Commentary on Japan and guns, America and guns, the UK and Adam Smith, financial fraud, and radical environmentalists.

Staying on the guns theme, why Japan routinely has less than 10 people killed a year with guns.

The Atlantic – A Land Without Guns: How Japan Has Virtually Eliminated Shooting Deaths
I've heard it said that, if you take a walk around Waikiki, it's only a matter of time until someone hands you a flyer of scantily clad women clutching handguns, overlaid with English and maybe Japanese text advertising one of the many local shooting ranges.

Related.

Japanese Gun Control

But in America, the train has long since left the station.

Economist -- Too late
PEOPLE'S ideas often don't make any sense when you try to hold them together in your head simultaneously, as Richard Rorty, Daniel Kahneman or Desiderius Erasmus will be happy to tell you.

Don’t blame the markets.

Telegraph -- Britain Unleashed: Why Britain needs Adam Smith more than ever
Free markets didn’t cause our current economic crisis, but a perversion of their core principles did.

Quote worth quoting.

“To believe that finance operates best when it is unsupervised is seriously to misunderstand the nature of free market economics, as daft as thinking you can have law and order without police.”

Catch the bastards and make’em pay. (ed’s note – requires much time to absorb but worth it).

Follow the Money: How Systemic Bank Fraud Contributed to the Financial Crisis

Related. Thanks to Robin of Victoria for noting the connection.

NPR -- Penn State Sanctions Charter 'Unprecedented' Ground, Author Says
The sanctions slapped on Penn State football in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal charter a new territory in punishment by the NCAA, a sports author said today.

Getting radical.

Winnipeg Free Press -- Radical environmentalism growing, report warns; Sparks Greenpeace dismissal
There is a "growing radicalized environmentalist faction" in Canada that is opposed to the country's energy sector policies, warns a newly declassified intelligence report.