‘We can’t tolerate this anymore’: Obama signals action over gun laws
He spoke for a nation in sorrow, but the slaughter of all those little boys and girls left President Barack Obama, like so many others, reaching for words. Alone on a spare stage after the worst single day of his presidency, the commander in chief was a parent in grief.
“I am very mindful that mere words cannot match the depth of your sorrow, nor can they heal your wounded hearts,” Obama said at an evening vigil in the grieving community of Newtown, Conn. “I can only hope that it helps for you to know that you are not alone in your grief.”
The massacre of 26 children and adults at Sandy Hook Elementary on Friday elicited horror around the world, soul-searching in the United States, fresh political debate about gun control and questions about the incomprehensible — what drove the suspect to act.
“Can say that we’re truly doing enough to give all the children of this country the chance they deserve to live out their lives in happiness and with purpose? I’ve been reflecting on this the last few days,” Obama said, somber and steady as some in the audience wept.
“If we’re honest without ourselves, the answer is no. And we will have to change.” (Olivier Douliery/Getty Images; Evan Vucci/The Associated Press; Jason DeCrow/The Associated Press)
The next few weeks are going to be interesting, with Obama playing the comforter-in-chief.
This comes on the heels of Thursday’s announcement U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice had removed herself from the list of candidates to take over from Hillary Clinton. Rice said what was sure to be a contentious and lengthy approval process took attention away from more pressing problems facing the nation.
Soon to return to the lexicon: ”Swift boat.”
(Source: joshsternberg)
digg:
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin
Dozens of people, including children, are reported killed in a mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.
This is such a tragedy.
Who would do this? Why? What reasons?
NEWTOWN, Conn. (CBS Connecticut/AP)— CBS News is reporting that 27 people are dead, including 14 students, after a shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. The gunman is among the dead.
CBS News’ John Miller reports there is preliminary information that the gunman was the father of one of the students. Miller also says that at least a couple dozen people were shot.
Please keep these families in your thoughts and prayers. Holding off on posts for a few hours to stay tuned into this.
Take a moment to ponder those lost today in this awful tragedy.
Gunman dead, teacher injured after elementary school shooting in Connecticut
A school shooting in Connecticut ended with the shooter dead Friday, with at least one teacher wounded and frightened students fleeing outdoors.
The shooter was killed and apparently had two guns, a person with knowledge of the shooting said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.
It wasn’t clear how many people were injured at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown. A dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said a teacher had been shot in the foot and taken to Danbury Hospital. (AP)
There are some early reports that the school’s principal and psychologist were killed in the shooting, along with a number of children.
Shooting reported at Connecticut elementary school
(Photo: Shannon Hicks / The Newtown Bee)
State police were responding to reports of a shooting Friday at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., State Police Lt. Paul Vance told NBC News.
Vance had no information as to possible injuries and no information on the apparent shooter at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
The Newtown Bee reported that one child, apparently wounded, was carried from the scene by a police officer.
Such a terrifying photo. Kids should not have to deal with this, ever.
BREAKING: Susan Rice says she is withdrawing her name from consideration for Secretary of State
That’s no fun.
Surely this New York Post cover isn’t as unapologetically appalling as the NYC subway snuff film that graced the cover eight days ago, and this won’t get the same instinctual rebuke that cover did. But what’s up at the Post? When did they become Faces of Death? Go back to sex sells — this is ugly.
The New York Post: You hear about the deaths we were unable to stop, twelve hours after they happen. Seriously, WTF guys?
Ravi Shankar, died yesterday at the age of 92. From the WSJ:
Mr. Shankar’s popularity in the West was boosted by his partnerships with foreign musicians, most famously Beatles guitarist George Harrison.
“When people say that George Harrison made me famous, that is true in a way,” Mr. Shankar said in a televised interview in 2009, according to this report.
But when Mr. Harrison first approached Mr. Shankar for lessons in the mid-1960s, the idea of blending Indian classical music with pop music was puzzling to the sitar maestro.
