News & Media

I need not collect a compendium of links to show you that American police are more out of control than the crips and the bloods ever were. But, you know what? Maybe if we got rid of the chickenshit laws like underage drinking, possession of marijuana, and the like, they wouldn’t have such an us-vs-them attitude. A 20 year old kid who wants to drink a beer is not a “criminal.” Some guy who wants to smoke a joint is not a “criminal.” These are usually completely normal people, who are no threat to the state or their neighbors. But,

Yavuz Baydar, in the Guardian, reports on the sad state of journalism in Turkey. (source) This is a boiled down version of his much longer study, available here. Large media companies kowtow to state pressure, and contribute to a culture of fear and accusations that try to keep independent media in check. Yet if alarm for the independence of the Turkish press was already high, those concerns were raised still further soon after the outbreak of the summer demonstrations in 2013 to protect Istanbul’s Gezi Park. Protests spread to 78 of the 81 provinces in Turkey. The degree of self-censorship

And I applaud them for it. In the spirit of learning by doing, students drafted a bill to learn the process of how a bill becomes law. They proposed House Bill 373, an act establishing the Red Tail Hawk as the New Hampshire State Raptor. Even though it passed through the Environment and Agriculture committee with a majority vote, some representatives were far from receptive. (source) Cue the outrage. In fact, the headline was “NH lawmakers brutally kill 4th-graders’ bill in front of them” Rep. John Burt, a Republican from Goffstown said, “Bottom line, if we keep bringing more of

Irish is, without a doubt, the dominant immigrant culture in Massachusetts. Growing up there, in a town where Sicilians were the plurality, St. Patrick’s Day was always a little underwhelming. Instead, we celebrated St. Joseph’s day on March 19. Of course, every St. Joseph’s Day, someone would bring up the old story that St. Patrick’s day should be “our” day too — since St. Patrick was really Italian. We wanted to believe it, so we did. We poked that in the Irish kids’ eyes, as we liked to bust balls. But, not enough to ever wear Orange on March 17.

Next time your server or your supermarket tries to sell you Salmon, ask where it comes from. If it is “Atlantic Salmon,” tell them to fuck off. Well, if you want to be polite, you can just say “no thank you, I don’t eat that garbage, and you shouldn’t be selling it, you soulless heathen fuckhead.” There is no such thing as Atlantic Salmon. Well, correction, there really isn’t such a thing as a commercially viable Atlantic Salmon fishery. If it comes from the Atlantic, there’s a 99% chance that it is farm-raised. And if it is farm-raised, then it

Germany’s high court has ruled unconstitutional a North Rhine-Westphalia regulation prohibiting teachers from wearing Muslim headscarves. (source) The law bared religious symbols or actions that were deemed to be a “threat to harmonious co-existence.” (source) The ruling leaves an opening though. Judges at the Karlsruhe-based court in southwest Germany said a ban could only be justified if the wearing of the Islamic headscarf led to a “sufficiently concrete danger” of disruption in the school, or of “state neutrality”. (source) I am relying on third party sources here, as I can not read German. But, it would seem that this ruling

How could we ever forget? This week marked the five year anniversary of that ill-fated mission. (source)

An Indian bride walked away from the altar when she figured out that her husband-to-be was too fucking stupid to answer a simple math problem. (source)

Great article from the BBC on swearing. (source) So why does The Dude have to use so many cuss words? Strong language often involves naming things you desire but aren’t supposed to desire; at the very least, it aims to upset power structures that may seem a bit too arbitrary. (source) The only thing I have to say to that is “cunt.” [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efZQhYu1E5s]

Take this report with a grain of skepticism. After all, it comes from the “Christian Post,” and if there’s one group of people I trust less than academic social justice warriors, its Christians. Nevertheless, this post claims that the GW chapter of Young Americans For Freedom is under fire for refusing to participate in “sensitivity training” about LGBT issues. (source) (An article discussing the training is here). YAF is a political organization, but claims that participating in the training so conflicts with their religious values. Allied in Pride, a GW LGBT organization mocked the group and wrote: “[YAF’s] refusal to

Italy does not exactly have the greatest track record of being nice to Ethiopians. Things haven’t changed, as an Italian group is helping the Ethiopian government spy on uncooperative journalists. (source)

Journalist in South Africa mugged on camera (source) [youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDCrp5wjr1s]

There will never be a nigger at SAE There will never be a nigger at SAE You can hang him from a tree But he’ll never sign with me There will never be a nigger at SAE -Unknown asshole. Whats funny is that I can write that. I can say that. I can say it if I mean it, and I can say it just to quote what some other asshole said. I’m not going to get into a discussion of whether I approve of it or not. (I don’t, but that’s all I’ll say about it). You have the

The last time I did anything resembling Communion it was in 2001 or so. A friend was getting married. I agreed to be a groomsman. We had to go through the motions of Communion. I knelt there at the altar, and the best man came by with the cup of wine. He says “Blood of Christ, Blood of Salvation” and then pours some of the wine into my mouth from a big silver goblet. Then he leans down and whispers “BURNS, DOESN’T IT?” I then laughed Communion wine out my nose. It did burn. Hiram Jimenez’ story isn’t as funny.

In a defamation case, the judge is supposed to make a determination as to whether the statements are reasonably capable of a defamatory meaning. It happens less often than it should. But, in this case, Judge Orrick in the N.D. Cal. did his job, screened the allegedly defamatory statements, and tossed the case out. (Order)

In Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Caetano, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that although the 2d Amendment might protect the right to have a hand gun, it does not protect the right to have a stun gun – because the founders didn’t ponder electric weapons. I guess they didn’t have the Internet or T.V. in mind either, but whatever.

Friday, I published a column at CNN.com on New York City’s recent move to observe Muslim holidays, and why I think that is a bad idea.  Why schools should observe ‘Day of the Dude’

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br0NW9ufUUw&t=185]

Leonard Nimoy is dead…. for now.  (source)

Eric Chanson and Kevin Bolleart are $900,000 further in the red as of today. (order)