Gun control works! How can a bunch of people with rifles and handguns defeat a heavily armed military? Just ask Syria!
Across northern Syria, rebel workshops like these are part of a clandestine network of primitive arms-making plants, a signature element of a militarily lopsided war.
Their products — machine-gun mounts, hand grenades, rockets, mortar shells, roadside bombs and the locally brewed explosives that are packed inside — help form the arsenal of a guerrilla force that has suffered serious setbacks this year in its effort to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad.
More on our pal Louis Scarcella, the former NYPD detective whose cases are being reinvestigated: gee, there’s awfully similar language in many of the confessions he obtained.
In at least four more murder cases, suspects questioned by Mr. Scarcella began their confessions with either “you got it right” or “I was there.”
NYT obit for Iain Banks.
Noted without comment:
“Ann,” Holland Taylor’s solo show about the former Texas governor Ann Richards, will close on June 30 at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, two months before its scheduled closing date of Sept. 1, the show’s producers announced on Wednesday. Directed by Benjamin Endsley Klein, “Ann” opened on Broadway in March to mostly positive reviews and was extended once. But weekly grosses never surpassed $400,000, and in recent weeks it has never played to more than 50 percent of its capacity at the Beaumont.
Since Lawrence and I have both touched on this story, I thought I’d link to the followup: the “psychic” who claimed there was a mass grave in Liberty County has been ordered to pay $6.8 million in damages to the property owners. If I understand the HouChron correctly, this was a default judgment, as the psychic didn’t appear in court. (Insert your favorite psychic joke here.)