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This Week in “Gun Disgust”: Social Services Visits New Jersey Man’s House Because of a Facebook Picture of His Son Holding a Gun
Trevor Burrus
A picture of Shawn Moore’s 11-year-old clad in camouflage and holding a scary-looking gun prompted New Jersey’s Department of Children and Families to visit his house for an “inspection,” according to Moore. As reported by the Associated Press:
The elder Moore was at a friend’s house when his wife called, saying state child welfare investigators, along with four local police officers, were at the house, asking to inspect the family’s guns.
Moore said he called his lawyer Evan Nappen, who specializes in Second Amendment cases, and had him on speaker phone as he arrived at his house in Carneys Point, just across the Delaware River from Wilmington, Del.
“They said they wanted to see into my safe and see if my guns were registered,” Moore said. “I said no; in New Jersey, your guns don’t have to be registered with the state; it’s voluntary. I knew once I opened that safe, there was no going back.”
The Department of Children and Families has not confirmed that the Facebook picture was the reason for the surprise “inspection,” but a spokeswoman did comment that it is “important to note the way an investigation begins is through the child abuse hotline. Someone has to call to let us know there is a concern.”
Yesterday, I argued on FoxNews.com that the gun debate is really a culture debate. Two cultures are emerging in America. One culture respects guns as important tools in the hands of responsible citizens. The other culture is disgusted by guns. It is becoming increasingly difficult to bridge the gap between those cultures in order to devise reasonable and effective gun laws that respect citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
Clearly, Mr. Moore is in the former camp and has taught his son how to responsibly use firearms. Appearing on “Fox and Friends” this morning, Moore’s son Josh said he’d been shooting guns since he was five, that he likes to hunt, and is a “pretty good shooter.”
Yet many who are animated by “gun disgust” believe keeping firearms in the home is tantamount to child abuse. But the actual number of accidental firearm deaths of children are usually grossly overstated. In 2010, the CDC reported 62 deaths by accidental firearm discharge for children between 0-14 years old. (You can check the numbers yourself here.)
While each and every one of these deaths is undeniably tragic, the number is far less than deaths due to accidental drownings (726) or bicycles (approximately 100 in 2006). Yet I’m sure social services would not have visited Mr. Moore’s house if he had put up a picture of Josh on a new ten-speed. In fact, for an instrument with such potential for lethality, the number of accidental gun deaths for children is remarkably low. Even seemingly innocuous things, such as adult beds, can kill dozens of children per year. Between 1999-2001, 41 children under five died after being caught between a mattress and a wall or headboard. Nevertheless, during the Clinton administration the Department of Justice ran a series of ads designed to frighten parents about the dangers of unlocked guns, claiming that “an unlocked gun could be the death of your family.”
Those numbers are unlikely to change the minds of the gun-disgusted. As in many areas of public policy, facts often matter less than we’d like to believe.
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International News • Ex-HBOS chief admits selling two-thirds of holding in two ye
Former HBOS chief executive Sir James Crosby sold off shares in bank on the eve of crash
Ex-HBOS chief admits selling two-thirds of holding in two years before near-collapse
JAMES MOORE MONDAY 03 DECEMBER 2012
The former chief executive of HBOS has told members of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards that he sold two thirds of his shares in bank in the two years before its near collapse.
Sir James Crosby also admitted that lending by bankers at HBOS was “incompetent” after a heated exchange in which he was challenged on at least 15 separate occasions by Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Commission.
Sir James earned nearly £8m while chief executive of the bank he brought to life by stewarding the merger of Halifax with Bank of Scotland. He retired on in the middle of 2006 on an index linked pension of £570,000, Commission members were told.
His staggering admission is now likely to put him on a level of Fred Goodwin, former boss of Royal Bank of Scotland, as one of the chief villains of the financial crisis.
Mr Tyrie described the collapse of HBOS as “a terrible catastrophe” and accused Sir James of getting out before the crash.
Sir James said in response: “In effect yes, but not knowingly. I was essentially balancing my portfolio of assets.”
The bank was ultimately rescued by Lloyds in a Government brokered deal, and its cavalier lending was largely responsible for Lloyds having to go cap in hand to the taxpayer for two multi billion pound bail outs.
The last available public information on Sir James’ shareholding is in the 2005 HBoS annual report. It shows that he had a “beneficial interest” in 284,758 HBOS shares. However, a further 218,000 in long term awards vested in 2006 plus 50,000 more under a short term scheme bringing to the total to more than 550,000. On his last day at work in the middle of 2006 the share price stood at 946.72p. Six months after Sir James left, the shares had increased in value to more than £11 each.
Yesterday shares in Lloyds Banking Banking Group, which took over HBOS in 2009, stood at 45.74p.
Sir James for the first time apologised for the near collapse of HBOS saying: “I was horrified and deeply upset by what happened. Hugely distressing in every respect to see the impact on shareholders, former colleagues… and taxpayers.
“I’m apologising for the fact that I played a major part in building a business that failed.”
But he said he hadn’t followed Mr Goodwin, former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland who lost his knighthood as a result of the crisis, by giving up any of his index linked pension. He said this was because “I lost money because I had long term incentives sitting there”. Executives often have millions locked up in long term incentive plans linked to company performance.
