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Weekend links

Published December 8, 2018 1:32 pm by Claire
  • Could Gamble v U.S. help end the war on weed?
  • Australia goes and does it. They pass a back-door encryption law that could have horrible repercussions worldwide. But it’s okay because, you know, “national security.” (H/T MJR)
  • Could the Clintons finally — finally! — be getting into the trouble they’ve deserved all these years?
  • Let us pray that we have reached Peak Pecksniffery: A professor of psychology and sexuality studies gripes that God didn’t get Mary’s consent before impregnating her with Jesus.* (H/T MtK)
  • A school cop may have intended to scare a good kid straight. Instead, his threat of a child-porn charge for teen sex scared the boy to death. The Chicago Tribune investigates. (NOTE: This article is from 2017, but very much worth a read. Also see M’s comment on this post about the work Corey’s parents have done since his death.)
  • Girl gets in kicked off the school bus for being a bully (second offense). She informs Dad he’ll have to drive her the five miles to school. Dad has a different idea. (This was probably a good thing to do; whether it was a good thing to post on FB is another matter.)
  • I like Netflix. But they have a problem with user data that could seriously hurt them. Kind of the opposite of the Google-FB problem, actually.
  • John Stossel on Google and The Creepy Line.
  • Hangover season is just ahead. What causes them (hint: there are still no definitive answers though there’s lots of info) and how to avoid them (other than not drinking booze).
  • An Oregon mother with small children in tow stops and uses her last spare change to help a big, hairy, tattooed biker.
  • Fifty awesome photos from this year’s National Geographic contest.

* If you’ve read your bible (apparently unlike said professor), you know that Mary did indeed consent. OTOH, saying no to God has worse repercussions than saying no to Harvey Weinstein. So despite the prof’s remarks being idiotic and attention seeking, I s’pose there really is an argument to be made here. If one has nothing better to do than argue about stuff like this.

Published in Arts and Aesthetics, Cannabis legalization, Computers & Technology, Cultural insanity, Dogs and (grudgingly) cats, Health and Science, Homeschooling, free families, and government child prisons, Humor, Mind and Spirit, Miscellaneous, Money, Official thuggery, bad prosecutions, and bad law, Poly-Ticks, Privacy and self ownership, Religion and War on Some Drugs

6 Comments

  2. Claire
    Claire December 8, 2018 3:14 pm

    GOOD. Good that they did it and good site. I especially like their policy recommendations, in particular the first four:

    1. End the routine policing of schools. Police should enter schools only to address threats to physical safety.

    2. Commit to the objective of providing equal educational opportunities and positive school climate for all students in all schools, and to taking a positive and supportive approach to students who are struggling, whether in academics or in behavioral development.

    3. End the practice of arrests and referral to law enforcement for common adolescent behaviors, including but not limited to misdemeanor offenses such as disturbing schools and disorderly conduct. Adopt school codes of conduct that eschew zero tolerance for more appropriate, child-driven responses to challenging behavior.

    4. Hold police to the same standards in schools as applied elsewhere in our communities. When police enter schools, they should abide by the highest ethical standards and, when in doubt, should err on the side of providing greater protection for children’s rights.

    Although of course the best policy recommendation would be: Get the hell rid of government child-prisons!

  3. Commander Zero
    Commander Zero December 8, 2018 8:47 pm

    I belive the article I read said the professor argued that even if Mary consented, the power dynamic between her and god was so great that her consent couldnt really be considered consent. Much like how prisoners consenting to have sex with their captors can’t really consent because of the power dynamic.

  4. Ken Hagler
    Ken Hagler December 8, 2018 10:20 pm

    The funny thing about that story is that the professor apparently knows so little about history and Christian mythology that he completely missed the obvious. Mary was supposed to be a virgin, which means she would have been about 13. The age of consent in most of the world was dramatically increased starting around 150 years ago _by Christian fanatics_ in the British and later American Empires. Under modern Shariah law in most places it’s considered impossible for someone under 16-18 to consent even if they actually do consent, and anyone having sex with someone under the age of consent is a pedophile rapist. The age of consent in Israel is 16, which means that _by the standards imposed by modern Christians_, their God is a pedophile rapist.

    Clearly God should have found a virgin in a country with a lower age of consent, like Mexico.

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