That nebulous word "stuff" is significant. It asks us to see all exports as the same and to refrain from making nuanced value judgments about what exactly we're shipping overseas. In this coldblooded view, a job-creating export is a job-creating export, and that's as far as any conversation should go.

At first glance, such reductionism seems logical, rational, even boringly uncontroversial. But two recent news items highlight how in a globalized economy, there are troubling consequences that come from the particular kind of export economy we're building.

The first bit of news came from the Washington Post, which this week reported that "the Obama administration is crafting a proposal that could make it easier to export firearms and other weapons." Though the Homeland Security and Justice Departments say the new rules could make it easier for terrorist and drug cartels to further arm themselves, the White House is nonetheless citing the "stuff" theory of exports to ignore the objections.

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ALEC is now shutting down its "Public Safety and Elections" task force. ALEC's Public Safety and Elections task force's goals were twofold: to improve "public safety" by making it easier for citizens to carry guns everywhere they go and to shoot certain people without fear of arrest or prosecution, and to improve elections by making it harder for politically undesirable types to exercise their right to vote. (Why were gun rights and voter disenfranchisement the purview of one task force? Those two issues really have very little in common besides being of supreme importance to paranoid white people.)

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Lori Klein, an Arizona state Senator and Cain's Arizona state chairman, told CBS News she stands by Cain.

Says she has known him for 12 years and he's "never been anything but a gentlemen - and I am not an unattractive woman."

That's a slam-dunk argument, right there. And she's not even done!

Klein suggested that if Cain is innocent he should sue White for libel and went on to attack the media for digging up the allegations. She also said that in politics, "we want a virgin to do a hooker's job."

Yes! Herman Cain is a hooker. But a hooker with a heart of gold, and the constitution to resist harassing or assaulting Lori Klein, a noted attractive woman!

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In a new, slick 1 minute and 55 second television ad flush with with Fox News footage, the NRA expressed outrage over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm's gun-running operation known as Operation Fast and Furious. Under the supervision of ATF officials, the operation let guns get into the hands of criminals on both sides of the Mexican border. The NRA claimed Holder perjured himself before Congress and lied about what he knew about the operation and urged the White House to fire Holder. Holder has adamantly denied lying.

The NRA has homed in on Operation Fast and Furious in order to advance its agenda of undermining not just Holder but the president. The misguided operation, run by ATF officials reporting to the Justice Department, encouraged Arizona gun dealers to sell weapons to "straw purchasers," with the hopes of tracing the weapons to the Mexican cartels. ATF lost track of many of the guns, and some surfaced at crime scenes on both sides of the Mexican border, including one involving the murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry last year in Arizona.

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Apparently Maricopa County has guards -- private security firm employees, not county employees, with guns -- proper guns -- at most of its libraries.

"In large buildings with multiple rooms and lots of people, you need to have some feeling among the staff, as well as the public, that it's a secure place, particularly where it's used a lot by children," said library-district director Harry Courtright, who retired Friday.
[...]
In his 12 years with the district, Courtright said there have been no incidents of a guard drawing a gun.

"And they shouldn't have to, because they have the training. But that gun makes a difference to the people who are coming in the building who might want to do something that could be bad; they see an armed guard, and the reality is they back off and they don't do things - it's a preventative thing," he said.

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Reliant Stadium apparently has a blanket ban on "weapons," as if a handgun were a common cigarette or outside beverage.

A Perry constituent asked about bringing his licensed concealed weapon to the prayer festival, and received this response from event organizers:

Thank you for your question. According to the Reliant Stadium, weapons are prohibited. The following text can be found on our website: http://theresponseusa.com/faq.php

"What should I bring?

The Response is encouraging people to fast during the event, however there will be limited food vendors and water for sale. Bring a Bible and a notebook.

Stadium regulations prohibit: signs, flags, soliciting/promotion material, noise makers/instruments, coolers, tobacco, illegal substances, weapons or pets."

