MARIONVILLE, MO (SPRINGFIELD NEWS LEADER) -- The guy with a gun picked the wrong clerk.

How wrong?

A veteran of four tours in Iraq. A 30-year military man. A former prison guard, private investigator, professional extraditor of federal prisoners and - perhaps most important on this particular Sunday night - a proud owner of a Walther PPX 9 mm handgun.

Loaded, with one in the chamber, like he always carries it.

MARIONVILLE, MO (SPRINGFIELD NEWS LEADER) -- The guy with a gun picked the wrong clerk.

How wrong?

A veteran of four tours in Iraq. A 30-year military man. A former prison guard, private investigator, professional extraditor of federal prisoners and - perhaps most important on this particular Sunday night - a proud owner of a Walther PPX 9 mm handgun.

Loaded, with one in the chamber, like he always carries it.

Syrians' Facebook posts illustrate tragedy of chemical weapons attacks
3 hours ago
PoliticsChemical weaponFacebook

Editor’s note: Storyful pieced together these timelines from eyewitnesses’ Facebook posts and news reports. In addition to noting when Syrians published social media reports, the timelines describe approximate times chemical weapons attacks occurred on Aug. 21 in the Damascus suburbs. The timelines list events from different northeastern Damascus locations, including Jobar, Kafr Batna, Hamoryah, Erbin and Douma.

The map above shows approximate locations described in the timelines. Ein Tarma, Jobar and Zamalka are marked with yellow pins. Zaynia is noted with a red exclamation mark. Victims of the alleged attack were reportedly treated at the following locations: Jobar, Kafr Batna, Hamoryah, Erbin and Douma. These are marked with red crosses. See a full key of map icons.

Activists reported chemical weapons attacks, according to Reuters, from around 2:30 a.m. local time on Aug. 21 in East Ghouta, Damascus. Initial reports made reference to three locations: Jobar, Ein Tarma and Zamalka. On the Facebook account of the Ein Tarma Coordinating, local activists reported the downing of a chopper and the taking of a telecommunications building, in Jobar, in the hours before the attack.

All times quoted are local Syrian times. Click the links to see the Facebook posts from the areas. Please note that the photos are graphic and contain images of dead and wounded people.

What the U.S. map would look like if each state had the same population
http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/AuuqrjysFrwA9_QLqc2fEg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTY0MA--/

(Neil Freeman)
Ever wonder what America would look like if each state were equal in population?

An artist and urban planner has redrawn the map of the United States to show what it would look like if the same number of people occupied each state.

Neil Freeman's "United States redrawn as Fifty States with Equal Population" takes a radically simple stab at Electoral College reform, preserving its structure and function while simultaneously ending the overrepresentation of small states and underrepresentation of large states in presidential voting by eliminating small and large states altogether.

Using data from the 2010 U.S. Census, Freeman says his map's redrawn boundaries "more closely follow economic patterns, since many states are more centered on one or two metro areas." It also would end varying representation by population in the U.S. House

Dick's Spinoff Store Sells AR-15 Rifles After Suspending Sales For Newtown Mourning

Posted: 08/20/2013 10:37 am EDT | Updated: 08/20/2013 12:16 pm EDT

Field & Stream, a new outdoors store opened by Dick's Sporting Goods in western Pennsylvania, is selling AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, apparently ending the company's suspension of assault-style weapons sales after December's massacre at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school.

A Field & Stream sales associate confirmed to The Huffington Post that AR-15s and so-called modular sniper rifles are available for purchase at the store in Cranberry Township, Pa. The store, the first of two Dick's has said it plans to open in 2013 focusing on hunting and fishing gear, had its grand opening on Friday, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times.

School Has Become Too Hostile to Boys

And efforts to re-engineer the young-male imagination are doomed to fail

By Christina Hoff Sommers @chsommersAug. 19, 2013190 Comments

As school begins in the coming weeks, parents of boys should ask themselves a question: Is my son really welcome? A flurry of incidents last spring suggests that the answer is no. In May, Christopher Marshall, age 7, was suspended from his Virginia school for picking up a pencil and using it to “shoot” a “bad guy” — his friend, who was also suspended. A few months earlier, Josh Welch, also 7, was sent home from his Maryland school for nibbling off the corners of a strawberry Pop-Tart to shape it into a gun. At about the same time, Colorado’s Alex Evans, age 7, was suspended for throwing an imaginary hand grenade at “bad guys” in order to “save the world.”

In all these cases, school officials found the children to be in violation of the school’s zero-tolerance policies for firearms, which is clearly a ludicrous application of the rule. But common sense isn’t the only thing at stake here. In the name of zero tolerance, our schools are becoming hostile environments for young boys.


Girls occasionally run afoul of these draconian policies; but it is mostly boys who are ensnared. Boys are nearly five times more likely to be expelled from preschool than girls. In grades K-12, boys account for nearly 70% of suspensions, often for minor acts of insubordination and defiance. In the cases of Christopher, Josh and Alex, there was no insubordination or defiance whatsoever. They were guilty of nothing more than being typical 7-year-old boys. But in today’s school environment, that can be a punishable offense.