Boehner On Guns, Hawking On Mars October 19, 2015October 18, 2015 John Boehner on gun-safety: Here. Asked about whether or not it’s time for Congress to reconsider the research ban on gun violence it instituted on the Centers for Disease Control, House Speaker John Boehner deflected, admitted that Republicans will do nothing to stop gun violence, and said if Democrats want to complain about it, they should have done something when they were in the majority. . . . As a reminder, Senate Democrats did try, with the bipartisan Manchin-Toomey bill, to do something, by extending background checks to gun shows and Internet sales. Republicans killed it with a filibuster. Then there are the bills Democrats introduced in the House that were shuffled off to committee, never to be heard from again. . . . Remember: John Boehner is the Speaker being ousted, more or less, for being too moderate. As for the entirely immoderate, Jim Burt writes: “We really, really need to push back against rhetoric such as Ted Cruz has been spouting about people keeping guns for the purpose of defending against tyranny, which he defines, it seems, as legislation enacted by majority votes, approved by courts, and supported in the polls by large majorities of people. Such rhetoric needs to be painted as the unpatriotic ravings of radical extremist malcontents – which it is.” “I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space.” — Stephen Hawking, 2001. Terraforming, kids! You heard it here first. (Or maybe not; but it was new to me.)