Mash Notes, Hate Mail & Other Correspondence

What Does the 2nd Amendment Really Mean?

Dear Editor: The 2nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution reads, “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” The phrases within this single sentence are connected, and together they form a single concept or meaning. The words “a well regulated militia” are directly connected to the words about the right to keep and bear arms not being infringed. They are not two separate concepts or ideas. At the time of the writing of this Amendment, the United States had no standing army to defend against any …

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New Hampshire’s Sturm Ruger, the NRA, and an Executed Journalist

To the Editor: Palestinian authorities have concluded that Shireen Abu Akleh, killed in May in Palestine, was murdered with a bullet from a Ruger gun. Palestinian Attorney General Al-Khatib said tests showed that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was a 5.56 mm round fired from a Ruger semiautomatic rifle, which is used by the Israeli military. This rifle is produced by Sturm Ruger whose headquarters are in Fairfield, Connecticut but it has a factory in Newport, N.H. It is possible that the weapon that took the life of this reporter was manufactured in New Hampshire. Abu Akleh was a prominent Arab journalist, known all …

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This Is Not the Culmination of the Right-Wing Legal Movement—It’s the Dawn of It

The unelected hard-right faction now in power on the Court is poised to allow the most restrictive laws possible to be applied to women’s bodies while ruling hands-off of regulating corporations whose products are harming our planet. by Lisa Graves The reactionary, right-wing legal movement powered by dark money appears to be on the brink of achieving a nearly 50-year goal of reversing Roe v. Wade. The leaked draft opinion obtained by Politico confirms the worst fears of anyone who took the reactionary right at its word: It’s simultaneously not a surprise and a punch to the gut. The most partisan Supreme Court justices in …

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One For All, And All For One

by Jean Stimmell I was mesmerized by a scene I saw on TV at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine: A group of neighbors with rifles guarding a suburban street leading into Kyiv against approaching tanks, their faces illuminated by fires they had lit in trashcans to keep warm, fearless and immovable, belting out in unison the Ukrainian National Anthem. When everything is on the line, we forget our differences and come together as one.  Of course, we do: as social animals, it has been bred into us. That’s why we have survived as a species. Although much less dire, I once was …

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Isn’t Sedition Against the Law?

To the Editor: The original plot was supposed to be a bloodless coup committed through scurrilous parliamentary maneuvering—a scheme that would block the peaceful transition of power and throw the election outcome into the courts. Evidence uncovered by the January 6th Committee suggests the plan was conjured up by the GOP nearly a year ahead of time with the support of thinktank advisors, state officials, and private sector megadonors. It might have worked except at the last minute, Vice President Pence refused to overstep his authority and play along. The insurrection that followed was a crude hail-Mary aimed at blocking the transfer of power through …

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America in Wonderland

Dear Sir: Welcome to America in Wonderland, the sequel. Written by Donald Trump and a group of Republican Governors, Legislators, pundits et al., America in Wonderland takes us down that famous rabbit hole into a world where truths are lies, facts are fiction, evil is good, reality is distortion, illegal is legal, scientists are quacks, and losers are winners. Where else but Wonderland would you see a director of a county public health department suspended for encouraging his staff to to get vaccinated against a disease that has killed over 800,000 Americans and sickened millions more? That is exactly what happened in Orange County Florida. …

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