The sad news continues to roll out regarding the Connecticut massacre, including the shooter’s apparent earlier murder of his brother in New Jersey. We’ll be hearing the depressing details for many days. But here are some other final items of the day and week, some related to the massacre, some not:
* Bobby Jindal, who is in quite the self-promotion phase right now, calls for making oral contraceptives available to adults over the counter, apparently to keep “pharmacists of conscience” from having to fill contraception prescriptions. Would tell you more, but it’s behind the WSJ paywall.
* Fallows notes that gun-toting citizens have killed a a lot more Americans over the last decade than Islamic Terrorists.
* Slate‘s Dave Weigel reminds us that the president did, however hesitantly, call for return of assault gun ban during the second presidential candidates’ debate this year.
* At Ten Miles Square, Mark Kleiman notes that Obama’s “not a priority” remarks about federal action against state-legalized pot very similar to his Attorney General’s earlier posture on medical marijuana.
* At College Guide, Daniel Luzer reports that SC’s Newberry College is planning to offer an undergraduate major in Social Media. Not as crazy an idea as it might have sounded just a few years ago.
And in non-political, non-gun news:
* Bennigan’s heads list of ten major national restaurant chains with calamitous drop in number of branches over last decade.
As mentioned earlier, I’m out o’ here for vacation the next week. Former Washington Monthly editorial intern and freelance journalist Sam Knight will be on duty this weekend, with Ryan Cooper having the controls next week, followed by Kathleen Geier the weekend of December 22-23.
See you December 24! If you have kids, definitely give them an extra gesture of security and affection tonight.
Selah.
