Man with two dozen firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, arrested for threatening copycat murder spree

I love how NOW he's undergoing a psychiatric evaluation, after buying two dozen firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition. This is disgusting. If we permit our fellow citizens, including the worst among us, to arm themselves to the hilt, then shouldn't be surprised what happens next.  It's time to stop pretending that we - and especially the NRA and its pet known as the Republican party (with some help from Democrats who are afraid of their own shadow - maybe they should arm themselves) didn't bring this upon ourselves.

NBC Washington reports that Prescott made more than one call to a co-worker to issue his threats, one of which was recounted to the local affiliate of being to the effect of: "You don't know who the real joker is; I am the real joker." The reference to the "joker" comes one week after suspected Colorado gunman James Holmes reportedly delivered a similar message to police after being arrested.

Police found the 28-year-old Prescott in his Crofton home Thursday wearing a shirt that read "Guns don’t kill people, I do." He had thousands of rounds of ammunition and 25-odd firearms, including semi-automatic rifles, shotguns, and handguns, according to ABC News. Police said they believe Prescott was prepared to carry out his threatened attack and say they likely prevented a massacre.

Prescott is currently undergoing a psychological evaluation in Annapolis.

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You need roughly 20x your annual income saved in your retirement acct

We're #1.

NYT:

Seventy-five percent of Americans nearing retirement age in 2010 had less than $30,000 in their retirement accounts. The specter of downward mobility in retirement is a looming reality for both middle- and higher-income workers. Almost half of middle-class workers, 49 percent, will be poor or near poor in retirement, living on a food budget of about $5 a day.

To maintain living standards into old age we need roughly 20 times our annual income in financial wealth. If you earn $100,000 at retirement, you need about $2 million beyond what you will receive from Social Security. If you have an income-producing partner and a paid-off house, you need less. This number is startling in light of the stone-cold fact that most people aged 50 to 64 have nothing or next to nothing in retirement accounts and thus will rely solely on Social Security.

Okay then, back to work! Read the rest of this post...

Israel has strict gun laws

How un-American.

In Israel, assault rifles are banned except for special circumstances, such as communal self-defense in areas deemed to be a security risk. And while political violence in Israel is all too common and gun violence is a growing problem, random shootings of strangers – like the Aurora massacre -- are virtually unheard-of here.

Unlike in the United States, where the right to bear arms is guaranteed in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, Israel’s department of public security considers gun ownership a privilege, not a right. Gun owners in Israel are limited to owning one pistol, and must undergo extensive mental and physical tests before they can receive a weapon, and gun owners are limited to 50 rounds of ammunition per year.

Not all Israelis, however, may own guns. In order to own a pistol, an Israeli must for two years have been either a captain in the army or a former lieutenant colonel. Israelis with an equivalent rank in other security organizations may also own a pistol.

In addition, residents of West Bank settlements, and those who work there, may own pistols for self-defense.

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Is there another reason for Romney's odd gaffes in the UK?

A reader had written to me about this a few weeks ago, but I didn't write about it. Joan Walsh just has.

But could it be more than entitlement and an odd personal style? I’ve found myself wondering over the course of the campaign whether Romney has some kind of personality disorder, so dissociated does he occasionally seem from the well-worn routines of normal human interaction. Maybe we should be asking to see his medical records and not just his tax returns. I don’t mean to be flippant about that or insensitive to any kind of problem he may struggle with. But his struggles are our struggles; he’s running to be our president. There is something very odd about Mitt Romney.

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Conservative mayor leads Londoners in pro-Obama chant

To understand just how badly the Romney tour of 'England' has gone, take a look at this video of Boris Johnson, the Conservative Mayor of London

After making some remarks about 'a Mr Romney', Boris leads the crowd in a chant of 'Yes we can!". That isn't an accident, Boris knows that it was Obama's 2008 campaign slogan and so does most of the crowd he is addressing.

Mitt Romney is a clown who tries to appear clever. Boris Johnson is a clever man man who pretends to be a clown.

Its not just Boris who has gone rogue here. Cameron himself got in a jab, "We are holding an Olympic Games in one of the busiest, most active, bustling cities anywhere in the world. Of course, it's easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere."

