June, 2014 archive
Smack Down 0
An echo from the killing of Travon Martin: George Zimmerman’s attempt to cash in from NBC gets cashiered.
She issued a summary judgment in the network’s favor, meaning that unless an appeals court reverses her, the case is now dead.
A “summary judgement” means that, in the judge’s estimation, the case was so weak that letting it go to trial would be a waste of the court’s time.
Follow the link for details.
DDoS 0
I learned about the Digital Attack Map site from Linux Voice. It provides a dynamic “anonymized” graphic of Distributed Denial of Service Attacks. Here’s a screen capture:
The Civil War Was Not Civil, and It’s Not Over 2
After explaining that the “New South” as the “era after Reconstruction and before the Civil Rights laws when the states of the old Confederacy seemed most determined to preserve a social and economic order that encouraged low-wage industrialization as they fought to maintain Jim Crow,” Nelson Lichtenstein points out that it’s back.
As in the New South era, Southern whites, both elite and plebian, have adopted an insular and defensive posture toward the rest of the nation and toward newcomers in their region. Echoing the Jim Crow election laws promulgated by Southern states at the turn of the 20th century, the new wave of 21st-century voting restrictions promise to sharply curb the Southern franchise — white, black and brown.
The new New South rejects not only the cosmopolitanism of a multiracial, religiously pluralist society, but the legitimacy of government, both federal and state, that seeks to ameliorate the poverty and inequality that has been a hallmark of Southern distinctiveness for more than two centuries.
Republican Health Care: “Don’t Get Sick. If You Do Get Sick, Die Quickly” 0
Shawn Day, in my local rag, marvels at how skillfully Republicans have hornswoggled Democrats in the Virginia legislature. A nugget:
Time and again in Richmond, Republicans have outmaneuvered Democrats, who appear alternately flat-footed or bewildered by their opponents’ organization and preparation. In the House of Delegates, some appear so disconnected that they prevent the party from developing a consistent message.
Left unmentioned in his litany of losing is this: Republicans have consistently caught Democrats flat-footed because Republicans have sunk to depths of skullduggery, up to and including bribery, that even Plunkett of Tammany Hall would have considered beyond the pale. It is a Party without honor, without conscience.
Rally for Peace July 5 (Sticky)
0
The Rally for Peace is a non-partisan rally of individuals, families, and civic organizations that have appeared to advocate that the peaceful interaction of people is a necessity, and ought to be a central tenant in the United States foreign policy. Learn more.
When: 5:30 p. m., Saturday, July 5, 2014, Virginia Beach Town Center, Virginia Beach, VA (map).
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society,” Reprise 0
Play politely.
Elyjah Marrow, 19, was playing around with a handgun in his apartment on Tuesday when it accidentally went off, fatally wounding pal Daryus Johnson.
Marrow has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and a slew, nay, two slews of other stuff.
I cannot help wondering this wonder: If Marrow were not Not-White, would we be hearing the police at a press conference announcing that this was yet another case of a “tragic accident” and that charges were not being filed because “he’s suffered enough”?
And don’t you dare tell me that wondering that wonder is not rational.
You know that it is.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Drive politely.
Police say a man in his 30s was killed in an apparent road rage shooting in Kensington.
(snip)
An initial investigation revealed that an unidentified man was arguing with a woman in the street.
It appears that the man was blocking traffic from getting by and an upset driver got out of a green minivan and shot the man twice then fled.
Promises To Keep 0
(Update: Link fixed.)
Leonard Pitts, Jr.:
If America is anything, it is an implicit promise of fairness, a promise that you will not be arrested, suspected, rejected, demeaned, denied, suspended, scapegoated, held back, pushed down or killed on account of the color of your skin. For 238 years, we have lurched in fits and starts toward fulfillment of that promise, periods of progress followed by periods of regress. We find ourselves in a latter such period now – mass incarceration rampant, the courts hostile, voting rights again under siege, black boys being killed for wearing hoodies and playing their music too loud.
Follow the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice politeness professionally (emphasis added).
The artillery shell – which is 14.5 inches long and 3.5 inches across – crashed through an exterior wall, hit the ceiling, and damaged another wall while homeowner Gene Kelley and his wife were in another room, reported KOAM-TV.
(snip)
The shell was fired from a 105mm howitzer at the Oklahoma Full Auto Shoot and Trade Show, but the gun range owner insists the historic weapon was safely fired by professionals in a downward projection.
Er, yeah.