“It is strange to see pop musicians with sitars. I was confused at first. It had so little to do with our classical music. When George Harrison came to me, I didn’t know what to think,” said Mr. Shankar in Raga.
“But I found he really wanted to learn. I never thought our meeting would cause such an explosion, that Indian music would suddenly appear on the pop scene,” he added.
Mr. Harrison revered Mr. Shankar, saying he was “the first person who ever impressed me in my life.”
Mr. Harrison’s collaboration with Mr. Shankar influenced the music of the Beatles, who went on to release several Indian-inspired songs. Among them was the 1966 track “Love You To,” one of the earliest examples of a pop song incorporating elements of Indian classical music. The song was composed by Mr. Harrison, who also sings and plays the sitar in it.
Of note to more modern audiences: Norah Jones’ father. (Though that certainly isn’t all you should know about Shankar.) RIP.
Mysterious monkey in posh miniature winter coat found alone at Toronto Ikea
A small monkey, dressed in a shearling-like winter coat, was on the loose outside an Ikea in Toronto’s North York area on Sunday, after letting itself out of its cage and the car belonging to its owners.
At around 3 p.m. ET, the diminutive primate was spotted in the store’s upper parking lot, where it was cornered by several Ikea staff members, who also called animal control to come retrieve the monkey.
“It apparently let itself out of its crate, opened the car door and went for a walk,” Toronto Police Sgt. Ed Dzingala said. “Smart monkey.”
This is one of those things you tell people about, but can’t explain.
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
This is just scratching the surface for bad 2012s.
Shockingly, people may have had a worse year than Romney tattoo guy.
Conservative Sen. Jim DeMint is resigning, and Stephen Colbert wants the job. All he wants us to do is tweet #SenatorColbert at Gov. Nikki Haley.
Want to help make #SenatorColbert a reality? Check out Colbert’s pitch here.Reblog/share/like this if you want Senator Colbert to happen.
“Tweet @nikkihaley & tell her why I belong in the US Senate. For one, I wouldn’t just block legislation, I’d body-check it! #SenatorColbert”
For our money, we want Alvin Greene back in. Here’s why:
Syria Deeply, Beat Page of the Future
It’s an incredible idea: one site, one beat. No front page. No sports, no business or finance, anywhere. It’s called Syria Deeply.
It’s about 25% original content, written by veteran Middle East correspondent Lara Setrakian and friends. The rest is aggregated and includes interactives, maps, and contextual material aimed to catch people up on the story without pointing them off site.
From FastCompany:
From a taxonomy perspective, Syria Deeply is the opposite of most news sites. In a traditional news taxonomy, information is divided by broad topics, like World News. Each topic is divided into subsections, like the Middle East. Each subsection is then often divided into even smaller subsections, like Syria. Each section gets smaller and smaller. Topic pages live in obscure ghettos on many news websites: auto-aggregated and ugly dumping grounds for content that happens to be tagged with particular keywords.
On Syria Deeply (designed by Brock Petrie and developed by Soumyadeep Paul and Arindam Biswas, who runs Collective Zen) the topic page is the homepage. Setrakian’s hope is that this site-wide focus on a single beat will allow for deeper, more thoughtful reporting.
FJP: Looks extremely promising.
Context, context, context. Bravo.
If you have not made it to this site, do so. This is how you cover single-topic news.
NPR Apps best practices for READMEs, HTML & CSS, Javascript, GIT, and more.
Not only useful for wannabe journo-coders, but also helps you get a sense of NPR tackling traditional journalism issues like style consistency beyond the written copy in the modern technology. And props to them for making it available on GitHub.
We love that NPR has made this available on GitHub. For design tips from NPR’s Digital Media Design Director, David Wright, check out the slides and audio from his ONA12 session, Design is How It Works.
Saw this in speech from NPR’s Wright in person last week. Stuff like this inspires you to work harder on your own site development. — Ernie @ SFB
Copyright 2009-2013 Ernie Smith • Ask us stuff! • E-mail us • Follow us on Twitter • Follow us on Facebook
