AWKWARD ZOMBIE

If you include the influx of immigrants I think you'll be fine.

There's enough people without a work so a lot of vacant jobs is not a problem. Rather the opposite. But yeah, when there's too many retired people that's a problem, cause the cheddar for their retirement has to come from somewhere.

The US Senate managed to pass an amendment to the NDAA bill that could remove the "Idefinite detention" portion of it. But that's only if it manages to get through the House of Representatives, is declared okay by the Supreme Court, and gets signed by the President.

If the republicans don't pass it they're massive hypocrites.

Prime Minister Mario Monti resigns after the Party of Freedom refuses to continue working with his governemnt, Berlusconi announces he's going to run for the next elections.

As we say around here, s'emo glìti a foco ("We just caught fire").

You're gonna have to explain Italian politics for me, here.

The American and Italian governments are structured somewhat similarly, but what in America you call President is split into two different figures: the Head of State and the Prime Minister. The Head of State acts as a figurehead, signs laws approved by the Parliament and is basically a modern version of a King. The current head of state is Giorgio Napolitano, whose term is about to expire in May of next year (though he might resign sooner). The Prime Minister (called here "President of the Council") is either chosen by majority coalition (Italy has a clusterfuck of different political parties that need to form alliances to stand a chance) who won the elections or appointed by the Head of State during times of crisis.

The 2008 elections (caused by Parliament not giving its confidence to the left-wing government elected in 2006) were won by a right-wing coalition made out of the People of Freedom (Berlusconi's party), the Northern League (think of shady republicans and the Stormcloaks' love child) and several minor parties. It lasted almost four years until the crisis forced him to resign roughly a year ago (november 2011), and Napolitano appointed as new Prime Minister Mario Monti, an economist with no previous political experience. His government mostly consisted of "Do what the EU says", focusing on economic reforms that unfortunately also raised taxes by a lot. However, while left-wing parties mostly supported him, right-wing parties have always been criticizing him, ultimately abstaining from Parliament votes and forcing him to resign.

The next elections will be probably held next february rather than next may, and will likely be a repeat of the ones in 2008, which I have to say is incredibly disappointing. It almost looked as if this time was going to be different, what with Berlusconi giving no signs of wanting to get back into politics, Northern League getting hit by a pretty big scandal that led to resignation from its founder (Umberto "I have used public cheddar to buy degrees for my sons" Bossi), the left-wing coalition probably being led by Matteo Renzi (born in '75, he's probably one of the youngest politicians around) and a new electoral law getting approved in the near future. Instead, Berlusconi recently he's going to run again, spouting about how the previous government miserably failed even though said government was simply forced to deal with what he had done in his previous government (read: "closing his eyes, covering his ears and refusing to acknowledge the crisis while chanting insults toward other political figures and being blown by three hookers"), Bossi has been replaced by an even shadier guy, Renzi was defeated by Bersani (who, while not a bad guy at all, is an old fart who has been into italian politics for far too long) in the left-wing primaries and the new electoral law is probably never going to happen now that the government has fallen.

School shooting at a connecticut Elementary School.

Jesus.

Whenever shit like that happens I would expect some sort of discussion on how to prevent such a thing from happening again. But that won't happen because touching gun control is political suicide in the states.

Yup. In the comments people were talking about how this could have been prevented if the teachers would be carrying guns with them at all times.

Oh man, I didn't even read the comments.

That's a really terrible Idea.

I'm just waiting for them to blame video games again.

The way I see it, gun control arguments are completely pointless in situations like this. Regardless of what the law was, something went wrong in that shooter's life to cause this to happen. Chances are he's more desperate than evil.

It's a tragedy on all sides. We don't know what could've prevented it without waiting for more information.

This is just my two cents.

I'm all for gun control. I don't like guns. I don't appreciate the casual way a lot of people in areas like mine treat them, as though they're toys. I don't like the "gun=good" mentality a lot of people have. I don't like the kill-or-be-killed, shoot-first approach many people take to ordinary confrontations, whether they were there or not.

That said, this isn't something tighter gun control could have prevented. Someone who goes into a school or another public place armed and prepared to kill isn't doing so spontaneously. It's not a "huh I have a gun and I'm bored, better go murder 10 children" kind of thing. Just because they can't buy their guns in an afternoon at Walmart anymore doesn't mean they won't find a way to hurt people anyway. In China, their version of this is grown men breaking into preschools with ten-inch long knives and slaughtering people. They'll find a way.