September, 2013 archive
Be the Death of Me 0
This is just weird.
The law “chills a significant amount of protected speech that does not bear a necessary relationship” to the state’s goal of preventing suicide, a three-judge panel of the court said.
In a footnote, the court said the term “encourages” in the law “plausibly encompasses urging” suicide, but it is “not necessarily” the same as causing someone to commit suicide through “undue influence or distress.” The latter would likely be unprotected speech, the court said.
The story goes on to detail the story of the individual whose suicide led to the case.
Afterthought:
Though I cannot approve of persons who recommend suicide, I do seriously doubt that their recommendations would sway anyone who wasn’t already suicidal.
I can understand that persons who suffer could suffer so much that they see no end to their misery and choose to end it.
I pray God I never face that choice.
I wish to die as my grandfather did.
He went to bed, with his boots off, and never woke up.
My brother (I was five, he was three) went to his house the next morning (it was on the corner of the farm and we used to walk there from time to time) and could not gain entrance.
So my grandfather was found, at the end of his time in his own bed, not wired to beeping machines, with peace and dignity, as a good life should end.
Regulatory Rigmarole 2
Dan Casey tells the story of a lady who needed an oversized toilet seat to fit an oversized toilet marketed under a big box store’s house brand, only to be told by the big box store that they were no longer available because regulations.
Then she contacted one of her state legislators:
Baird later called Vickie back after researching the issue. The Virginia General Assembly has “never, ever voted on the length of a toilet seat,” Vickie said Baird told her.
(snip)
A third (lesson learned–ed.) is that people seem ready and willing to cast blame on “regulations” that probably don’t exist, adopted by a “legislature” that probably doesn’t either. And they don’t even get embarrassed when you call their bluffs.
But that’s not the end of the story of the end. Follow the link for the restroom of the story.
Hostage Note 0
Thom reviews the Republican ransom demands, one by one.
Listen:
A Modest Proposal 0
A letter writer to the Progessive Populist suffered through a diet of NCAA football and came up with a suggestion. A nugget:
Do read the rest.
Twits on Twitter 0
Jack Ohman:
One of my favorite presidents, “Silent” Calvin Coolidge–why? Because he was a jerk– was famous for his terse responses. My favorite was when a drunk woman came up to him at a reception and said, “My husband bet me I couldn’t get three words out of you.”
Coolidge responded, “You lose.”
Backstory at the link.
Critique of Poor Reason 0
At Tampabay.com, Dan DeWitt tries to understand teabag theorizing. A nugget:
It contained the results of a survey of “citizens,” who I’m guessing (Hanson declined the chance to tell me for sure) consist of a few fellow members of the Glenn Beck fan club and who I know are stunningly ill-informed.
For example, they classify fire protection as “one more non-essential service when it comes to protecting our rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Read the rest.
It’s important to know how these folks think.
Twits on Twitter 0
Ponder the football twits.
More Adventures with iJunk 0
Thoreau summarizes:
The Los Angeles public school system has a well thought out plan for improving academic achievement:
1. Hand everyone iPads.
2. ???
3. Test scores!
Details at the link.
Facebook Frolics 0
The ACLU takes on the Zuckerborg’s limitations of statue.
A “Non-Exclusive License to Our Own Lives” 0
How the NSA thinks like Facebook. Watch it all the way through.
Facebook it. We’re all zucked.
