See: "The silent US hand guiding Canada's F-35 debate" http://www.embassymag.ca/page/view/taylor-02-09-2...
"Thanks to recent revelations made public via WikiLeaks, it is safe to surmise that the U.S. State Department is the unseen puppeteer making Harper do the F-35 dance. The embarrassing documents contain American diplomatic correspondence detailing how they used a public 'carrot' and a private 'stick' approach to convince Norway to buy the F-35."

And the latest from yesterday's NYT: "House Votes to End Alternate Jet Engine Program" http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/politics/17-...
"The Joint Strike Fighter is the nation's most expensive weapons program, and eliminating the alternate engine would be one of the most noteworthy cancellations this year... The vote was a victory for President Obama and the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, who had called the engine 'an unnecessary and extravagant expense.'... As costs have risen on the F-35 program, Mr. Gates has said the alternate engine seemed more a luxury than a necessity. And it is possible that the Pentagon and several allied nations will not end up buying as many of the planes as they expected.

I note that often those who venerate 'life' mean only human 'life' (even when it's a cluster of cells) and only that 'life' before it's born. Afterwards, not so much. Wars, not so much. They just have a fetish for the time while that 'life' happens to be inside a woman. For me, it's her business. It's always been her business. Women always have and always will seek a way to terminate unwanted pregnancy. It's a matter of whether humanity, properly defined, allows that choice to be a safe or a life-threatening one. Not providing access to abortion is compulsory pregnancy, compulsory childbirth. Both have risks of their own.

To be clear, I meant what I said. Those who oppose access to abortion often have, at the bottom of their dark mids, a desire to punish or control women. Correct answer about abortion? It's none of my business. It's entirely up to the woman. The stereotype of women who choose abortion fits into the male virgin/whore narrative from way back. I know a woman in a committed relationship who did everything she could to prevent pregnancy, including a tubal ligation. She had volunteered in a clinical trial for a new procedure. It failed. The medical people promptly and compassionately provided an abortion as soon as she was aware of the pregnancy, which was at five weeks (an embryo, not a fetus, if you care). It was her business, not mine or anybody else's. She was sensitive and respectful about what she was doing. She has never regretted it.

Or controlling/punishing women.

He stole that "my friends" thing from John McCain.

In case you haven't already seen this (from Salon):

Our permanent culture of political violence
And why the calls for civility in the wake of Saturday's shooting won't end up changing anything http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/...

They're starting to talk about it. From the New Republic:

The Tucson Shooter and the Case for Involuntary Commitment
How many more mass murders and assassinations do we need before we understand that the rights-based hyper-individualism of our laws governing mental illness is endangering the security of our community and the functioning of our democracy? http://www.tnr.com/blog/william-galston/81228/the...

BTW, I found this to be an excellent read (from Salon):

Our permanent culture of political violence
And why the calls for civility in the wake of Saturday's shooting won't end up changing anything http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/...

UPDATE on the person with a concealed firearm who helped subdue Loughner:

Friendly Firearms: How an armed hero nearly shot the wrong man: http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&am...

"I came out of that store, I clicked the safety off, and I was ready," he explained on Fox and Friends. "I had my hand on my gun. I had it in my jacket pocket here. And I came around the corner like this." Zamudio demonstrated how his shooting hand was wrapped around the weapon, poised to draw and fire. As he rounded the corner, he saw a man holding a gun. "And that's who I at first thought was the shooter," Zamudio recalled. "I told him to 'Drop it, drop it!' "

But the man with the gun wasn't the shooter. He had wrested the gun away from the shooter. "Had you shot that guy, it would have been a big, fat mess," the interviewer pointed out. Zamudio agreed: "I was very lucky. Honestly, it was a matter of seconds. Two, maybe three seconds between when I came through the doorway and when I was laying on top of [the real shooter], holding him down. So, I mean, in that short amount of time I made a lot of really big decisions really fast. … I was really lucky."

That's what happens when you run with a firearm to a scene of bloody havoc. In the chaos and pressure of the moment, you can shoot the wrong person. Or, by drawing your weapon, you can become the wrong person—a hero mistaken for a second gunman by another would-be hero with a gun. Bang, you're dead. Or worse, bang bang bang bang bang: a firefight among several armed, confused, and innocent people in a crowd. It happens even among trained soldiers. Among civilians, the risk is that much greater.

@ LdKitchenersOwn: Tried twice to post this as a reply, post disappeared both times. So I'll try the main thread.

As for whether the person who subdued Loughner used his concealed firearm: The answer is No.

Here's from Huff Post:

At a press conference on Sunday afternoon, Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff Clarence Dupnik offered more details on how suspected Arizona shooter Jared Loughner was disarmed. Dupnik said that when Loughner ran out of bullets in his first magazine clip, a woman who had already been shot "went up and grabbed" the new magazine "and tore it away from him." Dupnik said the name of the woman was known but he did not share it during the press conference. After the confrontation with the woman, Loughner was able to load another magazine into his weapon, but "the spring in the magazine failed," Dupnik said, and two men were able to get his weapon away from him and subdue him until law enforcement arrived. Dupnik said the work of these three people potentially averted a "huge greater catastrophe." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/09/arizona-...