Government

Whenever the topic of gun control comes up, some activists say they need high-powered weapons to protect themselves from the people who run the country. In the words of one reader, the 2nd Amendment exists "so we can defend ourselves against the tyranny of government. The Constitution didn't provide for gun ownership so we could shoot turkeys at Thanksgiving. " In his Thursday column , George Skelton says the notion of allowing citizens enough firepower to fight the government is ridiculous.

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Russia on Saturday demanding the resignation of local and national leaders, including Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, over lingering economic woes. A coalition of opposition groups, hoping to channel rising anxiety over unemployment and financial policy into anti-government activism, had called for nationwide protests under the slogan "Day of Wrath." In Moscow, Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's government had banned the demonstration, and rows of riot police lined the perimeter of a bustling square in the city's historic heart to prevent protesters from gathering.

Tens of thousands of Iranians backing the country's rulers rallied in central Tehran on Wednesday, calling for the death of antigovernment protesters and opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi. Clad in black and holding portraits of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the government supporters chanted slogans for the Islamic Republic and against its opponents. "Death to Mousavi!" they chanted. "Death to opponents of velayet faqih ," a reference to Iran's theocratic political system.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Joel Rogers see the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks as a validation of their leftist agenda for a bigger, more powerful and more expensive government ("What's Left? A New Life for Progressivism," Opinion, Nov. 25). I would suggest that on Sept. 11 the federal government, with its $2-trillion budget, millions of employees and countless thousands of laws and regulations, failed to perform its primary responsibility of protecting our borders from an enemy attack.

Apparently, it is possible to have too much of a good thing. In response to a wave of civic activism or, in some cases, cynicism, the White House announced this week that it's upping the threshold required for petitioners to receive a response from the government. As Andrew Khouri reported Wednesday, no longer will petitions that reach 25,000 online signatures trigger a response from the government. It's now 100,000 in 30 days. Thanks a lot, all 50 states. Though White House Director of Digital Strategy Macon Phillips didn't say it in his blog outlining the new policy, the more-difficult-to-reach threshold looks to be a response to a number of petitions the White House has received since President Obama was elected.

Only 22% of all Americans surveyed said they trusted the government in Washington almost always or most of the time -- among the lowest measures in half a century -- according to a Pew Research Center survey released Sunday night. The results point to "a perfect storm" of public unrest, Pew reports, "a dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter, partisan-based backlash and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials." Growing numbers of people want government's power curtailed, Pew reports of a March and April survey that found "less of an appetite for government solutions to the nation's problems -- including more government control over the economy -- than there was when Barack Obama first took office."

I'd never dreamed anything could be more shocking than looking at my credit card balance, but that was before I opened this month's statement. There, staring me in the face, was a message informing me that if I paid the minimum balance each month, it would take 31 years to pay off the credit card. OK, the message wasn't staring; after all, it's just a message. But I swear I could hear it laughing. Think about it. Thirty-one years. That's longer than it takes to pay off a mortgage, longer than most marriages last, and almost as long as Geraldo Rivera has been annoying us on TV, though it feels much longer.

When the state budget is $28 billion in the red with all the easy cuts already made, it's hard to argue with Gov.-elect Jerry Brown for eliminating the Office of the Inspector General, which is run by former L.A. Controller Laura Chick. Chick was tasked with ensuring that California's $50 billion in federal stimulus funding was properly spent, but Brown said her office was "redundant" because the job could easily be assigned to the already established Bureau of State Audits, state Controller's Office or governor's Department of Finance.

Why are all those women carrying buckets of water on their heads? That was the first riddle that David Coltart, Zimbabwe's new education minister, faced last month as he walked into his high-rise headquarters. "The reason is that the whole of the Ministry of Education, 18 floors, has no water in it. So my first, immediate task was to get the pump repaired. If you walk down the stairwells you will gag, the stench is so bad on some floors," Coltart said in an interview in his new office.

Governments in Europe are scrambling to introduce austerity measures that would slash their budget deficits, as investor fears about high public-debt levels continued to hammer the continent's stock markets and currencies. Britain's new coalition government used Tuesday's official state opening of Parliament, a ceremony filled with pomp and pageantry, to reiterate its commitment to getting the country's books in order. "The first priority is to reduce the deficit and restore economic growth," Queen Elizabeth II said in the House of Lords, in accordance with tradition that the monarch outlines the agenda of the ruling government.