Official thuggery, bad prosecutions, and bad law – Page 29

Midweek links

Published April 5, 2017 5:54 pm by Claire

This year is the 100th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson leading the U.S. into World War I. Jim Bovard notes the long chain of disasters that followed (and is following still). Did the war “make the world safe for democracy”?

What’s the best type of generator for you? Portable? Or stand-by type? The Family Handyman discusses the difference to help you choose. OTOH, you could always just convert your lawn mower into a generator. Or your bike. (H/T MJ)

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Tuesday links

Published April 4, 2017 8:58 am by Claire

Will Obamacare really require Dominos Pizza franchises to post calorie counts for 34 million potential variations of pizza? Kevin D. Williamson examines the profit-killing absurdities.

Yet another court justifies yet another literally unwarranted shooting-by-cop. Hershel Smith turns up the outrage.

More on Tim Berners-Lee’s plan to re-create his monster creation, the worldwide web. He wants to return its power to the people.

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Weekend links

Published April 2, 2017 1:07 pm by Claire

Sloppy science. It wastes billions, produces non-reproduceable results, and sometimes kills people.

Well. Elio Motors may not yet actually have a product to sell. But this is still a pretty cool map of where their registration holders are.

Am I following this correctly? The DoJ drops two kiddie-porn charges rather than having classified material brought out in court. Said classified material already being publicly available thanks to WikiLeaks.

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Midweek links

Published March 28, 2017 1:50 pm by Claire

A civil rights lawsuit is in the works against warrantless searches of laptops and cellphones. According to the article there were as many such searches last month as there were in all of 2015.

You might think it would be a waste of money for the National Park Service to spend $150,000 on Bigfoot research. But rest assured the money isn’t entirely wasted. It’s also covering research on sea monsters and mysterious lights.

This demonstrates exactly how dumb “smart” appliances are. A brand-new dishwasher with a security bug that was the hottest new thing … 20 years ago.

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Weekend links

Published March 26, 2017 2:42 pm by Claire

Thanks to a link Shel dropped into comments on my “Theda’s Kin” post, I fell down a rabbit hole of the brain’s striking ability to make accurage snap judgments. Here’s a short version of what Shel was getting at: how we can tell criminals from non-criminals with only their faces to go by. And similar accuracy turns out to apply with our “gaydar,” “mordar,” etc. (What’s mordar, you may ask? Why, it’s our unusual ability to quickly recognize Mormoms, even when they’re not walking up to our doors wearing suits and ID badges.)

But then, sometimes, as in this short story, identity is a trickier matter. (H/T. MJR)

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Friday links

Published March 24, 2017 10:30 am by Claire

Utah adopts the nation’s lowest blood-alcohol limit for DUIs. This affects gun owners, too. And may soon infect many more states, as the NTSB recommends the (absurd) limit. Do I smell a government looking for more opportunities to make money by creating new offenders?

How the fedgov made health care more expensive and made heroin cheaper.

Flash story: “The High Cost of Contact.” Favors delivered by force do tend to be expensive. (H/T MJR)

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Thursday links

Published March 23, 2017 8:01 am by Claire

Bill Buppert says there’s a storm coming. And you can thank a cop.

But oh look. The city of Chicago is graciously granting drivers 0.2 of a break before their automated money-generating machines kick in.

Another inconvenient stat to be ignored by professional hoplophobes: lowest accidental firearm-related deaths … since 1903.

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Tuesday links

Published March 21, 2017 10:37 am by Claire

ISPs claim our browsing history and app use are not sensitive information and they should be allowed to share (sell) it freely. (H/T JB)

Can “convervatives” win the hearts and minds of millennials?

“Right and Rules.” MJR comes up with another short story with a message.

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Midweek links

Published March 14, 2017 12:55 pm by Claire

A (semi) mainstreamer observes that there really is a liberal media bubble and tries to understand why.

The residents of Trier, Germany, don’t seem to want that gift statue of Karl Marx. But not because … well, you know, Marx. And the hundreds of millions of deaths his ideas led to. But because they don’t like the giver.

Which is more unjust? That a possible war criminal got away with it for decades? Or that “justice” now calls for extraditing a 98-year-old man?

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