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The shootings happened Thursday morning in Yuma County.

Yuma police Sgt. Clint Norred tells the Yuma Sun that the shootings were connected and are under investigation. It's unclear whether there's been an arrest or what the motive may have been.

Norred says four of the fatal shootings occurred in the county and one happened within Yuma city limits.

Police haven't confirmed the identity of the victims.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

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Missouri University of Science and Technology police spokesman Andrew Careaga told The Associated Press that a man carrying a gun was seen entering McNutt Hall on the Rolla campus Thursday morning and later seen leaving the building.

He says there have been no reports of shootings and that police are trying to locate the gunman.

The roughly 6000-student technological research and engineering campus was briefly locked down in 2007 after a student who claimed to have a bomb and threatened "terrorist-type" actions. A graduate student from India known to be despondent over his grades was later charged with several felonies.

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The police wrapped up their investigation at approximately 10:45 pm, after locating just one antique rifle and some bullets. There was no mention of whether the unhinged actor was also carrying around that giant machete he waved from a rooftop earlier this week, which, given his threats to Mueller, would seem like the more obvious description of the "weapon" they should be looking for.

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The deadline for complying with the three-year-old law was last month. But nine states haven't supplied any names to the database. Seventeen others have sent in fewer than 25, meaning gun dealers around the U.S. could be running names of would-be buyers against a woefully incomplete list.

Officials blame privacy laws, antiquated record-keeping and a severe lack of funding for the gap the AP found through public records requests.

Eleven states have provided more than 1,000 records apiece to the federal database, yet gun-control groups have estimated more than 1 million files are missing nationwide.

"If the mental health records are not current from our sister states, the quality of our background check is going to be compromised," said Sean Byrne, acting commissioner of the Division of Criminal Justice Services in New York, a state that has submitted more than 100,000 records.

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Mark Kelly said in an interview broadcast Monday on NBC that he can ask her questions and she can respond, and he says "the communication is coming back very quickly."

He says she is trying so hard that her speech therapist, who only a few days ago was trying to get her to talk more, is now asking Giffords to slow down and make sure she hears the question before giving an answer.

Giffords was shot in the head Jan. 8 while meeting with constituents outside a Tucson grocery store. She began intensive rehabilitation at a Houston hospital late last month.

Giffords' efforts to relearn how to speak have also included mouthing song lyrics, such as "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" and "Happy Birthday to You," as friends and family sang along, a newspaper reported late Sunday.

Giffords also briefly spoke with her brother-in-law Scott Kelly by telephone Sunday afternoon as he orbited aboard the International Space Station, The New York Times reported on its website.

"She said, hi, I'm good," her chief of staff, Pia Carusone, told the paper. He is the brother of Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly.

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<p>Court appearances for the suspects scheduled for Monday morning were postponed until Tuesday, and the charges against them could undergo "adjustment," Hughes said.</p>

Police say they're searching for two suspects in a shooting at an Ohio fraternity house that killed one student and injured 11 people, including six students, just north of the Youngstown State University campus.

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But Rep. Allen West, the Tea Party favorite from Florida elected in 2010, appears to be the first congressman to actually follow through on that pledge -- or maybe not. He's being cagey about it.

From a CNN report on a West town hall Monday night:

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The bill, which would take effect Jan. 1, 2012, would give people six months to acquire a firearm after turning 21. The provision does not apply to people who are barred from owning a firearm.

Nor does the measure specify what type of firearm. Instead, residents would pick one “suitable to their temperament, physical capacity, and preference.”

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A Florida Highway Patrol report released Monday said Julie Powers Schenecker had dilated pupils with no reaction to light and "mush-mouthed speech" after she hit a vehicle towing a trailer.

Officers didn't do a field sobriety test because she was taken to the hospital. When officers went to the hospital to obtain a blood sample, Schenecker had already checked out.

She was charged with careless driving.

