May 20, 2013
Greg Dworkin confirmed for us that the weekend political world was pretty much frozen in place in the middle of last week, so we'd have to look elsewhere for political news not involving Republicans making breathless but unfounded comparisons to Watergate. After a brief detour into the Umbrellacaust, we moved back to the IRS story, reviewing a few more stories providing context that helps us separate it from shrieking about Watergate. First, Garance Franke-Ruta's piece (and yes, I know I mispronounced archetype!), "There Was No Surge in IRS Tax-Exempt Applications in 2010," then David Cay Johnston's, "Lois Lerner Must Resign," and Stephanie Mencimer's "Actually, Tea Party Groups Gave the IRS Lots of Good Reasons to be Interested." Off on a tangent, but not totally unrelated, was Keenan Steiner's, "How ex-Det. Guy Bowers became the biggest campaign donor of all." Finally, we had to get back to the gun issue, with the tragic story out of Hofstra University making headlines, but also a fascinating look at the concealed carrying teachers of Utah. A very revealing look, I thought, into the minds of folks who feel certain that introducing the presence of guns into the daily lives of our school kids is a decision they feel comfortable making for all of us, pretty much by themselves. Because liberty. Unless you disagree, in which case, their tyranny wins, because it's really liberty.