Interesting Links for 12-11-2014

[andrewducker]

• Marijuana's long-term effects on the brain demonstrated
  (tags: marijuana mri neuroscience )
• EU court ruling backs curbs on 'benefit tourism'
  (tags: Europe welfare )
• New party Left Unity to hold first annual conference
  (tags: politics UK )
• Calvin Klein Never Called That Model ‘Plus-Sized’ - Twitter Did
  (tags: fashion weight women Twitter )
• How to

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Forfeiture has simply become legal theft. And criminals have adapted somewhat.

Years ago I dated a girl whose dad was in the mob. I thought it was really weird the first time I picked her up for a date at her family's house. From the clothes she wore she clearly was from a wealthy family - but the house looked like shit on the outside.

Inside however it was fucking beautiful with a hot tub, huge television, very expensive furniture, etc..

What they were doing was simply making it look like they had nothing worth the police going after, which was why their cars looked like boring pieces of shit and their home looked shabby on the outside.

This is also why they gave their kids huge wads of cash at Chrismas instead of presents - so there would not be any credit card records of big ticket purchases.

[andrewducker]

Yeah. I can understand fining people for the proceeds of the crimes they've committed.

But that should happen as part of the legal process _after they've been found guilty_!

[bart_calendar]

yep.

[cartesiandaemon]

And -- I previously thought this went without saying -- should be confined to "profits of crime", or at least, "tools which have no possible non-illegal purpose". Not "the house of anyone who commits a crime" :(

[cmcmck]

As an old fashioned cloth cap left Socialist (not a Marxist, Communist or Trot) with nowhere left to go, I wonder if Left Unity will prove to be yet another Trot front outfit?

[andrewducker]

My left wing friends have largely headed for either the SNP or the Greens (depending on how left-wing they are).

The Greens, in particular, seem to be the place to go if you want societal change in a left-wards direction.

(I also still have a fair number of Left Lib-Dem friends, sadly un-done by a centrist/right leadership.)

[alextfish]

Aye. I consider myself left-wing and Lib Dem, and am startled and disappointed how different these two statements seem to have become.

[a_pawson]

Interesting. I had not heard of Left Unity before. I have thought for a number of years that there is a gap for a sensible socialist (or at least left wing) party in UK politics. The problem being that every time one has been founded, it has imploded shortly afterwards due to infighting.

[cmcmck]

Even the Greens, for whom I have voted from time to time, seem to now be playing the same populist game as that arse Farage!

[andrewducker]

They seem pretty good on Immigration:
http://greenparty.org.uk/news/2014/02/10/natalie-bennett-speech-immigration-policy-time-for-the-facts,-time-for-humanity/

[apostle_of_eris]

Microcomputers have been applied to special needs since he very beginning, well before Stephen Hawking's wheelchair. And most anyone's education can benefit from infinite patience, infinite courtesy, and lack of any capability of becoming frustrated.