“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.
Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.
The Sunday Talking Heads:
This Week with Christiane Amanpour: n a special “This Week” Town Hall “After The Tragedy: An American Conversation Continued,” Christiane Amanpour anchors the first discussion with many of the men and women who had assembled in the Safeway parking lot when the shooting began. Among those who will join the Town Hall: family members of victims, citizens who took heroic action and community leaders. ABC News Anchor David Muir will be in the audience to restart a conversation about America and to probe the community’s reaction to some of the difficult questions raised by tragedy.
Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer’s guests Rudy Giuliani, Former NYC Mayor, Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla. and Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. who will discuss the aftermath in Tuscon.
The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Senior Editor, Norah O’Donnell, MSNBC Chief Washington Correspondent, Gloria Borger, CNN Senior Political Analyst and Reihan Salam, National Review.
They will discuss these questions:
Obama at two years: Can he calm the haters?
How will GOP presidential candidates handle Sarah Palin now?
Meet the Press with David Gregory: This Sunday, discussion and debate about guns in America and the tone of political discourse after Tucson, with Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Republican Senator from Oklahoma Tom Coburn. Also, we’ll hear the latest on the condition of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, from her friend Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).
Joining ‘lurch’ for a special roundtable conversation: David Brooks of the New York Times, Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal, Rev. Al Sharpton and Tim Shriver.
State of the Union with Candy Crowley: This Sunday, on a special edition of State of the Union, we’ll spend the hour searching for answers as we look at the state of mental health.
First, an overview of schizophrenia and other potentially debilitating mental disorders with two specialized experts: Dr. E. Fuller Torrey, the executive director of the Stanley Medical Research Institute, and Dr. Lisa Dixon, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Then, did Jared Lee Loughner exhibit any behavior that would indicate he was dangerous? Could anything have been done to prevent him from acting? We’ll be joined by two professionals with a personal connection to schizophrenia:
Dr. Fred Frese, a psychologist for 40 years, is the former president of the National Mental Health Consumers’ Association, and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as a young adult.
Peter Earley is a former national reporter for the Washington Post and author of a dozen books, including “Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness,” which details his journey seeking treatment for his adult son who was declared mentally ill.
Finally, we’ll talk with the co-chairs of the Congressional Mental Health Caucus, Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pennsylvania) and Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-California). Where can we go from here? What legislative obstacles stand in the way of meaningful reform?
Fareed Zakaris: GPS: An exclusive interview with the man who — until just days ago — was President Obama’s chief economic adviser. Former director of the National Economics Council Lawrence Summers gives his FIRST interview since leaving the White House. Why aren’t we seeing stronger job growth, when will the President tackle the deficit, and how much will the U.S. economy grow in 2011?
Then, what in the world? The Brits went ballistic over something President Obama said about France this week. Does America have a new BFF?
Next, America has more guns per capita than any other country on earth. The U.S. buys more than 50% of ALL of the new guns manufactured around the world. What is it about America and guns? And did that contribute to the tragedy in Tucson? An GPS panel – including French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy — looks at America’s unique gun culture, and what separates us from the rest of the world.
Finally, could you use a pay raise in 2011? Well, you may be better off than you think. India’s PM earns only $4000 a YEAR. How much $$$ does YOUR leader take home? We’ll take a last look.
Frank Rich No One Listened to Gabrielle Giffords
OF the many truths in President Obama’s powerful Tucson speech, none was more indisputable than his statement that no one can know what is in a killer’s mind. So why have we spent so much time debating exactly that?
The answer is classic American denial. It was easier to endlessly parse Jared Lee Loughner’s lunatic library – did he favor “The Communist Manifesto” or Ayn Rand? – than confront the larger and harsher snapshot of our current landscape that emerged after his massacre. A week on, that denial is becoming even more entrenched. As soon as the president left the podium Wednesday night, we started shifting into our familiar spin-dry post-tragedy cycle of the modern era – speedy “closure,” followed by a return to business as usual, followed by national amnesia.
If we learn nothing from this tragedy, we are back where we started. And where we started was with two years of accelerating political violence – actual violence, not to be confused with violent language – that struck fear into many, not the least of whom was Gabrielle Giffords.
Nicholas D. Kristof: China’s Winning Schools?
An international study published last month looked at how students in 65 countries performed in math, science and reading. The winner was: Confucianism!
At the very top of the charts, in all three fields and by a wide margin, was Shanghai. Three of the next top four performers were also societies with a Confucian legacy of reverence for education: Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea. The only non-Confucian country in the mix was Finland.
The United States? We came in 15th in reading, 23rd in science and 31st in math.
I’ve been visiting schools in China and Asia for more than 20 years (and we sent our own kids briefly to schools in Japan, which also bears a Confucian imprint), and I’ve spent much of that time either envious or dumbfounded. I’ll never forget pulling our 2-year-old son out of his Tokyo nursery school so we could visit the States and being handed a form in which we had to list: “reason for proposed vacation.”
Education thrives in China and the rest of Asia because it is a top priority – and we’ve plenty to learn from that.
David Bromwich: Obama on Civility and Lincoln on the Rule of Law
President Obama’s memorial speech in Tucson on January 12 delivered a message of consolation and hope about the terrible killings four days earlier. Don’t we realize, the president asked, that we Americans are all neighbors, that we are something like the members of a family? And once we recognize that, shouldn’t we agree to respect each other and talk gently to each other? A decent sympathy becomes us, even in our disagreements.
This was a reiteration of Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention Keynote Address of 2004. We are not red states and blue states, the president is saying once again. We are all one America. Like a preacher at a service in a parish church, he spoke on Wednesday emphatically, and with familiar affection, of those who had been killed. He spoke more particularly of democratic citizenship and the relation between citizens and their representatives. Yet there was a notable omission. The president’s memorial address in Tucson never mentioned the rule of law.
(emphasis mine)
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