Asked if he grasped the public’s anger about the money he made from the failed bank and his failure to give up any Sir James insisted that he did.
Mr Tyrie later pointed out that 10 per cent of HBOS loans had gone bad, twice that of the next worst bank – Royal Bank of Scotland – and more than three times more normal banks such as HSBC or Barclays.
Sir James sought to portray the financial crisis as “unprecedented” although he admitted that HBoS stress testing was inadequate. However, he said it was impossible to foresee the collapse of the international lending markets on which HBOS relied for funding.
Mr Tyrie challenged him, saying the figures suggested that the bank’s lending was “incompetent”.
He said: “ You were a founder ceo of the merged business (of Halifax and Bank of Scotland that HBOS) and set the first strategic plan. If you look at that plan it is ambitious possibly aggressive in terms of its overall targets.”
Mr Crosby said this could be true “with the benefit of hindsight”.
He was then asked: “Do you recognise that this was incompetent lending.”
Sir James said: “With the benefit of hindsight it wasn’t good lending.”
Mr Tyrie then repeatedly made the point before Sir James finally accepted that “with the benefit of hindsight it (the lending) was incompetent”.
“I will agree that in the end corporate losses were excessive and the lending was very poor ,” he continued.
Sir James’s positions at the heart of the financial establishment have become increasingly controversial. He was Gordon Brown’s banking advisor and a director of the Financial Service Authority. His role at the regulator is now being investigated to see whether he had “undue influence” in the oversight of HBoS as part of a planned report into the bank’s demise.
Sir James’ successor Andy Hornby later described events at the bank as “appalling” before the Commission. Mr Hornby subsequently landed a £1m a year role as chief executive of Boots which he left after less than a year. He is now the boss of Coral’s, the bookmaker.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ho … 76368.html
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Mon Dec 03, 2012 11:46 pm
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Other • IT’S BOOMING OVER HERE. WHAT’S HOLDING YOU BACK?
IT’S BOOMING OVER HERE. WHAT’S HOLDING YOU BACK?
by SIMON BLACK ·
January 13, 2012
Manila, Philippines
[Editor's note: Tim Staermose is filling in today while Simon is down on the farm in Chile.]
Amid all the doom and gloom in the world economy as insolvent western nations slowly suffocate under a mountain of debt, it’s easy to forget that there are places in the world that are still BOOMING.
I went out to dinner with a friend in Manila last night. Each of the first three restaurants we wanted to go to were completely booked. There is construction everywhere in Manila’s central business district. The roads are chock full with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Shops are full. People are spending money.
My dinner companion last night is an executive with a major international bank. He’s new to the country, and on Wednesday was given a tour of the stock exchange. As he stood on the trading floor, the Philippines’ benchmark PHISIX index hit an ALL TIME HIGH.
The government’s fiscal balance is improving, not deteriorating. 20% of the funds earmarked for “stimulus” last year are still in reserve. They simply weren’t needed.
Like in most of the world, benchmark interest rates are at an all-time low. The difference is that, unlike in the west, banks are confident to lend, and consumers are confident to borrow and spend. Commerce is still happening. This is not an isolated example.
In Thailand, my contacts tell me employment is so strong it’s hard to even find service staff for bars and restaurants. And this is in a place that was recently devastated by floods.
Simon has written about the booms in Cambodia, and Mongolia. Myanmar is slowly but surely opening up, and there are already hordes of opportunity seekers descending on Yangon.
It’s a message that we’ve stressed in our conversations with you before. But, it bears repeating. If you’re willing to look beyond your current horizons, there are alternatives out there.
And the message is getting out.
When I first moved to the Philippines 14 years ago, young expats like me were VERY thin on the ground. Sure, there was a motley assortment of non-natives living here. But they were generally older, grizzled veterans, if you know what I mean.
Nowadays, I see many younger people, including those with families. More tourists are also coming. One of the biggest new groups of visitors are the Russians.
Already a force in the Thai tourism industry, Russians appear to be checking out the Philippines as well. My wife reports that the area where she has her surf hotel is bustling with Russian kite surfers now.
Back here in Manila’s CBD where I spend most of my time, I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the whole character of the place is changing. And there is lots of opportunity.
Manila’s modern and exciting central business district
I have ideas for at least 3 businesses that could be a big success here — two in real estate, and one that would utilize the large pool of educated, English speaking labor here to provide a service that could be marketed internationally.
I don’t have the time to execute on these ideas at the present time. But, if anyone is interested in hearing about them, or willing to roll up their sleeves and help me make them a reality, I’d be interested to hear from you.
If you’re stuck in a rut back home and finding fulfillment in life hard to come by, or you just aren’t seeing any opportunities, I urge you to look internationally.
I did it. As a young graduate straight out of the Australian National University, I headed off to work in South Korea. I haven’t looked back since. I couldn’t imagine a life that wasn’t filled with new and different experiences all around the world. This is my reality.
Talking the talk is one thing. Walking the walk is something entirely different. And one of my resolutions this year is to help more people in this community actually EXECUTE on the things that we talk about.
If only 1% of the people who read this take action, it will have been well worth it. As Simon often asks, “What’s holding you back?”
Statistics: Posted by yoda — Fri Jan 13, 2012 11:03 am
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