A Day at the Gun Show

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Speaking of gun shows, here are some snapshots I took earlier this month at a gun show on a weekend day at the Pima County Fairgrounds just outside Tucson.

As at gun shows across the country, crowds were bigger than usual, ammunition and magazines were selling out, and the hottest items on many lips were the Bushmaster AR 15 rifle. You know, the same kind of semiautomatic assault weapon that that homicidal maniac borrowed from his gun-nut mother to massacre 20 little children and six teachers a month ago at that grade-school in Connecticut, after he murdered his mother at home.

The rifle is so popular that the boys from the NRA, manning their usual booth near the entrance to the gun show to drum up membership (which is flagging), were promoting one as first prize in a raffle, $10 a ticket. Gun owners told me that the AR 15s are almost impossible to find now. All sold out.   A used one that used to go for $800 is now in the $1,800 range, one said.

By the way, gun dealers I talked to said they love those well-intentioned "gun buy-back" programs that are increasingly popular as a reaction against gun violence. "You can get at least $50 for any old piece of crap in Grandpa's closet," one said. 

I occasionally go to the local gun shows to check out the doings. Most noticeable to me on this one was the unusual number of people who brought the kiddies along, including some in strollers in which a rifle was also being carried.  Alas, no photos allowed inside the sacred hall. So these from outside will have to do.

Sign in an SUV parked in Tucson gun-show lot

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Another Mass Shooting: Gunman Kills 5, Including 3 Children, in Albuquerque

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[UPDATED JAN. 21]
As the gun crowd jammed gun shows and celebrated Guns Across America rallies around the country, and assault rifles were hot sellers while supplies lasted, still another homicidal lunatic with an assault rifle shot five people to death Saturday night in Albuquerque, N.M. The murdered children were ages 9, 5 and 2. The boy charged in the murders is 15.

[UPDATED JAN. 21) -- The victims were identified today as Greg Griego, 51, his wife Sara Griego, 40, and three of their children: a 9-year-old boy, Zephania Griego, and daughters Jael Griego, 5, and Angelina Griego, 2. The shooter was identified as Nehemiah Griego, 15, who has been charged in the murders.]

[The church Web site has removed recent information on the Griego family, but past church bulletins described Greg Griego as a member of the "pastoral staff," not as the pastor. He is also described as the head of the church's prison outreach ministry.]

[According to the Albuquerque Journal on Monday, "Griego had converted his backyard barn into a halfway house for released prisoners, according to neighbors. He also held services at the county jail’s “God Pod,” where he gave inmates spiritual advice."]

A local TV station, KRQE, had this initial report on Sunday:

"ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) -- Police are investigating multiple murders after they say a teen fatally shot two adults and three young children in southwest Albuquerque.

Deputies responded to a home on 2806 Long Lane in southwest Albuquerque after reports of a 
possible homicide a little after 9 o'clock Saturday night. When they arrived, deputies say the found several victims and weapons inside the home. [Including an assault rifle that was used in the shooting]

An adult man, an adult woman and three children around elementary age were found dead with multiple gunshot wounds."

[Greg Griego, identified as the dead clergyman, appeared in a 2003 news report as the chaplain at the county Detention Center. He was at the center of a neighborhood controversy over  his plan to open a halfway house on Long Lane. It is not clear if that is the same Long Lane address as the site of last night's shooting. As chaplain at the detention center, Griego was described in a 2003 news account as the overseer of  the prison ministry for Calvary Chapel of Albuquerque.]


Meanwhile, the NBC affiliate, KOB, reports today that "Police believe the teenager used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in the shooting."


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Airlines' Revenues Soar

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From the very informed Web site AirlineFinancials.com today, domestic airlines are reporting record revenues as fares and fee revenues steadily rise:

"By the end of this week, AirlineFinancials.com  LLC is projecting the seven largest US airlines will have collectively reported $152 million in profits from $33.3 billion in revenue for the 4^th quarter. This will be record industry revenue for any 4^th quarter and the 3^rd consecutive year of 4^th quarter profits after 10 years of losses. American and United were the only two airlines to report a loss and not have record revenue for the 4^th quarter.



For full year 2012, AirlineFinancials.com LLC projects these seven airlines will collectively report $3.7 billion in profits from a record $140 billion in revenues. For the first time since the 1990’s, excluding American, every airline will have annual profits for at least three consecutive years. American has not reported an annual profit since 2007.For the year, every airline will report record revenues with four of the seven also reporting record annual profits. Unfortunately for the industry, these records come with a paltry 2.6% profit margin which is 50% less than industry margins were in the later 1990’s. Since 2001 –year of the tragic 911 attacks-- in spite of the last three years of record revenues and profits, the industry has accumulated a staggering $23 billion in net losses! This compares to $23 billion in accumulated net profits for the six years prior to 2001.  

