what’s his problem with Scouts Canada?… It’s the largest youth organization in that country. The U.S. is about the last country where scouting is gender segregated.

Hmmmmm… here in Sinaloa w used to have a tomato on our state license plate, and the Culiacán baseball team is “los Tomateros” (the tomato tossers). It’s our main export crop, or so we claim, though we’re renowned for growing … ahem… herbs too.

Glad someone cross-tabbed by age… but what is the age cohort of those stockpiling guns? If they’re the geezers … come the Revolution… ah well: a drop in health care and retirement benefits costs for the gov after a couple of days mayhem. C’mon, though… people in the U.S. can’t even organize a decent general strike. I doubt there’d be more than a higher number than usual of cranky domestic “don’t say terrorist” incidents that’ll end badly for the Viagra Vigilante brigades.

While the Basques are particularly democratic corporatists (in the middle ages, they addressed the king of Aragon as “You, who are no better than all of us”… meaning “all of us, put together”), there is a long tradition not just among the Basques, but throughout Iberian culture — and in Iberian influenced Latin America — of thinking of rights in terms of the commune rather than the individual. Couple that with Catholic thinking on corporatism and the rights of labor, as outlined in Leo XIII’s 1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, throw in a dash of the Basque anarchism, and it all starts to make perfect sense.

Uh, aren’t most of the Opus Dei cardinals in the Americas? “Technically” there aren’t any, since Opus Dei isn’t an order (like the Jesuits or Franciscans) and when a priest is elevated to Bishop, he’s supposedly not answerable to Opus Dei’s chain-of-command, but to the Vatican’s.

A correction may be in order. I’m not an expert on Mexican court procedure, so don’t hold me to this, but the Mexican Supreme Court has 11 members, divided into two chambers (divided… if I’m not mistaken… into one for criminal/civil law and the other for administrative and regulatory law). I’m not sure which of the two heard this particular case, but Mexico uses the European legal system (“Napoleonic Law”) and my understanding is that a Supreme Court ruling by one chamber is simply a final ruling on a particular case, not a binding precedent. HOWEVER, this ruling MAY be used to plaintiffs in future (similar) cases all over the country (Mexico, like the U.S., is divided into states, each with its own legal code) to justify a ruling on their behalf. The Supreme Court in ruling on similar cases in the future will also take his ruling into consideration … and, should they receive similar cases (usually three), it becomes a matter for the full court. If that happens, one judge (Minister of the Court here) prepare arguments for or against a particular ruling, which is then discussed (openly, and on camera) by the entire court before the ministers render a final verdict.

re: the Venezuelan murder rate. Murder rates rise (alarmingly) any time a country goes through massive social change. Look at the U.S. after the Civil War, Mexico in the post-revolutionary era, South Africa after the end of apartheid, and… Venezuela after the relatively peaceful (but wrenching) implementation of the Bolivarian Republic.

Secondly, until last year, gun restrictions were practically non-existent. New police units, and new restrictions on ammunition sales are only a few months old, so too soon to say if they are bringing down the murder rate.

Hugo Chavéz was no saint (after all, he was a politician), but he will be going down in Latin American history with other less-than-perfect heroes like Benito Juarez and Simon Bolivar (and Eva Peron)- Two things he did that I think are of much more importance than tweaking the U.S. imperialists. First, by opening up his country’s political system to the non-European majority, he paved the way for a more inclusive system, not just in Venezuela, but throughout the Americas. Secondly, he redefined the terms of Bolivarianism, turning what had been a pro-Spanish, elitist, “more Catholic than the Pope” intellectual attitude into a populist movement that allows for inclusion of all Latin Americans in a common front against foreign interventionism.

I’d love to see Bishop Raul Vera of Saltillo (Mexico) as Pope, but I don’t see that happening.

What about Quakers and others who have a religious objection to taking oaths?

Gee, a whole 600? I think the crowd on a Saturday night at Oil Can Harry’s was more than that. If that’s the best you can do for Gun Appreciation Day in Alex Jones’ home town, I’m a bit more hopeful about the U.S. finally acting like a grown-up country.

Of course this is total nonsense. What percentage of humanity has ever heard of, or could conceivably afford, or would want, a “Brazilian wax”?

But, some restrictions on buying (and serious registration) would make it extremely difficult to amass a “bagful” of Glocks.

Maddow has always been a cheerleader for the military, and U.S. interventionism, so why would she ask any hard questions on drones?

Oh, and here’s Peter Opie’s old website… “Bladen International” (http://bladeninternational.com/) being the former name of Canary Wharf Clothiers (Bladen is apparently a seller of “semi-bespoke” menswear in U.K.)

PhoenixWoman… have fun. Canary Wharf Clothiers (Uk) Ltd., isn’t even a U.S. company (http://www.cdrex.com/canary-wharf-clothiers-uk-limited-853429.html), and I wonder how many jobs he really creates in the United States, since they don’t seem to have retail shops here. Perhaps he creates jobs in… oh… Bangladesh, El Salvador, etc.?

What do religious objections have to do with this? There’s no “right” to a civil service job. When here in Mexico, the State of Cohuila passed a “civil union” bill for same gender couples, the Governor — who opposed the measure — simply made it clear that civil clerks who refused to comply with state law would be fired. End of story.