Schenecker appeared in court Monday on two first-degree murder charges. She is accused of killing 16-year-old Calyx and 13-year-old Beau last Thursday. She was found Friday by police sitting on her back porch, covered in blood.

Police said she told detectives that she shot the children because they were "mouthy."

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"No," say the cousins.

"Not long after we moved to D.C.," my mother says, "there were riots. Paul was nervous. So when he was in New Mexico, he went to Uncle Jack's secondhand store and bought a gun."

My mom continues. "When he showed it to me, I said, 'Are you crazy?' I took the gun from him, wrapped it in a kerchief, and put it in an Anne Klein shoebox. I tied the whole thing up in duct tape and put it on the top shelf of my closet. Nobody looks at it again for 25 years. Paul dies. I move to the new condo. I look at that Anne Klein shoebox and I realize, 'Why do I need a gun?' Instead of putting it on a top shelf of a closet in the condo, I take the Anne Klein shoebox and bring it to a Montgomery County police station."

"Did he have a permit for the gun?" asks Cousin Don, who looks like a psychologist.

"Of course he didn't," says his brother Mark, who actually is a psychologist.

"Of course he didn't," confirms my mother. "I bring the Anne Klein shoebox into the police station, right up to the bulletproof glass, and one of the cops says, 'No one here wears that size.'"

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Exactly what Obama will do isn't clear, though Plouffe mentioned as an example the president's support for renewing the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004 and made it illegal to manufacture the type of high-capacity clip used in the Tucson, Ariz., mass shooting earlier this month.

Gun control advocates have been frustrated by Obama's reticence on gun control in the wake of Tucson, including his conspicuous silence in the State of the Union address. The administration may well have made a pragmatic decision not to pursue major gun control legislation right now. After all, Republicans who control the House have shown zero interest in proposals that have been floated since Tucson. Even leading gun control advocate Rep. Carolyn McCarthy acknowledged in a recent interview that, facing a pro-gun House and a pro-gun Senate, Obama is "picking his battles."

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Gardena police Lt. Steve Prendergast says the shooter is believed to be a student.

Prendergast says the three victims have been treated by paramedics and transported to a hospital.

The lieutenant says a teacher called 911 at 10:41 a.m. Tuesday and police from the city of Gardena initially responded. The school is actually located in the city of Los Angeles and the incident is being turned over to Los Angeles police.

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Gardena High School Principal Rudy Mendoza said the student dropped the bag as he walked between classes at midmorning. The boy who brought the gun was apprehended, Mendoza told The Associated Press.

Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Jamie Moore said two victims were transported to a hospital, one in serious and one in critical condition.

Police initially reported that three people were shot and the shooter was at large.

Numerous law enforcement agencies responded to the shooting at the 2,400-student campus located in the city of Los Angeles adjacent to the city of Gardena.

Gardena police Lt. Steve Prendergast said a teacher called 911 at 10:41 a.m. and Gardena officers initially responded. The investigation was being turned over to Los Angeles city and school district police.

A handful of frantic parents rushed to the school after hearing about the shooting on the news. They paced nervously as they waited behind police tapes for word from their children.

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Her doctors' decision Sunday was yet another sign of a remarkable recovery since she was shot in the head Jan. 8 when a gunman opened fire as she met constituents in a Tucson supermarket parking lot. Six people were killed and 13 were wounded, including the congresswoman.

Giffords is now able to move around well enough that she gave Kelly a back rub from her hospital bed, he told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an interview that will air Tuesday.

"(It is) so typical of her. She's in the ICU. You know, gone through this traumatic injury. And she spent 10 minutes giving me a neck massage," Kelly explained. "I keep tellin' her. I'm like, 'Gabby, you're in the ICU. You know, you don't need -- you know, you don't need to be doin' this.' But it's so typical of her that no matter how bad the situation might be for her, you know, she's lookin' out for other people."

The gesture seemed to comfort Giffords and shows that his wife is improving and that her spirit and their personal bond remain strong, he said.

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