[Signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
- Sarah Palin: We’ve got to stand with our North Korean allies
- [Crooks and Liars - scarce]
A slip of the tongue? Maybe, maybe not. But in John Heilemann & Mark Halperin's [book] Game Change there was this telling point which suggests otherwise.
"She knew nothing. She had to be taken through World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and Palin was not aware there was a difference between North and South Korea…"
- Handy Tips for Transgender Travelers
- [ACLU - Suzanne Ito]
…check out the National Center for Transgender Equality's travel tips for transgender individuals. They also offer a FAQ on Whole Body Imaging (PDF).
- More thoughts on junk touching
- [pandagon.net - Amanda Marcotte]
[Lindsey] expresses a concern that a National Opt-Out Day would be used … to privatize the searches. [But] opt-out days … can be used as protests against whoever the hell is groping people in airports… My main concern is that opt-outers will be seen by non-opting-out passengers as the enemy, and the point of the protest could be lost.
[I hope a significant number of the opt-outers will distribute flyers. -L]
…Invasions of basic privacy are tied to “choice”, to make it easier for people to blame the victim. … “Well, you don’t have to fly,” and …the “choice” between the scanner and the groping. …it’s precisely the kind of bullshit women have been putting up with for millenia when it comes to restraints put on our freedom of movement and association. If you get raped, well, it was your choice to go out without supervision/and drink/wearing that… This is why “women’s issues” are inseparable from police state issues…
- the producers
- [Obsidian Wings - russell]
The argument in favor of [the GOP plan to extend Bush's reckless tax cuts for the super-mega rich] claims that levying a 3 to 5% higher marginal tax rate on folks making north of $250K will punish the folks who actually create jobs, and so will be counter-productive…
Who is making more than $250K a year in earned income? What is the contribution they make to the economy overall?… I'd be willing to spend a few billion in public money to hire people to dig holes and fill them back in again, just to get money flowing. If that same investment will create lots of private sector jobs, I'd say Bob's our uncle…
The CEOs of the Forbes 500 took home a collective $5.7 billion in 2008, the crappiest economic year in living memory. That's $11.4 million each. It's also 1% of total revenue and 3% of total profit of their companies…
- Intrusive Patdowns Are NOT OK – Whether It’s the TSA or the Local Police
- [Calitics - Robert Cruickshank]
…More and more Americans are growing uncomfortable with these intrusive procedures, which appear to be an obvious violation of the 4th Amendment.
However, we're starting to see a backlash to the backlash, as liberals line up to defend the security state. By doing so, they not only defend what are truly indefensible practices by the TSA – they also are reinforcing decades of similar practices routinely conducted by local law enforcement against people of color…
[Kevin] Drum basically argues the American people have no ability to stand up for their rights, and that in fact we should just give up our rights in order to be safe.
…it is also the exact same argument that was used by police and "law and order" politicians to defend the constant erosion of 4th Amendment rights during the war on drugs over the last 30 years.
- SB 1070 Coming to the 2012 Ballot?
- [Calitics - Robert Cruickshank]
A bill like Arizona's odious, anti-immigrant SB 1070 could never make it out of committee in the California Legislature, and would never be signed by Governor Jerry Brown (or Arnold Schwarzenegger for that matter) even if it did.
That leaves the ballot, and that's what one right-winger plans to do:…
So far there's no indication that any money is behind this initiative…
- Google Docs Gets Drag-and-Drop Uploads
- [ReadWriteWeb - Sarah Perez]
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- Sea of photons made to act as one ‘super-photon’
- For the first time, photons have been coaxed to march in lockstep as a Bose-Einstein condensate – the feat could help shrink electronic devices
- Willis & Chung: The Tax Penalty in ObamaCare Is Unconstitutional
- [TaxProf Blog - Paul Caron]
"…concluding that the penalty imposed under new section 5000A for failure to maintain minimum essential healthcare coverage (the healthcare penalty) is an unconstitutional direct or capitation tax."
- This 8th Grade Exam From the 1930s Is Really Hard
- [GOOD - Nikhil Swaminathan]
…an exam given to eighth-grade students in West Virginia in 1931. They had to pass it in order to graduate.
This is just the geography section of the test, which also included parts addressing penmanship, physiology & hygiene, grammar, arithmetic, civics, and agriculture. Note the lack of multiple choice questions, as well as the practicality and specificity of the exam with regards to where the students lived.
- When Crop Mobs Take Over
- [YES! Magazine - Tina Chadwick]
In Atlanta, city slickers have found a way to give back to the farms that feed them.
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[In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. --L.]
The Of interest (Wed, Nov 24th, 12pm) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.