Since this journal isn't doing much otherwise these days, pardon me while I pontificate a bit ( Read more... )

"If you've got nothing to hide, why should you care if your privacy is invaded?"

Lots of reasons.

Here's a blog post from the ACLU with some excellent reasons why the above argument is total bullshit.

I think Matt Taibbi (from Rolling Stone) is getting it. Here's a link to his latest column, but I wanted to call out this paragraph in particular:
If you think of it this way, Occupy Wall Street takes on another meaning. There's no better symbol of the gloom and psychological repression of modern America than the banking system, a huge heartless ( Read more... )

Yeah, that's nothing new. But I got a political ad in the mail today that just impressed me with how equally novel and shameless it was.
( A brief trip through Washington liquor law. )

I'm putting this link here to save it for later. Originally I saved it on my G+ account which makes linking a little easier, but who the hell knows if and when I'll be thrown down the memory hole! So I'm putting it here too.

Cheat Sheet: What’s Happened to the Big Players in the Financial Crisis

While watching a political commentary show on an unnamed 24-hour news network, I couldn't hear the sound, but could only read the closed captioning. And it was a panel discussion, and the closed captioning was keeping up as best as it could, but as the panelists all started talking at the same time the closed captioning read ( Read more... )

A discussion of this story came up: Ohio Mom Kelley Williams-Bolar Jailed for Sending Kids to Better School DistrictShort summary: Mother gets her kids enrolled in a better school district than the one she lives in, and is convicted and sentenced to ten days in jail for it, since she doesn't pay taxes to that school district ( Read more... )

A friend of mine wrote the following, as partly a rant and partly a "this is where I am" update. I was moved by it, and thought it should be shared. With my friend's permission, I have reproduced it here, with no identifying information at the author's request. I offer it to you all for your consideration.
"Thoughts ( Read more... )

I was watching the FOX News Channel this morning while at the gym, and they had a short segment on the Proposition 8 decision. At the time the decision had not been handed down. The anchor asked the on-site correspondent what the outcomes would look like, and the answer was of the following form. I won't pretend to be able to quote it directly ( Read more... )

Hallmark Pulls Card With Audio Clip Over Accusations of Astronomical Racism (from The Consumerist ( Read more... )