Reuters: The French breast implant scandal.
“Maybe it’s shameful, but there you go. [snip] We live in a capitalist world.” And that says it all, doesn’t it?
NY Times: A Painful Betrayal.
“Abortions make up only about 3 percent of its work, but most of this crowd also objects to its leading role in providing access to contraceptives.” Like I’ve said before ... ignore this issue at your peril, ladies. Otherwise, it’s yearly pregnancy and early death for you.
The National Press Club: Attorney details backlash against photojournalists.
“The problem is, you’ve got this catch-and-release program going on, which basically stops photographers from doing what they’re supposed to be doing, which is record the news.” Great quote - I’m going to use that ‘catch-and-release’ phrase.
SF New Mexican: State to hold tours of 1980 prison riot site.
“The idea for the 90-minute tours followed Gov. Susana Martinez’s request that all state government departments organize public events in connection with the state’s Centennial celebration this year, Corrections Department spokeswoman Rosie Sais said.” Well, that’s one way to celebrate, I suppose. I would like to get in there and take some harrowing photographs.
ShortFormBlog: Gingrich robocall says Romney forced Holocaust survivors to eat non-kosher.
And he wants to be President. Like that’s gonna happen. A regular William Randolph Hearst, he is.
Forbes: Did U.K. Tourists Deported Due To Tweet About ‘Destroying America’ Get Pranked?
“DHS is fairly new to this whole social media monitoring thing. Let’s hope that, with time, the folks doing this develop an appreciation for context.” Just following up on yesterday’s news item, given the source.
Here’s a kicker: Wonder if ‘destroy’ had been the fault of autocorrect?
my pen is a pistola: Men Photographed in Stereotypical Pin Up Poses.
One of my pet peeves, the silly poses women are forced to assume in fashion and advertising photos.
The Atlantic: The Super-Resistant Bacteria That Has India ‘Hell Scared’.
“It is not that the end of antibiotics is somehow coming. [snip] It is already here in many instances.” Multifarious factors. The government could help the poor afford a full course, and save countless lives now and in the future.
Mail Online.UK: British tourists arrested in America on terror charges over Twitter jokes.
The DHS and TSA have lost it. Read the article. Apparently our security systems can’t handle British humor. Beyond that, and to cap it off, Marilyn isn’t *buried*. She’s in a crypt, for God’s sake. Even the news folks should have picked up on that. ‘Looking for shovels’ ... I ask you.
If this is the way things are, I’d best not risk flying ever again. Lord knows what I’ve expressed that could be considered ‘suspicious’ over 12 years of posts.
NY Times: How to Integrate Europe’s Muslims.
What’s Europe doing wrong? From my reading, most immigrant populations in America integrate fully within two generations.
The Atlantic: Mitt Romney’s Tax Returns - Here’s What Really Matters.
“It’s not that Romney tax return proves he’s done something wrong. It’s that his tax returns prove that the tax code is wrong. Households worth $200 million earning $20 million in investment income a year shouldn’t be paying a lower tax rate than some middle class families, especially at a time when we’re thinking about cutting spending that disproportionately benefits the lower and lower-middle class.” Our modern affluent are not Andrew Carnegies, to help their fellow citizens by giving away $350 million in public libraries and many other beneficial resources (dollar value in 2010 is roughly equal to about $10 billion). You just don’t see that magnitude of financial charity happening.
Boston Review: Citizen Philosophers
“Teaching philosophy to students who can hardly read and write [snip] is sad foolishness.” Someone needs to introduce him to the story of Jaime Escalante.
NY Times: Police Use of G.P.S. Is Ruled Unconstitutional.
WaPo: Marine reaches plea deal in deaths of civilians at Haditha.
“The case doesn’t end with a bang, it ends with a whimper and a pretty weak whimper at that. [snip] When you have 24 dead bodies and you get dereliction of duty, that’s pretty good defense work.”
Tom Dispatch: Ellen Cantarow, An Environmental Occupy Fracks Corporate America.
Guardian.UK: The first sexual revolution - lust and liberty in the 18th century.
“Everywhere in the west, sex outside marriage was illegal, and the church, the state and ordinary people devoted huge efforts to hunting it down and punishing it. This was a central feature of Christian society, one that had grown steadily in importance since late antiquity. So how and when did our culture change so strikingly?” Titillating read.
SF New Mexican: Access to legal abortions increasingly limited.
Sickening. Defend your rights, ladies, or it’s back to the Dark Ages for you. Yearly pregnancy and early death.
Is abortion death? Yes. Death is a part of birth - the older the woman, the more fertilized embryos (in conservative religious parlance, ‘lives’) are passed through the uterus without implanting (in conservative religious parlance, ‘murder’). As they get towards their late ‘30’s, women can have ~9 non-implantations (9 ‘murders’) for every one successful pregnancy. Noone mentions this, noone touches this fact with a ten-foot pole. Don’t believe me? Walk into any women’s health center or fertility clinic and ask.
And I will harshly remind idiotic anti-abortionists, that late-term abortions are NECESSARY (for many reasons, not just that single one). [Do NOT view if you are squeamish.]
There is no gentle way to educate on this subject, unfortunately. I respect the religious moral stance of individuals, but I will not agree to having their mores applied to nonbelievers.
SF New Mexican: City bumps pay floor to national high.
“The city announced Thursday that the wage floor will increase to $10.29 an hour — up from the $9.85 imposed on employers for the last two years and a nickel higher than San Francisco’s.” It’s difficult to discern the direct effects of the living wage, other than portion sizes going down, quality going down, and prices go up at local ‘affordable’ restaurants. Perhaps fewer sales clerks in small retail stores. Businesses that used to skim by on the edge of profitability are largely gone. I see a lot of moving, looking for cheaper rental spaces.
WaPo: For a jobless, struggling South Carolina man, reality isn’t a political debate.
This shouldn’t be happening in America.
NY Times: Cruise Industry Weighs Effect of Costa Concordia’s Grounding.
There’s an elephant in the room, I find, that’s not being talked about. Some of the victims of this sinking were trapped in their rooms when the power went out on board. The electronic door locks failed, and apparently wouldn’t release. I saw it in an article yesterday - one article. See if you see others today.
What a horrible way to die.
Miller-McCune: Sex on the Brain Proves Costly for Men.
“Ladies: Do you have any idea how much power you have over us men? To quote the classic song, it seems the very thought of you is enough to dull our brains. That’s the conclusion of a research team from the Netherlands, which reports the mere anticipation of interacting with a woman can temporarily impede men’s mental abilities.” And how many women read this weblog? I’m surprised I can put two words together.
NY Times: Custer’s Path to the Little Bighorn on PBS.
“I think throughout his entire life he worried that the clock was running out, and that if he didn’t achieve a kind of permanent glory before a certain point in his life, he would never have the chance. He was somebody who was really preparing to kind of go for broke.” I’ll repeat what I said on visiting Little Bighorn: He was flat-out insane to leave the protection of trees near the river, riding out to that hillock, giving the force of the opposition. Completely nuts.
CNN: Hispanic GOP group endorses Gingrich.
Short memories. Newt wanted to take away green card holders’ Social Security benefits back in the ‘90’s.
WaPo: Rick Perry defends Marines accused of urinating on Afghan corpses.
Masking the Right’s disdain for the Geneva Conventions. Soldiers used to honor the GC; perhaps no longer? What do they teach modern warriors?
Salon: Who’s afraid of “The Tempest”?
Hopefully, AZ is not our future in America.
