Feb 19, 2013
We're back from the Presidents Day holiday weekend, and wouldn't you know that guns continue to make headlines? As usual, they tie everything together for us, one way or another. Greg Dworkin joined us to talk about the weekend's kerfuffle surrounding the lack of access for White House correspondents to the President's round of golf with Tiger Woods, and also some other Very Important stuff. Like the reemergence of the Simpson-Bowles axis, along with No Labels and Fix the Debt, which, apparently because they wrap themselves in a veneer of "non-partisanship," are now eligible for outright media cheerleading. The No Labels mention led us to mention that the CEO of Panera Bread was among their founders, which led us to a Huffington Post article about labor practices and union busting at Panera. Who would have guessed the two would go hand in hand? Can we tie that to the gun issue? Sure we can! You'll have to listen in to see how, but from there, we get down to the Missouri state house to check in on the craziest piece of gun legislation yet proposed, which would make it illegal to propose gun legislation that the proponent of this bill doesn't like. Because Constitution! From there, some more random gun notes, including the story of elevated lead levels and lead poisoning indications among gun range workers in Washington state and even construction workers doing expansion work there! While we're tying stories together, how about the news that the tobacco industry and anti-smoking groups both think the ACA's provision allowing insurance companies to charge smokers up to 50% more is beyond the pale? What about letting insurers do the work of gun violence control, while we're at it? And just for good measure, another mention of 3D printing and guns, this time related to last week's State of the Union address. A little bit of everything, all tied together by the guns we're all so crazy for.