*** Individual airline projections for fourth quarter 2012-Projections exclude special items and one-time charges

• United (UAL) -                      $146 million loss from $8.8 billion revenue
• Delta (DAL) -                        $239 million profit from $8.7 billion revenue**
• American (AAMRQ) -          $  88 million loss from $5.9 billion revenue*
• Southwest LUV) -                $  46 million profit from $4.2 billion revenue**
• US Airways (LCC) -            $  38 million profit from $3.3 billion revenue**
• JetBlue (JBLU) -                  $    5 million profit from $1.2 billion revenue**
• Alaska (ALK) -                     $  58 million profit from $1.2 billion revenue**

* Reported last week** Record revenue for fourth quarterIndividual airline projections for full year 2012-Projections exclude special items and one-time charges

• United (UAL) -                      $647 million profit from $37.2 billion revenue
• Delta (DAL) -                        $ 1.7 billion profit from $36.8 billion revenue**
• American (AAMRQ) -          $130 million loss from $24.9 billion revenue*
• Southwest LUV) -                $400 million profit from $17.1 billion revenue
• US Airways (LCC) -            $528 million profit from $13.8 billion revenue**
• JetBlue (JBLU) -                  $137 million profit from $5.0 billion revenue**
• Alaska (ALK) -                     $352 million profit from $4.7 billion revenue**

* Reported last week** Record profit for year
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A Long Way From Katrina ...

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Not sure what it says about a place that spent nearly a half-billion dollars to refurbish a football stadium after a catastrophic hurricane that nearly destroyed a city and whose effects are still not fully socially or physically alleviated.

But just as a reminder, here's what the New Orleans Superdome, now bearing the amusingly preposterous name Mercedes-Benz Superdome, looked like in that awful time in 2005.

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'CBS' Used to Be Followed by 'News'

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When the lights unaccountably went out at the preposterously named Mercedes-Benz Superdome last night during the biggest sports event of the year,  you might have thought that CBS, broadcasting the game, would have made at least a minimal effort to address for viewers what had just happened.

You would have been wrong. Instead, in a shocking example of journalistic malfeasance, the CBS Sports flunkies on site (and the CBS News people on site or in New York) at first punted in panic  and went to commercial, and then took the position that, well, we'll wait till the NFL suits tell us what to say before we explain anything. What had happened? What was happening in the stands, where tens of thousands of spectators were in the dark in more ways than one?

Broadcast sports journalism has long been mostly a bad joke, with print sports journalism not far behind. Witness the weak response to this remarkable event this morning among our vaunted sportswriters, a breed that I once respected in general but now associate with one phrase: "When're they going to bring out more free shrimp?"

There were some exceptions, like Bob Raissman in today's New York Daily News:

"At a time when they should have been aggressively gathering news, CBS’ crew was satisfied with the crumbs the NFL dropped on them. And they swallowed the scraps gladly. Not once during the 34-minute delay did a representative of the National Football League appear on camera to attempt to explain what caused half the Superdome to lose power.

Why should they? No one from CBS put any pressure on them.

Instead of having anyone with a microphone express a hint of outrage, they accepted what was going down. ..."

Yes they did, like the house stooges they actually are.

But where was CBS News, which presumably had at least one news reporter there among the 5,000 media hacks sent to New Orleans, many by news organizations that otherwise wouldn't cover the Second Coming if it required paying for a flight and a hotel room?

As the blackout stretched on, what were they doing at CBS News headquarters in New York? Did it not occur to those descendants of Walter Cronkite to perhaps elbow their way onto the air, you know, like in the old days, with a brief news report that at least indicated that something very unusual had happened, and questions were being asked?

If it did, there was no sign of it last night. No, the attitude was clearly: We'll wait till we're told what to say.

This, from Will Leitch at Sportsdonearth.com, is worth reading on the subject.

Also, while we're on the subject of lackey reporting, when might it occur to the media that the real advertising story last night wasn't who had the best or worst ad (the perennial narrative), but rather, why couldn't CBS sell advertising time?  I wasn't counting, but it seemed to me that most of the ads aired last night during the Super Bowl (with the exception of the cheap local ads slotted in during the regular segments where the local TV stations get their allotted time)  were non-revenue CBS house-ads -- promos for CBS shows -- and barter-deal promos for the NFL.

