On Thursday, June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution protects an individual’s right to own a gun. A 5-4 majority found that a District of Columbia gun-control law was unconstitutional. The District of Columbia’s gun law, in effect since 1976, was one of the nation’s strictest. Trigger locks were required for storage of rifles and shotguns, thus rendering the weapons useless for self-defense. However, a more relaxed gun control policy is not unlimited. Self-defense is supported, but carrying a gun for any purpose is not. Felon and the mentally ill gun control will still be strictly regulated, as will gun laws in school or government buildings.

What exactly is going on at the Mexican border? Dangerous drug wars lead to shoot-outs, smuggling, and a constant flood of illegal Mexican emigrants moving across the desert. As American authorities move to protect the border, the administrative system at large denies political and environmental consequences. Ultimately, the border problem remains unsolved.

For example, the Tijuana Arellano-Félix drug cartel has left smaller cells to operate along the Mexican Border. Of those smaller drug smuggling sects, some have expanded to kidnapping and extortion. Thousands of soldiers and police have been sent to various criminal points around Mexico, attempting to step up protection from and defense against drug crime overall. Acting on Washington’s order, Mexican President Felipe Calderón sent a total of 24,000 military and security forces to fight gangs in 2007. The Christian Science Monitor reported that the Mexican drug trade resulted in more than 2,500 deaths that year.

However, American forces have been an undeniable presence at the border. As of Monday, June 23rd, the remaining 340 miles of the U.S.-Mexican border fence can be completed, when the Supreme Court refused to hear an opposing case. With a waiver approved by Congress in April, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff declared the fence a national security priority, legally disregarding three dozen environmental and cultural protection laws. The completed fence will be 670 miles along California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas by January.

Comedian George Carlin, a devout atheist and lover of foul words, died last night from heart failure at the age of 71. Carlin checked into St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica on Sunday afternoon complaining of chest pains before dying later that evening, his publicist, Jeff Abraham said. Carlin broke out in the ‘60s and was very influenced by the counterculture. He pissed off a lot of people, much like his idol Lenny Bruce, with his brazen approach to comedy. He wasn’t afraid to talk about Vietnam or the drugs kids were experimenting with, and during his 40 plus years as a comedian he never stopped talking about war, politics, drugs and religion, offering hilarious yet insightful arguments against everything that he felt was morally corrupt with society.

It’s no secret that Carlin did drugs. The first episode of Saturday Night Live in 1975 was hosted by Carlin, admittedly while he was high on cocaine. He had a heart attack in the ’70s before he kicked his coke habit in the ’80s. Despite his personal battles with drugs that lasted most of his life, his comedy never faltered.

Carlin leaves behind a legacy most notably for his Seven Dirty Words routine that got him arrested at a Milwaukee gig in 1972 for “disturbing the peace.” His dirty words eventually lead the Supreme Court to its decision on keeping offensive language off the air while children may be listening (lovingly referred to as “family hour”). Carlin was eventually exonerated thanks to a little thing known as free speech and was forever ingrained in peoples’ minds as a man who was not afraid to speak his mind.

-Janine Rizak