Thank You, George!

George Michael, singer, gay icon and pop music's reigning star during the 1980s and ´90s, was found dead on Christmas Day at his home in England. He was only 53.

A police statement said that the death is being treated "as unexplained but not suspicious". while Michael Lippman, George Michael's manager, said that George Michael died of heart failure "in bed, lying peacefully".

Rest in peace, George.

Welcome England & Wales

PinkNews, Europe's largest gay news service, today reports:

"The equal marriage bill for England and Wales was today given Royal Assent, and is now officially law.

The Queen’s Royal Assent was granted to the bill on Wednesday at 15:06, turning it into the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, after clearing the final stage in Parliament yesterday, following two hours of debate, and the introduction of government amendments.

The bill officially became law once its Royal Assent was announced in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Conservative MP David Burrowes had tabled an amendment and was yesterday again accused of trying to delay implementation of the bill. Pro-equal marriage MPs padded out their speeches so that Mr Burrowes could not propose his amendment.

The equal marriage bill was passed in the House of Commons, and as all amendments added in the House of Lords were accepted, it will not be required to go back to the Lords.

The first same-sex marriages in England and Wales will take place in summer 2014."

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It was especially pleasing to note that Queen Elizabeth II didn't waste any time in giving her assent to this legislation. As a commenter at JoeMyGod says, "As a Queen she knows, queens don't like to be kept waiting."

As I understand it the reason for the long delay before same-sex marriages can begin in England and Wales is the impact the new law has on many other laws which now also need to be amended  to be consistent. For a Swede this may seem strange, as we always take the necessary changes into consideration and amend them at the same time as we adopt a new law.  Every country has its own traditions and as long as they get it right in the end all ways are acceptable.

Americans and Firearms

"A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." The second amendment to the United States Constitution (Bill of Rights, adopted 1791)
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The poster above and the information below are from the Brady Campaign's website. The numbers and statistics are from 2010.

Gun Murders by Country
In one year, guns murdered 17 people in Finland, 35 in Australia, 39 in England and Wales, 60 in Spain, 194 in Germany, 200 in Canada, and 9,484 in the United States.

The United States has weak gun laws. The other countries have strong gun laws. 

Gun Murders by Country and Population SizeWhen the countries are compared on the basis of firearm homicides per 100,000 population, the United States remains an outlier.

In one year, the U.S. firearm homicide rate was:

• 5 times that of Canada
• 10 times that of Finland
• 13 times that of Germany
• 19 times that of Australia
• 24 times that of Spain.
• 44 times that of England and Wales

A 2010 study affirmed this pattern: U.S. homicide rates were 6.9 times higher than 22 other populous, high-income countries combined. For a summary of the study, see: http://bradycampaign.org/studies/view/191.

Guns Used in Crime = More Deaths
Research indicates that the overall rate of crime in the United States is comparable to the rates in other developed countries (see Crime Is Not the Problem: Lethal Violence in America). However, in part because of our weak gun laws, guns are used more often in crimes in the United States than in other countries, which means that more people die. This partly explains why, even when our homicide rates are low by historical U.S. standards, they still are far higher than comparable countries.

We Can Do Better 
The U.S. needs to do a better job of protecting its citizens from the dangers of guns by making it harder for dangerous people to get guns. We can start by requiring Brady criminal background checks for gun sales, including those at gun shows. Join us in this fight. Lives are at stake. Go to www.bradycampaign.org and sign up today!
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Addendum 12/16/2012, 05:50 PM
My initial reaction to such tragedies as the Newtown killing spree is always an utter disbelief that such a thing can happen and a then a deep sadness for the fate of the victims, their families and yes -  often enough also - for the perpetrators and their families. The initial shock is then followed by a longer lasting anger and passion concerning how something like this can happen and how we must act to stop it from ever happening again.

It seems like an open and shut case that these killings occur with such regularity in the U.S.A. due to the lack of political will to regulate the owning and selling of firearms, handguns and semiautomatic weapons.

How the American judiciary and politicians (historically and to this day) could interpret the second amendment in such a way as it is implemented today is a complete mystery to me.