That might be a story, it seems to me. That is, if any actual journalists were covering this, rather than just swooning over the content of the relatively few beer, car and junk-food ads that did actually air.

Meanwhile, it went unnoted by the NFL handmaidens who CBS trots out to broadcast the game, but hey, how about that murder suspect down there on the field?

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was described by a CBS stooge last night as "an extraordinary individual who has impacted sports and community."

Why yes, how true, how true.

That would underscore the recent incident after the Ravens beat the Broncos in postseason, when Ravens players jeered a USA Today reporter who had the temerity to ask the glowering Mr. Lewis about an unfortunate incident in which he, Lewis, was accused in a still-unsolved double murder. Inconveniences for Lewis in that 2000 murder case were that a victim's blood was found in his limo, where Lewis had instructed fellow passengers to keep their mouths shut about the incident.

"... Lewis pleaded guilty in relation to the case: for obstruction of justice, a misdemeanor. He originally was charged with two counts of murder but struck a deal with prosecutors in exchange for his testimony against two of his companions that night..."

That's from Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today, who has some journalistic guts, and who had this to say about Mr. Lewis and his misadventure.
 
I'll provide a little more background on the Lewis case in a bit. But gotta go now! I see they're bringing out more free shrimp and king crab claws to the buffet table, and you know how the line forms, up in the press box.

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A New 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' Revival on Broadway, But the Question Is 'Why?'

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Scarlett Johansson

In New York for a holiday visit, my wife and I saw the new "Cat On a Hot Tin Roof" last night on Broadway with Scarlett Johansson as Maggie. It was the second night of previews (opening is early January).

The 1955 play, said to have been Tennessee Williams' personal favorite, has always been a problem, in that it really has never been clear -- not to audiences, not to a succession of directors starting with Elia Kazan, not even to  to Mr. Williams himself -- exactly what it's about. Repressed homosexuality? Mendacity? A spurned wife? Familial greed? The last gasp of Mississippi Delta Planter Culture? All of the above, take your pick?

The latest revival, alas, has no new answers, though I do like that it uses the full play as written by Williams.  It's long (about three hours) in three acts. But as usual, Act One doesn't speak coherently to Act Two, and Act Three thunders out in a King Lear tempest.

I know previews are supposed to be a time when kinks in a production are worked out, but hey, the tickets for the good seats run into the $200 range (plus fees when you book online). That's a lot for a preview! We'll see what the play looks like when it opens in a month (though I don't have much faith in today's Broadway critics), but my hunch is that this production is pretty well set in its current form right now.

Here's a preview review, in triplets:

Scarlett Johansson good. Big Daddy too. Brick's a cipher. Gooper simply baffling. Direction is chaotic. No-neck monsters: Way too cute. Skipper's ghost creepy. Actors seem lost. Play needs work. Probably not fixable.

Sad to say!

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The Vile Tells the Despicable: You're Crazy

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The merely vile Rupert Murdoch, who seems to have actually come down on the right side of the out-of-control-guns issue, appears to have given marching orders to the New York Post newspaper whose extreme right-wing views he shapes: The despicable NRA boss Wayne LaPierre is a "gun nut" whose so-called "press conference" the other day was nothing more than a "bizarre rant."

This follows a Twitter note from Murdoch in which he asked, "Will politicians find the courage to ban automatic weapons?" Fox News, it does not need to be said, has also been put on notice, though Murdoch writing about "courage" is to me akin to Hitler writing about courtesy.

Anyway, LaPierre, the Vietnam draft dodger who has unaccountably been permitted to shape himself as a kind of warrior in the 40-plus yeas he has been with the NRA, has gotten a sucker punch from his presumable pals on the ideological fringe where the heavily subsidized New York Post and its in-house co-conspirators Fox News and the (also subsidized these days) Wall Street Journal editorial page usually set a media agenda for right-wing reactionary ranks.

That can't be good for Wayne. Meanwhile, the tabloid New York Daily News, still techically a newspaper, calls LaPierre the "craziest man on earth."

Now I want to see some reflection, in the general round-heeled media, on why 150 reporters showed up, dutifully as summoned, to LaPuerre's "press conference" the other day, an event marked by the rule that reporters couldn't ask questions of the NRA boss.

That's not a press conference, folks, that's a speech.

Here's a link to a story about the New York Post.

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