Probably doesn't seem such a good idea to send your advance team out to suggest that Cameron's government would find it easier to get on with a white man right now.

Making a gaffe in London is one thing, the UK-US special relationship survived George W. Bush and it will survive Romney's campaign tour. But Romney is planning to visit Auschwitz and Israel next. A careless statement there could cost votes, and lives. Read the rest of this post...

Mitt didn't build it: Romney took $1.5bn from USG for 2002 Olympics

It seems that Mitt Romney, who of late has been crowing about the "fact" that lots of business ventures in America happen with absolutely no help from the government whatsoever (then once we get the name of the business we find out that they did in fact get government help), got his own help from the US government for the 2002 Olympics that Romney oversaw.  From Mother Jones:

As Romney chastises the president for pointing out that successful business ventures benefit from a larger social compact and accuses critics of pining for "free stuff," Romney is simultaneously touting an Olympic effort that, more than any other in American history, succeeded thanks to public investment—some of it sunk into questionable projects of marginal value to the Salt Lake games. "The $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars that Congress is pouring into Utah is 1.5 times the amount spent by lawmakers to support all seven Olympic Games held in the U.S. since 1904—combined," Donald Barlett and James Steele reported for Sports Illustrated in 2001. Those numbers were adjusted for inflation.

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Romney improperly leaks meeting with head of MI6

It's interesting that Mitt Romney leaked the fact that he met with the head of British intelligence's MI6, when not only are you not supposed to leak such information, but Romney has of late been bashing President Obama for supposed Obama administration leaks.

Not quite ready for prime time, is he. Read the rest of this post...

Radical decline in Arctic ice is "at least 70 percent" man-made

UPDATE: A complete list of climate series pieces is available here:
The Climate series: a reference post.
________

It's a theme park here at La Maison Chez Nous. The theme — climate catastrophe.

Raw Story and The Guardian have the story (h/t Twitter friend MiroCollas):

The radical decline in sea ice around the Arctic is at least 70% due to human-induced climate change, according to a new study, and may even be up to 95% down to humans – rather higher than scientists had previously thought.

The loss of ice around the Arctic has adverse effects on wildlife and also opens up new northern sea routes and opportunities to drill for oil and gas under the newly accessible sea bed.

The reduction has been accelerating since the 1990s and many scientists believe the Arctic may become ice-free in the summers later this century, possibly as early as the late 2020s.

Keep an eye on this — and not for the obvious reason. Yes, Arctic summer ice will soon disappear completely. But there's another problem in that middle paragraph.

As we noted earlier, the Oil & Gas Barons (Our Betters) have 2795 gigatons of carbon reserves they're dying to sell to us. This is five times the carbon that, if it gets into the air, will move global warming beyond the 2°C (3.6°F) increase that we need to stay below.

Read that again. They already have five times the amount of carbon needed kill us — queued up and ready to go.

So what do you think the Oil & Gas Barons (Our Betters) think of the fact that global warming — of all things — is opening up the Arctic for more oil and gas exploration?

Mission Accomplished, of course. For them, it's an opportunity.

Watch as they clamor for the chance to get rich by accelerating the catastrophe they're causing. Watch as world-wide government types (eager retainers all) fall over themselves to enable the world-wide destruction. (I include Mr. Eager-For-Keystone Obama in this; I think he wants it as badly as anyone does.)

Remind me again — what does climate catastrophe look like? It looks like this.

These people are conscienceless. I mean that literally. They plan to make money till it kills us all. (I mean that literally too.)

GP

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"Mitt the twit": UK morning papers blast Romney visit

The DNC has a video summarizing the US and British coverage, then screen caps of 23 newspaper headlines in the UK:

And here's video of the mayor of London dissing Romney:

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Two guys, without clothes or money, set off on an adventure...

This is an ad for a documentary, I guess, that two young French guys made in which they set off into the wilderness, with no clothes, no money, nothing and tried to travel the country (apparently theirs, but perhaps others too) relying entirely on the kindness of strangers.

You don't need to speak French to understand the trailer. It looks quite fun and interesting.

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Stiglitz on the Daily Show

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Romney still won't reveal what he's hiding in his secret tax returns

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Jon Stewart on Romney's latest lie

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