2012 archive
Wingnuts Gone Wild 0
My ex-local rag reports on the Sheriff of Delaware’s Sussex County, whose ideal seems to be the Sheriff of Nottingham, despotic lord of all in his Shire and owner of all the deer in Sherwood.
A snippet
His rhetoric places him in the company of a small but growing number of conservative county sheriffs who see themselves as the ultimate enforcers of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, The News Journal has found.
Christopher is involved in a political standoff with county and state officials over the authority of sheriffs in Delaware.
It is most curious how wingnuts feel that they must rationalize lawlessness into lawfulness with pretzel logic and fabricated history. This is sovereign citizenship with a badge.
Suffer the Children 0
Penn State on an international scale: Protecting insiders outweighed all other considerations.
Droning On 2
No place to hide:
While we might get excited by the potential for the use of commercial drones by citizen journalists to live-stream powerful footage from protests, we are likely to be less thrilled once drones are in the hands of the paparazzi.
QOTD 0
Edwin Hubbel Chapin, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
At the bottom of a good deal of the bravery that appears in the world there lurks a miserable cowardice. Men will face powder and steel because they cannot face public opinion.
Driving while Brown 0
The Tucson, Arizona, school district has suspended a popular and academically successful program for Mexican American studies in response to the program’s having been specifically targeted by an act of the Arizona legislature. The books that were used in the program have disappeared from classroom shelves.
This seems to be an attempt to deny that, before it was US territory, Arizona was Mexican territory ripped from Mexico during the US’s early foray into imperialism, the Mexican-American War. Persons of Mexican descent have lived in Arizona since long before persons of US descent.
It is almost as if Arizona wishes to deny its history. Calling this a form of cultural “ethnic cleansing” doesn’t seem out of bounds.
Students peacefully protested, and learned that no good deed goes unpunished:
This was, of course, inaccurate: what was suspended by HB 2281 was Mexican American studies, not Mexican studies. When students asked why European studies has not been banned, nor any other area studies discipline, the administrators had no response. And regarding the issue of this being America, apparently this administrator believes that Mexican Americans don’t belong in America (as she presumably meant the United States).
In a development typical of Arizona, the students who walked out on Thursday, protesting the elimination of the district’s Mexican American studies program, have – without a hearing – been directed to perform janitorial duties this Saturday: an amazing message, right out of Newt Gingrich’s playbook (he has been campaigning in the GOP presidential nomination race, proposing the idea that students should be hired as janitors to teach them a work ethic). Apparently, TUSD administrators are paying attention.
Follow the link for more.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Experience Lingering Aftereffects 0
Parents and grandparents describe children’s health problems after Buccaneer Petroleum oiled the Gulf of Mexico:
Via Facing South.
My Turn, Turn, Turn 0
Via the Booman Tribune, a barrage of Mitticisms:
No sense of entitlement there, not a jot, not a tittle.
Newt the Gingrinch: Follower or Leader? 0
At Psychology Today, Stanton Peele argues that Newt the Gingrinch is ahead of his time:
Dr. Dale Archer thinks he’s just following his leader.
Supreme Court Gets One Right 0
Good ruling.
All this means is that the authorities will have to show cause and get warrants.
I’m neither surprised nor offended that the current federal administration was on the other side. One would expect them to side with Justice, Homeland Security, and the Pentagon, not one of whom gives a tinker’s damn about civil liberties.
Clueless in the Country Club 0
If you need more evidence that the Party of Privilege has no idea what life is like for the peons . . . .
Follow the link for the direct quote.
QOTD 0
Montesquieu, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
If I knew of something that could serve my nation but would ruin another, I would not propose it to my prince, for I am first a man and only then a Frenchman.
Naked Is the Best Disguise 3
El Reg:
The more of this sort of stuff I read about, the less I participate in social spybots networks.
I would not be surprised if someone starts selling call-home clothing without telling us.
Aside:
If you are reading this on Facebook, know that the posts are automated. I actually sign in less than twice a month unless I get a message in email (also automated).
Down Perryscope 0
Daniel Ruth pens a brilliant, acerbic obituary for Rick Perry’s candidacy.
Here’s a bit.
Perry didn’t run a presidential campaign. He ran as the poster child for civics illiteracy in America, and by the time he quit the race Thursday he had made the George W. Bush years look like the Age of Enlightenment. This was too much even for the voters of South Carolina.
Read the whole thing, not just for the bits about Perry, but for what it says about the clown car that the nominating process has become.
Making Amendments
0
Steve Chapman, writing at the Chicago Tribune, considers the frequency with which (mostly rightwing) candidates call for amendments to the Constitution, amendments to mandate a balanced budget, to outlaw abortion, even to repeal other amendments.
He finds them hollow, much like (this is my addition) those who propose them (emphasis added).
When a presidential candidate vows to amend the Constitution, he may be doing any number of things: dodging a tough issue, pandering to a bloc of voters or trying to sound bold. What he is not doing is telling the truth.