs-open-thread-06122015-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch\u2019s Open Thread 06\/12\/2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a relatively busy day with 2 meetings at the church and set up for tomorrow's worship.  Tomorrow afternoon late, I will be heading up to visit my mother, which means I'll undoubtedly be very tired.  This coming week is already full of appointments as is the following week.  Sigh . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

Puzzle<\/strong> — Today’s took me 2:38 (average 4:59). To do it, <\/span>click here<\/strong><\/span><\/a>. How did you do?<\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Nation<\/span><\/a> <\/strong>— <\/strong>\ufeff With Utah’s ratification of the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on this day in 1933, the prohibition on the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages in the United States ended. Long after most on the left had given up on the idea of Prohibition as a remotely liberatory policy, The Nation<\/i>, under the ownership and editorship of lifelong teetotaler Oswald Garrison Villard (whose mother had warned him in his childhood never to touch strong drink) stuck by the idea, …<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"prohibition_cc_img\"<\/p>\n

Orange County, California, sheriffs dumping out illegally made alcohol during a 1932 bust.(Orange County Archive) <\/span><\/p>\n

Well the temperance movement failed to get the country on its side.  But think of all the tax revenues that would have been foregone.  Dump prohibition and get tax revenues from sales, or keep prohibition, have bootleggers selling liquor, the government spending money to enforce prohibition, and receiving no tax revenue.  Nothing is ever quite that simple but . . .   I wonder if a similar system could work with marijuana, medicinal or recreational?<\/span><\/p>\n

Mother Jones<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — HOW MUCH DOES gun violence cost our country? It's a question we've been looking into at Mother Jones<\/em> ever since the 2012 mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, left 58 wounded and 12 dead. How much care would the survivors and the victims' families need? What would be the effects on the broader community, and how far out would those costs ripple? As we've continued to investigate gun violence, one of our more startling discoveries is that nobody really knows.<\/p>\n