Quote for the day

I can’t even grasp how wrong it is that a man who murders and feels no remorse for it can say without hesitation: “It isn’t our duty to take life, it’s our heavenly father’s.” Complete self-delusion.

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Judge rules defunding of ACORN unconstitutional

Here’s a great column from Glenn Greenwald: Events like this provide an important reminder about how crucial and well-crafted the Constitution is.  Though rarely invoked, the ban on “bills of attainder” is no technical or legalistic right; it’s vital.  Allowing Congress — rather than courts — to pass judgment on parties’ guilt and then punish them for [...]

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Quote for the day

You find out the most interesting things in articles detailing the fall of financial institutions. I found out this about failed bank Washington Mutual (WaMu): “Someone in Florida had made a second-mortgage loan to O.J. Simpson, and I just about blew my top, because there was this huge judgment against him from his wife’s parents,” [...]

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Todd Willingham

Ever since reading the heartbreaking New Yorker article about Todd Willingham’s execution, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about him. I haven’t talked about it, because what can you say? What can say about something so evil as the execution of an innocent man? It challenges our beliefs in a way that isn’t comfortable [...]

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Miss the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on Sotomayor?

Not to fear. Here’s a fun summary in Haiku via Slate. And a teaser. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. What Sonia has done Is so very impressive So I am impressed Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. A wise Latina Would set aside her bias She just can’t do it

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Unbelievably stupid quote for the day

Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent on the Supreme Court decision that a school violated a student’s rights when it strip-searched her, more specifically, made her remove her panties to search for gasp!?! ibuprofen. “It was eminently reasonable to conclude the backpack was empty because Redding was secreting the pills in a place she thought no one [...]

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Never again?

Today we hear another case of random yet targeted violence in the shooting at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. Random, because the perpetrator didn’t know the museum security guard who he killed. But targeted, because the perpetrator, a white supremacist, chose to kill someone at a museum which documents the genocide of millions of Jews [...]

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Tatiana’s victims get $900,000

Call me cold, but I don’t think they should have gotten the money. The two San Jose brothers whose friend was fatally mauled on Christmas Day 2007 by a tiger that escaped a closure at the San Francisco Zoo will receive $900,000 as part of a settlement in a civil lawsuit, according to a source. [...]

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Shepherd Fairey fights back

And quite convincingly. If you’ve been riveted by the story of the artist who created the iconic Obama hope portrait who is now being sued by the Associated Press then you need to see this. There is a PDF link on the this web site which takes you to the counterclaim prepared by Fairey’s lawyers. [...]

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The lessons of Columbine

I’m not generally a person who reads true crime books, but I am very tempted to purchase this book about Columbine. The first lesson is really one that we have unlearned, which is that there actually isn’t a distinct psychological profile of the school killer. Pre-Columbine, teachers, parents, journalists, and the general public were pretty [...]

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It’s mental illness

With the recent trend of senseless massacres in the U.S. (seven in the past month according to AP), the MSNBC headline reads “Experts: Many motives drive mass murder.” Mass murderers are as different as their killing field — be it a nursing home or a suburban home — and as diverse as their reasons for [...]

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Keep copies

This is a nail-biter of a story from Salon about medical malpractice. I’d post an excerpt, but I don’t want to give away the dramatic ending.

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Madoff investors want fabricated money

The agency liquidating Bernard Madoff’s brokerage says the $2.6 billion it has on hand is enough to satisfy all legitimate claims by victims of the money manager’s $65 billion Ponzi scheme. This is good news, right? I was flabbergasted by the following: Some Madoff investors are up in arms about SIPC’s decision, announced by Picard [...]

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Of Switzerland

In light of UBS’s decision to pass on data about secret Swiss bank accounts, I thought I’d post this excerpt from Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place, a book about Antigua. I always think of this passage when I think of Switzerland. Cuckoo clocks be damned. (These offshore banks are popular in the West Indies. Only [...]

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Pure Ponzi?

This article at the Boston Globe is absolutely unbelievable. I recommend reading it in full. The two points it seems to be making are: 1. Bernard Madoff wasn’t trading. As investigators try to untangle the scheme that Bernard L. Madoff hid from investors and regulators for a decade or more, one basic fact is emerging: [...]

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The Edukators

A statue of Bernard Madoff’s was stolen and left elsewhere with this note from the Edukators. No mention from CNN of who the Edukators are? Not very hip, guys. Here’s a link to the film The Edukators on IMDB. It’s a really great film about three anarchists who break into rich people’s homes in order [...]

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They don’t give up power easily, do they?

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is in federal custody on corruption charges, a law enforcement official said Tuesday. Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris are charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Northern District of Illinois. Federal [...]

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California Musical Theatre Artistic Director Resigns

When I first heard the story about how the Artistic Director of California Musical Theatre in Sacramento had given $1,000 in support of Yes on Proposition 8, I wondered what is California Musical Theatre. Proposition 8 in California would prevent same-sex marriage at the same time as revoking same-sex marriages already granted. I thought to [...]

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They don’t give up power easily, do they?

investigation of ACORN as a shameful and inappropriate politicization of Justice voters duped into registering as Republicans Joe Deters, who serves as John McCain’s Southwest Ohio campaign chairman, has requested personal information for some individuals who registered and immediately cast a ballot

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What is humanity?

Two weeks ago, I talked about the Japanese film trilogy The Human Condition which depicts the Japanese in Manchuria during World War II. *Spoiler alert.* There is a scene in the first film which is particularly poignant. The hero Kaji manages a concentration camp of Chinese political prisoners at an ore mine. Seven Manchurians are [...]

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Are Pringles Potato Chips?

My husband doesn’t think so, and I’m not sure I do either but I have to admit they are a guilty pleasure. Meanwhile in the UK: A Pringle is undoubtedly crisp – but it is not a potato crisp. That was the conclusion reached by a High Court judge today after an exhaustive inquiry into [...]

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McCain and Judicial Nominees

In his own words, John McCain tells us what his judicial philosophy is. I am struck with how the current president and John McCain really do speak in code. He never uses the word abortion yet there is no doubt that the primary purpose of this speech is to ensure that he will appoint the [...]

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John Roberts – Sister Mary Would Like to Speak to You

Nun of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary comments on Voter ID disenfranchisement WHO: Missourians for Fair Elections WHAT: Press Conference on the impact of legislation to require government-issued photo ID to vote WHEN: 1:00 PM, Thursday, May 8, 2008 WHERE: League of Women Voters, 8706 Manchester, Jefferson City, MO 63144 JEFFERSON CITY, MO – On [...]

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Sharing Little Debbies is Bad

And apparently punishable by nine months in prison. MCARTHUR, Ohio — A judge in southern Ohio must decide whether to send a man to prison for sharing a Little Debbie snack cake. The case involves 21-year-old Timothy Caudill, who last year was held in a residential community corrections program in Nelsonville for breaking into a [...]

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Your Supreme Court at Work

Despite absolutely zero testimony regarding known voter fraud, the Republican inspired rules to require photo identification to in order to vote is upheld by the Supreme Court. Still think we can survive another four years with McCain? The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can require voters to produce photo identification without violating their constitutional [...]

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