2012 archive
With Liberty and Justice for All, the Mirror 0
D. Elfman offers a white person’s perspective on white privilege, telling how he was stopped by a policeman after someone resembling him was reported to have robbed a bank. A snippet:
While I’d have been within my rights to demand a search warrant, I opened the pouch and let him see that it contained only paper and electronics. See, I was perfectly aware that someone could reasonably look at that pouch and think it signaled that I was armed. I wore it like that anyway because it was convenient. This is what white privilege looks like.
The officer said, “Thanks, I just wanted to make sure you didn’t have a bazooka or something in there.”This is what white privilege looks like.He went on to explain about the bank robber, (This is what white privilege looks like.)and would I be willing to give him my contact information and an accounting of myself so that I could be excluded from the list of possible suspects?
I was not arrested, I was not brought in for questioning.
Read the rest.
Via Contradict Me.
“Don’t Get Sick. Die Quickly.” 0
When Congressman Grayson alleged that the Republican health care plan was
Don’t get sick. Die Quickly.
he was roundly derided by Republicans.
Now their actions are proving him correct.
Holding Back the Tides 0
Truth! They can’t handle the truth.
After enduring national ridicule for proposing a bill to outlaw any coastal sea level projections based on climate change data, the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature came up with a compromise Tuesday. Lawmakers effectively put the sea level debate on hold by asking for more studies – but none that involve climate change.
Next on the agenda: a law against thermometers because it’s not getting hotter, really, it isn’t.
Light Bloggery Today 0
Home improvements.
Poked a hole into the dead space at the base of the stairs and installed a cabinet door.
A11 Ur Dronz R Be1onz 2 Us 6
Drones hacked and pwned.
The Rich Are Different from You and Me 1
They are used to getting away with stuff. Bloomberg comments on LIBOR:
Sadly, the Libor case reveals something rotten in today’s banking culture. We hope the investigations expose the bad actors, lead to jail terms for those who knowingly manipulated the market, and force out the senior managers and board directors who participated in, or overlooked, such conduct.
Why so exercised? In the Barclays settlement documents, regulators released smoking-gun e-mails that reveal the extent of the dirty dealing between bank traders (looking to protect profits and bonuses) and senior officials in bank treasury units (hoping to convince markets that their banks weren’t in financial difficulty). The two aren’t supposed to collude, but it’s obvious that the Chinese walls between them come with ladders.
The Agony of Defeat 0
I have not wasted time and effort theorizing about internal motives of Supreme Court justices in their rulings. They are unfathomable and irrelevant.
It’s the rulings that count.
Nevertheless, the discomfiture of wingnut world at what they see as Chief Justice Roberts’s apostasy is rather delicious.
Droning On, Driving while Brown Dept. 0
From the website:
The US Department of Homeland Security has already spent $240 million on the drone project for the US Border Patrol. Each predator drone costs $18 million to build and can run $3,200 per hour just to fly. So are flying robots in the sky effective for patrolling America’s borders? Trevor Timm, activist for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, gives us his take.
It’s all about alternative markets, folks.
Summer Movies 2
If your Republican friends don’t know which movies to see this summer, Contradict Me has a list for their viewing pleasure.
Change We Can Believe In . . . 0
. . . because we see the evidence every day. A snippet from a column about the Affordable Care Act decision, by Robyn Blumner (emphasis added):
If Romney hadn’t decided that he wants the presidency more than personal integrity, he might have savored the victory for a program modeled after the one he helped establish in Massachusetts as governor — with an individual mandate.
Vacated Senses 0
From an article about the travel tribulations of midweek holidays, such as this week’s Fourth:
I doubt that “confused” is the correct word, and I doubt that persons considering whether and how to take time off this week appreciate being described as “confused” by some suit in a suite.
